Representing Jewish Communities in 100 Countries Across Six Continents
Representing Jewish Communities in 100 Countries Across Six Continents
16 June 2010
Plans by filmmakers in India to make a film on Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler that will claim that the despot loved India and that he indirectly contributed to its independence have outraged members of the Jewish community. "I am a proud Indian and assert my Indian identity everywhere I go in Israel. I tell fellow Israelis that in my birthplace there was no anti-Semitism. However, I am having to bow my head in shame at this recent ignorance shown by Bollywood, which is also very dear to us," Noah Massil, president of the Central Organization of Indian Jews in Israel (COIJI), was quoted in the media as saying.
"All I know is that Hitler never supported India's independence. I will write to President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene in order to prevent bringing disrepute to our entertainment industry," said Massil. He was born in India but later migrated to Israel.
The film 'Dear Friend Hitler' is due to be released at the end of the year. Its director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar has claimed it will show “Hitler's love for India and how he indirectly contributed to Indian independence.”
Some Israelis also expressed dismay at the decision by veteran actor Anupam Kherto (above, on the right) to star in the role of Hitler in the film. The film is said to look at Hitler's personality, including his relationship with Eva Braun, to be played by Bollywood actress Neha Dhupia (pictured above left). It is said to closely resemble the 2004 German film 'The Downfall', which also enacted Hitler’s last days in his Berlin bunker in April 1945.
The film's title is a reference to the two letters written by Mahatma Gandhi to Hitler before World War II broke out in which he referred the Nazi dictator as "my dear friend", before pleading that he avoid starting a war.
Bollywood - India's film industry - has recently moved into more realistic, hard-hitting subjects such as terrorism, internet privacy and physical disability, but with limited success.
In 2006, a Nazi-themed restaurant called 'Hitler's Cross' opened in Mumbai, but was soon closed after protests by Jews in India and abroad.
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A JEW has no right to intefere because this is India n we have a right to glorify Hitler,Mussolini, Bose or Gandhi by means of movie and mass media. A JEW IS A JEW NOT INDIAN OR GERMAN . Bad manneers.
This is a extremely dangerous situation. How can such Pro Nazi Bull be tolerated by any person with clear thinking. He would of gotten around to killing there beige skin. Or enslaved them as he planned for the slavs. Wake up.
A FRIEND INDEED !!
The Jews of Indian origin in Israel lately have lodged a strong protest against the film director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar’s grandiose plan of producing the film - hold your breath !titled -‘Dear Friend Hitler !! The lead role was to be played by none other than Anupam Kher, who has also played the role of Gandhi in an earlier film. Some belated sense has now prevailed upon him and he has pulled out of this ‘hallowed’ role The Director whose debut historical film of a Western political leader, the first of its kind in India, purports to portray Hitler as a “dear friend” of India whose ‘contribution’ to the Indian freedom struggle is to be shown on celluloid !I am flummoxed ! Should I laugh or cry, wail or only flail my arms in despair. My humble knowledge of Indian history and World War II history, especially of Nazi history, have not revealed such a grotesque a piece of misinformation i.e. the Nazis and their love for India and their efforts towards our liberation from the shackles of British colonialism. Netaji did indeed meet Hitler many times but the Fuhrer embroiled in Russia and Europe was least interested in supporting the INA and Indian struggle for independence in material terms. Netaji hence turned towards Japan. The Free Indian Legion units raised in Berlin were used by the Germans in Europe for non combatant duties in Europe !!. To set the records let me present a few facts. Firstly, The grand plan of the Axis was for Japan to sweep down from the East and the Nazis to sweep down from the North, post conquest of the USSR and carve up India a la Poland in 1939. Secondly, may I suggest Shri Ranjan to buy copy of the “Mein Kampf” (also available in Hindi) and read our “dear friend’s” opinion of our race !, his opinion of Gandhi voiced later and his putrid comments on our martial prowess in comparison to his racial theory. Has Shri Ranjan heard of a phrase “our dear friend” used for us – “Untermenschen ! (A German - English dictionary would be of help).As for Fraulien Eva , she was a nondescript figure in the court of Hitler. A bimbo in modern terms and a “field mattress” in those times of war. Hence I fail to perceive the reported excitement generated in the actor playing her role. Seems she is