The Lying Stupidity Is So Deep On This One…
it hurts
Yevgeny Nikitin, 38, who was once in a heavy metal band and got the body art done as a youth, withdrew from the Bayreuth festival, which celebrates Richard Wagner’s work, after discussions with its organisers.
He was due to sing the lead role in The Flying Dutchman, the opening production, on Wednesday. The festival is particularly sensitive to Nazi associations because Wagner was an anti-Semite and his English daughter-in-law, Winifred Wagner, became friends with Adolf Hitler, who supported its performances under the Third Reich.
Mr Nikitin got the tattoos as a young man. He has a large swastika on the right side of his chest and on the left a “life rune”, a symbol used by the SS Lebensborn project, which supported “racially pure” Aryan women.
In a statement released by the festival, the bass baritone said: “I was not aware of the extent of the irritation and offence these signs and symbols would cause, particularly in Bayreuth given the context of the festival’s history. I had them done in my youth. It was a big mistake and I wish I’d never done it.
“It was not clear to me that the symbols that I have tattooed on my chest could have any connotations or even by used by Nazis and neo-Nazis,” the singer added in an email to the Sunday German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
I mean, gee, I’m sure there are just millions of Russians who don’t know that Swastikas were used by the Nazis.
Or there would be, if the Nazis hadn’t killed them.
Makes Ya Barf, People | Mr. Bingley | 
July 23, 2012 1:45 pm
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Let me see if I get this straight: A Russian singer has swastika tattoos. He doesn’t understand why this may be a problem at Bayreuth, the annual Wagner festival in Bavaria. Swastikas are illegal in Germany. Wagner was was a favorite of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was responsible for 9,000,000 military and 16,000,000 civilian Russian deaths. The Russians were killed by guys wearing — you guessed it! — swastikas.
Disingenuous? You bet.
Nazi symbols & anything remotely resembling anything WW2 german accoutrements were particularly offensive in the Soviet Union (where he spent his youth)
He cannot possibly have been unaware of the significance of the tattoos.
He knew what he was doing when he had them done.
Yep – what Steve said. If he didn’t know what a swastika was, living where he lived – he was VERY naive and sheltered…
despite what Mr. Bingley said “I mean, gee, I’m sure there are just millions of Russians who don’t know that Swastikas were used by the Nazis.
Or there would be, if the Nazis hadn’t killed them.”
I enjoyed the snark, but there were millions MORE relatives who survived and remembered. This idiot either was brought up by those who didn’t (probably the one pair in the entire region), or was making a statement he now regrets.
I really suspect the latter.
If Russian schools are like American schools I can see that he wouldn’t understand the historical associations of the swastika. I run into too many people of normal intelligence who are utterly clueless as to what happened in the world prior to their advent.
Not saying Nikitin isn’t being disingenuous but there are, unfortunately, alternative explanations.
Kathy, are you saying that someone might have gotten a tattoo and later…came to regret it?
Ummm. No, not saying. Just implying… lol.