Tourists Arrested in Germany For Performing Hitler Salute

[steve2470]

http://time.com/4889092/chinese-tourists-arrested-nazi-hitler-salute-reichstag/

Two Chinese tourists were arrested in Germany Saturday after they performed a salute praising Adolf Hitler, which the country has banned.

The tourists were performing the "Heil Hitler" Nazi salute and taking photos of themselves outside the Reichstag in Berlin, where Germany's parliament convenes. They were both released on $600 bail, according to the BBC, but could have to pay a fine or face a possible three-year sentence in prison.

In 1933, shortly after Hitler had assumed power in Germany, the Reichstag burned down because of an arson attack. The Nazi party blamed the communists, citing it as evidence that there was a conspiracy to precipitate a Nazi downfall, and began implementing laws to curtails citizens' civil liberties.

The crackdown on Nazi-era salutes is not new, as they have been banned in Germany shortly after World War II. A Canadian tourist was arrested for performing the same salute in 2011, according to the Independent. The person, who had to pay a fine, was released after several hours in policy custody.

[Not Ruth]

1. Chinese Nazis?

[HipChick]

19. I was threatened by a Asian Nazi yesterday

on Facebook......he posted, if the whites don't get the job done, the Asians will...Go figure

[Not Ruth]

22. Check out the North Koreans Sieg Heiling

They would be in big trouble in Germany.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1842068

[SCantiGOP]

2. When I was a kid

A teenager was arrested for throwing a finger at a woman in a car. His bad luck was that her husband was the Mayor and he was arrested. They initially told his family he might be charged with attempted rape (??!!), but then let him go.
This is about as stupid as that was. Germany needs a 1st amendment, or to realize that these Chinese tourists were not trying to revive the Third Reich.

[WinkyDink]

3. What Germany NEEDS is to remember unto Eternity. THAT'S what Germany NEEDS. Your attempted analogy

is extraordinarily, even shockingly, puerile.

[steve2470]

5. agreed

Because of their past history, I have NO problem whatsoever with their laws. The neo-Nazis are a constant threat in Germany, despite what happened to their country. Some of us never learn (meaning the neo-nazis).

[SCantiGOP]

18. Read "1984" again

This is basically thought crime. I am fully aware of the past atrocities and horror of the Nazis, but I thought most Americans were opposed to making speech (which would also cover gestures) illegal.

[paleotn]

23. Rights do have limits....

...the old "can't yell fire in an theater", etc. When the exercise of your rights infringe on others, that is their limit. That is the idea of hate speech. Hanging a noose on a black person's door is not protected free speech, it's hate speech. It infringes on someone else's freedoms. Nazi symbols in a country where the wounds aren't that old, is hate speech and is rightly banned. In fact, I applaud Germany for grubbing out Nazism, root and branch. If only we could do the same with white supremacy and neo-confederacy in the US. But no, we allowed it to remain and fester. Those ideas brought untold suffering and death to many and to allow them to continue even symbolically infringes on others right to safety and security.

Sorry, but everything has its limits. That's how a civilized society works.

[lunasun]

20. I don't think they need advice from people who did not experience what thier country went through

How about concentrate on it not happening here

[ProudLib72]

4. Germans don't want that crap in their country

The Germans I've met in my travels are highly sensitive about this. It's not a joke, and they do not take it lightly.

[steve2470]

6. totally understandable nt

[Sanity Claws]

7. Thank goodness that they weren't Americans

[Squinch]

8. My first thought. We're reviled enough these days.

But sadly, it's very easy to believe there are Americans who would do this.

[3catwoman3]

9. I fully expected...

...they would be. I, too, am relieved.

[lunasun]

21. Read

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029453821

[doc03]

10. I broke that law when I was there in 1969. Me and an Army buddy took each others

picture doing the salute on Hitler's reviewing stand at the Nurnberg stadium. Didn't know better I was only 20.

