Western use of the swastika in the early 20th century

Common card · No. 268642

The swastika (Sanskrit: स्वस्तिक) is an ancient symbol used by many cultures and religions in Eurasia that generally takes the shape of an equilateral cross with four legs, each bent at 90 degrees in either right-facing (卐) form or left-facing (卍) form. For millennia, it has been considered a sacred and auspicious symbol in the Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Depictions of this shape date back at least 11,000 years. In the Western world, the symbol (also called gammadion or fylfot) became a popular sign of luck in the early 20th century—as it had long been in the Eastern world—and was often used for ornamentation. However, after it was adopted by the Nazi Party in the 1920s and subsequently displayed across Germany and German-occupied Europe before and during World War II, the symbol's usage outside of Nazism and neo-Nazism faded. Many Western countries and some non-Western countries have since banned the swastika through legislation targeting Nazi symbols for...

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