The swastika gets its name from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning well-being and good fortune. The earliest known swastikas date from 2500 or 3000 B.C. in India and in Central Asia.
The swastika spread to the United States, too. Coca-Cola issued a swastika pendant. Carlsberg beer etched swastikas onto its bottles. During World War I, the American 45th Infantry division wore an orange swastika as a shoulder patch. At least one train line had swastikas on its cars. The Girls’ Club published a magazine called The Swastika. And until 1940 the Boy Scouts gave out a swastika badge.
The swastika came down as quickly as it ascended. In 1946 it was constitutionally banned from any public display in Germany. In the United States there has never been a law prohibiting the display of swastikas, but the aversion is still there.
The question now is, should the swastika be reclaimed from the Nazis or should it continue to represent their ‘’unspeakable crimes’’? Now the swastikas have crept back into sight in the Western world. In the 1960’s, for example, the swastika was a recurring motif in geometric abstract art and hard-edge painting, notably in an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum.
But the most concerted effort to redeem the swastika comes from Friends of the Swastika, a group formed in 1985 and based in the United States. The group, whose website promises that it ‘’has no connections to any racist propaganda’’ and no intention of denying the Holocaust, is led by an artist who claims to have 200 swastikas tattooed on his body. In order to ‘’detoxify’’ and ‘’resanctify’’ the swastika, the group sells T-shirts, stamps, postcards and ‘’other cool stuff’’ with swastikas. Their watchword is, ‘’To hell with Hitler!’’
Does it matter whether people use a swastika in ignorance, in hatred, or to rehabilitate it? No, Mr. Heller says: ‘’Nazi icons were strong enough to seduce a nation and still contain a graphic power that can be unleashed today.’’ The swastika defenders counter with the question: ‘’How can a symbol be guilty for the acts of a madman?’’
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley along with most of the leading presidential candidates has said this week that the Confederate flag should come down. Several major retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target, and EBay, are removing items featuring the flag from their shelves. In an unrelated but remarkably timed decision, the Supreme Court upheld Texas’ right to reject license plates emblazoned with the flag.
In Germany, though, the post-war question about the swastika is not over whether an old racist symbol should be displayed on government buildings or sold in major retailers, but whether it should be allowed in public at all. While some might like to see a similar zealousness applied to the suppression of the Confederate flag, the German case also provides an example of how such blanket bans can be counterproductive.
For one thing, the law hasn’t stopped the surreptitious use of the swastika and the Hitler salute by far-right groups. Its taboo status may even enhance its appeal, with the symbol of an authoritarian state ironically transformed into a symbol of rebellion against state authority.
Given America’s comparatively absolutist attitude toward free speech, it’s hard to imagine the Confederate flag being suppressed in a similar way (Bill Kristol’s dire warnings notwithstanding). It’s for the best that the flag is being taken off government buildings and off the shelves of major retailers, but anyone who really wants to make, sell, or display one will still be protected by the First Amendment—which is also for the best.
Germany Banned Its Ugly Historic Symbols Should we do that too?
From 1941 to 1945, Jews were systematically murdered in a genocide under the coordination of the SS, with directions from the highest leadership of the Nazi Party, and about two-thirds of the nine million Jews and non-Jewish victims, such as the Romani, Poles, members of other Slavic ethnic groups, and Aktion T4 patients who were killed because they were mentally and physically disabled, along with Soviet citizens and prisoners of war.