Condemnation after men dress as Nazis at Bangkok mall festive event

[webfact]

Condemnation after men dress as Nazis at Bangkok mall festive event

 

Picture: Sanook

 

Photographs which show two Thai men dressed in Nazi uniforms at an event at a Bangkok shopping mall have been condemed by the Israel's ambassador to Thailand.

 

One of the photographs show the men stood in front a Christmas tree giving a ‘thumbs up’ wearing the Nazi themed costume.

 

The photographs drew widespread condemnation from people posting online. 

 

In a statement posted on Facebook, Israel's Ambassador to Thailand, Dr. Meir Shlomo called the incident an “insult” to the victims of the Nazi regime.

 

"I am disappointed to see the sad reoccurrence of incidents in which Nazi symbols are displayed on random occasions in Thailand, said Dr. Shlomo.

 

“Needless to say, that this is an insult to the 6 million Jews and other victims of the Nazi regime, and their relatives.

 

“There is yet a lot to be done in Thailand through proper education and public awareness."

 

The festive themed event was organised by Mastercard and held at the Central Pattana shopping mall in Bangkok.

 

Both Mastercard and Central Pattana Public Company Limited have also condemned the photographs, saying they do not support the actions in anyway

 

This is not the first time glorification of Nazi symbols or iconography has occurred in Thailand. 

 

In 2013, Chulalongkorn University students included an image of Adolf Hitler in a mural about superheros.

 

In 2018, a Thai pop star caused outrage after performing in a t-shirt emblazoned with the Nazi flag.

 

Also in 2018, a French tourist made a complaint to police after discovering Nazi themed goods on sale at a market in Pattaya. 

 

Source: Sanook

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-12-25

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[Creasy]

Geography and history, especially foreign is not a strong suit of the Thais 

[Samui Bodoh]

3 minutes ago, webfact said:

The festive themed event was organised by Mastercard and held at the Central Pattana shopping mall in Bangkok.

 

Both Mastercard and Central Pattana Public Company Limited have also condemned the photographs, saying they do not support the actions in anyway

 

'Yes, we organized the event to make some cash, but now that there is some controversy, we condemn it harshly.'

 

Gutless cowards.

 

 

[PatOngo]

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

“There is yet a lot to be done in Thailand through proper education and public awareness."

Don't hold your breathe waiting for that!

[RJRS1301]

The unfortunate truth is they have none nothing illegal in Thailand

Distaste to millions, but not illegal, I doubt many Thais of any generation would have knowledge of the holocaust

[canuckamuck]

I would love to know what these folks are thinking. They must have some understanding of who the Nazi's were. Their outfits and the posters and stuff they make, show there was research and knowledge involved. I just can't see what part of the Nazi story that is attractive to Thais. There has to be some kind of unspoken appreciation.

[mike787]

I thought thailand respected free speech????

[Curt1591]

23 minutes ago, Samui Bodoh said:

 

'Yes, we organized the event to make some cash, but now that there is some controversy, we condemn it harshly.'

 

Gutless cowards.

 

 

They are condemning the 2 idiots, not the event.

[bluesofa]

15 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

I would love to know what these folks are thinking. They must have some understanding of who the Nazi's were. Their outfits and the posters and stuff they make, show there was research and knowledge involved. I just can't see what part of the Nazi story that is attractive to Thais. There has to be some kind of unspoken appreciation.

No, they don't have any understanding of who the Nazis were. I very much doubt they know about the second world war.

 

Thirty years ago my first Thai girlfriend definitely didn't know who Hitler was. The only thing she knew about the second world war was that her parents in Chiang Rai told her they remembered Japanese soldiers marching through their village after they invaded Thailand, on their way to Burma.

 

[LomSak27]

Thailand has never been big on teaching about World War II in their schools, for obvious reasons. That is not going to change anytime soon.

[scorecard]

18 minutes ago, LomSak27 said:

Thailand has never been big on teaching about World War II in their schools, for obvious reasons. That is not going to change anytime soon.

A simple example, my Thai son's brother in law (spent all of his life in the mid North, did complete high school) is adamant that the globe of the world in my son's house (which son uses often to teach his kids, check the location of countries in the news etc.) is wrong because Germany is just above Thailand. BIL believes this from some simple geography lessons conducted by a monk many many years ago when he was a 3 months novice.

