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Ajit Solanki / AP
Indians walk past a shop named "Hitler" in Ahmedabad, India, on Wednesday.
The owner of an Indian men's clothing store whose name has sparked a row in Ahmedabad city in the western state of Gujarat said he only recently learned why the name Hitler would disturb people, the AFP news agency reported.
"I didn't know how much the name would disturb people," Rajesh Shah told AFP. "It was only when the store opened I learned Hitler had killed six million people."
The store opened 10 days ago, boasting a storefront that spells out "Hitler" in big letters and a swastika as the dot on the "i."
"We had put up a cloth banner for over a month saying, 'Hitler opening shortly,' no one objected to the name then," Shah told The Times of India.
He added that to him Hitler was just the nickname given to his business partner's grandfather, who was known for his "strict nature."
"Frankly, till the time we applied for the trademark permission, I had only heard that Hitler was a strict man. It was only recently that we read about Hitler on the internet," Shah told The Times of India.
Shah said he cannot afford to change the name after spending his money on the original branding effort, but said he'd be willing to change it if he were compensated.
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The city's small Jewish community has condemned the name, AFP reported.
"In the city of Mahatma Gandhi and non-violence, how can anyone celebrate a person like Hitler who is known to have murdered millions of unarmed ordinary civilians?" Nikitin Contractor, convener of the Friends of Israel organization from Vadodara told The Times of India.
"Youngsters need to be told of the atrocities that [Adolf] Hitler committed and the millions who were killed in gas chambers more than 70 years ago," he added.
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According to a BBC report, Hitler memorabilia has become a growing business in India, attracting particularly younger Indians. Many reportedly admire Hitler's discipline.
Prayag Thakkar, a 19-year-old student in Gujarat state, told the BBC: "I have idolized Hitler ever since I have had a sense of history. I admire his leadership qualities and his discipline."
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Leave a Comment:
Watch him rename the store "The Third Rack" and advertise the re-opening as a "Blitzkrieg of savings!!!"
They have a line of tennis shoe`s with long shoe strings. That way you can tie them with little nazi`s. Bazinga !
You would be surprised at how many of the youth these days don't even know what the word Genocide means....is it really so hard to believe that some guy...in INDIA...didn't know who Hitler was? He should change it out of respect for the community that he lives in...without compensation..
Talk about dumb! Maybe they need to bring the British back.
I imagine Obama was in there checking out some new duds, if he were to win in Nov!!
Is the owner of this store, a Muslim or a Hindu?
They're opening a new franchise in Arizona....I think the Governor is getting a part-time cashiers job there.
likei hav etold people before, Hitler was totaly misunderstood, when he said gas thejews? what he actually said was,, give the jews gas and g et them out of here, he also said the final solution was a good idea by giving them gas and letting them drive out of the country, but nope himmler didnt understand his german, so bad things happened,think thats whati read in mien kamph, but i cant read german
Would seem like a gross lack of marketing research.
Good thing he didn't name his store "Stalin"! Uncle Joe killed 30 million of his own people during the purges and over 50,000 Allied POWs "liberated" by the Red Army. Hitler was a wicked bastard but Stalin was satanic to the core! BTW, read "Soldiers of Misfortune"!
To Hayat:
Go back to your madrassa in Pakistan. YOU are clearly a filthy-minded Paki. Do you think anyone with half a brain would believe even one word of your filthy lies??? Like all Pakistanis, you are jealous of India and Indians.
Please see the the fallowing eye openerarticles about their leaders hatred for others.
GANDHI’s RACISM AGAINST BLACKS Gandhi condones Zulu massacres and defends the British. Aug 4 1906 The sex life of Gandhi. His failure as a politician The myth of Mohandas K. Gandhi debunked. He gets an “F” on South Africa, Salt Match, Non-Violence, and nationalism Which war did Mohandas Gandhi support? All of them. There wasn’t a war that the “prophet” of Non-Violence did not support. He was Sergeant Major in the British Army & won a medal for his combat service Gandhi’s racism. The truth behind the mask. Behold Sergeant Major Gandhi who supported the British in the Boer war, against the Zulu rebellion. Behold the prophet of peace who worked to stratify the South African society. Gandhi extended the life of British Empire by helping UK wars Gandhi’s letter to his friend Hitler. Gandhi sex life deviant sexual perversion, and political failures Is India a failed state? Peek behind the Bollywood gloss! Chilled Urine drinking hot in India. Gandhi to PM Desai to common man
To Hayat:
Go back to your madrassa, Pakistani. Don't think anyone with half a brain would believe your silly lies.
If you have a problem with Hitler's name as a store name - then:
1. Boycott Bayer Aspirin (as they made the gas that killed the Jews)
2. Boycott VW as it was a partially owned Nazi company - Hitler designed the Bug.
Or keep your mouth shut.