[TrishaJ]

11. I bet they had no idea that it

was illegal to do the "Heil Hitler" salute in Germany and did it because they were being stupid and thought they were being funny. Ha, ha.

[MurrayDelph]

12. It's very possible they thought they were funny.

I have a picture of my father doing the Salute wearing a German uniform he (or one of his colleagues) confiscated a few days after he landed at Normandy during D-Day.

It was very in-your-face-Germany back then.


(But I definitely see how it wouldn't age well to try it now).

[dalton99a]

13. In China, Hitler isn't known for the Holocaust

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/theater-and-dance/75920/great-dictator

Great Dictator
In China, Hitler is a subject of endless fascination and represents many meanings, not all of them bad.
By Isaac Stone Fish
August 24, 2011 • 7:00 AM

...

In China, Hitler isn’t known for the Holocaust, but rather for achieving social stability with a very high human cost. “In general, they refer to him as very lihai, very hardcore, someone who is strong, powerful,” said Rabbi Nussin Rodin, a Chabad representative in Beijing. “You can be strong and powerful and good, and strong and powerful and bad. It’s weird. I don’t know what to say.” With China’s regime facing growing internal criticism for mishandling any number of things, from the escalating price of fuel to train safety, Hitler’s perceived image as a strong leader who was able to maintain social stability makes him an attractive figure to many.

Outside the Beijing theater, which is perched above a karaoke parlor in a wealthy part of town, college student Liu Mingyu said that he came because of the director and thought the play was funny. “There’s nothing good about him,” Liu said of the Hitler character, “except that he’s strong-willed, that’s the only advantage he’s got. But in general he’s a bad guy, I suppose.”

Some Chinese sympathy toward Hitler is fueled by a persistent—and false—rumor claiming that when Hitler was an impoverished young student in Vienna, he was taken in by a Chinese family named Zhang. “Looking at Hitler From a Different Angle,” an article published last month on the website of the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, reported that during Hitler’s youth, a Chinese family gave him “Oriental style selfless help,” and that because of this he had a “warm and close feeling toward China.” Many Chinese believe that Hitler had secretly supported China during World War II, despite Germany’s alignment with China’s wartime oppressor, Japan. Hitler is well-known in China; rural residents especially don’t necessarily see him as a sign of evil. Olivia Kraef, a Beijing-based sinologist from Germany, related a story of a recent trip in China, where someone wanted to drink a toast to Hitler with her. “That was the first thing he came up with when he met me,” she said. “Hitler, soccer.”

Bizarrely, support for Hitler does not in any way suggest disdain for Jews. On the contrary: Chinese people on the whole are very approving of Judaism and Jewish culture, seeing Jews as experts in both moneymaking and child rearing, with a long history and a strong tradition of education. And, unsurprisingly in a country where Mao’s all-seeing portrait still hangs from Tiananmen Square, Chinese tend to shy away from comparisons between their homegrown contender for the title of history’s greatest butcher. “I don’t think there can be any comparison between Hitler and Mao,” said Meng. “Mao’s biggest spirit was to serve the people; Mao loved the people. That’s the biggest difference.”

[NobodyHere]

16. He's also known for Ice Cream!

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Don't Mention The War

[DFW]

15. From childhood, German kids are taught about the Nazis and what they did

My wife, my daughters--they learned in school why what happened in their country must never be allowed to happen again. My daughters both went to the Anne Frank elementary school outside Düsseldorf, and the kids all learn about her life and death. My wife's father lost his leg at Stalingrad at age 17 as an unwilling draftee off his farm. You won't find many objections to restrictions on Nazi words or gestures among their generation.

[Nevernose]

17. I've been caught breaking several German laws

And I therefore owe the German government many euros. My plan still consists of just never going back to Germany.

(This is for all of those people saying "They didn't know any better." Ignorance is no excuse, and all of that. There are options beyond "face the consequences" )