(1933) A Study of the Nazi Swastika: A Study of the Nazi Claims of its Aryan Origin

Th

A

SWASTIKA Study of the Nazi Claims of

By

its

Aryan Orisin

W. NORMAN BROWN,

Ph.D.

University of Pennsylvania

An

Emerson Booklet

25 cents

The SWASTIKA A

Study of the Nazi Claims of

NORMAN BROWN

By W.

The

Aryan Origin

its

is the symbol used on arm bands, books and banners

swastika

flags,

by the National many, the Nazis.

of Ger-

Socialists

Adolf Hitler and other leaders of the Nazis have made the claim that the swastika

is

the historic property of

Aryan people and that has a traditional Christian sig-

the so-called it

nificance.

What

really

is

known about

the swas-

tika?

What

is

the

Aryan claim Dr.

scientific

W. Norman

American skrit

basis

for

the

.^

Brown, a distinguished

scholar, professor of San-

at the University of

Pennsyl-

vania and a leading Orientalist, submits the Nazi claims to the tests of historical, scientific evidence.

In this terse essay, Dr.

Brown

gives a

complete account of the origin of the swastika symbol and its use among ancient peoples.

EMERSON BOOKS, 126 Maiden Lane,

INC.

New York

THE SWASTIKA

A

Study of the Nazi Claims of

its

Aryan Origin

'CUxy(y i/lyr^^^

The. SWASTIKA A Study of the Nazi Claims of

By W.

its

Aryan Origin

NORMAN sBROWN,

Ph.D.

Professor of Sanskrit, University of Pennsylvania

EMERSON BOOKS, NEW YORK

INC.

COPYRIGHT,

1933

BY EMERSON BOOKS,

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

INC.

The

SWASTIKA

DOLPH HITLER tika as their

and the Nazis use the Swas-

They claim

emblem.

"Aryan" symbol, that

it

the "Aryans," and that

it is

a pure

originated in Europe

among

it is

that

a special characteristic of

the "Aryan" peoples as a whole and of the Germanic

All available evidence today

people in particular.

indicates that these claims

are unfounded.

hold, too, that the Swastika

had a

early Christianity;

and

this

claim

is

.They

special usage in

equally baseless.

The Meaning of "Aryan" JL

HE

which

Nazis use the word "Aryan" in the sense

scientists give to the

Indo-Germanic."

terms "Indo-European,

These designate a group of many

peoples united by a

outstanding feature

common is

culture, of

which the

relationship of language.

[5]

THE SWASTIKA At some undetermined

period,

more than four

thousand years ago, the original Indo-Europeans

were a group of uncivilized

tribes living within a

comparatively small area, possessing a fairly homo-

geneous

religion,

institutions,

Where

and speaking

their early

certainty.

employing more or

Some

similar

less

closely connected dialects.

home was we cannot

authorities

have placed

affirm with it

in

one or

another seaion of Europe; others have argued for Asia; perhaps the weight of opinion today favors

Europe.

Wherever the

original habitat,

that by about the year 2000 B.C.

many

we know

of the tribes

were migrating towards various parts of Europe and Asia, there to clash with tions of antiquity, history.

and so come

Within a few

nent in world

some of the great

affairs,

into the

centuries they

civiliza-

purview of

became promi-

and from then on they have

steadily increased in importance imtil at present they

are the world's

most powerful group of peoples and

their languages

its

most widespread.

In ancient and mediaeval times the Indo-Europeans already covered an extensive area. eastern extremity of their territory

[6]

At

the south-

were the inhabi-

THE SWASTIKA and northern India and those of

tants of central Persia,

and

who

are jointly

constitute

"Aryan"

is

a

known

as the "Indo-Iranians"

sub-group for which the

name

Farther north and

reserved by scientists.

west were the Armenians; then came the Balto-Slavic peoples,

and

whose descendants today are the Lithuanians

Letts,

and the Russians, Poles, and other

Croatians, Slovenes,

Serbs, Czechs,

In Asia Minor

Slavs.

Across the Hellespont and the

were the Phrygians.

Black Sea were the Scythians and Thracians.

In

southern Europe were the Greeks and Albanians, the Latins and other Italic tribes. in western

and r rthern Europe.

The

Still

Celts

were

farther north,

between the Celts and the Balto-Slavic peoples, were the

many Germanic

"Anglo-Saxons."

tribes,

including the so-called

There were also several

lesser

Indo-European peoples scattered over Europe and Asia.

Finally, the Hittites of the old

Testament

have been found in recent decades to possess most interesting Indo-European affinities.

many peoples have total

Some

of these

since lost their identity, but the

number of Indo-Europeans has

[7]

constantly in-

THE SWASTIKA creased and the range of their holdings has been

extended.

