[Leica] Leicas with Swastikas

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

I agree with you, totally. There is a difference between "I hate Nazi
artifacts with the swastika" and "I hate images of the swastika", and that
is all I wanted to point out and nothing else.
Cheers
Jayanand

On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 6:58 PM, Douglas Nygren <dnygr at cshore.com> wrote:

> 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
>>
>
>
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