reading all that’s written of our friend’s paramour. Neither did Eva write nor any tomes written of this social climber. So let’s see hold our breath and wait whether our ‘desi’ Eva will follow Shri Kher’s footsteps? Who is the next ‘heir’ for this unenviable role ? The title of the movie is reportedly taken from the two letters by Gandhi to Hitler who address him as “Dear Friend Hitler”, However this polite language used by the Father of the nation was to appeal for peace and begging the dictator to find a peaceful resolution to the European situation. Did Hitler reply? Well, even if did (he did not !) would he have signed off as - “ Your friend indeed and in deed .. your pen pal Adolf!!!. Obviously the fact that Hitler did not send the Wehrmacht or the SS legions to learn “satyagraha” or “ahimsa” at the Gandhi Ashram, proves that he had no friendly intentions . Soon his deeds would appear in the smoke and stench of his concentration camps. I hear that the film also in true “B” wood style is also interspersed with Hitler’s love for dear Eva. I suggest a scene of Hitler prancing (Shammi Kapoor style) with Eva among the pine trees in one of our hill stations, which probably depict Bavaria, while a remix version of “Parbaton ke pedon par…… echoes in the background. I doubt if the Germans would like this parody to be filmed in Germany. I love ‘B’ movies and my fertile imagination also suggest Shri Ranjan to include a scene of Hitler in brown khadi waving the tricolor at Connaught Place, shouting hoarsely ‘Quit India” (This friendly request of course would be applicable for the British and Indians too !!) and end with a grande finale of a dance led by “ the friendly couple” to the music of “Jai Ho”!! In fact I suggest in the next Independence Day parade could we should have a few retired Nazis extolling their contributions of ‘our friend’ towards our ‘Poorna Swaraj’ from the ramparts of the Red Fort. While the spirits and hearts of our freedom fighters dead and living, souls of the victims of Nazism and the Holocaust and hearts of the survivors, will writhe in object horror at this venture, the ghosts of the likes of Hitler will “heil” future Shri Ranjan , who are bound to follow his pioneering venture and have releases like – “Saint Pol Pot”. “Stalin the Crusader”, “Dyer - friend of Punjab”, “Amin the Vegetarian”, “Baba Osama” , “Kasab the Sharpshooter”, “Warren Anderson – Gas King of Bhopal” etc etc.. A host of ‘B’- Wood wannabes and aspirants world be ready to perform these “friendly” roles ! We have a plethora of pathetic clones and parties resembling such nausea generating historical aberrations in India too, who are living and thriving in a fertile democracy, who can contribute their acting skills and followers for such ventures! A choral song by the mischievous trio in Mumbai in a future ‘friendly’ movie belting out their love for the ‘bhaiyas’ in a song like say –“ Bhaiya – Bhai Bhai”,( or is it Bhaiya ,Bye ,Bye ?) would be in order. The banality of evil embodied in “our dear friend” is of such gargantuan proportions that the Land of his birth (Austria) and his rule (Germany) have erased away traces of his works life and memory. The film will be the ultimate insult to the nearly 40 million who perished due to the “friendly nature’ of this monster in the period 1929 to 1945. I wonder how many of the Indians know the darkest side of Hitler’s rule and its effects on the world. Many a denizen of the educated and illiterate mass only knows ‘our friend’ to be one who from humble origins launched a World War and nearly succeeded. When our own history books of today contain a mass of deceit, lies and obfuscation, can we hope for any enlightenment? Where have the intelligentsia of our nation gone ? For any other such issues a storm is raised by them in media and public. Have they gone into a trance? What about our political leaders ? Especially those who of a party which has ‘patented’ our Independence struggle as it’s own? And the ‘Left’ who claims to have always combated fascist forces seems to have ‘left’out this issue. Oh ! not to forget our religious leaders who churn out ther daily ‘fatwas’,or busy being caught in the wrong positions on TV. The Catholic Church , a few years ago went ballistic over the ‘Da Vinci Code’!. Guess is it busy now with a crisis of it’s own over a few truant priests.
My dear citizens of the world this film must not see the light a day. The scissor of the censor and your sense should snip this misbegotten film through and through. Well , our Censor Board’s acumen is suspect as obviously this ‘friendly’ film will not have any steamy Hitler-Eva scenes or any depictions of the ‘eco friendly concentration camps’- after all its the story of a ‘friendly” man who loved his siesta, strudels, dogs and Eva ! oh ! lest I forget his love pangs for pre 1947 oppressed Indians, and his ‘contributions’ to our freedom struggle ! Jago India Jago !
Joe Purakel
Only human patient and the unbalanced and bad like Hitler and the Arabs and Muslims as well as
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