Hitler resurfacing

A local restaurant is causing a huge stir in Mumbai. The problem stems from the owner’s choice of theme, namely Hitler. The restaurant, called Hitler’s Cross, is not only named after the former Nazi dictator, but it’s also decorated with him in mind:

Posters featuring a red swastika carved in the name of the eatery line the road leading up to the restaurant.

A huge portrait of a stern-looking Führer greets visitors at the door and the interior is done out in the Nazi colours of red, white and black. The restaurant also has a lounge for smoking the exotic Indian water pipe or “hookah.”

As if that weren’t weird enough, reports from the UK suggest that the “Hitler Beetle” is facing extinction because of its popularity among neo-Nazis.

The tiny, brown, eyeless beetle, Anophthalmus hitleri, was discovered in 1933 by Oscar Scheibel, a German amateur entomologist and ardent Hitler fan, and is found in only around 15 caves in central Slovenia. Initially shunned by entomologists as not being of any particular scientific interest, it has been sidelined by museums wary of exhibiting anything with such a close connection to Nazi Germany. Now though, the “Hitler beetle” is so sought-after by right-wing extremists that scientists are worried it could disappear altogether.

Not surprisingly, this is the only species of animal named after the Nazi dictator.

Neo-Nazi fears in Delmenhorst

The town of Delmenhorst in northern Germany is attempting the block the sale of a hotel amid neo-Nazi fears. The Wilhelm Tietjen Stiftung fuer Fertilisation Ltd. group has an offer on the building, and is reportedly interested in turning the hotel into a neo-Nazi convention center.

A website – www.fuer-delmenhorst.de – was set up in Delmenhorst earlier this week to raise the necessary funds.

By Thursday, 520,607 euros (£344,320) had been donated to buy the hotel and adjacent buildings.

Delmenhorst’s town spokesman Timo Frers told the BBC News website that the money was coming not only from local residents but also from across Germany and abroad.

“It was a crazy idea, but everybody thinks it might work. Everybody is optimistic,” he said.

An effort to raise enough money to counter the offer of the Tietjen Stiflung fuer Fertilisation group was proposed when the town realized that they were the only one who had an offer on the table.