Wrongfully Accused: The Swastika Is Not Hitler's Hakenkreuz

authored by Nikunj Trivedi
published on April 26, 2021
updated on June 26, 2026

On a late June afternoon, I received a WhatsApp message that the State of New York was considering a bill that would mandate that the Swastika be taught as a symbol of hatred and intolerance in all New York schools¹. Naturally, the Swastika and its equivalents hold immense sacred significance for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Native Americans, and many other cultures, and are thousands of years old. As a Hindu, I cannot imagine life without sacred symbols like the Om, Swastika, Trishul, Tilak, and others. They form a deep connection through which we express our identities while connecting with the Divine. Each has its unique place in Hindu symbolism and practices.

Undoubtedly, educating students about hatred, racism and bigotry is essential. This is even more urgent, given the recent increase in hate crimes against Jewish and African American communities. Incidents of Neo-Nazi emblems being graffitied outside Jewish homes and synagogues, often accompanied by horrific acts of violence by hate groups have seen an alarming increase. Hindus and Sikhs have also been targets of Neo-Nazis and those who support Nazi ideology.

Yet, the important work of fighting bigotry and racism must not inadvertently stoke resentment against other religious minorities. This was the Hindu community’s concern about including the Swastika as a hate symbol in the New York bill without proper context.

Swastika — a sacred and auspicious symbol

Swastika is a Sanskrit word, derived from the roots su and asti, and means “that which brings good luck and well-being.” The word swasti appears in the Vedas and across classical Hindu literature, as illustrated by this famous Mantra from the Rigveda:

Om Swasti Na Indro Vriddhashravah Swasti Nah Pusha Vishva-Vedah।
Swasti Nastarkshyoarishta-Nemih Swasti No Brihaspatirdadhatu॥

Translation — Om! May Indra, who is provided with great speed, do well to us, may Pushan, who is the knower of the world, do good to us, and may Tarkshya, who devastates enemies, do good to us! May Brihaspati, the Lord of Vedic knowledge or speech, give us spiritual delight obtained from the light of knowledge and wisdom.

Similarly, the Puranas, the Upanishads and other Hindu philosophical texts use the word for greetings, to denote all that is auspicious and sacred, among other things.

The Swastika’s simple yet profound design has many different meanings. It denotes the movement of the universe, the four Vedas themselves, the four-fold goals of life (Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha), the four stages of life, etc.

Hindus use the Swastika extensively. It adorns the entrances of our homes as a “welcome” sign and can be seen in our mandirs (temples)—both at home and outside. Some Hindus use a Swastika as part of their yoga (a posture known as Swastikasana) and meditation practices. In a traditional head-shaving ceremony (called mundan), a large Swastika is drawn on a child’s head as a sign of auspiciousness. Similarly, in festivals such as Diwali and Navratri, Hindus draw Swastikas at the entrances of their homes and create color patterns, called rangolis, featuring Swastikas.

Buddhists and Jains also use the Swastika in various aspects of their lives. In Japan, Swastikas (known as manji in Japanese) can be seen on street maps, temples, and other places.

Over 1.5 billion around the world use this symbol and its equivalents for a variety of religious purposes.

Swastika in American culture

Prior to the Swastika legislation controversy, I had limited knowledge of the extent to which the Swastika and its equivalents were used in American and world culture before World War II. For example, the symbol was on Boy Scouts paraphernalia ², Coca Cola products ³, on the uniform of hockey teams ⁴, in fashion accessories ⁵, etc.

In fact, the United States has had towns named Swastika. On September 23, 2020, the town of Swastika, New York, voted ⁶ to keep its name, citing the symbol’s auspicious origins in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. A town in Colorado was also known as Swastika Acres, though it changed ⁷ its name in 2019 after having it for 111 years. A US Army base in San Diego is shaped ⁸ in the form of a Swastika. Not just in the United States, there is a town named ⁹ Swastika in Ontario, Canada too!

In 1894, Thomas Wilson, a curator at the US National Museum, wrote a fascinating book called The Swastika: The Earliest Known Symbol, and its Migrations; with Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times, where he discussed ¹⁰ the Swastika and similar objects in various cultures around the world, from ancient India to Europe, Latin America and Australia.

Unfortunately, these connections got heavily overshadowed due to World War II and the resulting murder of six million Jews, one and a half million Roma, and others at the hands of Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler’s emblem of hatred brings trauma, pain, and intimidation to Jewish Americans even today, and we have seen increased hate crimes in New York, Pittsburgh, and other locations at the hands of Neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Did Hitler use the Swastika as his symbol?