In

over

modern times the Indo-Europeans have spread all

the Americas and large seaions of Africa,

have taken the continent of Australia and many islands of the Pacific,

and have even

visited

and

laid

claim to the two poles.

The term "Indo-European," cation "Aryan," has to culture.

its fullest

or in the Nazi appli-

meaning when applied

In respea to physical stock

practically nothing.

There

still

exist

tiges of a belief that the original

it

affirms

popular ves-

Indo-Europeans

were Nordics, a physical type which

is

tall,

long-

headed, fair-haired, and blue-eyed; but that belief is

regarded by anthropologists and philologists alike

as only a myth.

Nowhere throughout

Indo-European world do

we

the entire

find evidence that at

any time was there a single pure physical type which could constitute an Indo-European race.

Everywhere

now, and has always been, race mixture.

there

is

Even

in Scandinavia, the stronghold today of the

Nordics,

all evidence,

including that of pre-historic

archaeology, vouches for the presence of other physi-

[8]

THE SWASTIKA cal types side

by side with the Nordics: small-framed,

dark-eyed "Mediterraneans"; stocky, round-headed

"Alpines"; and cross-breeds of the three.

Yet even

culturally the expression Indo-European,

or "Aryan," does not indicate absolute uniformity.

There were art,

at all

known

times variations in religion,

language, social organization, political institu-

and other

tions,

ferent peoples,

cultural

and

phenomena among the

dif-

as time has passed, the variations

and divergences have increased.

In

many

cases there

has been actual displacement of old institutions by

new

ones imported from a non-Indo-European en-

vironment.

now passed

The

old Indo-European religion has

away, and the Indo-Europeans of Europe

and America have faith that

had

its

adopted Christianity, a

chiefly

origin in a totally separate cultural

group, the Semites.

Other Indo-Europeans, as in

India, adhere to religions that at

Aryan

in character.

most are only partly

The Indo-European

elements that were strong

among

religious

the Hindus,

who

composed the hymns of the Rig Veda, have now largely been supplanted by features that

were

either

found in India by the Aryan invaders and adopted

[9]

THE SWASTIKA were developed among the Aryans

by them, or

else

after their

arrival.

Few

original

religious

Indo-

Europeanisms remain in India or elsewhere; and,

where they

they are

exist,

extraneous material,

names which

fossil-like in

for example, our week-day

Wednesday,

Tuesday, recall the

as,

embedded

Thursday,

now unhonored gods

Friday,

of our Teu-

tonic ancestors.

Of

the

culture,

yet

it,

many

aspects of primitive Indo-European

language has remained the most constant;

too, has

been markedly altered as the Indo-

Europeans have advanced into new

territories

and

their speech has clashed with the tongues they met.

Anyone

raised as a child to speak both English

Hindi or both English and Russian, incredulous cousins.

when

told that the

Italian,

still

likely to

two are

Even such comparatively

English and German, or the

is

and be

linguistic

close relatives as

closer French

are mutually imintelligible.

and

Yet we can

demonstrate the connection between these languages,

and on the

basis of these

and

like connections

we

can reconstruct a vast amount of information about the pre-historic Indo-Europeans.

[10]

Language gives a

THE SWASTIKA sub-surface

skeletal

for

similarity

culture throughout the world,

Indo-European

which may vary pro-

foundly in other, more obvious and external, quali-

and language,

ties,

we

therefore,

is

the criterion by which

charaaerize a people or a person as Indo-Euro-

pean.

This faa

is

strikingly illustrated in the

Our country and we

States.

are Indo-European.

Yet we are a mixture of most diverse elements.

tural

We

racial

white-skinned,

are

the mother tongue, not only of

ancestors

English,

several

and

cul-

brown-

English

skinned, yellow-skinned, black-skinned.

now

United

is

some whose

generations back were speaking

German, French,

Italian,

Russian and other

Indo-European languages, but also of some whose ancestors spoke negro dialeas in Africa,

Mongolian

dialeas in Asia, American Indian dialeas in this continent.

common

Yet the bond of common native language,

Europeans.

culture,

makes us now

above all

all

Indo-

Analogous conditions prevail today,

and always have prevailed, throughout the IndoEuropean world.

[11]

THE SWASTIKA In a narrower

way

the

same

Where common language

inside of nationalities.

does not

sort of situation exists

exist, nationality is

ever in peril

from inner

dissension, as in the old Austrian Empire, or in Bel-

gium, or in Canada.

may

that

The

elements

contribute to the national consciousness,

common language

that of

many

For, of the

is

the most important.

