[Leica] Leicas with Swastikas

[dnygr at cshore.com (Douglas Nygren)]

Jayqanand,

Context is everything. A German camera with a Swastika means it came 
from the Nazi era. If a person walks around with it or displays it in 
his or her house, other people will have thoughts about it and the 
person who brandishes it.

As you note, to a Hindu, the symbol of the Swastika might have a 
different meaning. But this discussion is not about Hindus and their 
symbols. It is about German cameras with Nazi Swastikas. The discussion 
is not about all cameras built in Germany during WWII or thereafter 
either. The discussion is also not about Leica's behavior towards its 
Jewish employees. Those are topics for another thread as is your 
observations about China and international corporations. Let's not 
diffuse the focus of this thread.

This discussion is about Leicas with Swastikas. To widen the topic to 
something else waters down the point of this thread, namely, that to 
own one of these cameras, to display it, or to use it invites a 
negative reaction. I can understand that someone might want to have one 
so that he or she will have one of every type of Leica ever made. That 
however would not change my opinion that to possess one is to display 
bad taste or worse.

The only instance I can see where the camera would be okay would be in 
the context of coming to terms with The Third Reich. I could see the 
camera in a museum noting how deeply the Nazis permeated the culture, 
how the Nazis tainted everything they touched.

The Nazis showed where racism leads and their use of the Swastika is 
associated with that and more. They gave racism a richly deserved bad 
name. To possess its symbol is to have a mark of evil. Who would want 
that!!!

Douglas




> Douglas,
> I am sure that an ordinary Hindu would not mind carrying a camera
> with a
> swastika at all - in all probability, he will be totally ignorant of
> the
> Nazi connection. There are a lot of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains in the
> world!
>
> Its all a question of the winners who write history and influence the
> thinking of the succeeding generations - the 'good' guys and the
> 'bad' guys
> is only your point of view, it is seldom very clear cut, except to a
> propaganda machine. Mao killed a lot more of his citizens than
> Hitler did,
> but none of us think twice about buying Chinese made goods,
> essentially made
> under the same regime. Don't you have the same revulsion when you
> walk into
> Wal Mart?
>
> Multinational firms have traditionally been remarkably free of ethical
> considerations relative to the boss' bonus, i.e. the bottom line. A
> lot of
> the consumer items you buy have been made in Gulag like working
> conditions
> all over the world. There are companies who have marketed infant
> food in
> Asia & Africa that had been banned in Europe and the USA. Food
> grains are
> destroyed and burnt to keep prices up for farmers, rather than send
> it free
> to the hungry all over the world.  Is that not revolting? Will you
> boycott
> such companies/regimes? Or just pay lip service?
>
> Cheers
> Jayanand