Yet, as I thought about that horrific era, my conscience told me that something was not right. Did Hitler really use the Swastika, or was it something else?

I looked into the history, and soon realized that the negative connotation of the Swastika was not because of Hitler’s usage. Rather, it stemmed from conflation of the symbol that Hitler used—the Hakenkreuz (a German word, meaning “hooked cross”)—with the Swastika. There is overwhelming evidence showing this, some of which is listed below.

The Hooked Cross became popular in Germany when German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered it on the site of ancient Troy in 1872, and his contemporary, fellow archaeologist Carl Schuchhardt, wrote about it in his 1891 bestseller Schliemann’s Excavations: An Archaeological and Historical Study, which was translated into several European languages. Thanks in part to interpretations by the French scholar Émile-Louis Burnouf (who harbored anti-Jewish sentiments), Schliemann connected it with similar shapes found on pottery in Germany and misinterpreted it as a valuable symbol of their ancestors and of a master race known as the “Aryans,” due to the increasing acceptance of racial theories during nineteenth century Europe. Other European scholars and thinkers provided additional fuel to this racist and supremacist theory, and the connection began to take a dangerous turn. German nationalist groups started using this symbol as a sign of the ‘Aryan master race’ and the German-Aryan connection.

Interestingly, in 1880, German philologist Max Müller had warned Schliemann against using the word “Swastika” when describing the ancient symbols found in Troy. As Schliemann recounts in Ilios; the City and Country of the Trojans (1880, p. 346), Müller wrote to him, saying:

“I do not like the use of the word [Swastika] outside India. It is a word of Indian origin, and has its history and definite meaning in India. I know the temptation is great to transfer names, with which we are familiar, to similar objects that come before us in the course of our researches. But it is a temptation which the true student ought to resist, except, it may be, for the sake of illustration. The mischief arising from the promiscuous use of technical terms is very great… the occurrence of such crosses in different parts of the world may or may not point to a common origin. But, if they are once called [Swastika], the vulgus profanum [common masses] will at once jump to the conclusion that they all come from India, and it will take some time to weed out that prejudice.”¹¹

Indeed, the mischief from such a promiscuous use of the term “Swastika” and the prejudice against it has already been great—it has been wrongfully associated as a symbol of peace and harmony with death and destruction.

But, was it the Swastika?

Yet, while the symbol appeared similar, it was not the Swastika. My research on this topic led me to the works of many scholars, including Rev. T.K. Nakagaki, former President of the Buddhist Council of New York. Nakagaki’s book The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate (2018), provides exhaustive details about the Swastika as well as its wrongful association with the Hakenkreuz, the symbol used by Hitler and the Nazis. According to Nakagaki, “Many in the West believe that Hitler invented the Swastika symbol. He didn’t. Many also believe he invented the word ‘swastika’ to describe it. He didn’t do that either. But, he did consciously use a different German word, ‘Hakenkreuz,’ and that is more significant because in the use of that word we can see how Hitler saw the symbol…”¹²

Hakenkreuz at the Benedictine Monastery, Lambach, Austria

Similarly, Dr. Daniel Rancour-Laferriere, who is Professor Emeritus at University of California Davis, provides a plethora of evidence regarding Hitler’s Christian upbringing and the influence of Christian symbolism on him. In his book, The Sign of the Cross: From Golgotha to Genocide (2011)¹³, Rancour-Laferriere shows that Hitler’s decision to use the Hakenkreuz as a symbol of the Nazi party may have been due to his childhood upbringing at the Benedictine Monastery in Lambach, Austria, where he repeatedly saw the Hooked Cross in multiple places, and the statue of the monastery’s own mid-19th century abbot, Theoderich von Hagen, who had a stylized Hakenkreuz in his coat of arms.

Furthermore, Rancour-Laferriere points out the mistranslation of Hakenkreuz into Swastika, even though a native German speaker can easily understand that the infamous term is translated as “hook” (Haken) “cross” (Kreuz). Rancour-Laferriere observes: “It cannot be disputed that, as a boy, Adolf Hitler repeatedly saw the Hooked Cross in the Christian context of the Benedictine Catholic Monastery where he had his choir lessons and other classes…”

Rancour-Laferriere’s book discusses the work of Werner Maser, a famous German historian and a leading expert on Hitler who observed that in an early notebook of Hitler was a sketch of a projected book cover featuring the Hooked Cross which looked similar to what would become the Nazi flag of the future. Maser believed that the Hooked Cross and the banner reflected the influence of the Hakenkreuz that Hitler saw at the abbey in Lambach and on the coat of arms of Abbot Hagen.

