Just so you remember. The swastika was originally used in religions, and its design was "stolen" to represent the Neo-Nazi party.
And a nice search on Google and Wiki shows:
Historical use in the East
The swastika is a historical sacred symbol in Indian religions. It first appears in the archaeological record here around[21] 2500 BC in the Indus Valley Civilization. It rose to importance in Buddhism during the Mauryan Empire and in Hinduism with the decline of Buddhism in India during the Gupta Empire. With the spread of Buddhism, the Buddhist swastika reached Tibet and China. The symbol was also introduced to Balinese Hinduism by Hindu kings. The use of the swastika by the B?n faith of Tibet, as well as later syncretic religions, such as Cao Dai of Vietnam and Falun Gong of China, can also be traced to Buddhist influence.
Buddhism
Buddhism originated in the 5th century BCE and spread throughout the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BCE (Maurya Empire).
The swastika symbol (right-hand) is alleged to have been stamped on Gautama Buddha's chest by his initiates after his death. It is known as The Heart's Seal. The swastika figures on the Pillars of Ashoka.
With the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism, the Buddhist swastika spread to Tibet and China.
Known as a "yung drung" in ancient Tibet, it was a graphical representation of eternity.
The paired swastika symbols are included, at least since the Liao Dynasty, as part of the Chinese language, the symbolic sign for the character 萬 or 万 (w?n in Mandarin, man in Korean, Cantonese and Japanese, vạn in Vietnamese) meaning "all" or "eternality" (lit. myriad) and as 卐, which is seldom used. The swastika marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures. The swastika (in either orientation) appears on the chest of some statues of Gautama Buddha and is often incised on the soles of the feet of the Buddha in statuary.
Hinduism
Swastika on the doorstep of an apartment in Maharashtra, India
The swastika is one of the 108 symbols of Hindu deity Vishnu and represents the Sun's rays, upon which life depends. Its use as a Sun symbol can first be seen in its representation of the god Surya. The swastika is used in all Hindu yantras and religious designs.[citation needed]
Swastika is also considered as a symbolic representation of Ganesha, in Hinduism. Ganesha as per Hindu rites is offered first offerings and as such in every pooja, at first Swastika is made with Sindoor during any religious rites of Hindu.
Among the Hindus of Bengal, it is common to see the name "swastika" (Bengali: স্বস্তিক shostik) applied to a slightly different symbol, which has the same significance as the common swastika, and both symbols are used as auspicious signs. This symbol looks something like a stick figure of a human being.[24]
Jainism
Jain swastika
Jainism gives even more prominence to the swastika than does Hinduism. It is a symbol of the seventh Jina (Saint), the Tirthankara Suparsva. In the Svetambar (Devanagari: श्वेताम्बर) Jain tradition, it is also one of the symbols of the ashta-mangalas. It is considered to be one of the 24 auspicious marks and the emblem of the seventh arhat of the present age. All Jain temples and holy books must contain the swastika and ceremonies typically begin and end with creating a swastika mark several times with rice around the altar.
Jains use rice to make a swastika (also known as "Saathiyo" or "Saathiya" in the state of Gujarat, India) in front of statues in a temple. Jains then put an offering on this swastika, usually a ripe or dried fruit, a sweet (Hindi: मिठाई, Mithai), or a coin or currency note.
Iran
Golden necklace of three Swastikas found in Marlik, Gilan Province Iran, dates back to first millennium B.C.
In Iran, Golden necklace of three Swastika in Marlik, Gilan province Iran, dates back to first millennium B.C probably symbolising Indian influence there.
Other Asian traditions
During the Chinese Tang Dynasty, Empress Wu Zetian (684-704) decreed that the swastika would be used as an alternative symbol of the Sun.
The Mandarin "wan" is a homophone for the number 10,000 and is commonly used to represent the whole of Creation, e.g. 'the myriad things' in the Dao De Jing.
In Japan, the swastika is called manji. Since the Middle Ages, it has been used as a coat of arms by various Japanese families such as Tsugaru clan, Hachisuka clan or around 60 clans that belong to Tokugawa clan.[25] On Japanese maps, a swastika (left-facing and horizontal) is used to mark the location of a Buddhist temple. The right-facing manji is often referred to as the gyaku manji (逆卍, lit. "reverse manji") or migi manji (右卍, lit. "right manji") , and can also be called kagi jūji (literally "hook cross").
