Before Nazis soured the brand with that whole master race thing, the swastika was a fairly common symbol. I once had a leather-bound set of Kipling that I displayed proudly in my home. They were beautiful and the prominent swastikas on the spines caused some marvelously heated arguments with my more lefty friends.
6 comments:
The swastika was, and maybe still is, a sacred symbol in the Buddhist and Hindu faiths. It was adopted by the Nazis due to their obsession with Eastern mysticism, courtesy of the Thule Society and before that Madame Blavatsky. They didn't originate it- they stole it.
As a side note, one of my hobbies is building plastic models, especially of WW II combat aircraft. It irritates me that, in the name of "political correctness", German planes do not include that "crooked cross" on the decal sheet; I have to buy separate sheets (mainly Superscale) to reproduce the markings on a Luftwaffe aircraft accurately. This is trying to rewrite history- not that that's anything new with Those Wiser Than Us.
cheers (with a growl)
eon
I wondered about the decal thing in new model kits.
Unbelievable.
I imagine the nitwits that made the decision to switch to little black crosses instead of swastikas don't know and don't care about the history, just that swastikas are "bad" because they are like that Hitler guy.
When I had my army surplus store I had an SS Major's tunic and hat on display in a glass case.
A girl of about 19 came in and was puzzling over it and asked me; "They were against us right?"
I tried to explain a few highlights from the period of 1933 to 1945, but with a dismissive wave she proudly said; "I haven't had any history yet, it's just my first year of college"
But she did tell me her boyfriend was into rock music and liked swastikas. I guess he likes little x marks now.
Not to speak about the whole Finnish Air Force!
We had it first and we had it blue on white. Damned be that mountebank house painter from Austria.
And the 45th Infantry, they got skunked out of their patches.
eon, and all IPMS members clap their big, nimble, hairy hands...
The Germans are somewhat anal-retentive today what comes to swastika. My hubby told me of a certain wargaming tournament in Germany. An American player had fielded a really nicely painted Samurai army with the footmen bearing those little flags (sashimono) bearing swastika insignia - historically correct insignia for Tsugaru clan. The arrangers did not let him play until he had torn off each and every of those little, meticulously painted, flags of those figurines.
Sometimes the political correctness can really go insane.
Ironmistress;
Well, that was just wrong, as the saying goes.
I know about the German laws. But to me, that seems like a poor excuse for companies like Hasegawa, Fujimi, etc., which sell many more model kits in the U.S., Japan, etc., than they do in Germany.
It's no excuse at all for what happened to your husband's miniatures.
It's also no excuse for Hasegawa's 1/48 Brewster F.2A Buffalo fighter kit, in Finnish markings from the Winter War against the Russians. The Finnish national markings are nothing but a white circle, minus the blue cross. I find that shameful, and frankly an insult to Finland.
/just my opinion
cheers
eon
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