Similarly, Rancour-Laferriere points us to the writings of Robert Payne, the famous biographer of Hitler’s life, who also surmised that the Hakenkreuz at the monastery was the source of Hitler’s Nazi emblem.

Thus, the Hakenkreuz was the source of Hitler’s Nazi emblem and not the Swastika.

“Christenkreuz” and “Hakenkreuz”

Hitler recognized the power of a symbol to bring about a transformation of ideas and society in ways he saw fit. In Mein Kampf, he recounts his experience at a Marxist rally in Berlin, and the profound impact of symbolism on the masses:

“More than once in my youth, the psychological importance of such a symbol had been clearly evident to me from the point of view of sentiment. In Berlin, after the War, I was present at a mass demonstration of Marxism in front of the Royal Palace. A sea of red flags, red scarves, and red flowers, gave an outward appearance of power to that crowd, which I estimated at about 120,000 persons. I felt and understood how easily the man in the street is impressed by the suggestive magic of such a grandiose piece of play-acting.”¹⁴

He details this thought process while designing the Nazi flag and its colors, remarking how the symbol had to spark curiosity and stir emotions among the masses. The symbol had to have a “striking, poster-like effect” and ignite a desire “to know more about the movement in hundreds of thousands of cases.”¹⁵

For a devoutly Christian country such as Germany, nothing would resonate more than a symbol connected to its roots and theological beliefs. This is discussed in further sections.

Hooked Cross in Christianity

In order to understand why Hitler chose the Hakenkreuz and not any other symbol, one must study the importance and usage of this symbol in Christianity and in German literature, as well as the dynamics surrounding racial and theological narratives in 19th century Europe and Germany.

The Hooked Cross holds deep significance in Christianity, and can be found across Europe and other places where Christianity is practiced—from the effigy of Bishop William Edington at the Winchester Cathedral in England to the walls of the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia; from the mosaic on the floor of a Byzantine church in Shavei-Zion in Israel to that of Plaošnik Baptistery, in Ohrid, North Macedonia, to the floor of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Tampico, Mexico¹⁶. The Hooked Cross was seen as the symbol of Jesus’ victory over death and persecution.

Thus, for Hitler, who was exposed to such teachings at the Lambach Abbey, it was quite natural to see this connection and twist it into a powerful yet evil symbol known to the masses and one that could be easily repurposed to arouse anti-Jewish emotions among the volk.

“Hooked Cross” in German literature and language

Ritterkreuz (Knight’s Cross)

The connections between the Christian Cross (known as “Christenkreuz” in German) and the Hooked Cross (known as “Hakenkreuz” in German) can be found in multiple places within the German language as well as in literature. Take, for example, the Knight’s Cross, (Ritterkreuz), which was created by Hitler as the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. Similarly, the Balkenkreuz, a stylized version of the Knight’s Cross, was the emblem of the German Armed Forces during World War II.

Rancour-Laferriere’s book provides several additional examples. The varied uses of words across periodicals, images, and references show that the Germans were aware that the Hakenkreuz was a Hooked Cross and nothing else.

For instance, Christuskreuz und Hakenkreuz was a protestant periodical which supported Hitler¹⁷. Another book, called Kreuz und Hakenkreuz (1946), details the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Nazis¹⁸. And a paper, titled Cross and Swastika (Kreuz und Hakenkreuz), also discusses the complex relationship between the Church and the Nazis¹⁹.

In 2008, an exhibition in Berlin, titled Christenkreuz und Hakenkreuz, discussed the influence of Nazi ideology in the design of the churches that were built after Hitler came to power²⁰. None of these periodicals or works use the word Swastika.

A German speaker can easily understand that “Hakenkreuz” stands for “hooked cross.” Above: A 2001 German scholarly work discussing the Third Reich in the Siegerland region of Germany in the late 1920s.

The German Church and the Nazis

In order for a symbol to have popular appeal, it had to resonate with the masses. As outlined below, the relationship between the Church and the Nazis of the era provides overwhelming evidence that Germans as well as the Nazis saw a strong connection between Hitler’s Hakenkreuz and the Christian cross, not the Swastika.

