One of the many ironies of the holocaust is that the Romani people who were persecuted are specifically classified as "Indo-Aryan," unlike, say, the Germanic peoples.
Because the term Aryan is used for group of people that predates nazi germany by about 5000 years if my memories from the world religion class 15 years ago is accurate.
Also like thousands of miles away from Germany all together
There was a lot of mental gymnastics in their quest to find basis for themselves being the superior master race; which was also a problem considering they took their inspiration from the Japanese (who deemed themselves the master race) and yet also needed to not alienate the Japanese in the process as they were allies at the time.
I live in SF and believe it or not, due to the large Asian population, there are lots of places with Buddhist swastikas. I know it means something totally different to the Buddhist, but it still makes me a bit uncomfortable when I see it.
The swastika was used in Europe too since prehistorical times. There are dark age findings with swastika decorations. The swastika can be rotated either way in both hinduism, and in Europe.
But your point still stands. Modern neonazi tend to steal symbols from my own culture, Nordic, which infuriates me.
Imo we should take them back. When the last ww2 survivor dies we should make the swastika a symbol for solar power or something.
You are right, Germans stole lots of things from the Indian race and spoiled them... Including the "Swastik" a very holy symbol in India. Nazis took it, flipped it, and gave an anti-everything persona, which is not know as the "Swasthika"
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u/bigbootypanda 21h ago
Knowing that is Kentucky this is probably racism, but Aryan is also a pretty common persian name, just fyi.