What is it about Adolf Hitler that causes businesses in foreign countries to use his name to market their products?
First it was “Fuhrerwein” being sold in northern Italy, now it’s a Hitler clothing store — complete with a circular swastiska dotting the “i” — that has opened in a city in western India. The owner says that he didn’t know that Hitler was the name of a Nazi dictator who gave the order to kill millions of innocent Jews. Instead, he claims, “Hitler” was just a nickname given to the “very strict” grandfather of a friend. Really? And the very strict grandpa dotted the “i” with a swastika? Give me a break!
It turns out that Hitler is popular in certain parts of India, because he is viewed as giving “dignity and prestige” to Germany. Apparently Indian schoolbooks don’t teach people that he was a mass murderer whose bloody dictatorial reign made Germany a pariah state that, even now, 70 years later, is still trying to to live down the inexplicable horror of the Nazi years.
But hey . . . if using the name Hitler and the swastika brings curious people into the store and results in a few purchases that might not have occurred otherwise, what’s the harm of trading on the name of one of history’s most evil figures?
The book has not been banned in Germany. However, the state of Bavaria controls the copyright, and it has not consented to any publication of the book in more than 65 years. The copyright ends in 2015, and Bavaria has decided to publish a scholarly edition to preempt the field before Mein Kampf passes into the public domain — and also to “demystify” the book for Germans who haven’t been able to read it in their native language.
Unknown is a story of a man who is knocked unconscious in an accident, lapses into a coma, and is surprised to learn when he awakens that he has been replaced, in every facet of his life, by another man. It is the kind of movie that asks audience members to completely suspend their reasoning faculties and tries to maintain such a break-neck pace that you don’t have time to consider the plot holes and implausibilities. It features a big twist toward the end, and I won’t spoil it for anyone who wants to see the film. However, it is the kind of twist that renders the overall plot so improbable that I, at least, felt a bit cheated.
