Can Europe Accept the Swastika as a Symbol of Good Fortune?

The Swastika is well known as a Nazi symbol amongst Europeans who call it the hakenkreuz
(Black 2014) or the ideogram of evil (Cox 2013). Some of them are not even aware of what
the proper name is. However, there is another meaning for this powerful symbol that is not
that common. It is a Hindu definition and signifies well-being (ReligionFacts 2015). Could
drawing a swastika on a wall become a sign of something good instead of violence and
brutality? Jean Amery stated (cited in Bennett 1999, p ix): The Swastika became the
universal symbol of what is humanly and historically intolerable. It is probable that
Europeans will not stop experiencing negative emotions about the symbol when it is spotted,
because they know what it might signify. Unfortunately, Hitler hijacked the Swastika
(Campion 2014). It started with an archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann who discovered the
symbol in ancient Troy and thought of it as an emblem of remote German ancestors (The
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2016). Due to this act the symbol became a sign
of fear and suppression for many people (The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
2016). This essay will discuss whether society can recognize the good Swastika from the
bad one, if they still use it and if Europe can accept it as a symbol of good fortune.
Symbols have always been very important for humans. Rodin claimed that (cited in Nozedar
2008) Man never invented anything new, only discovered things. That means that every
symbol in the world was inspired by nature in some way. Therefore, it is not surprising that
the Swastika has a long history.
Nozedar (2008) declares that the symbol has its origins in Neolithic times. The United
Holocaust Memorial Museum (2016) agrees with this statement claiming that the Swastika
was used at least 5,000 years before Adolf Hitler. Campion (2014) grants that the symbol
goes back thousands of years and Rosenberg also said: The swastika is an ancient symbol
that has been used for over 3,000 years. Black (2014) noted: One of the earliest cultures
that are known to have used the Swastika was a Neolithic culture in Southern Europe, in the
area that is now Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The symbol appeared in many cultures, throughout India and Northern Europe to Central
America and East Asia (Nozedar 2008). Campion (2014) points out that one of an enormous
number of exponents in the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kiev is a small
ivory figurine of a female bird (found in 1908) which has a pattern of joined swastikas on its
chest. It's the oldest identified Swastika pattern in the world and has been radio carbondated to an astonishing 15,000 years ago, said Campion (2014). This claim confirms Black
(2014) who stated that The earliest Swastika ever found was uncovered in Mezine, Ukraine,
carved on an ivory figurine.
The name Swastika comes from Sanskrit, Indian language (Rosenberg 2016), directly from
a word svasti. Campion (2014), (Nozedar 2008) and United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum (2016) argues that it literally means well-being, sv is well and asti define is
or being. It is also translated as good fortune, luck, and a good existence (Black 2014). P.
R. Sarkar (cited in Black 2014), Sanskrit scholar, said that The deeper meaning of the word
is permanent victory. He declared: As any symbol it can have positive and negative

