The Swastika's Original Meaning

The Swastika has been very misconstrued from it's original meaning by the Nazi regime.
The symbols original meaning was that of good fortune or well being, but now people can only think of hatred and racism when they see the symbol. This is what I found from (Museum) The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit svastika, which means "Good fortune" or "Well-being". The motif appears to have first been used in Neolithic Eurasia, perhaps representing the movement of the sun through the sky.
To this day it is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Odinism.
Swastikas also have an ancient history in Europe, appearing on artifacts from pre-Christian
European cultures. The symbol experienced a resurgence in the late nineteenth century, following …show more content…
A potent symbol intended to elicit pride among Aryans, the swastika also struck terror into Jews and others deemed enemies of Nazi Germany. Despite its origins, the swastika has become so widely associated with Nazi Germany that contemporary uses frequently incite controversy. In his book "The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?", US graphic design writer
Steven Heller shows how it was enthusiastically adopted in the West as an architectural motif, on advertising and product design. "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," says
93-year-old Holocaust survivor Freddie Knoller.
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Archaeological finds have long demonstrated that the swastika is a very old symbol, but ancient examples are by no means limited. If you want to see just how deeply rooted the swastika pattern is in Europe, a good place to start is Kiev where the National Museum of the History of
Ukraine has an impressive range of exhibits. BBC iWonder: Why did ordinary people commit atrocities during the Holocaust? On the torso of the bird is engraved an intricate meander …show more content…
In our own day, its universal Jewish popularity, especially as the symbol of the State of Israel, has made the question of its origins moot. Because of its geometric symmetry, the hexagram has been a popular symbol in many cultures from earliest times.
The earliest known Jewish use of the hexagram was as a seal in ancient Israel and then eight centuries later in a *synagogue frieze in Capernaum. These early hexagrams may have been only ornamental designs; ironically, a swastika, another popular ancient motif, appears alongside the hexagram on the Capernaum synagogue wall.
In the Middle Ages, hexagrams appear frequently on churches, but rarely in synagogues or on Jewish ritual objects. It was the *menorah that served as the primary Jewish symbol from antiquity until the post-Renaissance period, not the " Jewish star. " Although scholars have attempted to trace the Star of David back to King David himself; to Rabbi Akiva and the Bar
Kokhba rebellion; or to *kabbalists, especially Rabbi Isaac Luria, no Jewish literature or

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