Whenever I discuss swastikas I start with this alert: IT DOES NOT MATTER
WHETHER HITLER WAS A TRUE SOCIALIST. After my alert, some people still write
me to declare that Hitler was not a true socialist.
They misunderstand the issue. They concede that Hitler called it the
"National Socialist German Workers' Party" and he used a symbol to represent
it. Apparently they wish he had not. What they wish for is not the
issue. They concede every point I make.
Sometimes a critic will claim that German socialists did not use the word
"socialist" in self-descriptions, and therefore German Socialists would not
use the swastika's "S" letters to represent "socialist." On the
contrary, German socialists did use the word "socialist," so much that it
was one of their favorite words. Here are two facts that are
often revelations to people:
1. In Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" (writtend in 1923 and was both volumes published
in 1925-26) and in the film "Triumph of the Will" (1934) the words "socialist"
and "socialists" and "socialism" appear throughout as adjectives, synonyms
and descriptions for the Party. Those are simply named as two
notorious examples of the droning vocabulary of the Party.
2. In both the book and the film the forms of the word "fascist" and "Nazi"
never appear - not a single time - as an adjective, synonym or
description of the Party.
No one disputes that the swastika was used as a symbol of the National Socialist
German Workers' Party. All of the above supports the Party's use of
the swastika's "S" shapes as a reference to socialism.