History Of Swastika

Have you ever wonder how the swastika came to be before the reign of Hitler ever began? It has a long and quite complex history full of good fortune and had a use in many different cultures until it became a symbol of evil. This is the history of how the swastika that once decorated many cultural symbols became a symbol of great tragedy and strife.

In the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, swastika means "well-being" or “good fortune.” The symbol has been used by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains for millions of years and is assumed to once have been an Indian sign. Early travellers to Asia were inspired by its positive associations as well as its ancient use and started using it back home. By the beginning of the 20th Century the swastika had

It 's a symbol that we will never ever be able to change," says 93-year-old Holocaust survivor Freddie Knoller. "If they put the swastika on gravestones or synagogues, it puts a fear into us. Surely it shouldn 't happen again." The swastika was banned in Germany at the end of the war and Germany tried unsuccessfully to introduce an EU-wide ban in 2007. The irony is that the swastika is more European in origin than most people realise. Archaeological finds in India have long showed that the swastika is a very old symbol, but ancient examples are by no means limited to India. It was used by the Ancient Greeks, Celts, and Anglo-Saxons and some of the oldest examples have been found in Eastern Europe, from the Baltic to the

To see just how deeply rooted the swastika pattern was in Europe, a good place to start is the National Museum of the History of Ukraine that has an impressive range of exhibits. Among the museum 's most prized treasures is a small ivory figurine of a female bird made from the tusk of a mammoth. It was found in 1908 at the Palaeolithic settlement of Mezin near the Russian border. On the torso of the bird is engraved the pattern of joined up swastikas. It 's the oldest identified swastika pattern in the world and has been dated to an astonishing 15,000 years ago. The bird was found with a number of objects during archeology