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From a painting hung high on a blood-red wall, Adolf Hitler peers down on young students eating schnitzel and slurping German beer in Indonesia\u2019s Nazi-themed cafe.<\/p>\n
The SoldatenKaffee (\u201cThe Soldiers\u2019 Cafe\u201d) opened its doors in the western Javanese city of Bandung in 2011, named after the popular hangout for soldiers in Germany and occupied Paris during World War II.<\/p>\n
Eerier than the gas mask canisters and battle flags bearing swastikas is the more than two years\u2019 silence that has followed the cafe\u2019s grand launch.<\/p>\n
When the cafe opened no one voiced offense at the waiters and guests dressed as Nazi soldiers\u2014the Holocaust is weak on the radar in Indonesia, home to the world\u2019s biggest Muslim population, where the Jewish community numbers a mere 20 people.<\/p>\n
But a recent report about SoldatenKaffee in the English-language Jakarta Globe newspaper triggered angry responses online and prompted Bandung deputy mayor Ayi Vivananda to summon the owner for a meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to ask him first in detail what his real intentions are. But what is clear is that Bandung city will not allow anyone here inciting racial hatred,\u201d he said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The cafe\u2019s creator and owner, Henry Mulyana, said he did not intend to bring back memories of the Holocaust but was not surprised to be branded a \u201cbad guy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t idolise Hitler, I simply adore the soldiers\u2019 paraphernalia,\u201d Mulyana, a Christian who likes playing with air rifles, told AFP at the cafe.<\/p>\n
His collection is on display for diners and includes a water canteen, bayonet, goggles and a lantern, most of them bought online.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ones with swastikas on them are worth more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The restaurant had only ever received positive press before the recent exposure in English-language media and receives a regular stream of customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re living in Indonesia and Indonesians weren\u2019t tortured in the Holocaust, so we don\u2019t really care,\u201d said mining company employee Arya Setya, eating a plate of spaghetti at the cafe with his girlfriend.<\/p>\n
But now that news of the cafe\u2019s existence has reached a wider audience, it has sparked outrage among Jewish communities in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Simon Wiesenthal Center is reaching out to senior Indonesian diplomats to express on behalf of our 400,000 members and victims of the Nazi Holocaust our outrage and disgust,\u201d Rabbi Abraham Cooper, from the Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights group, told AFP by email.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect that all appropriate measures will be taken to close down this business celebrating a genocidal ideology that at its core denigrates people of color and all non-Aryans,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Under Indonesian law, anyone who deliberately shows hatred towards others based on race or ethnicity can be jailed for up to five years.<\/p>\n
But such vilification usually goes unchecked, with hardline Muslim groups carrying out violent attacks on religious minorities with near impunity in recent years.<\/p>\n
Mulyana said that his cafe has also attracted Western guests, including Germans, with one photographed on its Facebook page wearing a red swastika T-shirt along with several Indonesians in the same clothes.<\/p>\n
He revealed he plans to set up an even bigger cafe on the resort island of Bali, which attracts throngs of foreign tourists each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll certainly display Hitler\u2019s image, as well as Winston Churchill\u2019s, and paraphernalia from American and Japanese soldiers from World War II,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His cafe could not contrast more deeply with attitudes in Europe, where several countries have criminalised the promotion of Nazi ideology and the denial of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
While Mulyana does not deny the Holocaust happened, he said making the tragedy taboo was hypocritical.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want to speak up about humanity, why don\u2019t they stop wars in this world now, like in Afghanistan? War always claims so many lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, when contacted by AFP on Saturday Mulyana said he had decided to close down the cafe temporarily, refusing to give further details.<\/p>\n
Indonesia, where 90 percent of the population of 240 million identify themselves as Muslim, does not recognize Judaism among its six official religions.<\/p>\n
The country has no diplomatic relations with Israel and vocally advocates for the state of Palestine, although it has quietly engaged in economic and military ties.<\/p>\n
Today just one synagogue exists in the country, in the city of Manado. A century-old synagogue in the city of Surabaya was shut down by extremists protesting against the 2008-9 war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Other Indonesians in Manado are believed to have Jewish roots, some hiding their heritage for safety fears.<\/p>\n
A lack of sensitivity towards the Holocaust has also been shown in other parts of Asia.<\/p>\n
Thailand\u2019s prestigious Chulalongkorn University was forced to apologize on Monday after its students created a mural depicting Hitler among comic book superheroes during graduation celebrations.<\/p>\n
And in 2006, an Indian restaurateur outraged the country\u2019s small Jewish community by opening \u201cHitler\u2019s Cross\u201d. He was forced to change the name days later.<\/p>\n
Historian Asvi Warman Adam from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences blames Indonesia\u2019s education system and schools for a lack of awareness about the Holocaust and world wars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t hear a lot of criticism against the Nazis and fascism in Indonesia,\u201d Adam said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHitler\u2019s book \u2018Mein Kampf\u2019 is banned in many countries, but it\u2019s freely distributed here. It\u2019s translated into Indonesian and is quite often sold out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the school curriculum was focused on national history and trying to legitimise Indonesia\u2019s 32-year Suharto dictatorship, which saw the slaughter of at least 500,000 communists, Chinese and alleged sympathisers.<\/p>\n
Islamic hardliners, who are the most vocal when it comes to blasphemy against Islam, are unlikely to make any noise about the cafe, Adam said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if a Jewish-themed cafe opened, they would most likely stage a protest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Photo: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From a painting hung high on a blood-red wall, Adolf Hitler peers down on young students eating schnitzel and slurping German beer in Indonesia\u2019s Nazi-themed cafe. The SoldatenKaffee (\u201cThe Soldiers\u2019 Cafe\u201d) opened its doors in the western Javanese city of Bandung in 2011, named after the popular hangout for soldiers in Germany and occupied Paris […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1082,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions\/1082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}