In Chinese and Japanese art, the swastika is often found as part of a repeating pattern. One common pattern, called sayagata in Japanese, comprises left- and right-facing swastikas joined by lines. As the negative space between the lines has a distinctive shape, the sayagata pattern is sometimes called the "key fret" motif in English.
[edit] Native American traditions
Chilocco Indian Agricultural School basketball team in 1909
S.E.C.C. design from Oklahoma
The swastika shape was used by some Native Americans. It has been found in excavations of Mississippian-era sites in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. It is frequently used as a motif on objects associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (S.E.C.C.). It was also widely used by many southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo. Among various tribes, the swastika carried different meanings. To the Hopi it represented the wandering Hopi clan; to the Navajo it was one symbol for a whirling log (tsil no'oli), a sacred image representing a legend that was used in healing rituals (after learning of the Nazi association, the Navajo discontinued use of the symbol). A brightly colored First Nations saddle featuring swastika designs is on display at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada.
A swastika shape is a symbol in the culture of the Kuna people of Kuna Yala, Panama. In Kuna tradition, it symbolizes the octopus that created the world; its tentacles, pointing to the four cardinal points.
In February, 1925, the Kuna revolted vigorously against Panamanian suppression of their culture, and assumed autonomy in 1930; the flag they adopted at that time is based on the swastika shape, and remains the official flag of Kuna Yala. A number of variations on the flag have been used over the years: red top and bottom bands instead of orange were previously used, and in 1942 a ring (representing the traditional Kuna nose-ring) was added to the center of the flag to distance it from the symbol of the Nazi party.
[edit] Historical use in the West
In Bronze Age Europe, the "Sun cross" (a three- or four-armed hooked cross in a circle) appears frequently, often interpreted as a solar symbol. Swastika shapes have been found on numerous artifacts from Iron Age Europe (Greco-Roman, Illyrian, Etruscan, Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Georgian Bordjgali and Slavic). This prehistoric use seems to be reflected in the appearance of the symbol in various folk cultures of Europe.
Antiquity
Greco-Roman antiquity
Ancient Achean "doll" with human, solar and tetragammadion (swastika) symbols. Louvre Museum, Paris.
Greek helmet with swastika marks on the top part (circled), 350-325 BC from Taranto, found at Herculanum. Cabinet des M?dailles, Paris.
Etruscan pendant with swastika symbols, Bolsena, Italy, 700-650 BCE. Louvre Museum.
Hands of God, a symbol of early ethnic pre-Christian religions in central Europe
Ancient Greek architectural, clothing and coin designs are replete with single or interlinking swastika motifs. There are also found gold plate fibulae from the 8th century BC decorated with an engraved swastika.[31] Related symbols in classical Western architecture include the cross, the three-legged triskele or triskelion and the rounded lauburu. The swastika symbol is also known in these contexts by a number of names, especially gammadion.
In Greco-Roman art and architecture, and in Romanesque and Gothic art in the West, isolated swastikas are relatively rare, and the swastika is more commonly found as a repeated element in a border or tessellation. The swastika often represented perpetual motion, reflecting the design of a rotating windmill or watermill. A meander of connected swastikas makes up the large band that surrounds the Augustan Ara Pacis. A design of interlocking swastikas is one of several tessellations on the floor of the cathedral of Amiens, France. A border of linked swastikas was a common Roman architectural motif, and can be seen in more recent buildings as a neoclassical element. A swastika border is one form of meander, and the individual swastikas in such a border are sometimes called Greek keys.
Celtic antiquity
The bronze frontspiece of a ritual pre-Christian (c. 350-50 BC) shield found in the River Thames near Battersea Bridge (hence "Battersea Shield") is embossed with 27 swastikas in bronze and red enamel. An Ogham stone found in Anglish, Co Kerry (CIIC 141) was modified into an early Christian gravestone, and was decorated with a cross patt?e and two swastikas. At the Northern edge of Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire, there is a swastika-shaped pattern engraved in a stone known as the Swastika Stone.