meaning depending on how it is drawn. The Holocaust Teacher Resource Center (2016)
explained the meaning between right-handed and left-handed swastika and their Hindu
interpretation. The good Hindu gods Vishnu and the god of sun, Surya, are often displayed as
the right-handed Swastika. The left-handed one (called Sauvastika) frequently represents the
terrifying goddess Kali and night and magic. However, Kali is not considered to be a goddess
of evil.
Rosenberg (2016) highlights In the Western world the Swastika is synonymous with
fascism, but it has been used as a symbol of good fortune in almost every culture in the
world. It proves the fact that the symbol can still be found in abundance temples, cover of
books, Celtic artefacts, etc. (Black 2014). The Swastika was used by the Ancient Greeks for
decorating their pottery and architecture components (Campion 2014). Furthermore,
Pythagoras used the symbol under the name Tetractys and it was supposed to link heaven
and Earth. The Christian catacombs in Rome have drawn a swastika on the wall with sign
zotiko zotiko, which means life of life (Black 2014). Moreover, the symbol can be found
in the remains of the ancient city of Troy (Campion 2014) which brings us back to Heinrich
Schliemann.
A German businessman, traveller, and archaeologist, who spoke several languages and
excavated the city of Troy, Mycenae, and Tiryns, is Heinrich Schliemann (Daniel 2016).
While investigating the ruins of Troy, Schliemann discovered a symbol of hooked cross. He
connected it with similar shapes found on pottery in Germany and concluded that it was a
religious emblem of their distant ancestors (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
2016). After that, the Swastika turned into a familiar symbol of good fortune in Europe and
abroad (Soniak 2014).
Gradually, the emblem developed into a very popular symbol to use. The Swastika appeared
on Coca-Cola advertisements, Carlsberg beer bottles, Windsor hockey team dresses and
American army shoulder patches. It was used as a symbol of the British Boy Scouts in 1911
(Crystal 2015). In addition, the emblem was adopted by smaller groups of individuals for
different reasons as well (Soniak 2014).
Furthermore, the Swastika was printed in the centre of new bank notes in 1917 by The
Russian Provisional Government. This might have been one of the reasond why Nazis used
the Swastika as their emblem, because Alfred Rosenberg (one of the firsts in the Nazi party)
was in Russia at this time (Crystal 2015).
Later, Germans noticed some similarities between their own language and Sanskrit and they
concluded that Indians and Germans must have had a shared ancestry and imagined a race of
white god-like warriors (Campion 2014). The Nazis proclaimed that Aryans of India were
white invaders and the Swastika means racial purity and superiority (ReligionFacts 2015).
The symbol turned into a link to the Aryan master race and it soon became associated with
the idea of a racially pure state, explains Holocaust Memorial Museum (cited in Soniak
2014). In Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler wrote (cited in United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum 2016) I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form;
a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. After long
trials I also founds a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white
disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the Swastika.

He explained that the red colour means the social idea of the movement, nationalistic idea
was represented by the colour of white. The Swastika means the mission of the struggle for
the victory of the Aryan man and the victory of the idea of creative work, which Hitler claims
to be always anti-Semitic. (Mein Kampf pg. 496-497 cited in Rosenberg 2016).
The Swastika became the official emblem of the Nazi Party in 1920 at the Salzburg Congress
(Rosenberg 2016). The emblem would become the most hated symbol of the 20th Century
(Campion 2014) and it would strike terror into Jews and others deemed enemies of Nazi
Germany (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2016).
"For the Jewish people the Swastika is a symbol of fear, of suppression, and of extermination.
It's a symbol that we will never ever be able to change," said 93-year-old Holocaust survivor
Freddie Knoller. "If they put the swastika on gravestones or synagogues, it puts a fear into us.
Surely it shouldn't happen again," (Campion 2014).
The Swastika was banned at the end of World War Two in Germany and the country
unsuccessfully tried to extend the ban across the European Union in 2007 (Campion 2014).
On the other hand, there are many people in the world who still think that the Swastika
should not be considered as a sign of evil but something good instead.
Peter Madsen, owner of a tattoo shop in Copenhagen, is one of the founders of the Learn to
Love the Swastika Day on 13 November, when tattoo artists around the world are offering
free swastikas, to raise awareness of the symbol's long multicultural past. "The swastika is a
symbol of love and Hitler abused it. We're not trying to reclaim the hakenkreuz. That would
be impossible. Nor is it something we want people to forget," he explained (cited in Campion
2014).

The Swastika has a long history and its meaning as a symbol of good fortune had lasted much
longer than the image of evil. It had been used in almost every country in the world and then,
due to one wrong explanation it has changed its whole meaning in Europe. There are people
in the world who would hate the Swastika until their death, on the other hand, there are
others, who see it as an innocent symbol which has been misused horribly and can be
considered as an emblem of good fortune again. That means that there are two possible ways
of development of the view on the Swastika and it is probably too soon to predict which way
it will go.

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