English, for example, are the result of crossing

between numerous

tribes,

of which the most promi-

nent were Celtic and Germanic; and English tion derives

from the

Celtic, the

civili2a-

Danish, the Anglo-

Saxon, the Norman-French, the Roman, the Greek,

and through these atic

and Egyptian

German language

from the

last

tradition. is

entire western Asi-

Germany today

In

spoken not merely by those

whose forbears were Germans, but

whose

who

in mediaeval times belonged to the

German people

does not

exist, unless

constituting

From

by some

group, like the present Lithuanians).

"pure"

as

also

ancestors were Czechs, or Celts, or Prussians

(a people Baltic

the

the

A

or a 'pure" English people

we

recognize native language

criterion

a scientific point of view,

[12]

of all

national

purity.

those in England

THE SWASTIKA and Germany who speak English or German

as their

mother tongue are by that faa English or German. Similarly, those

guage

Any

who

speak any Indo-European lan-

as their native tongue are Indo-Europeans.

effort to differentiate

by religion or previous an-

cestral affinity is unscientific.

II

Some Groups of People The Indo-Europeans

Have Encountered

l^ONTRASTED

with

Indo-Europeans

die

are

other groups of peoples, such as the Ural-Altaic,

including the Mongolic, the Finnish, the

(Hungarian), Hamitic,

in

the

Turkish,

and

northern Africa;

south-western Asia.

or

With some of

others;

the

Magyar or

Semitic

the in

these and others

not so well-known to Americans, the Indo-Europeans

have had important contact as they have wandered over the earth.

There

is

the Dravidian group, which was in India

before the Aryans arrived there from the northwest

[13]

THE SWASTIKA and appear already

about 1500 B.C. or

later,

had

The Aryans have

a civilization.

driving the Dravidians before

them

to have

ever since been

as they

have ad-

vanced to the east and the south until today the latter are

almost confined to the lower part of the

peninsula.

Another group

consists of the Semites,

who

occu-

pied Arabia and Phoenicia and at least part of Meso-

potamia when the Indo-Europeans came into Asia

Minor and

Persia.

The

Semites, through the Baby-

lonians and Assyrians, gave Persia a large part of civilization;

its

and through the Jews and Arabs, gave

the world the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and

Mohammedanism. Another group, concerning which archaelogy

most daily gives us new knowledge,

is

al-

one which by

3000 B.C. extended across the Iranian plateau from Baluchistan in the east to the borders of the Meso-

potamian region and Asia Minor on the west, and

from the Caucasus and the Caspian the Persian Gulf in the south.

in the north to

This region was later

taken over by the Persians, and appears to have been

[14]

THE SWASTIKA along the route by which the Aryans got to India.

We still know relatively little about this culture, there

is

considerable evidence to indicate

its

and the name "Japhetic" has been applied

but

existence

to

—the

it

same term was once proposed for the "Indo-European," but never

To still

won

acceptance.

the west of the Japhetic culture was another,

not well

known

to us,

which archaeologists

designate as "Anatolian."

Another important culture for the Indo-Europeans lay yet farther to the west,

gean."

It

was strong

and

is

called the "Ae-

at Hissarlik, the site of ancient

Troy, during the third and second millennia B.C.

;

in

the eastern part of Asia Minor; in Crete, Cyprus, and

the

and

Aegean

islands;

its civilization

and on the Grecian mainland;

was the precursor of the

classical

" Greek.

What

the relations were between Dravidian, Ja-

phetic, Anatolian

and Aegean during the fourth and

third millennia B.C. learn.

It is

radiated

we

are only

probable that

now

beginning to

all these cultures,

which

from the Highland Zone, were ultimately

[15]

THE SWASTIKA related; about the ethnic conneaions of their orig-

inators little

One clash

is,

as yet,

known.

of the most impressive results

is

when

cultures

the comparative ease with which they ex-

change minor, and sometimes major, elements.

most instmaive

A

illustration lies in the thoroughness^

now

with which the Indo-Europeans of Europe here to the Semitic faith Christianity.

ad-

Wherever the

Indo-Europeans, as barbarians, conquerd a civilized people, they were always quick to learn from the

conquered.

Rome

civilized the

aged her lands and burned her built

upon the great

Teutons city.

civilizations that

them; so did the Aryans in India; the Greeks.

who

The

Persians

had preceded so,

too,

The Indo-Europeans have had

for political conquest

and the

rav-

did

a genius

assimilation, develop-

ment, and propagation of more advanced cultures they have met.

In their pristine state they were

strong of body and mind, but uneducated.

whom

they vanquished

which they

Those

gave them an education

utilized to build their present intellectual,

social, industrial,

and

political structures.

[16]

THE SWASTIKA III

Early History of the Swastika

JL

HE

Swastika

is

one of the many minor bor-

rowings which the Indo-Europeans have made from their neighbors.

