[quote]
“Today, you can pay to watch a video of Mel Brooks’s The Producers online,” he said. “But that movie has to be heavily redacted in Germany thanks to that country’s ban on depictions of swastikas, even in parodies.”[/quote]
That’s simply not true. The German law banning the swastika and other Nazi symbols has specific exceptions carved out for educational and artistic purposes, so books, TV shows, films, stage plays, etc. (which are not explicitly pro-Nazi propaganda) can show Nazi symbols in their historical context. (There’s also an exemption for traditional religious contexts, so Hindu and Buddhist temples can use swastikas.)
I just checked the German Amazon website, and The Producers is available (free if you’re Prime subscriber). You can even watch it dubbed into German (except for the musical numbers, which are still in English). All the swastikas are there.
