Recently the swastika has gotten some fans outside of the neo-Nazi genre, more specifically a company in the US named KA Designs decided to superimpose it onto Gilbert Baker’s rainbow design as a symbol of the LGBTQ community.

According to an article by Dazed and Confused Magazine, their aim was to “share the beauty of this symbol detached from the hatred associated with it.” The swastika has been around for millennia prior to its most infamous association, Hitler’s National Socialist (Nazi) Party. The word swastika means “good fortune” in Sanskrit and remains a sacred symbol Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. The symbol has also been found on artifacts in Europe from pre-Christian cultures.

During the end of the 1800’s, during the Victorian archeological boom, famous German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann unearth some ancient pottery in Troy and connected it with some earlier finds in Germany, speculating it was “significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors.”

It was this connection that spurred some “volkisch” movements rising up in post-Great War Germany who snatched the swastika as a symbol of Aryan identity and German nationalistic pride. One of those volkisch movements was the Nazi party and the Nazi Hakenkreuz or hooked cross, was born.

After WWII, this symbol was banned in Germany and continues to be outlawed. White supremacists and their neo-Nazi counterparts have adopted it and it remains wholly purposed to reflect the hatred and ignorance of the worst of human society.

So why would KA Designs try to “take back” the world’s most powerful symbol of hatred? Notoriety? Marketing gimmick? Complete and absolute stupidity? Whatever it is, it isn’t happening and is far too soon to even try, especially since there remain so many who were terrorized by the Nazi regime, not to mention the more than 60 million people who were wiped off the face of our planet due to the madness of man. One cannot imagine what they were thinking, and if it was for some cheap marketing ploy how much worse that is. The pain and suffering of countless generations deserve more sensitivity and mountains more respect from those of us who have no idea of the horrors they endured. Create a new symbol of peace and leave the swastika where it lies, doomed to represent the pestilential portion of mankind.

Sources:  BBC, US Holocaust Museum

Image courtesy of Youtube