Seriously though, what's up with Indonesia's infatuation with Nazis?

My wife used to work for Siemens in Jakarta had no idea of the companies history.
 
Some of the lads in the band wear swastikas on their clothes. Being the old mommy-dear, I continuously point out to them, had Hitler had his way, they would not exist with their brown eyes & skin, to ponce around in fascionista gear (see what I did there?).
The response "It's just a bit of fun." cuts them no slack & they get a lecture on how people were herded up like cattle, treated despicably & ultimately gassed to death in their hundreds of thousands (millions?).
Response: Raised outstretched, right arm & "hail"
& then I rant on at how shit they are at spelling - one of them has the swastika with "HAIL" in big letters on his Tshirt.
I dunno why I waste my time trying sometimes. Sigh!
 
Rooted in this society, as so many in Asia and South America (but even a bit in Southern Europe), is the infatuation for uniforms and para military organizations.

See for instance Pemuda Pancasila*. But it’s visible everywhere; election posters in which the governors look like navy admirals in their white uniforms, tv ads of NASDEM which look like Cold War Soviet propaganda, security staff (and satpam) are dressed up like Special Forces, building management staff, concierges in office buildings, even tukan parkir are wearing (fancy) uniforms. You could even consider the Friday batik outfit somewhat of an uniform.

But even in Europe you see this. Where I’m from there is a very strong feeling against uniforms, but only 150 km south in another country there are ultra nationalistic youth groups that look like the former Hitler Jugend. And what about the scouts and other youth groups?

Of course the Japanese presence was perceived here rather different as was the Nazi occupation in/of Europe. And even if a link between Japan and Nazi Deutschland is recognized, those Dutch & British in concentration camps in the malay archipelago did not make that big of an impression I guess.

* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancasila_Youth
 
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The thought process is basically Nazi = Anti Jew, Jew =Anti muslim = Nazi is good

Need we drag up Indonesian support for the Palestinian cause ??
 
Support for the Palestinians does not mean having a favorable view of National Socialism.
 
When we were kids we would part our hair and lark about taking the piss out of Hitler, the war was still on, anyway a refugee kid came down the street in his Hitler youth uniform, I don’t know if he was joking or not but my mates big brother beat the crap out of him, I don’t recall we ever saw him again,

When I worked in Munich one of the German lads over a few beers told me he was a Nazi, his uncle was in the SS, his uncle had really brain washed him and had told him that the SS were noble and honorable and had never committed any atrocities, it was British and American Jewish lies, anyway a few days later I was having a beer with the manager and I mentioned what this lad had told me, a few days later he was gone, but regarding Hitler and the Nazis here, they know very little about him, they know even less about the Concentration camps, my wife was very surprised when I told her while we were watching a programe on Discovery that my uncle was one of the first Brits to arrive at Belson, he was deeply effected, he couldn’t believe such a place could exist, he never spoke to me about it, but he did tell my mother, I never felt I should ask him about it as my Mum said he had been deeply effected by it
 
I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, remarkably well preserved almost 50 years after the end of the war. It is difficult to describe the feelings the place evokes, but the impression is immediate and lasting, as if the smell of burning flesh was still in the air and the cries and screams of victims could be heard on the wind. More then a few of the visitors, stepping into Birkenau through the arched railroad gate and gazing at the long line of track where the cattle cars were unloaded, were overcome with emotion -- some fainting, some vomiting.
 
I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, remarkably well preserved almost 50 years after the end of the war. It is difficult to describe the feelings the place evokes, but the impression is immediate and lasting, as if the smell of burning flesh was still in the air and the cries and screams of victims could be heard on the wind. More then a few of the visitors, stepping into Birkenau through the arched railroad gate and gazing at the long line of track where the cattle cars were unloaded, were overcome with emotion -- some fainting, some vomiting.

Indeed , I worked in Poland , visited a few of the camps, what a sobering experience , there is a feeling of death around , like a an unexplained fog on a summers day , the strange thing in Auschwitz was the drop in temperature inside the wire , outside it was 30c, birds singing , in the camp grounds it felt cold and silent no birdsong , absolutely weird , even the animals dont want to be there .
 
Indeed , I worked in Poland , visited a few of the camps, what a sobering experience , there is a feeling of death around , like a an unexplained fog on a summers day , the strange thing in Auschwitz was the drop in temperature inside the wire , outside it was 30c, birds singing , in the camp grounds it felt cold and silent no birdsong , absolutely weird , even the animals dont want to be there .
Well spoken my freind, well spoken.
 

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