"Hitler designed the Bug"
Erm... no that was mostly done by Ferdinand Porsche - and not Hitler - Der Scheisskopf Hitler had given a list of requirements.
This story really illustrates the depths of ignorance that exists all around - How can any adult, conscious mind, living in a civilized place in the world today, not know about the horrors of WWII?!!
BREAKING NEWS: "Hitler" merchant and local Jewish leaders reach an agreement.
He can keep the name but must charge wholesale prices...
He's either the worlds more stupid individual or he's completely full of s**t
Dude, you didn't google your business name first? Really? Not even to see if the brand was already taken? What an idiot.
You, you you. It's always about YOU, isn't it?
Just where, in sanskrit or hindi, or any of the other more than 70 non-european alphabet Indian languages do you think he is going to find all this? YOU ARE THE IDIOT. How arrogantly ego-centric.
Your whole universe revolves around YOU your little English language universe and your tiny and insignificant Occidental recent history. The so-called second world war hardly involved the world. It only involved your little Occidental bubble. Most of the rest of the world watched from a distance or not at all.
For India, WWII was a non-event, especially the European part of it. For India, WWII was a welcome distraction to the British, who the Indians wanted to leave. For India, it was, at most, a concern about how the Japanese were going to treat the border with Tibet and China, something that never became a real issue.
Get a grip. For Occidental culture, the NSDAP was a near disaster, incredibly destructive and an enormous calamity. For the rest of the world, it was a big yawn. The Japanese affected orders of magnitude more people and territory than Germany ever came close to affecting and they were limited entirely to East Asia and the Orient.
It's amazing how one man in a period of a couple of decades can totally destroy the meaning of huge numbers of symbols far more ancient and culturally embedded. How completely egocentric we are to think that we are the ONLY culture on the planet.
The German NSDAP used large numbers of runic symbols, amongst which, most notably, were the swastika, the sig and the totenkopf (death's head). A lot of others were used as well. The US Pledge of Allegience was originally made using an ancient Roman salute of the straight, palm-flat upraised right arm, changed only when WWII started to distance it from the NSDAP's use of it. The NSDAP didn't invent the swastiak. The NSDAP used the swastika because it was a very ancient runic symbol and they used for its runic meaning from old nordic history that goes back millenia. The sig rune was not invented by the NSDAP either. It is is mostly confused as being a lightning bolt version of the letters SS. It is not, it too is an ancient rune. It was used in single form with the Hitler Youth and in double form with the SS.
Hitler hijacked these symbols and every time some person from some culture where they have existed for millenia uses them, we, the cultural morons that we are, bash them mercilessly for using something that belonged to them for thousands of years before we came along. All these symbols belong to Scandanavian, Asian, Oriental and North and South American cultures for thousands of years before the NSDAP and, now, just because the NSDAP used them for a couple of decades, suddenly all these cultures are to take note and change thousands of years of history, symbology and culture just to suit YOUR senisbilities? How utterly arrogant.
All this arguing over how many million Hitler killed is idiotic. He killed tens of millions. Of those 6 million were Jews. Why is that always mentioned? Because Jews were the only group that Hitler had a hard on for. He devoted resources specifically to finding and exterminating Jews. He didn't do that for any other group. Yes, he killed others as well. But only a moron or a rabid Jew hater - but there I go repeating myself - can't grasp why the 6 MILLION gets the most prominence.
6 millions died in holocaust pales with 28 million Russians killed fighting German invasion and 26 million Chinese murdered by the Japanese imperial army. Jews were not the only victims of war, at least the Chinese or the Russians do not keep mentioning, particularly the Chinese despite to the most barbaric and horrify death the Chinese suffered in Nanjing Massacre.
Enough of the holocaust nonsense!
JJ Jones-1324920
Umm just to let you know Jews were not the only group Hitler had a “hard on for” as he also despised Slavs too, as a matter of fact his henchman Himmler had made plans that upon a successful conquest of Russia the Nazis would kill over 30 million Slavs, of course he never got the chance (although they did try) because nearly all the Slavs were in the USSR, coincidently that is also one reason why he was able to target the Jews first as most of them were in Europe at the time, oh Hitler also had a thing for the Poles too but in all fairness he was more content to have them as an un-educated slave race.
What is the big fuss about a shop in India named Hilter. What is the big deal about this shop displays swastika.
Swastika is just a symble same as the Japanese rising sun flag which was displayed on Japan Olympic team uniform. Swastika is no difference to the rising sun flag emblem or star of david. Why people object to swastika but not to rising sun emblem.
Once again those of you that are complete morons have shown us that the planet is very sick. the store should have ben closed and the owner fined for being so incredibly STUPID> those of you that would shop there, go ahead make our parents proud but don't be surprised if you get a beating. And the majority of you need to go back to school and read your history and i know this part is impossible for you, but you need to COMPREHEND.