Germanic antiquity
Main article: Swastika (Germanic Iron Age)
The swastika shape (also called a fylfot) appears on various Germanic Migration Period and Viking Age artifacts, such as the 3rd century V?rl?se Fibula from Zealand, Denmark, the Gothic spearhead from Brest-Litovsk, Russia, the 9th century Snoldelev Stone from Rams?, Denmark, and numerous Migration Period bracteates drawn left-facing or right-facing.
A comb with a Swastika found in Nydam Mose, Denmark
The pagan Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, England, contained numerous items bearing the swastika, now housed in the collection of the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The Swastika is clearly marked on a hilt and sword belt found at Bifrons in Kent, in a grave of about the 6th century.
Hilda Ellis Davidson theorized that the swastika symbol was associated with Thor, possibly representing his hammer Mjolnir - symbolic of thunder - and possibly being connected to the Bronze Age sun wheel. Davidson cites "many examples" of the swastika symbol from Anglo-Saxon graves of the pagan period, with particular prominence on cremation urns from the cemeteries of East Anglia. Some of the swastikas on the items, on display at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, are depicted with such care and art that, according to Davidson, it must have possessed special significance as a funerary symbol. The runic inscription on the 8th-century S?b? sword has been taken as evidence of the swastika as a symbol of Thor in Norse paganism.
Pre-Christian Europe and folk culture
Baltic
The swastika is one of the most common symbols used throughout Baltic art. In Latvian the symbol is known as either Ugunskrusts, the "Fire cross" (rotating counter-clockwise), or Pērkonkrusts, the "Thunder cross" (rotating clock-wise), and was mainly associated with Pērkons, the god of Thunder and justice. It was also occasionally related to the Sun, as well as Dievs (the god of creation), Laima (the goddess of destiny and fate). The swastika is featured on many distaffs, dowry chests, cloths and other items. It is most intricately developed in woven belts.
Slavic
Swastika in Kruszwica, Poland
The swastika shape was also present in pre-Christian Slavic mythology. It was dedicated to the sun god Svarog (Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian Сварог) and called kolovrat, (Slovenian kolovrat, Bosnian kolovrat, Croatian kolovrat, Polish kołowr?t, Belarusian колаўрат, Russian and Ukrainian коловорот, Serbian коловрат/kolovrat) or swarzyca. In early medieval Europe, the use of swastikas for decoration of pottery and other wares was most frequent in Slavic lands. It first appears within the context of Slavic artefacts in the lower Danube region (modern Wallachia and Moldavia) where early Slavs had contacts with Sarmatian peoples. This practice was then not merely adopted, but "transformed into a new, distinct quality of the symbolic culture of the Slavs."
For the Slavs the swastika is a magic sign manifesting the power and majesty of the sun and fire. It was usually called "The wheel of Svarog." It was often used as an ornament decorating ritualistic utensils of a cult cinerary urns with ashes of the dead.It was the symbol of power (the swastika seen on the coins of Mieszko I) both lay and divine, because it was often placed on altars in pagan temples.
At the start of the Renaissance, swastika ornaments disappeared from utensils but swastikas were being used by Slavs. It became a popular ornament on Easter eggs and in wayside shrines in folk culture. This ornament still existed in 1940-50.
Sami
An object very much like a hammer or a double axe is depicted among the magical symbols on the drums of Sami shamans, used in their religious ceremonies before Christianity was established. The name of the Sami thunder god was Horagalles, thought to be derived from "Old Man Thor" (??rr karl'). Sometimes on the drums, a male figure with a hammer-like object in either hand is shown, and sometimes it is more like a cross with crooked ends, or a swastika.
