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Hitler ad a disgrace

It's amazing that a political party like the DPP would make Adolf Hitler a poster boy for an ad campaign "to encourage individuals under the age of 30" to express themselves ("DPP's Hitler ad creates a stir," July 12, page 3). Exactly what kind of political self-expression should they engage in? Racism and mass murder?

As a party built from the suffering of Taiwanese -- from the slaughters of 2-28, through the ensuing White Terror and Kaohsiung Incident, to more personal examples like the murders of former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung's (林義雄) mother and twin daughters -- the DPP should know better. Pull the commercial.

Tang Nai-teh

Taipei

Two years ago a company in Taiwan had to pull an ad that featured a cartoon Hitler selling heaters. A few months later, a restaurant changed its interior design that featured concentration camp pictures and "gas chamber" restrooms. During the presidential campaign, Lien Chan (連戰) warned voters not to vote for James Soong (宋楚瑜), citing Hitler's electoral success in 1933 as an example. The stories made headline news in the local English-language papers, but were virtually ignored by the Chinese-language media. The heating company found another cute mascot and the restaurant changed its theme following protests from the German and Israeli representative offices.

I was disgusted -- but not surprised -- when I read your report. Mention the Nanjing Massacre and the comfort women sex-slaves during World War II and people in Taiwan become indignant. Mention Hitler and you'll probably get a chuckle. People here watch Schindler's List for a good cry but think nothing of swastikas painted on taxis. Hitler is not history; Hitler is kitsch.

The supposedly educated and progressive DPP gets a lot of credit for playing hip to the young crowd. But it probably tried too hard to ingratiate itself to young voters when its chief propagandist Phoenix Cheng said, "We thought about the negative impact of presenting Hitler's image, but felt that it was presented with a sense of humor and would not be associated with the Jews." Now that's funny.

"DPP's Hitler ad creates stir." I certainly hope so.

Ben Chen Wen

Taipei

I sympathize very much with the DPP, because of the party's accomplishments in gaining and developing democratic structures in Taiwan. In some respects I believe my country, Germany, could learn from Taiwan.

I read your report about the party's plan to launch a commercial that will show Adolf Hitler in a "funny" way, together with Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro. I'm German and I think I've learned a lot about German and Austrian history during the Nazi period. That's why I strongly recommend that the party think it over again.

Although our Nazi history is taught in every class in Germany, there's a growing number of youths who don't realize what systematically segregating and subsequently eliminating an entire part of the country's own population really meant. I do think that Germans and Austrians have a responsibility to explain to later generations what happened back then in order to prevent anything similar ever happening again.

History has taught us -- the entire world -- a lesson and everybody should learn from it. Reality shows how difficult this is. In some parts of Germany, foreign-looking people are threatened, chased and sometimes even killed by youths, mostly male, who believe that Hitler was a great leader and that there was no systematic killing of Jews.

We must all be careful not to contribute to the dilution of historical truth. I hope that the DPP will now serve as an example in this respect and revise that commercial.

Manfred Falkenburg

Germany
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