According to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, most of the German Christians supported hatred against Jews and thus welcomed the rise of Nazism, as illustrated by an excerpt from Article 24 of The Nazi Party platform: “The Party as such upholds the point of view of a positive Christianity without tying itself confessionally to any one confession. It combats the Jewish-materialist spirit at home and abroad and is convinced that a permanent recovery of our people can only be achieved from within on the basis of the common good before individual good.”

The Museum concludes: “Despite the open antisemitism of this statement and its linkage between confessional ‘freedom’ and a nationalistic, racialized understanding of morality, many Christians in Germany at the time read this as an affirmation of Christian values.”²¹

This is further evident from the writings of Gerhard Hahn, a prominent leader of the Lutheran Church of Hanover, Germany. Speaking of the solidarity between the Hakenkreuz and the Christian cross, Hahn proudly declared:

“The cross of Christ and the [Hakenkreuz] do not need to oppose each other, and must not do so, but rather they can and should stand together. One should not dominate the other, but rather each should maintain its own meaning and significance…Both together, however, the cross of Christ and the [Hakenkreuz], admonish us: Remember that you are German Christian people and should become ever more whole German Christian people, and remain so!”²²

Finally, this relationship between the Church and Nazi Germany was officially sealed by the 1933 Reich Concordat, signed by the Vatican and the Nazis, allowing the latter to garner additional credibility²³

Adolf Hitler with the Vatican ambassador, Cesare Orsenigo, in 1935, two years after he seized power. Source: The Times/Getty Images

This open support for the Nazi regime has been further corroborated by recent evidence.

On May 1st, 2020, The Times newspaper of the UK reported that the German branch of the Catholic church admitted its “complicity” in the Second World War²⁴. Coverage in the Times of Israel also highlighted the fact that the Church had provided hundreds of priests who joined Nazi soldiers on the frontlines to offer spiritual advice from 1939 to 1945 and converted thousands of church properties into military hospitals where tens of thousands of nuns worked as nurses²⁵. On Hitler’s 50th birthday in 1939, churches flew Nazi flags and prayed for the protection of the “Führer and the Reich.” What’s worse, Pope Pius XII knew about the mass killing of Jews from his own sources but kept the matter from the US government.

While discussing the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel, the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner, had less than kind words to describe the ideological environment leading to the Holocaust. Putting it bluntly, Wiesel remarked:

“All the killers were Christian. The Nazi system was the consequence of a movement of ideas and followed a strict logic; it did not arise in a void but had its roots deep in a tradition that prophesied it, prepared for it, and brought it to maturity. That tradition was inseparable from the past of Christian, civilized Europe.”²⁶

Indeed, various studies have highlighted the centuries old persecution of Jews at the hands of Christians in Europe, from being forced to dress in certain ways and carry certain marks, to being subjected to systemic pogroms²⁷. Thus, it is easy to see why a powerful narrative, married with Christian symbolism, would gain popularity.

The Aryan Christ

Susannah Heschel, a professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College and the author of the meticulously detailed book The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (2008) describes a massive theological attempt to de-couple Jesus from his Jewish ancestry and transform him into a symbol of resistance for the “Aryans.” As Heschel writes in her 2017 essay for the Marginalia Review of Books, “various theological strategies were employed during the nineteenth century to distance Jesus from Judaism, but with the rise of racial theory suggestions began to circulate that Jesus was not a Jew, but rather an Aryan, born in the Galilee, where an ethnically mixed population lived.”

During the Third Reich, individuals such as Walter Grundmann, a leading figure in the pro-Nazi faction of the German Protestant Church, Deutsche Christen, provided significant theological and institutional support to advance this theory. According to Heschel, Grundmann and his ilk posited that Jesus was not Jewish but “an anti-Jewish Aryan whose true identity had been concealed by Jews who entered the early church and falsified the Gospels.”

In 1939, Grundmann set up the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life, a cross-church establishment by eleven Protestant churches. The institute became the most important propaganda vehicle for German Protestantism, which produced a “nazified Christianity” at its theological core. According to Heschel, the Institute started with the declaration: “Is Christianity derived from Judaism and is it its continuation and completion, or does Christianity stand in opposition to Judaism? We answer this question: Christianity is the unbridgeable religious opposition to Judaism.”²⁸

Around two hundred church leaders, pastors, professors and academic theologians were willing to collaborate with or support the institute²⁹.

