Nazi Celebration in Bangkok
September 26, 2007 by Louis
Filed under Funky Situations
Thewpaingarm School in Bangkok is just a funky place if reading the forums in any indication. In the forum thread, we got to read a little about the common problems that TEFL teachers everywhere complain about; unsupportive administration, low pay, bad students, etc. It was a run of the mill thread until the bomb dropped.
See Sports Day in Thailand is a little about sports, but more than that the school is divided into teams. These large teams take on a theme. Some might dress like cowboys, some might dress like ladyboys, some might dress like ??? You get the idea.
The bombshell was that the students had participated in a Nazi celebration complete with singing, dancing and a parade. I thought, yeah right. It ain’t true. That was until the pictures were posted and the truth got out there.
It’s a crazy, funky situation. Why the hell would any school let their students dress up like Nazis? I guess it goes to show how opening and welcoming of other cultural influences people in Thailand are ….and from the same people who supported the Axis in World War II.
I have attached a few pictures here but there are many more in the forum thread.
Update: 8/2008: The Simon Wiesenthal Center got involved shortly after the publicizing of these pictures and the school has supposedly apologized, but like many apologies, it seemed rather fake.
Facts on Wed, 26th Sep 2007 8:30 am
There are Nazi bars that have been in operation for many years throughout Asia. Here’s a site worth reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.....azi_chic
“Nazi chic in Asia
Uniforms and other imagery related to Nazi Germany have been on sale in east Asia, where some considered it cool. Hong Kong and Japan have all witnessed a growth in the casual wearing of SS uniforms, as well as increased interest in white power music (also known as Rock Against Communism. Sometimes in east Asia, Nazi uniforms are used as part of cosplay. In South Korea, an area generally isolated from Nazi cultural influences during the Nazi era, Time magazine observed in 2000 “an unthinking fascination with the icons and imagery of the Third Reich.”[4]
In some parts of the world, World War II is not taught in schools as a battle of political ideologies, but as a conventional war. This type of education means that Hitler and the Nazi Party are not treated as war criminals or evil, but merely as charismatic and powerful leaders of countries during wartime. Some east Asians are interested in what Adolf Hitler said about east Asian history and philosophy; the Nazi work ethic; as well as militaries that wore Hugo Boss uniforms and drove tanks made by Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.George Burdi, the former head of the neo-Nazi record label Resistance Records, claimed to have sold many CDs to Japan, because some Japanese believed themselves to be the white men of the east. In Turkey, Hitler’s book Mein Kampf is an annual bestseller.[5][6]
Western reaction to the Asian phenomenon has been one of sharp criticism and utter astonishment. Western diplomats, especially Germans and Israelis, have complained heavily, pointing out that Asians suffered under Japanese Militarism and occupation, and frequently compare them as an Asian version of Nazism in order to convey their discontent. German and Israel embassies in Asian countries have pressured local authorities to shut down Nazi-themed bars, but this has usually resulted in the bar re-opening with only a changed name and no real change in attitude.”
Check these out:
http://a740.g.akamai.net/f/740.....edwell.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/g.....517207844/
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WO.....orea.nazi/
http://www.8bm.com/diatribes/v.....36/728.htm
“In South Korea Nazi flags emblazoned with swastikas hang from the ceiling and photographs of Adolf Hitler adorn the walls, along with Nazi propaganda posters and military insignia. It is all part of the theme of a bar named “Jae3JaeGuk,” (pronounced J-sahm-J-cook), or The Third Reich, located in Shinchon, a busy commercial district in downtown Seoul.
There, young South Koreans frolic in dim light, sipping a rum cocktail named “Adolf Hitler” that is served by waiters and waitresses wearing mock black Nazi uniforms.”
Maybe these Thai kids are just trying to take after the Koreans. Everything Korean is so popular these days in Thailand.
Krungsri on Wed, 26th Sep 2007 8:03 pm
So long as the Nazi theme stays fixed in gloomy bars and costume shows and doesn’t become a popular ideology in Asia. Nazism was attractive to some Muslim leaders in Palestine before and during the War and appears to have some appeal to the Iranian leadership today. I can’t see Thais, however, taking the racial purity theme to anything like that level. Chauvinism and xenophobia, common enough in the world, don’t amount to extermination campaigns. The problem with the Thaewpaingarm event was that it happened in a school, where at least someone in Admin should have known better.
Guy Mandude on Wed, 26th Sep 2007 10:25 pm
“funky situation” is what your gym locker smells like after you’ve left some durian and your sweaty jock in there for a week.
Thewpaingarm belongs in the Hall of Shame for this despicable display. The pictures are not defensible on any level.
unknown on Thu, 27th Sep 2007 2:53 am
Why not stage a school-wide public reenactment of the Japanese rape of Nanking, or the Nazi extermination camps, or the Korean comfort women who were taken to be prostitutes for the Japanese soldiers?