Medieval and early modern Europe
A mandala-like meditative image from the Kabbalistic work "Parashat Eliezer"
The swastika mark on the tower of Armenian fortress Ani (10th century AD)
In Christianity, the swastika is used as a hooked version of the Christian Cross, the symbol of Christ's victory over death. Some Christian churches built in the Romanesque and Gothic eras are decorated with swastikas, carrying over earlier Roman designs. Swastikas are prominently displayed in a mosaic in the St. Sophia church of Kiev, Ukraine dating from the 12th century. They also appear as a repeating ornamental motif on a tomb in the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan. A proposed direct link between it and a swastika floor mosaic in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens, which was built on top of a pagan site at Amiens, France in the 13th century, is considered unlikely. The stole worn by a priest in the 1445 painting of the Seven Sacraments by Roger van der Weyden presents the swastika form simply as one way of depicting the cross. Swastikas also appear on the vestments on the effigy of Bishop William Edington (d. 1366) in Winchester Cathedral.
In the Polish First Republic the symbol of the swastika was also popular with the nobility. According to chronicles, the Rus' prince Oleg, who in the 9th century attacked Constantinople, nailed his shield (which had a large red swastika painted on it) to the city's gates. Several noble houses, e.g. Boreyko, Borzym, and Radziechowski from Ruthenia, also had Swastikas as their coat of arms. The family reached its greatness in the 14th and 15th centuries and its crest can be seen in many heraldry books produced at that time. The Swastika was also a heraldic symbol, for example on the Boreyko coat of arms, used by noblemen in Poland and Ukraine. In the 19th century the swastika was one of the Russian empire's symbols; it was even placed in coins as a background to the Russian eagle.
An unusual swastika, composed of the Hebrew letters Aleph and Resh, appears in the 18th century Kabbalistic work "Parashat Eliezer" by Rabbi Eliezer Fischl of Strizhov, a commentary on the obscure ancient eschatological book "Karnayim", ascribed to Rabbi Aharon of Kardina. The symbol is enclosed by a circle and surrounded by a cyclic hymn in Aramaic. The hymn, which refers explicitly to the power of the Sun, as well as the shape of the symbol, shows strong solar symbolism. According to the book, this mandala-like symbol is meant to help a mystic to contemplate on the cyclic nature and structure of the Universe. The letters are the initial and final characters of the Hebrew word, אוֹר, or "light".
Freemasons also gave the swastika symbol importance. In medieval Northern European Runic Script, a counter-clockwise swastika denotes the letter 'G,' and could stand for the important Freemason terms God, Great Architect of the Universe, or Geometry.
[edit] Western use in the early 20th century
Main article: Western use of the swastika in the early 20th century
The aviator Matilde Moisant (1878-1964) wearing a swastika medallion in 1912; the symbol was popular as a good luck charm with early aviators
In the Western world, the symbol experienced a resurgence following the archaeological work in the late 19th century of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the symbol in the site of ancient Troy and associated it with the ancient migrations of Proto-Indo-Europeans. He connected it with similar shapes found on ancient pots in Germany, and theorized that the swastika was a "significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors", linking Germanic, Greek and Indo-Iranian cultures.[48][49] By the early 20th century, it was used worldwide and was regarded as a symbol of good luck and success.
The work of Schliemann soon became intertwined with the v?lkisch movements, for which the swastika was a symbol of the "Aryan race", a concept that came to be equated by theorists such as Alfred Rosenberg with a Nordic master race originating in northern Europe. Since its adoption by the National Socialist German Worker's Party of Adolf Hitler, the swastika has been associated with Nazism, fascism, racism (white supremacy), the Axis powers in World War II, and the Holocaust in much of the West. The swastika remains a core symbol of Neo-Nazi groups, and is used regularly by activist groups to signify their opinion of supposed Nazi-like behavior of organizations and individuals they oppose.
Carlsberg's Elephant Tower
The Benedictine choir school at Lambach Abbey, Upper Austria, which Hitler attended for several months as a boy, had a swastika chiseled into the monastery portal and also the wall above the spring grotto in the courtyard by 1868. Their origin was the personal coat of arms of Abbot Theoderich Hagn of the monastery in Lambach, which bore a golden swastika with slanted points on a blue field. The Lambach swastika is probably of Medieval origin. The Danish brewery company Carlsberg Group used the swastika as a logo from the 19th Century until the middle of the 1930s when it was discontinued because of association with the Nazi Party in neighbouring Germany. However, the swastika carved on elephants at the entrance gates of the company's headquarters in Copenhagen in 1901 can still be seen today.