While the idea of an Aryan Jesus took new and dangerous turns during the Third Reich, it is important to note, as Heschel mentioned earlier, that the seeds of such “Aryanization” of Jesus trace back to the 19th century. Growing up, Hitler was well aware of such theories. A devout Christian, Hitler squarely blamed Jews for persecuting Jesus. However, he and others could not bear Jesus’ Jewish heritage, and thus sought to “de-Judaize” Jesus in their own ways, calling him an “Aryan fighter” and the savior of the world against Jewry. To quote Hitler:

“And the founder of Christianity made no secret indeed of his estimation of the Jewish people. When He found it necessary, He drove those enemies of the human race out of the Temple of God; because then, as always, they used religion as a means of advancing their commercial interests. But at that time Christ was nailed to the Cross for his attitude towards the Jews…”³⁰

Based on the above information, it is beyond doubt that Hitler saw in the Hakenkreuz a symbol of the struggle of an Aryan Jesus, who was nailed to the Cross for his transgressions against Jews. Clearly then, Hitler’s Hakenkreuz would symbolize the persecution of Jesus and his resistance against “Jewish world domination,” narratives promoted by various churches for the past 2,000 years.³¹

Mein Kampf — From translation to deliberate mistranslation

As Nakagaki points out in his book, many in the West think that Hitler invented the word Swastika or that it is present in his writings.³² On the contrary, Hitler did not use the word Swastika anywhere in Mein Kampf—only “Hakenkreuz.” Some relevant passages from Mein Kampf (original, German version) read as follows (emphasis added):³³

“1. Dennoch mußte ich die zahllosen Entwürfe, die damals aus den Kreisen der jungen Bewegung einliefen, und die meistens das Hakenkreuz in die alte Fahne hineingezeichnet hatten, ausnahmslos ablehnen.”

Author’s translation: “Nevertheless, I had to reject without exception the countless designs that were submitted at that time from the circles of the young movement, most of which had simply drawn the Hooked Cross (Hakenkreuz) into the old flag.”

“Tatsächlich hat ein Zahnarzt aus Starnberg auch einen gar nicht schlechten Entwurf geliefert, der übrigens dem meinen ziemlich nahekam, nur den einen Fehler hatte, daß das Hakenkreuz mit gebogenen Haken in eine weiße Scheibe hineinkomponiert war.”

Author’s translation: “In fact, a dentist from Starnberg also submitted a design that was not at all bad and, incidentally, came quite close to my own—except for one flaw: the Hooked Cross (Hakenkreuz), with curved hooks, had been incorporated into a white circle”.

“Ich selbst hatte unterdes nach unzähligen Versuchen eine endgültige Form niedergelegt; eine Fahne aus rotem Grundtuch mit einer weißen Scheibe und in deren Mitte ein schwarzes Hakenkreuz. Nach langen Versuchen fand ich auch ein bestimmtes Verhältnis zwischen der Größe der Fahne und der Größe der weißen Scheibe sowie der Form und Stärke des Hakenkreuzes.”

Author’s translation: “In the meantime, after countless attempts, I myself had settled upon a final form: a flag with a red background, a white disc, and in its center a black Hooked Cross (Hakenkreuz). After many trials, I also determined a definite proportion between the size of the flag and that of the white disc, as well as the form and thickness of the Hooked Cross.”

Nowhere does the word Swastika appear above. Had Hitler known about this word through previous associations with German socialist groups, he would have used it.

To illustrate this further, one only needs to read the first (abridged) translation of Mein Kampf by E.T.S Dugdale published in 1933. Dugdale, an Englishman, who was fluent in German and had worked for the German government, had accurately translated the relevant passages and never once used the word Swastika. To quote some passages from Dugdale’s translation (emphasis added):

“After innumerable trials, I settled upon a final form: a flag having a red background, with a white disc in it, bearing on its center a black hooked cross. After much searching, I decided upon the proper proportions between the size of the flag and that of the white disc, and the form and thickness of the cross; and it has remained so ever since. Armbands, also of the same, were at once ordered for the men of the bodies for keeping order — red with a white disc and a hooked cross in it. The new flag first appeared in public in the middle of the summer of 1920.”³⁴

Thus, a literal translation from German to English would produce “hooked cross,” as rightly done by Dugdale.

