MUMBAI, India -- When Hitler's Cross restaurant opened four days ago in a Bombay suburb, local politicians and movie industry types were on hand to celebrate beneath posters of the Nazi leader and swastikas.

There's been little controversy in India, where Hitler is regarded as just another historical figure and swastikas are an ancient Hindu symbol, displayed all over to bring luck. There are just 5,500 Jews in all of India.

ADL National Director Abraham Foxman today expressed outrage; "Adolf Hitler presided over the mass murder of six million Jews and others in an attempt to dominate the world..." while Jonathan Solomon, chairman of the Indian Jewish Federation, vowed to "stop this deification of Hitler." Meanwhile, Daniel Zonshine, Israel's consul general in Bombay, promised to "force a name change."

At least one local leader said the name Hitler didn't bother him. "People are unnecessarily making this into an issue," said Sudhir Jadhav, a local ruling party leader. "We have no plans to protest outside the restaurant or ask him to change the name." Diners were also quite happy eating in Hitler's Cross.

AP article
Haaretz article

OMg hahhahahahahahahahaha I dont know what to say

Whoever came up with this, should be put into a concentration camp, so that he understands what he's making profit from...

They're changing the name already-

'Hitler' restaurant to change name Thu Aug 24, 9:54 AM ET



BOMBAY, India - The owner of a restaurant named after Adolf Hitler said Thursday he will change its name because it angered so many people.

Puneet Sablok said he would remove Hitler's name and the Nazi swastika from billboards and the menu. He had said the restaurant's name ? "Hitler's Cross" ? and symbols were only meant to attract attention.

Sablok made the decision after meeting with members of Bombay's small Jewish community.

"Once they told me how upset they were with the name, I decided to change it," he said. "I don't want to do business by hurting people."

Sablok said he had not yet decided on a new name.

Hitler's Cross opened five days ago and serves pizza, salad and pastries in Navi Mumbai, a suburb of Bombay, also known as Mumbai.

On Thursday, Bombay's Jewish community welcomed Sablok's decision to rename his restaurant.

"He realized he made a mistake and listened to reason," said Elijah Jacob, a community leader. "Some people have wrong conceptions of history and he realized it was not appropriate."

Bombay's Jews had called the theme of the restaurant offensive and demanded a name change. There are about 5,500 Jews in India, with about 4,500 of them living in Bombay.

"I never wanted to hurt people's feelings," said Sablok.

Some Indians regard Hitler as just another historical figure and have little knowledge about the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews were systematically killed during World War II.

The swastika symbol, which was appropriated by the Nazis, was originally an ancient Hindu symbol and it is displayed all over India to bring luck.

AP Link

Well I don't really like this idea at all, I wouldn't go to eat there myself but then again we need to remember that Hitler is a historical person, he's an important person in the whole european history and also, there is a lot more than holocaust.. he was an army leader and a leader of a whole country I think people are often forgetting that, he might have been a total lunatic but his leading skills were actually phenomenal and we need to remember that the best way we can learn is to study the past.. so I don't understand why people should be shush shush about Hitler, he is a real historical person and he did make a difference in the whole european area, I personally don't like at all the diffenrece he made like probably most of us don't like but it still doesn't mean that we could wipe him off of the history books.

I don't really know what kind of restaurant this is, I mean is it like a praise to Hitler or what? Some of you might think "Duh!? of course it's a praise, it's a restaurant named after him" but I can't agree with that, we have a lot of viking restaurants, we have restaurants built in and decorated as old banks, pharmaceutics, hospitals or schools but those are not really praise for vikings or praise for some certain school or hospital from 18th century.. those are just a try to remain piece of history, bring it out to people that don't go to museums and of course make a living out of it.

I don't think connecting Hitler with swastika in a place, where people find it to be a symbol of welfare and know very little about who Hitler actually was, would give them right picture of this historical figure.

All in all, good that the owner turned out to be a sensible person and didn't protest against the name change, once realising how hurtful it is to some people.

