Here’s How the Nazis Stole the Swastika
Reducing this sacred symbol to one of hate is simply unfair and deeply hurts people of faith.
The problem is that if you think of Swastika, the first image that would pop up in your head would be Hitler. Or the German soldiers giving the Nazi salute. And that won’t be totally wrong because during World War II Nazi Germany adopted the Swastika as a symbol of their propaganda. It was displayed at Nazi rallies, was plastered on their uniforms, and was the symbol of the Nazi flag.
This relationship has traveled through time, and now, the Swastika is believed to be a symbol of hate and is avoided like the plague. Today it is commonly associated with neo-Nazis, white supremacy, and antisemitism in Europe and North America.
However, the Swastika was not always a symbol of hate. In fact, it was the opposite. T. K. Nakagaki, a New York-based Buddhist priest at an interfaith conference, said that he was shocked when he first heard that the Swastika was referred to as a ‘universal symbol of evil.’ He added,
“You cannot call it a symbol of evil or (deny) other facts that have existed for hundreds of years just because of Hitler.”
In his 2018 book, The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the…