Another interesting point to note is from the work of Thomas Wilson of the Smithsonian Museum (discussed earlier), who writes how the word Swastika did not appear in any major dictionary or reference source during his time, admitting:

“I began a search of which proved almost futile, as even the word Swastika did not appear in such works as Worcester’s or Webster’s dictionaries, the Encyclopedic Dictionary, the Encyclopedia Britannica, Johnson’s Universal Cyclopedia, the People’s Cyclopedia, nor Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities…In the American Encyclopedia the description is erroneous while all the Century Dictionary says is ‘same as fylfot,’ and ‘Compare Crux Ansata and Gammadion.’”³⁵

Thus, at best, the definition of Swastika implied a resemblance to other symbols observed in Europe, rather than the equivalence.

The deliberate mistranslation

Unfortunately, Dugdale’s translation did not become popular due to a host of reasons. However, one translation that did gain popularity was that of Irish Catholic Priest and journalist James Vincent Murphy. Murphy published the first complete translation of Mein Kampf in 1939. Murphy deliberately mistranslated the Hakenkreuz into Swastika while leaving other German words either in original form or translating them properly to English.

For example, in his preface, Murphy describes how he carefully avoided translating Weltanschauung and Volkisch. To quote:

“There are a few points more that I wish to mention in this introductory note. For instance, I have let the word Weltanschauung stand in its original form very often. We have no one English word to convey the same meaning as the German word, and it would have burdened the text too much if I were to use a circumlocution each time the word occurs. Weltanschauung literally means ‘Outlook-on-the World.’

Another word I have often left standing in the original is völkisch. The basic word here is Volk, which is sometimes translated as People; but the German word, Volk, means the whole body of the people without any distinction of class or caste³⁶.”³⁷

It is evident that Murphy was familiar with native German words that didn’t really have English equivalents! Furthermore, if there were no English equivalents of these words, how does Swastika (a Sanskrit word used by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains only) then become the English translation of Hakenkreuz?

Hitler did not know English or any other languages such as Sanskrit and was not familiar with the word “Swastika.” This is clearly established by the fact that Hitler uses the word “Aryan” extensively in Mein Kampf. “Aryan” is a Sanskrit word, which he learned within the context of the racist Aryan Supremacy Theory expounded by the likes of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Arthur de Gobineau, and others, along with 19th century theological attempts to make Jesus a symbol of Aryan struggle. Had he learned about the Swastika as a symbol of the ancient Aryans, he would have included the word.

One cannot help but conclude that Murphy, being an ordained priest, didn’t want the evil Nazi symbol to be associated in any way with the sacred Hooked Cross of Christianity, and thus deliberately mistranslated the Hakenkreuz into Swastika.

Indeed, as Nakagaki admits in his book: “Whether intentional or not, these translators protected the Christian cross and damaged the Eastern religious swastika.”³⁸

The damage of wrongfully associating Swastika with Hakenkreuz

The scale of the damage is such that a symbol used by close to 1.5 billion people in the world in their religious and cultural practices (a symbol that literally means well-being and peace), is wrongfully associated with evil, death, and destruction.

Wrongfully associating the Swastika with the Hakenkreuz endorses bigotry and creates a dangerous environment for Hindus, Buddhists and Jains; it promotes the viewpoint that their religions are closely tied to Nazi ideology. What’s more, when lawmakers such as those in New York attempt to pass legislation deeming a sacred symbol as an emblem of hatred, millions of kids attending schools are forced to learn that a symbol of peace and well-being is a symbol of death and destruction. It will lead to unprecedented levels of bullying and attacks on students belonging to these religious backgrounds in schools and colleges³⁹ across the Western world, as well as escalate the spread of Hinduphobia⁴⁰ worldwide rather than fostering an environment of mutual respect and understanding.

Google Mistranslation

Millions of users rely on Google Translate to interpret documents in foreign languages. The images below illustrate how a mistranslation can lead to the entire world interpreting the Hakenkreuz as the Swastika. In the first picture, the word “Christenkreuz” is translated as “Christian cross” but the word “Hakenkreuz” is translated as “Swastika”.

What’s worse, in the second picture, when broken up, “Haken” is translated as “hook”, “Kreuz” is translated as “cross” but “Hakenkreuz” is translated as “Swastika”!

Conclusion

Understanding the historical context behind Hitler’s creation of the Hakenkreuz, along with correcting the above errors and the wrongful association between his emblem and the Swastika is critical in order to remove misconceptions about a deeply sacred symbol. At the same time, we must acknowledge the sensitivities around the pain and trauma suffered by the Jewish, Roma, and other communities at the hands of the Nazis and white supremacists. Hindus and Sikhs are also targets of Neo-Nazis and those who support Nazi ideology. Only through mutual understanding and respect can we make the world a better place for all.