[animalmagic]

43 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

I would love to know what these folks are thinking. They must have some understanding of who the Nazi's were. Their outfits and the posters and stuff they make, show there was research and knowledge involved. I just can't see what part of the Nazi story that is attractive to Thais. There has to be some kind of unspoken appreciation.

Probably some bright marketing guy connecting the words Mastercard and Master Race and thinking they were smart. 

[ParkerN]

Children in a sandpit.

[mickey rat]

99.9% of the locals have no idea who Pol Pot was, much less Hitler. 

[mngmn]

It's not misunderstanding, is admiration. Strong, dictator who made Germany powerful for a while.

[RichardColeman]

Said this before, but my wife is a kindergarten teacher, well educated at high universities here in Thailand - never heard of 9/11 !! (and topically once asked me is father Christmas was real person each year in the UK). So, huge lack of historical education

 

[AhFarangJa]

14 minutes ago, mickey rat said:

99.9% of the locals have no idea who Pol Pot was, much less Hitler. 

Agreed Mickey. I may have mentioned before, apologies if I am repeating myself, but we have a house near Prasat. It is where my wife comes from, and is only about 24 km from Cambodia. Both my wife, her family, and most people in the village speak Khmer. Yet, she has absolutely no idea who Pol Pot was, let alone the Khmer Rouge. Selective education at its finest.

[mikebell]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

There is yet a lot to be done in Thailand through proper education and public awareness.

In a nutshell.  Thais are ignorant of the rest of the Universe, not helped by the PM saying Thai would soon be the Universal language of the World!

He's not noticed the Internet yet.

[Denim]

1 hour ago, Creasy said:

Geography and history, especially foreign is not a strong suit of the Thais 

 

True .... but on the other hand they have totally nailed beauty parlours , wooden elephants , and driving without paying much attention.

 

It's a question of priorities.

[kingdong]

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

Yeah right, let a genocide of millions of people just be forgotten, let us all learn nothing from history, let us all be ignorant, insensitive and dismissive of other people misfortunes why don't we?...

Let's not forget pol pot while we,'re on the subjecr

[kingdong]

36 minutes ago, mickey rat said:

99.9% of the locals have no idea who Pol Pot was, much less Hitler. 

Posted before i,d read your post

[theoldgit]

Troll post and two measured responses removed.

[kingdong]

14 minutes ago, HuskerDo said:

The U.S. has far too many skinheads and of course the KKK but people (especially Thais) wearing Nazi uniforms is surprising. Skinheads and the KKK spew the same hatred that the Nazi's spewed. It seems the hatred in this world just won't stop.

Seems there's more of that sort of carry on in eastern Europe than the usa

[brokenbone]

get over it

[JonnyF]

I believe this is simply ignorance, not malice. They have no idea of the history and just think the uniform looks cool, a bit like dressing up as a stormtrooper from Star Wars. They've probably seen the swastika on T-shirts at the night market and think it's a designer name in Europe.

 

Lack of education is the issue here, not hatred of Jews or a love of genocide.

[Fairynuff]

4 minutes ago, brokenbone said:

get over it

Sympathiser

[Fairynuff]

48 minutes ago, Deli said:

Shouldn't Israel rather take care of their domestic problems ?

No, they should call out nazi sympathisers wherever they are, including forums

[Raymonddiaz]

It’s all about education guys.,.,

[terminatorchiangmai]

1 hour ago, RJRS1301 said:

The unfortunate truth is they have none nothing illegal in Thailand

Distaste to millions, but not illegal, I doubt many Thais of any generation would have knowledge of the holocaust

Is there another history besides Thailand?

They don't even know what happend in Cambodia during khmer rouge.

[mauGR1]

2 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

I believe this is simply ignorance, not malice. They have no idea of the history and just think the uniform looks cool, a bit like dressing up as a stormtrooper from Star Wars. They've probably seen the swastika on T-shirts at the night market and think it's a designer name in Europe.

 

Lack of education is the issue here, not hatred of Jews or a love of genocide.

Agree, let's not forget the horror, let's not repeat it, and let's forgive the ignorance of others, as we forgive our own.