Hitler in propaganda film for Thai students
The image of Adolf Hitler has surfaced in a Thai propaganda film about norms and values. The feared dictator and instigator of the Second World War was depicted in a painting by a proud Thai schoolgirl who made a portrait of the Nazi leader.
Hitler and the proud smiling schoolgirl appear in the films about Thai Niyom, the Thai Pride. The videos were made at the request of the Thai junta leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. They are about the twelve core values that every Thai student should know and have been shown in cinemas since Saturday before the start of the main film.
The scene in question is part of a series of scenes that should represent a normal school day: young students catch butterflies in the schoolyard, conduct chemistry experiments, do karate exercises and while laughing make a portrait of the German Führer.
Filmmaker Kulp Kaljaruek said in the Bangkok Post that he was not aware of anything: 'Hitler's portrait is also on T-shirts, it may be fashion. That doesn't mean I agree with Hitler, I didn't expect this to be such a point. The film has been approved and nobody has asked questions about it.'
Hitler and Nazi symbols appear more often in Thailand, especially at youth parties. According to a spokesman for the Thai prime minister, who indicated that he had not seen the film himself, there is a misunderstanding.
Yet another misunderstanding. Lack of knowledge of history.
Would a print by Pol Pot lead to furrowed eyebrows? Or have so many Thai faces been banned that people have gone elsewhere for advice?
Anyway: tasteless.
I watched the whole 10 minute clip. It is about the seventh core value: 'Understanding and learning what the true core of democratic values is with the King as Head of State'. So you would actually expect a portrait of the King.
So there are 11 other 10-minute clips that are free to watch in cinemas thanks to Prime Minister Prayut's generosity.
The story in this clip is more about cheating on a school assignment than about democracy.
But then why the very short scene at the beginning of two students laughingly pointing to the portrait of Hitler they had made? I'm taking a reasonable guess.
In the Thai-language anti-Thaksin media, Thaksin is often compared to Hitler, with Thaksin being even worse than Hitler. Hitler was also a villain, but at least he did something for his country, they say. It is usually noted that Hitler also came to power democratically, through elections. So the message is: elections are not a panacea in a democracy, we might be able to do without them. And that's true: not all dictators come out of elections, but sometimes they do.
Indeed, you sometimes see younger Thais walking around with T-shirts with Nazi symbols, which again prove the ignorance of this history.
What has long been banned in other countries is normally sold here, without sufficient control. You also occasionally see bikers driving around with two large swastikas on their helmets, where you think this is meant to provoke, or is it a real ignorance.
Even if you ask a Thai about Thailand's attitude during World War II, many Thais fail to answer, indicating that education is also lacking here.
When I see a Thai with a Nazi symbol I do indeed think of ignorance, and I cannot call them guilty of deliberate provocation.
It is different with a Farang who occasionally joins this group of ignorant people, and knows for sure what these symbols mean, and by wearing a swastika helmet actually advertises his own boundless stupidity, although they themselves think they are cool .
You know that the swastika also had other uses and meanings? Thus, the Finnish armed forces carried him before the Nazis. The swastika also has its roots in India. I've met some Thai people with swastika tattoos, and that had absolutely nothing to do with Nazism or ignorance!
Dear Robert V,
The swastika, which is mentioned in more comments here, is usually depicted horizontally, or with so-called curved hooks, and therefore clearly differs from the Nazi symbol.
The Nazi symbol on the T-shirts has the swastika on its tip, as was customary for the Nazis.
Moreover, this symbol is depicted with the same colors, which are all known from the Nazi flags from Hitler's Third Reich, so that the producer of these T-shirts did indeed want to achieve this effect.
The farang who wears a T-shirt with such a symbol, where the shape of the swastika and the colors are identical with the colors of the so-called Nazi flags, undoubtedly wants to connect this with Nazism.
Also in the above image posted by the editors, you can clearly see that the swastika is on point, and is therefore nothing more than the infamous Nazi symbol.
That Hitler clip is of course wrong for us Westerners…
But the swastika called Wan (if reversed) is used in the Far East to indicate LUCK.
Huge misunderstandings could therefore arise here due to the cultural differences…
The danger is that a democracy can tilt towards a fascist regime.
Just as we here know very little about all the wars that have happened in Asia, the same applies to Asians about what has happened here. In the room of an acquaintance of mine hangs a large flag with the swastika sign. Asked him: do you know what that means, have you ever heard of the Second World War? A negative answer! In Indonesia I received a beautiful shirt as a gift, full of swastika characters. But not taken to the Netherlands.
However, the swastika sign in the eastern countries is a symbol of the sun wheel and is therefore not associated with the Second World War.
Does this clarify the discussion?
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika_(symbool)
Thailand sided with Japan in 1941 and gave them free passage to allow the Burma Railway to be built on Thai territory. At that time, Thailand was not on the side of the Allies, to put it mildly. Perhaps that plays a role in the image of Germany in the history books in Thai schools.