Yes, Hitler did misappropriate an ancient symbol for evil purposes. However, that symbol was the Hooked Cross and not the Swastika.

Hitler’s Hakenkreuz needs to be condemned, along with the racist Aryan theory (taught in schools even today) and the resulting genocide and destruction. At the same time, the world needs to appreciate and respect that the Swastika has nothing to do with the Hakenkreuz and thus must not wrongfully associate the two.

In 1633, Galileo was imprisoned by the Catholic Church and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. It took more than 300 years for the Church to admit that Galileo was right and to clear his name of heresy.

Thus, change must begin somewhere. To end with the words commonly attributed to Gandhi: “Each of us must be the change we wish to see in this world.”

Endnotes

As of July 2020, the bill has been stalled due to widespread outrage among Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and other communities due to the deeply religious significance of the Swastika in these traditions.
Murray, Craig, comp. “Swastikas in Scouting.” World Scouting Museum. Updated by Alex Bennett, March 10, 2025. https://worldscoutingmuseum.org/swastikas/
Adbranch. “Coca-Cola Swastika.” Adbranch. July 28, 2010. https://www.adbranch.com/coca-cola-swastika/
Vaughan, Garth. “Windsor’s ‘Swastikas’ Hockey Teams, 1905–1916.” The Birthplace of Hockey. Windsor Hockey Heritage Society. https://birthplaceofhockey.ca/hockey-history/hockeyists/swastikas/.
Christensen, Wendy. “The Swastika before World War II.” Sociological Images. May 23, 2014. https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/05/23/symbolism-the-swastika/
Coalition of Hindus of North America. “CoHNA Commends New York Town for Voting to Keep Its ‘Swastika’ Name.” CoHNA. September 24, 2020. https://cohna.org/new-york-town-swastika/
Tabachnik, Sam. “‘The Right Thing to Do’: Cherry Hills Village Officially Renames Swastika Acres Subdivision.” The Denver Post. April 16, 2019. https://www.denverpost.com/2019/04/16/swastika-acres-renamed/
KFMB-TV. “Buildings on Local Base Still Look Like Swastika.” CBS 8. February 18, 2016. https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/buildings-on-local-base-still-look-like-swastika/509-c255607b-7214-4582-8e1b-229c8d9c04a0
Sarswat, Rishabh. “A Town Called Swastika: Canadian Hindus Continue Defend Their Dharmik Identity Against a Hateful Nazi Symbol.” American Kahani. October 9, 2025. https://americankahani.com/perspectives/a-town-called-swastika-canadian-hindus-continue-defend-their-dharmik-identity-against-a-hateful-nazi-symbol/
Wilson, Thomas. “The Swastika: The Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migrations; With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times”. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1894. https://archive.org/details/cu31924023008067/page/n15/mode/2up
Schliemann, Heinrich. Ilios: The City and Country of the Trojans; The Results of Researches and Discoveries on the Site of Troy and Throughout the Troad in the Years 1871–72–73–78–79. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1880. See p. 346. HathiTrust Digital Library. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/gri.ark:/13960/t6zw3xr1r.
Nakagaki, T. K. The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press, 2018. p. 143.
Rancour-Laferriere, Daniel. The Sign of the Cross: From Golgotha to Genocide. 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2011.
Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Trans. James Murphy. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1939. Vol. 2, chap. 7, “The Struggle with the Red Forces,” p. 381.
Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Trans. James Murphy. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1939. Vol. 2, chap. 7, “The Struggle with the Red Forces,” pp. 382–83.
Ealdgyth. “Winchestercathedralheadonwilliamedingtontomb crop.jpg.” Wikimedia Commons. May 29, 2010. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winchestercathedralheadonwilliamedingtontomb_crop.jpg; Samzhab. “Skastika Symbol in the Window of Lalibela Rock Hewn Churches.jpg.” Wikimedia Commons. November 24, 2012. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skastika_symbol_in_the_window_of_Lalibela_Rock_hewn_churches.jpg; Israel and You. “Shavei Zion.” Israel and You. July 31, 2017. https://www.israelandyou.com/shavei-zion/; Brko. “Ohrid – Plaošnik Baptistery.” Journey Macedonia. April 2, 2015. https://journeymacedonia.com/archaeological/ohrid-plaosnik-baptistery/; Catedrales e Iglesias/Cathedrals and Churches. “Catedral de Tampico ‘La Inmaculada Concepción,’ Tampico, Estado de Tamaulipas, México.” Flickr. Uploaded May 22, 2013. https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltb/8771524831/in/photostream/
