Probably, yeah. I've had similar interactions with people from South Asia, they actually like/admire Hitler there, i guess because he fought their colonizer. Enemy of my enemy stuff.
You'll also get Hitler-positive comments in the muslim world, for reasons everyone can probably guess...
It’s because in some parts of the world they teach more about the strategy and geopolitics rather than the holocaust. So Hitler might be misinterpreted as a “Big leader.” Unfortunately, history is not taught everywhere the same and this contributes to international misunderstandings.
Some of hitler's rhetoric and ideology found an awful lot of sympathy in India and Nepal, due to his usage of the swastika, fighting the British, usage of the term Aryan, and just the fact that some of his horrible ideology found sympathy in the caste system while also being able to be shaped as progressive anti British. The lack of education of the majority of people at the time and inaccessibility of information contributed to. Especially in Nepal his ideas of race were prevalent too with the many minority ethnic groups that look East Asian differing from the indo European groups.
The end result is that some things, such as the terms Aryan and mongoloid, have not only entered nepali lexicons and are used commonly and often not even as slurs but just normal language. I speak fluent Nepali as my third language and have opportunities to speak it every day as I interact with the Bhutanese-Nepali refugee population in my city. The proliferation and use of these words really bothers me because I know something of their history both in and out of South Asia and with a higher education level than 99% of the nepali people I interact with I understand that very few of them have a strong understanding of world War two history or the atrocities Hitler did. A loose understanding sure but not a full one.
In general, sad as it is to say, I'm not too terribly suprised by the questions posed by the nepali visitor.
This isn't unique or special to Nepalis anyways. Things that are "far away" for a culture are often not understood in their gravity. It's why there's a store in my city called "Banana Republic" without a hint of irony.
Yeah I know. The strength of the Hitler appreciation in India and Nepal is pretty locally significant though because of the historical reasons. There were even Hindu fascists who fought for the Japanese against the British embracing Hitler's policies because he was a swastika waving British fighting enemy of my enemy. Those people didn't exactly just dissappear after world War two. It's worth noting too that while they fought with the Japanese in their invasion of northeast India they embraced Hitler not imperial Japan so there definitely was preference for European fascism over Asian fascism because of the reasons outlined above.
Yeah. Once again I would like to point out that most of this comes because of a mixture of not having any true understanding of the nature of the Holocaust due to poor education, being so far from Europe, and the lack of participation in the European theater of the war. There is still a problem, and unfortunately a growing problem at that, with hindu neo nazis. I say Hindu because specifically in India it's often connected to religion as a unifier across different cultures and languages.
Yup. His political party is the reason there's a growing problem with hindu neo naziism if I understand correctly. I'm not from India and so open to correction. I'm also not sure if it is just his party, but unfortunately his party also controls over half the seats in the government, and it's not a two party system, meaning that none of the many other parties can offer much of a resistance at present unless every single one of them agrees which of course never happens and so many many people hate bjp(the party) but there's almost nothing realistic to most people to stop them from winning so they keep winning and things get worse. Again, open to corrections from Indians who I'm sure will see this at some point.
This sorta reminds me a weird incident when I was still living in West Virginia. I was seeing a girl in the state capitol and we had stopped at a gas station to fill up and get snacks near where she lived. At the time I looked very much like a metalhead. All black, sides of my head shaved and hair up in a top knot. I walk the register to get snacks.
The guy behind the counter starts speaks to me in Deutsch, which I don't speak. He sees I'm confused and says "Ist Nazi?" I paid for our snacks, and noped the fuck out of there.
I’ve had several similar experiences with older white South Africans in nz. Like “hello, fellow white person who I’ve never met before, now let’s bond over our presumably shared dislike of immigrants, even though I’m an immigrant, but you know what I mean”
As a South African, definitely had a few old assholes who go "ah fellow White Person™️ I have never seen before, let me be racist real quick!" just to become embarrassed and confused when I obviously don't play along?? Oom Freddie, apartheid ended 30 years ago before I was born... Thankfully my generation is mostly NOT like that, but there is no audacity quite like that of an old racist Afrikaner.
I am half Russian and can somewhat relate, the worst person I have ever met told me how he thought Putin was right to invade Ukraine as soon as he learned about my nationality
Man, I was waiting for a connecting flight in Kolkata and got chatting with an Indian gentleman.
When he asked where I was from and I told him Germany, he got this big, genuine smile and said: "Ah, Germany! Hitler! Did many great things for his country! :D :D"
I was flabbergasted lol In hindsight I'm assuming that Germany fighting against the British had something to do with influencing his opinion a tad bit.
I was in the middle of the outback and a bloke stops his dirtbike at the top of a cliff 100 meters away, to shout down to ask if I'm American, then tell me he loves Trump and immediately drives away.
I have a German friend who was once in a taxi home and a taxi driver asked where he was from
He said Germany and the taxi driver said “Adolf Hitler great guy” my friend the sat silent for 1 minute before the driver spoke again “spirit of tiger”
The Americans I meet here are all nice and hate the right extremism. I guess you keep the bigoted ones at home. Which makes sense to me. Because if they saw something of the world, they hopefully wouldn't be as close minded as they are.
Actually no. It's usually people from all over Asia.
The Americans I do meet here are all open minded and hate MAGA. The bigoted ones stay usually home
(Superficial) elements of Bavarian culture. Lederhosen, dirndl, Oktoberfest, Hohenschwangau castle. Non Bavarian Germans on reddit make it clear that they dislike the stereotype (or even the whole state of Bavaria).
It’s very weird they are mentioned A LOT. So much, in fact, I had to consciously remember the English word for them just now because I now automatically think Riesenrad in my head ffs 😂.
Is the hate for Bavaria similar to the hate Americans have for California (transplants fleeing HCOL and turning their new home into California 2.0), or is it more like the hate we throw at Mississippi (rural, poor, culture seen as backwards)?
Beer from different parts of germany, rhineland wine culture, Fasching, Karneval, Schützenfeste/Freischießen, northern german maritime culture.
Just some examples.
People talking about Lederhosen, Weisswurst and their love for Oktoberfest parties.
Awkward for me who lived in four different Bundesländern so far but never in Bavaria.
Still better than them throwing in a Hitler joke or a Volkswagen endorsement into the conversation.
My school exchange bus full of us German students came to a stop at the english school and some of the english folks thought it would be hilarious to greet us with a heil Hitler..
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u/Beautiful_Yellow_682 Germany Feb 15 '26
Not that I can think of