Nazi-Themed Cafe Reopens: Soldaten Kaffee Keeps Swastikas On Display
A Nazi-themed cafe reopened Saturday in Indonesia. The cafe, named Soldaten Kaffee, was closed for nearly a year after media attention regarding the establishment’s theme brought forth a lot of criticism. Now, it seems, the owners are anxious to give it another go.
Soldaten Kaffee’s owner, Henry Mulyana, says that the cafe has a World War II theme, not a Nazi theme, according to Yahoo! News. When the place was originally open, it had swastikas throughout the location. The owner received a great deal of criticism that the theme incited racial hatred and eventually there were some death threats.
Mulyana closed Soldaten Kaffee for some time, and his lawyer said that when it reopened there would be a broader theme with no swastikas. However, when the Nazi-themed cafe reopened Saturday, there were still posters and iron eagles around the establishment with swastikas. There were, however, some images of Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill in the cafe as well. Some cafe customers arrived in military outfits that had swastikas on them.
The owner says that everything about the cafe is legal, and his customers see nothing wrong with the theme “because it is seen here from a historical perspective.” Soldaten Kaffee had actually been open for three years before the media started spreading the word about it in 2013.
The Independent notes that the Nazi-themed cafe is named after an establishment in Paris during World War II and that was popular with the German soldiers. The Bandung cafe’s owners, according to a spokesman, are interested in military history and are not trying to glorify Hitler or the Nazi movement. Just before the reopening, the spokesman held a press conference and pointed out that there are now uniforms from various allied forces. Interestingly, the press conference was held under one of the iron eagles with a swastika.
The Nazi-themed cafe was originally shut down in July 2013 after tourism chiefs recommended that Mulyana change the theme and name amid fears of inciting problems in the tourist town. Those who visit the cafe’s Facebook page may see that the owners claim the posts are “just for fun, NO political issues. NO glorification,” but the tone of the page seems to hint otherwise, many feel.
In Europe, a number of countries have made it criminal to promote the Nazi ideology or denial of the Holocaust. Numerous Jewish organizations spoke out against the Indonesian cafe the first time around, but there is a very small Jewish population in that area. Will the owner of Soldaten Kaffee run into intense criticism and attention once again now that the Nazi-themed cafe reopened? Word is spreading, so it seems likely.
[Image via RawStory]