Written by Angelique on 24.08.2006 at 23:47

Well I don't really like this idea at all, I wouldn't go to eat there myself but then again we need to remember that Hitler is a historical person, he's an important person in the whole european history and also, there is a lot more than holocaust.. he was an army leader and a leader of a whole country I think people are often forgetting that, he might have been a total lunatic but his leading skills were actually phenomenal and we need to remember that the best way we can learn is to study the past.. so I don't understand why people should be shush shush about Hitler, he is a real historical person and he did make a difference in the whole european area, I personally don't like at all the diffenrece he made like probably most of us don't like but it still doesn't mean that we could wipe him off of the history books.

I don't really know what kind of restaurant this is, I mean is it like a praise to Hitler or what? Some of you might think "Duh!? of course it's a praise, it's a restaurant named after him" but I can't agree with that, we have a lot of viking restaurants, we have restaurants built in and decorated as old banks, pharmaceutics, hospitals or schools but those are not really praise for vikings or praise for some certain school or hospital from 18th century.. those are just a try to remain piece of history, bring it out to people that don't go to museums and of course make a living out of it.

Yes, ppl should realise that Hitler was loved by the ppl. He was elected legally. He brought many reforms to Germany, reduced the number of the unemployed significantly etc. etc. Shure, he was mad, but there were ppl as mad as him, and still they're not seen like the evil madeflesh.

About the restaurant thing: why jews react imidiatly to things like this? It wasn't opebed in Israel, but in Bombay, India. They have N-O-T-H-I-N-G to do with it. And it wasn't opened as a hitler jugend HQ, but as an ordinary restaurant, whos owner had no creativity and named it Hitler.

@Damnated... still that would piss off people no matter what... imagine a Bin Laden resturant in Brazil... that will still piss off alot of ppl

Written by lordz on 25.08.2006 at 02:14

@Damnated... still that would piss off people no matter what... imagine a Bin Laden resturant in Brazil... that will still piss off alot of ppl

It's not the same thing. Bin Laden is just a name, the face of terrorism. Hitler was ... well, you know who he was.

whats the point in different forums existing if people just copy+paste threads from one forum to another

the face of fascism... I know which one i would prefer to toast. (the answer is bin laden)


what annoys me is the figure of 6 million. Hitler's regime killed 11 million people in the camps, they all deserve equal mention.

oh man, hahhahah!

i heard about this like a year ago.....yeah, this is old news i swear!

Written by Damnated on 25.08.2006 at 01:25

Yes, ppl should realise that Hitler was loved by the ppl. He was elected legally. He brought many reforms to Germany, reduced the number of the unemployed significantly etc. etc. Shure, he was mad, but there were ppl as mad as him, and still they're not seen like the evil madeflesh.

Haha, do you actually know how he reduced number of unemployment? Since according to nazis women should just bear and raise children as well as take care of their husbands, they were sent to homes, leaving job possitions open for the male part of the society. Together with increase of production of arms that was the main cause of this.
And the women were encouraged to bear as many children as possible. How surprising that nowadays Germany faces problems due to there being too many old people.
During Hitler's rulership the standard of living decreased. People received less payment, while living costs increased.

That people loved him, means they were naive sheep. He was just charismatic and knew how to fool others.

Ah well, you know from the beginning you will be having problems with a name like that... The swastika's I can understand regarding the nazi's stole it from India to use for their own propaganda, but "Hitler" just isn't an ordinary name. I know he's an important historical person, but the wounds of the holocaust aren't clearly healed yet and are very hard to heal and still many people get easily offended...

heh yeah i live in Bombay itself and am frankly suprised to see the concern in the people all over the world and more suprised to see a thread regarding the same on MS
The General feeling here was very cool i mean no one cared if a restaurants name was Hitler' Cross but i understand the feeling of the Jews and totally respect it.
The owners have agreed to change the name, and the Govt has ordered an inquiry on how the name of the restaurant of cleared in the first place.

Over the whole contreversy and stuff the only person benefiting was the owner as now even as he changes the name his restaurant has acquired great popularity and will ceratinly benefit him with more customers.
If the guy had named the restaurant Hilter's Cross on purpose i would first think of him as a "Marketing Genius" before anything

Written by Guest on 25.08.2006 at 03:08

Hitler's regime killed 11 million people in the camps, they all deserve equal mention.

