Video: 10 photographs of the place of the swastika in European society before Hitler took it over
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Today, in the overwhelming majority of countries of the world, the swastika is a symbol of fascism, and few remember that in various cultures for thousands of years it was considered a sign that brings good luck. In our review, there are photographs confirming that the swastika had nothing to do with the Nazis for a long time.
The homeland of the swastika, according to most researchers, is India, where in Sanskrit, the ancient Indian literary language, the word "swasti" means a wish for good luck and prosperity. This symbol has been used for thousands of years by Buddhists and Hindus.
Once in Asia, the Europeans borrowed the swastika and began to actively use it at home. Before Hitler came to power, the swastika was very popular in architecture, in advertising and not only. So, the swastika was applied to bottles of Carlsberg beer and Coca-Cola.
The swastika was actively used as logos by other companies as well.
The image of the "wheel of life" was used by boy scouts, sports teams, and the Young Girls' Club in the United States published the Swastika magazine and handed out swastika badges as gifts to the readers of this magazine.
No one was even embarrassed by the swastika on children's carnival costumes.
During the First World War, the swastika was used by US military units, and on the wings of some aircraft of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain the swastika sign could be seen until 1939.
But that's not all. Archaeological finds confirm that the swastika was used in ancient times throughout Eastern Europe - from the Balkans to the Baltic. The most famous ancient ornament depicting a swastika is kept in the State Historical Museum in Kiev. There is also a figurine of a bird carved from the bone of a mammoth found near the village of Mizin in the Chernigov region of Ukraine in 1908, which is decorated with a pattern of intertwining swastikas. Scientists managed to establish that the bird was carved about 15 thousand years ago.
Among the exhibits of the Kiev museum are clay pots with a swastika. The age of these exhibits is about 4 thousand years.
The Nazis appropriated the swastika for a reason. The term "Aryans" was coined in the 19th century by the French sociologist and writer Joseph Gobineau in his study "A Study of the Inequality of Human Races." By his definition, blue-eyed and fair-haired represented the white race - the highest stage of human development. When German scholars translated the Sanskrit texts in the second half of the 19th century, they came to the conclusion that they, the Germans, were the godlike race of warriors.
During the Third Reich, the swastika became a symbol of oppression, destruction and fear, and after the end of World War II in Germany it became a prohibited symbol.
There are people in the world today who hope that the revival of the swastika as a positive symbol is possible. One such person is Peter Madsen, the owner of a tattoo parlor in Copenhagen. He initiated the action "Learn to love the swastika", which took place last year. As part of the action, tattoo artists offered everyone to put three swastikas on their bodies free of charge, as a symbol of the glorious ancient past. "" says Madsen.
Many can tell about the first days of the war archival photographs of the first days of the Great Patriotic War and soldiers of the fascist army.
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