Hitler and swastika

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The Oldest known Symbol.

• The swastika is an ancient symbol that has been
  used for over 3,000 years. (That even predates
  the ancient Egyptian symbol, the Ankh!) The
  symbol was believed to be introduced to Southeast
  Asia by the Hindu kings and remains an integral
  part of Balinese Hinduism to this day, and it is
  a common sight in Indonesia.
• In antiquity, the swastika was used extensively
  by the Indo-Aryans, Hittites, Celts and Greeks
  among others.

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Who were the Aryans ?

• One of the most interesting puzzles in
  archaeology, and one that hasn't been completely
  solved yet, concerns the story of the supposed
  Aryan invasion of the Indian subcontinent. The
  story goes like this The Aryans were a tribe of
  Indo-European-speaking, horse-riding nomads
  living in the arid steppes of Eurasia. Sometime
  around 1700 BC, the Aryans invaded the ancient
  urban civilizations of the Indus Valley, and
  destroyed that culture. The Indus Valley
  civilizations were far more civilized than any
  horse-back nomad, having had a written language,
  farming capabilities, and led a truly urban
  existence. Some 1,200 years after the supposed
  invasion, the descendants of the Aryans, so they
  say, wrote the classic Indian literature called
  the Vedic manuscripts.
• http//archaeology.about.com/od/indusriverciviliza
  tions/a/aryans.htm

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The Original Meaning

• The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit
  word svastik -
• su means good
• asti means to exist
• ik means what is in existence, and will
  continue to exist
• a denotes feminine gender.
• Swastika means a good existence that is
  not to be destroyed and that remains in a good
  condition.
• The deeper meaning is permanent victory. In
  Vedic-Hindu religion, this victory represents the
  victory of DHARMA which is the core of
  Humanity.

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Swastika in Hinduism

• The right turning Indian Swastika symbolizes the
  sun and positive energy, and is most commonly
  associated with the deity Ganesh, god of
  prosperity and Good Luck
• The name sauwastika is sometimes given for the
  supposedly "evil", left-facing, form of the
  swastika (?). A common belief is that the
  left-facing swastika is generally regarded as
  evil in Hindu tradition.

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Swastika in Buddhism

• Buddhists, outside of India, generally use the
  left-facing swastika over the right-facing
  swastika although both can be used.
• Commonly found on the chest and with the foot
  prints of Buddha .

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Swastika around the World

• During the following thousand years, the image of
  the swastika was used by many cultures around the
  world, including in China, Japan, India, and
  southern Europe. By the Middle Ages, the swastika
  was a well known, if not commonly used, symbol
  but was called by many different names
• China - wan
• England - fylfot
• Germany - Hakenkreuz
• Greece - tetraskelion and gammadion
• India - swastika

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• Though it is not known for exactly how long,
  Native Americans also have long used the symbol
  of the swastika.
• It has been found in excavations of
  Mississippian-era sites in the Ohio valley. It
  was widely used by many southwestern tribes, most
  notably the Navajo. Among different tribes the
  swastika carried various meanings. To the Hopi it
  represented the wandering Hopi clan to the
  Navajo it was one symbol for a whirling winds
  (tsil no'oli'), a sacred image representing a
  legend that was used in healing rituals (after
  learning of the Nazi mimic "whirling winds" the
  Navajo rejected the symbol)

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Swastika in Art and Architecture

• In Greco-Roman art and architecture, and in
  Romanesque and Gothic art in the west, isolated
  swastikas are relatively rare, and the swastika
  is more commonly found as a repeated element in a
  border or tessellation. A swastika border is one
  form of meander, and the individual swastikas in
  such border are sometimes called Greek Keys.

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Swastika on a Roman Mosaic
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Interlocking swastika design in pavement of
Amiens Cathedral.
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Greek helmet with swastika marks on the top part
(details), 350-325 BCE from Taranto, found at
Herculanum.
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Piece of a series of terracotta architectural
ornaments of the roof of the temple of Hera in
Paestum. 
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The elephant is one of four pillars at the
Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen. This one carries
a swastika on its side. vikings used the swastika
which represented the sunrise. 
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Iranian necklace excavated from Kaluraz, Guilan,
first millennium BC
Swastika from a Minoan piece of pottery,Crete
Swastika Stone on Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire,
England
Wooden Hand Cross from Ukraine
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Low-fired pottery bowl from the Banshan Culture
Majiawan Village, China Neolithic Period
(2165-1965 BCE)
medieval cross, Lalibela stone hewn church
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Swastika In the West

• In the Western world, the symbol experienced a
  resurgence following the archaeological work in
  the late nineteenth century of Heinrich
  Schliemann, who discovered the symbol in the site
  of ancient Troy and associated it with the
  ancient migrations of Proto-Indo-Europeans. He
  connected it with similar shapes found on ancient
  pots in Germany, and theorized that the swastika
  was a "significant religious symbol of our remote
  ancestors," linking Germanic, Greek, Indo-Aryan
  and Indo-Iranian cultures . By the early 20th
  century it was widely used worldwide and was
  regarded as a symbol of good luck and
  auspiciousness.

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Change in Meaning

• Nazism stated that the historical Aryans were the
  forefathers of modern Germans and then proposed
  that, because of this, the subjugation of the
  world by Germany was desirable, and even
  predestined. The swastika was used as a
  conveniently geometrical and eye-catching symbol
  to emphasize the so-called Aryan-German
  correspondence and instill racial pride. Since
  World War II, most Westerners know the swastika
  as solely a Nazi symbol, leading to incorrect
  assumptions about its pre-Nazi use in the West
  and confusion about its sacred religious and
  historical status in other cultures.
• (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika)

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Hitler and swastika

• In 1920,Adolf Hitler decided that Nazi party
  needed its own insignia and flag. For Hitler, the
  new flag had to be a symbol of our own
  struggle as well as highly effective as a
  poster.(Mein Kamph,pg 495)
• In Mein Kamph.Hitler described the Nazis flag."
  In red we see the social idea of movement, in
  white the nationalistic idea, in the Swastika the
  mission of the struggle for the victory of the
  Aryan man,and,by the same token, the victory of
  the idea of creative work, which as such always
  has been and always will be anti-semitic.(pg
  496-497)

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Good Luck Charm
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Swastika in Americas
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Original insignia of the 45th Infantry Division.
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A Chinese Art Piece
A Tomb from Indonesia
A Buddhist Temple in Korea
Entrance of Met Museum, New York
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Swastika on Flags
Flag of the President of Finland.
Nepal Communist flag
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Swastika in India
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Swastika in India
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Swastika in Canada
Edmontons Womens Hockey Team
Swastika Mine,Ontario,Canada
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An interesting article

• http//www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/18/hitler_san
  _diego
• http//maps.google.com/maps?qsandiegoll32.6765
  05,-117.157559spn0.004739,0.009917tkhlen
• Check this out.

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References

• http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlhttp//i1.t
  reklens.com/photos/6703/_dsc0302.jpgimgrefurlhtt
  p//www.treklens.com/gallery/Africa/Ethiopia/photo
  100071.htmh532w800sz145hlenstart74tbnid
  vUtRFGKWOia37Mtbnh95tbnw143prev/images3Fq
  3Dswastika26start3D7226ndsp3D1826svnum3D10
  26hl3Den26lr3D26client3Dfirefox-a26channel3
  Ds26rls3Dorg.mozillaen-USofficial26sa3DN
• http//history1900s.about.com/cs/swastika/a/swasti
  kahistory.htm
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
• http//www.luckymojo.com/swastika.html
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika,_Ontario