What are you talking about?

in the report they mentioned that the camps killed 6 million jews. What about the 5 million assorted others? If people payed as much attention to those casualties as people do to the 6 million jews, homophobia would be far less of a problem and the Roma people would hve had a much easier post-war life.

Written by Guest on 25.08.2006 at 13:17

What about the 5 million assorted others?

It was war. In war ppl die. The Russians lost 23 million souls. And noone talks about them

Apparently you still don't know what he's talking about.
The camps killed 11 million of people, not just 6 million of Jews mentioned in the article. The point is the article should mention all the killed people, not just one group of them.

what a stupid guy to think that a name like that wouldnt hurt or anger people. its a pretty low thing to do to attract attention towards a business

i am sick of all this Hitler stuff though. agree with his intentions or not, it is all in the past and i wish people would leave it that way
the amound of times jokes are being made about him on TV or whatever else there is. i am sick of it all, i wish people would just forget about him and move on

Written by -tom- on 25.08.2006 at 03:03

whats the point in different forums existing if people just copy+paste threads from one forum to another

Topics have to originate somewhere. They don't just come out of the clear blue sky. I'd say that about 80-90% of threads in any forum originated from somewhere else on the web. And yes, I do post in other forums beside this one.

Written by animal on 25.08.2006 at 15:37

Written by -tom- on 25.08.2006 at 03:03

whats the point in different forums existing if people just copy+paste threads from one forum to another

Topics have to originate somewhere. They don't just come out of the clear blue sky. I'd say that about 80-90% of threads in any forum originated from somewhere else on the web. And yes, I do post in other forums beside this one.

@animal is right... and I wanted to point out that I didnt know about this topic till I saw it here in MS... so hell yah

Written by Guest on 25.08.2006 at 15:29

Apparently you still don't know what he's talking about.
The camps killed 11 million of people, not just 6 million of Jews mentioned in the article. The point is the article should mention all the killed people, not just one group of them.

I agree with him, thanx for clearing this up But from where do you guys get these numbers?

I think my history book, but it could have been the bbc news site. It's just one of those lil bits of info that floats around in my mind.

From Wikipedia:

About 220,000 Sinti and Roma were murdered in the Holocaust (some estimates are as high as 800,000), between a quarter to a half of the European population. Other groups deemed "racially inferior" or "undesirable": Poles (6 million killed, of whom 3 million were Catholic/Christian, and the rest Jewish), Serbs (estimates vary between 300,000 and 700,000 killed, mostly by Croat Usta?e), Soviet military prisoners of war and civilians on occupied territories including Russians and other East Slavs, the mentally or physically disabled, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists and political dissidents, trade unionists, Freemasons, Eastern Christians, and Catholic and Protestant clergy, were also persecuted and killed. Many scholars do not include the Nazi persecution of all of these groups in the definition of the Holocaust, with some scholars limiting the Holocaust to the genocide of the Jews; some to genocide of the Jews, Roma, and disabled; and some to all groups targeted by Nazi racism. Taking all these other groups into account, however, the total death toll rises considerably, estimates generally place the total number of Holocaust victims at 9 to 11 million, though some estimates have been as high as 26 million.

the following estimates are considered to be highly reliable. The estimates:

* 5.1-6.0 million Jews, including 3.0-3.5 million Polish Jews
* 1.8 -1.9 million non-Jewish Poles (includes all those killed in executions or those that died in prisons, labor, and concentration camps, as well as civilians killed in the 1939 invasion and the 1944 Warsaw Uprising)
* 500,000-1.2 million Serbs killed by Croat Nazis
* 200,000-800,000 Roma & Sinti
* 200,000-300,000 people with disabilities
* 80,000-200,000 Freemasons
* 100,000 communists
* 10,000-25,000 homosexual men
* 2,500-5,000 Jehovah's Witnesses

i think the owner of the restaurant got what he wanted: free publicity for his place, and of course, his 15 minutes of fame

Written by Guest on 26.08.2006 at 04:19

i think the owner of the restaurant got what he wanted: free publicity for his place, and of course, his 15 minutes of fame

you might be right there '

haha, attention whore.

I think the owner should be put in an oven at his restaurent for publicity...
I dont really care about the swastika in general because Im half asian and I know it means the sign of peace or God but, the context to which they used it in is just neaseauting.