Some brilliant man of proud ignorance has opened a restaurant in Mumbai, India, called Hitler's Cross.

The owner insisted then — and still does — that the name and theme of his new eatery is only meant to attract attention, even if it has outraged Bombay's Jewish community.

"It's really made people very upset that a person responsible for the massacre of 6 million Jews can be glorified," Elijah Jacob, one of the community's leaders, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

But owner Puneet Sablok has refused to back down, and apart from Bombay's 4,500 Jews, there's been little controversy in India, where Holocaust awareness is limited, Hitler is regarded as just another historical figure and swastikas are an ancient Hindu symbol, displayed all over to bring luck. There are just 5,500 Jews in all of India.

"It's just to attract people. There is no intention to hurt anyone," said Sablok about his spacious restaurant, which serves pastries, pizza and salad in Navi Mumbai, a northern suburb of Bombay, which is also known as Mumbai.

I wonder if people go there seeking the final solution for hunger. Have some Star of David Curry, followed by a cup of coffee with Xyklon B? Or perhaps there's a buffet where they can get large helpings of Moscow Masala? With a side of Nan mehr Intellektual? (Millions more than the six-million Jews died in the Holocaust, and many millions more died in Hitler's wars.)

Here's the great irony:

But while India is ordinarily sensitive to causing religious offense — recently taking action to bar "The Da Vinci Code" movie and cartoon drawings of the prophet Muhammad — at least one local leader said the name Hitler didn't bother him.

Sensitivity indeed.

Update: Thanks to bruno below, who links to http://www.hitlerscross.com/, and to Nancy, who mentions that the Gypsies were one of the many ethnic and demographic groups that were systematically murdered by Hitler's death camps.

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