Does Soup Nazi Exploit?
Until recently, the word “Nazi” was spelled with a capital “N” and was inseparable from images of death camps, swastikas, and Adolph Hitler. Today, in situations other than those that must impart the strictest sense of the word, “nazi” is spelled with a lower case “n,” suggesting a decline in the terms importance and seriousness. Its meaning has also become more loosely associated with fanatical individuals. Many Jewish organizations, including the Canadian Jewish Congress, feel that watering down the term “Nazi” is dangerous. The primary concern is that once the word is no longer associated solely with its original meaning (compounded by the passage of time) the ghastly events of the Second World War will be stamped out of our collective memory, rendering their lessons impotent. Nancy Weston Ph.D. of St. Cloud State University echoes this concern when she says that the Holocaust is “exploited and desecrated by commercial representations” (retrieved 5 July 2000 from “How Can We Remembe
