It seems that Prince Harry was onto something a few years ago, when he attended a fancy dress party in Führer chic. Now T-shirts featuring cartoon versions of the Nazi monster Adolf Hitler are trending for young people in Thailand.
From depicting the dictator as a Teletubby, panda or Ronald McDonald, boutiques in the capital Bangkok have it all, for between 200 baht to 370 baht ($7 to $12)
But it seems that only the tourists are complaining.
"It's not that I like Hitler," said one shop owner named only as Hut. "But he looks funny and the shirts are very popular with young people."
In Thailand, Hitler's resurgence is not limited to tacky T-shirts; the tyrant whose regime exterminated around six million Jews during the Holocaust is also depicted in statuettes. Representations which the Israeli ambassador in Thailand fears not only "trivializes" his legacy, it hurts "the feelings of every Jew and every civilized person."
So why is Hitler hip with the young Thai populace? Associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, which monitors international neo-Nazi activities, Abraham Cooper insisted the locals wise up about Hitler's ideology.
"If the Nazis had won the war, Hitler's racist ideology would have eventually targeted all races he deemed inferior, including Asians."
Reminds me of the kids wearing Che Guevara T-shirts without having a clue about who he is or what he did in his lifetime.
If the T-shirts had devil horns doodled on Hitler's face, that would be a different story altogether, not to mention a pretty hot market. Look out Dragon's Den...
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