The Swastika and The Star of David, two highly recognisable symbols juxtaposed in our minds today in association with the Holocaust. The Swastika invoking the racism and genocide perpetrated by Hitler’s Nazi Party and the Star of David representing the martyrdom of the Jewish people that were persecuted. But this has not always been the case. Today I will tell you about the long and fascinating history of the two symbols and the shift in their meanings over time and through cultures. You may find that you never view these symbols in the same way again.
The intertwined equilateral triangles that make up the six-pointed Star of David, also known as the Magen, or Shield of David is today the universally recognised symbol of Judaism. It features …show more content…
In the early 1920s, Adolph Hitler selected a black swastika in a white circle on a red background to be the emblem of the Nazi party in the hope of rallying supporters. This decision was thought to be based on the belief that the swastika was a symbol of the Ayran race, from which the Germans descended and therefore linked into the idea of a racially “pure” superior race. By the time the Nazis gained control of Germany in the second world war, the swastika had become the most recognizable icon of Nazi Propaganda appearing on flags, election posters, armbands and military badges and adopted by other Anti-Semitic hate groups. The connotations of the swastika had been twisted from that of peace and good fortune to a symbol of racial superiority linked forever to the atrocities associated with the extermination of Jews in the Holocaust. For the Jewish people, it became a symbol of fear, suppression, and genocide. It was here that the two symbols collided. Jews were forced by the Nazis to stitch crude yellow badges displaying the Star of David to their clothes as a “badge of shame” and to make them easily identifiable to aide in the persecution and destruction of the Jewish race. Some non-Jews, however, wore the star on their clothes as a sign of defiance against the
The intertwined equilateral triangles that make up the six-pointed Star of David, also known as the Magen, or Shield of David is today the universally recognised symbol of Judaism. It features …show more content…
In the early 1920s, Adolph Hitler selected a black swastika in a white circle on a red background to be the emblem of the Nazi party in the hope of rallying supporters. This decision was thought to be based on the belief that the swastika was a symbol of the Ayran race, from which the Germans descended and therefore linked into the idea of a racially “pure” superior race. By the time the Nazis gained control of Germany in the second world war, the swastika had become the most recognizable icon of Nazi Propaganda appearing on flags, election posters, armbands and military badges and adopted by other Anti-Semitic hate groups. The connotations of the swastika had been twisted from that of peace and good fortune to a symbol of racial superiority linked forever to the atrocities associated with the extermination of Jews in the Holocaust. For the Jewish people, it became a symbol of fear, suppression, and genocide. It was here that the two symbols collided. Jews were forced by the Nazis to stitch crude yellow badges displaying the Star of David to their clothes as a “badge of shame” and to make them easily identifiable to aide in the persecution and destruction of the Jewish race. Some non-Jews, however, wore the star on their clothes as a sign of defiance against the