The swastika is seen on binders of pre-Nazi era publications of works by Rudyard Kipling. Both left and right orientations were used.
Iceland
Eimskip (founded in 1914), a major import/export company in Iceland once used the swastika as their company logo. Although they have since replaced their logo, the swastika remained on their old headquarters, located in downtown Reykjav?k. As tourism to the country grew, it often became a subject of misunderstanding when foreign tourists targeted the building as a place of Nazi support and antisemitism.[citation needed] When the Radisson SAS hotel franchise bought the building, the company was banned from destroying the symbol since the building was on the list of historical sites in Iceland. A compromise was made when the company was allowed to cover the symbol with the numbers 1919 which was the year when the building was erected.
Ireland
The Swastika Laundry was a laundry founded in 1912, located on Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, a district of Dublin, Ireland. In the fifties Heinrich B?ll came across a van belonging to the company while he was staying in Ireland, leading to some awkward moments before he could realize the company was older than Nazism and totally unrelated to it. The chimney of the boiler-house of the laundry still stands, but the laundry has been redeveloped.
Finland
Variation of tursaansyd?n
In Finland the swastika was often used in traditional folk art products, as a decoration or magical symbol on textiles and wood. Certain types of symbols which incorporated the swastika were used to decorate wood; such symbols are called tursaansyd?n and mursunsyd?n in Finnish. Tursaansyd?n was often used until 18th century, when it was mostly replaced by a simple swastika.
The tursaansyd?n is used by scouts in some instances and a student organization. The village of Tursa uses the tursaansyd?n as a kind of a certificate of authenticity of products made there. Traditional textiles are still being made with swastikas as a part of traditional ornaments.
Present-day flag (from 1958) and its pole of the Training Air Wing with three swastikas
Suomen ilmavoimien esikunnan joukko-osastotunnus.svg Suomen ilmavoimien Lentosotakoulun joukko-osastotunnus.svg
Present-day brigade marks of the Finnish Air Force staff and the Training Air Wing
The Finnish Air Force uses the swastika as an emblem, originally introduced in 1918. The swastika was also used by the women's paramilitary organization Lotta Sv?rd, which was banned in 1944 in accordance with the Moscow Armistice between Finland and the allied Soviet Union and Britain.
The President of Finland is the grand master of the Order of the White Rose. According to the protocol, the president shall wear the Grand Cross of the White Rose with collar on formal occasions. The original design of the collar, decorated with 9 swastikas, dates from 1918 by the artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The Grand Cross with swastika collar has been awarded 41 times to foreign heads of state. To avoid misunderstandings, the swastika decorations were replaced by fir crosses at the decision of president Urho Kekkonen in 1963 after it became known that the President of France Charles De Gaulle was uncomfortable with the swastika collar.
Grootkruis en ster vredesklasse van het Vrijheidskruis.jpg
Also a design by Gallen-Kallela of 1918, the Cross of Liberty has a swastika pattern in its arms. The Cross of Liberty is depicted in the upper left corner of the standard of the President of Finland.[60] However, in the flag is only the Cross of Liberty of 3rd Class and overall, the highest Finnish decoration is the Grand Cross of the White Rose with Collar, not the Grand Cross of the Cross of Liberty. In the internal ranking the 1st class Mannerheim cross takes the second place after Grand Cross and the 2nd class Mannerheim cross takes the fourth place. The 2nd classa Mannerheim cross could be admitted to anyone regardless of the military rank and therefore it became the symbol of the common national goal related to fieldmarshal (1933-) Mannerheim, the later marshal of Finland (1942-). The same Cross of liberty with swastika is still seen in the coat of arms of Mikkeli which where the mashal Mannerheim and the general headquarters situated on both the Winter war and Continuation war.
Coat of arms on the town of Mikkeli
In December 2007, a silver replica of the WWII Finnish air defences relief ring decorated with swastika became available as a part of a charity campaign.[61]
The original war-time idea was that the public swap their precious metal rings for the State air defences relief ring, made of iron.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
P.S. It can also be said that the Confederate flag could also represent slavery (but that's just to make a counter-argument).
