It is not unusual walk through the huge markets of Bangkok and Chiang Mai and be face to face with the named Ronald McHitler, a popular hybrid of the Nazi leader and the McDonalds clown, printing thousands of shirts and other decorative objects.

The Nazi paraphernalia emerges between the army of souvenirs offered to the public interested in some stalls. Not only that: there are also boutiques, where they buy their twenties more "modern", which sell garments inspired by the symbols of the Third Reich.

Foreigners (especially Europeans and Americans) can not hide the horror or surprise that produces such a discovery. The Western press also puts his hands to his head from time to time.



A year ago the Internet circulated photos of a youth parade in which, against a backdrop of swastikas on the street, everyone was dressed in "stormtrooper" or the black uniform of the SS. Snapshots were seen around the world and left the astonished cyberspace.

The latest scandal was caused by a few weeks ago a series of photos with that Ronald McHitler protagonist.

The question is why. It is often said that the horrors of German National Socialism are relative, and that Hitler left a psychological scar in Asia comparable to that haunting Europe from end to end.

It has also been told it is not exclusively Asian phenomenon: in Europe the image of Hitler before anywhere else in the world, has been used on shirts and jackets for the sole purpose of causing consternation among the respectable citizens. The strongest evidence is the punk movement.

In addition, those seeking to explain the issue say that the West invented pop culture and fashion Nazi is just an expression of the same Asian-another joke in a world whose cultural hub is the irony.

In Europe, every summer, sold thousands of shirts with the hammer and sickle on a red background, or the smiling face of Joseph Stalin. Mao Tse Tung is also a joy pop between Western youth unconscious.

Stalin and Mao, unlike Hitler, are synonymous with absolute evil, and therefore taboo in many countries outside Europe.

On the other hand, inclined anthropological observers emphasize the antiquity of the Swastika, a religious symbol spread in Asia for millennia.

But this is an explanation that relativism only adds to an issue that already is relative. Thai youth (and other countries like Japan, where Nazism is also "chic") unknown to Hitler, or not think about it rather than aesthetic relic of the past.

In Europe it is hard to forget Hitler, but not because people remember the horrors of war, but because the theme is always a "best seller", and certainly nothing about what has been written over in history.

It is clear that the goals of fashion Nazi in Thailand are purely ornamental and are devoid of ideological content. The swastika, for many people, is a symbol of style as any.

Finally, the press tends to ignore a fact to be shocked: Although sold in Thai markets in broad daylight, it is easy to see people wearing shirts of the Fuhrer. It is simply a marginal fashion. So much so that it would be difficult to call it "fashion."

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