Christuskreuz und Hakenkreuz, German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University. https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/christuskreuz.htm
Neuhäusler, Johann. Kreuz und Hakenkreuz: Der Kampf des Nationalsozialismus gegen die katholische Kirche und der kirchliche Widerstand. Munich: Verlag der Katholischen Kirche Bayerns, 1946
Maihold, Harald. Kreuz und Hakenkreuz — Zur rechtlichen Stellung der Religionsgemeinschaften im nationalsozialistischen Staat [Cross and Swastika: On the Legal Status of Religious Communities in the National Socialist State]. Munich: GRIN Verlag, 1994
https://www.grin.com/document/110661
Endlich, Stefanie. “Christenkreuz und Hakenkreuz: Eine Ausstellung zu Kirchenbau und sakraler Kunst im Nationalsozialismus” [Christian Cross and Hooked Cross: An Exhibition on Church Architecture and Sacred Art in National Socialism]. Gedenkstätten-Rundbrief 146 (2009): 19–25
https://www.gedenkstaettenforum.de/uploads/media/GedRund146_19-25.pdf
“The German Churches and the Nazi State.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-churches-and-the-nazi-state
Gerhard Hahn, Christuskreuz und Hakenkreuz, Schriftenreihe der “Deutschen Christen” Hannovers, Nr. 1 (1934). Translated and archived by Randall L. Bytwerk, Calvin University German Propaganda Archive. https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/christuskreuz.htm
“Reich Concordat 1933.” Holocaust Online. http://holocaustonline.org/reich-concordat-1933/
Moody, Oliver. “We Were Complicit in Nazi Crimes, Say German Bishops.” The Times, 1 May 2020. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/we-were-complicit-in-nazi-crimes-say-german-bishops-3psjslzsb
“German Bishops Said to Admit Complicity in Nazi Actions in New Report.” Times of Israel, 2 May 2020. https://www.timesofisrael.com/german-bishops-said-to-admit-complicity-in-nazi-actions-in-new-report
Irving Abrahamson, ed., Against Silence: The Voice and Vision of Elie Wiesel (New York: Holocaust Library, 1985), Volume One, p. 33.
“The Roots of the Holocaust,” Projet Aladin, archived November 12, 2020, Projet Aladin, https://web.archive.org/web/20201112003929/http://www.projetaladin.org/holocaust/en/history-of-the-holocaust-shoah/the-roots-of-the-holocaust.html
Heschel, Susannah. “Jesus the Aryan.” Marginalia Review of Books, 13 October 2017. https://www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/jesus-the-aryan
“Complicity in the Holocaust.” Resistance!? Protestant Christians under the Nazi Regime. https://en.evangelischer-widerstand.de/html/view.php?type=dokument&id=76
Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Trans. James Murphy. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1939. Vol. 1, chap. 11, “Race and People,” p. 240.
“Antisemitism in History: From the Early Church to 1400.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism-in-history-from-the-early-church-to-1400
Nakagaki, T. K. The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2018.
Simha, Rakesh Krishnan. “Lost in Mistranslation: Why the Hindu Swastika is Nothing Like the German Hakenkreuz.” IndiaFacts, 4 August 2020. Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20200806151424/http://indiafacts.org/lost-in-mistranslation-why-the-hindu-swastika-is-nothing-like-the-german-hakenkreuz/
Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Trans. E. T. S. Dugdale. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1933. Vol. 2, chap. 7, “The Struggle with the Red Forces,” p. 198.
Wilson, Thomas. The Swastika: The Earliest Known Symbol, and its Migrations; with Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896. p. 763. https://archive.org/details/cu31924023008067/page/n13/mode/2up
The word “caste” is a colonial construct imposed on Indian social structures. For further reading, see Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA)’s resource page: https://cohna.org/decolonize/
Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Trans. James Murphy. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1939. “Translator’s Introduction,” pp. 12–13.
Nakagaki, T. K. The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2018. pp 158.
Tam, Sonia. “Hindu Swastika Confused with Nazi Swastika: Indian American Student Accused of Being Anti-Semitic.” ASAM News, 25 July 2020. https://asamnews.com/2020/07/25/hindu-swastika-confused-with-nazi-swastika-indian-american-student-accused-of-being-anti-semitic/
Hinduphobia refers to prejudice, discrimination, and hostility directed against Hindus and Hinduism. For further reading, see Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA). https://cohna.org/hinduphobia/