The swastika is a very old symbol with use widespread throughout the world.

Sometimes referred to as a
Gammadion Hakenkreuz or a Flyfot, it traditionally had been a sign of good fortune and well-being The
word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit su meaning well and asti meaning being. It also is
considered to be a representation of the sun and is associated with the worship of Aryan sun gods. It is a symbol
in both Jainism and Buddhism, as well as a Nordic runic emblem and a Navajo sign. By definition, the swastika
is a primitive symbol or ornament in the form of a cross. The arms of the cross are of equal length with a section
of each arm projecting at right angles from the end of each arm, all in the same direction and usually clockwise.
When Adolph Hitler, the frustrated artist, was placed in charge of propaganda for the fledgling National
Socialist Party in 1920, he realized that the party needed a vivid symbol to distinguish it from rival groups. He
sought a design, therefore, that would attract the masses. Hitler selected the swastika as the emblem of racial
purity displayed on a red background to win over the worker, Hitler had a convenient but spurious reason for
choosing the Hakenkreuz or hooked cross. It had been used by the Aryan nomads of India in the Second
Millennium B.C. In Nazi theory, the Aryans were the Germans ancestors, and Hitler concluded that the swastika
had been eternally anti-Semitic. In spite of its fanciful origin the swastika flag was a dramatic one and it
achieved exactly what Hitler intended from the first day it was unfurled in public. Anti-Semites and
unemployed workers rallied to the banner, and even Nazi opponents were forced to acknowledge that the
swastika had a hypnotic effect. The hooked cross wrote American correspondent William Shirer seemed to
beckon to action the insecure lower-middle classes which had been floundering in the uncertainty of the first
chaotic postwar years. The swastika flag had a suggestive sense of power and direction. It embodied all of the
Nazi concepts within simple symbol. As Adolph Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, In red we see the social idea of
the movement, in white the Nationalist idea, and in the swastika the vision of the struggle for the victory of the
Aryan man.

The Bremen Incident

One of the first actions Hitler carried or after becoming Chancellor in 1933 was to abolish the Weimar Republic
flag. On April 22, 1933 he decreed that the national flags of German would be the old Imperial red, white, and

black tricolor and flown in conjunction with the swastika flag. These flags were to be flown together on all
merchant ships, which led to a serious incident with diplomatic consequences. On the night of Friday, July 26,
1935, several hundred Communists took part in an anti Nazi demonstration on a pier in New York harbor as the
German liner Bremen was about to depart for Europe. They attempted to board the liner and were fought by 250
policemen, detectives, and crew members. Thirty of the demonstrators gained the forelock of the vessel and tore
down the swastika flag flying there and threw it into the Hudson River. In the short fierce struggle with the
police, a detective was badly beaten before the Communists were ejected. Meanwhile, there was savage fighting
on the pier and in the adjacent streets. The police used their batons freely on the heads of the Communists and
after a time the demonstrators we drawn off. The police arrested four men alleged to be the assailants of the
injured detective. Three others were arrested for disorderly conduct. The injured detective and two of the rioters
were taken to the hospital. Ten of the Bremens crew also were treated for cuts and bruises. The liner departed
on time, and 20 policemen sailed with her as far as the quarantine station to guard against the possibility that
other Communists might be concealed on board and start a new attack. The Bremens commander, Captain
Ziegenbein, commended the polices work. The police officials, however, blamed the ships officers for taking
too lightly a warning they had sent them hours before the riot occurred. The indignities inflicted upon the
German flag by the American anti-Nazi demonstrators on board the Bremen resulted four days later in an
emphatic protest being delivered to the American Acting Secretary of State by the German Charge dAffaires in
Washington. It was pointed out to the German diplomat, however, that the insult had been aimed at the Party
flag and that the National flag had not been interfered with: a very fine distinction in the circumstances but one
which precipitated the Nuremberg Flag Laws of September 15, 1935. The whole question of the German
National flag was resolved seven weeks later during the Seventh Reichsparteitag Congress held at Nuremberg in
September 1935. This annual occasion was used by Hitler to publicly announce that the red, white, and black
swastika flag of the Nazi Party would henceforth be the National flag of Germany. The incentive to solve the
unsatisfactory arrangement of flying two flags together representing the nation had been thrust upon the Fuhrer
as a direct result of the Bremen incident. The official use of the swastika flag came simultaneously with the
increased use of racial policies. The Swastika Flags use as the National Flag was a symbol of the acceleration

of the Nazis anti-Semitic agenda which included the September 15, 1936, Law for the Protection of German
Blood and Honor. These laws revoked the Jews citizenship in the Reich. Jews could not vote, marry Aryans,
or employ in domestic service, female subjects of German or kindred blood who are under the age of 45
years. Jews found themselves excluded from schools, libraries, theaters, and public transpor-tation facilitiesPassports were stamped with the word Jew. Name changes were disallowed, but Jewish men had to add the
middle name Israel, Jewish women the name Sarah. Jewish wills that offended the sound judgement of the
people could be legally voided. Furthermore, Jewish businesses were taken away from their owners and placed
in the hands of German trustees. The Bremen Incident led the Nazis to raise their banner of hatred as a
national symbol while making the Jews into second class subjects of Germany. The Jews were then treated as
the untermenschen Hitler believed they were.