Why not stage a reenactment of a king fornicating with his slavegirls in Krungthep?
retiredstillteaching on Fri, 28th Sep 2007 4:59 am
This has happened previously in this region of the world and, horribly, will happen again. It recurrs in Thailand from time to time. I think the last time was several years ago among bikers in Pattaya.
It does reflect an ignorance of history, of which all peoples are guilty to one extent or another. The ignorance includes the social and the cultural.
The ignorance or, at the least, insensitivity, exists among the educated and culturally sophisticated in Korea and Thailand, to identify only the two presently most notorious violators of the specific knowledge history provides in the matter of the WW2 Nazis.
I have taught social subjects and history in Thailand. At one school the history books came from Singapore, as there aren’t any suitable books (published and published at “affordable” cost) yet produced in in English in Thailand.
The Singapore texts did indeed treat WW2 as a conventional war. The texts ignored Nazi ideology and sybmols. Consequently, I myself had to provide to the learners that repugnant aspect, from my own learning experiences previous to my arrival in Thailand.
Korea and Thailand remain seriously impeded in their acquisition of the English language, which means its peoples, history and culture as well as the language per se. Sadly, I’ve seen that even Singapore, which is far more developed in its acquisition of the English language, produces an inferior quality of social science and history textbooks written in English.
In contrast, how often do we see these horrors in the Philippines, for example, where the English language and its culture are better known to the controlling elites?
David Driver on Fri, 28th Sep 2007 7:42 am
The sad thing is that this event wouldn’t even be newsworthy in this country. Sad uneducated Thais. A teacher recently showed a moved about the Holocaust to M5. The class was dead silent for the whole movie. Maybe a bit more deucation and sensitivity is called for..
Did many teachers leave this school? They are advertising for quite a few over on that other site.
Billnurks on Fri, 28th Sep 2007 8:21 am
It was 60 years ago. The evil that men do keeps recurring in every generation. No generation in the future will allow Nazism to rear its ugly head. It wont have to, there is always some “woodduck” around to put a new twist on it! The cretins that create this horrow never seem to comprehend that eventually they will have to pay…big time!!
David Driver on Sun, 30th Sep 2007 7:23 am
“by the way other teachers that were there with me were later deported from Thailand for not having a work permit and visa. The school did nothing to defend them”
Well that’s interesting. Working illegally for a school and the school remains untouched by the authorities??
No wonder they are looking for teachers..
exBell on Sun, 30th Sep 2007 12:58 pm
the thai school i worked at in sriracha had a similar thing a few years ago on their sports day…one of the several teams, the puprles, took a nazi theme which included not one but TWO huge posters, with a large picture of hitler replaced on day two buy a huge swastika. they also had a slogan which was something like (racking my memory hear, it was about 5 years ago) “purple - submit to the power”!!
when we farang teachers pointed out how inappropriate this was we were, in not so many words, told to stop making a fuss.
DIT!
One Stop Wine Shop on Tue, 2nd Oct 2007 1:25 am
This is truly atrocious, did they break out the wine and party decorations?
lisasensei on Fri, 5th Oct 2007 1:10 pm
Amazing Thailand eh? Or perhaps Unseen Thailand.
I’m doing a PhD on the state of inclusive education in Thailand (LMAO - I know!). This is definitely going into my thesis.
Leo M Anger on Sat, 6th Oct 2007 11:24 pm
This Nazi parade thing is totally disgusting. Why celebrate something like that?
Andreas on Sun, 14th Oct 2007 8:46 am
Thailand is always a special funky place for me. Many abnormal events and celebrations will be happen or celebrate there, so i guess this is one of them.
Poster Maniac on Tue, 16th Oct 2007 7:27 am
what kind of celebration is this. what ever la, as i know. thailand have many special and weird celebration every year…haha…i guess i prefer the “water season”…cant remember the name la…
cheeeeeep hai on Thu, 1st Nov 2007 12:23 am
the eng. coor. in the EFL dept is a good guy but most of the XXXX at that school is just too insane for any normal person
I have rarely seen checks in thailand except this school, they love em’. They love to fire n hire there too. If you get a job interview there…i would not show up. cheers n beers
homes on Mon, 10th Dec 2007 5:13 pm
This sounds pretty disgusting to me - The modern world can do wthout this garbage.
Don on Mon, 10th Dec 2007 5:21 pm
Thailand is indeed a very special place with so many genuinely friendly people. Its a real shame many has been so missguided so that they praise the Nazi values. The Thai government should make an effort in this case
Hmmm... on Fri, 22nd Aug 2008 2:50 pm
The Swastika(?) is actually a Buddhist symbol for peace or prosperity or something positive… so it could just be an unfortunate misunderstanding…
Jefita on Fri, 22nd Aug 2008 3:49 pm
No such luck. It was the Nazis that they wanted to be like.