The

origin of this, as of

symbols,

is lost

came

it

it

came

it

into being, or

We know that in times

other widespread

into being, precisely

why

it

different localities

has had varying meaning.

emblem of

sidered an

We

in the obscurity of pre-history.

do not know when where

many

came

into being.

and

at different

It

has been con-

the sun, of female

fertility,

of

the macrocosm in the form of a man.

Today

in

Germany

it is

ward the

light.

a symbol of the Aryan struggle to-

But the oldest of the known

inter-

pretations may, like the youngest, be only a rationalization of

an auspicious character which the symbol

had acquired for some reason long

The one

faa about the Swastika

interpretive

seems constant very

is

that

name Swastika

since forgotten.

it

is

signifies

good

a Sanskrit

[17]

luck.

that

The

word meaning

.

THE SWASTIKA and although the

"object of well-being,"

corded instance of

word

this

is

fully

known

years later than the earliest

first

re-

two thousand

Indian examples

of the symbol, the meaning has probably always

been applicable. Today, the emblem has many other names, such as

gammadion,

Swastika tions

is

and

simplest

fylfot,

Hakenkreuz, and others, but

the commonest. elaborations

form

is

in

many

has also

It

appearance,

varia-

but

the

that of a right-angled cross with

arm with an extension

at a

right angle, all four extensions pointing in the

same

four equal arms, each

circular direction, that

(clockwise)

or

to

all

is,

the

left

moving

to the right

(counter-clockwise)

In some localities the righthand motion sidered

auspicious

is

con-

and the lefthand inauspicious

but in general, this distinction

is

not observed, and

both motions are auspicious.

Although there are gaps

in our

knowledge of the

Swastika, especially at the beginning of

we have an enormous number parts of the world.

Many

its

history,

of examples from

all

of these have come from

[18]

THE SWASTIKA archaeological excavation in very recent years, and

we

with their aid

are

now

able to outline a rough

and provisional history of the symbol's origin and early migration, as has not been possible before.

The

outstanding faa about the Swastika in an-

tiquity is that its earliest territory

known

habitat

is

a wide

beginning at the valley of the river Indus in

India and extending westward across Persia and Asia

Minor

to Hissarlik (ancient

Troy) on the shore of

the Hellespont.

In the Indus Valley

For combined age, frequency, and perfea execution, the

most

examples from the Indus Valley are the

interesting.

In 1924 the Archaeological Survey of India an-

nounced the

conduaing jo

first results

of excavations

in that valley at

Daro and Harappa, and

work

two

in 1931

to date in three bulky

umes with copious and chaeology has

sites

it

had been

named Mohenit

described the

and compendious

excellent illustrations.

made many dramatic

vol-

Ar-

discoveries,

and

the discovery of the Indus Valley civilization

was

£19]

THE SWASTIKA among

its

most dramatic.

Until that time

we had no

material remains from India to indicate a civilization

than the

earlier

Now,

millennium B.C.

first

a relatively few turns of the spade, that highly organized cities

had

we

got evidence

existed in western

India fully two thousand years earlier. cities

with

These two

were large and well laid out; the houses were

and

elaborately built of brick with several storeys

many rooms.

A

was the

charaaeristic feature

ful provision for drainage, both of houses

Writing was in

streets.

existence, but as yet

not succeeded in reading

it.

care-

and of

we have

There have been found

remains of pottery, stone, and metal. inferences about the religion.

We

can draw

Art was well devel-

oped, especially as illustrated on the

many

seals,

which exhibit both animal and linear geometrical designs.

This civilization was not limited to those two sites;

in the Indus valley there are other

Many

awaiting excavation. terest

mounds

problems of great

in-

have arisen from the Mohenjo Daro and

Harappa

discoveries,

and much important knowledge

has come from them.

Chief of

[20]

all is

the

faa

that

THE SWASTIKA India's civilization can be

that approaches the

tamia and Egypt.

pushed back to a period

known

Second to

Mesopo-

antiquity of

this is the fact that this

newly found culture shows double

on

similarities,

the one hand, to the later historic civilization of

India from the

first

millennium B.C. on, and on the

other hand, to ancient and tions west of

it

still

partly buried civiliza-

in Baluchistan, Persia,

Mesopotamia,

and even Egypt. Unfortunately,

developed

we do

know

not

this great culture.

the Aryans, for

it

was

just

did not rise

It

it

If

we

A

guess

belonged to the Dravidians, the people

them

the Aryans pushed before

Among there were

the finds at

many

of the Swastika.

seals

is

whom

as they advanced.

could read the numerous inscribed

should probably be able to

among

hundred

in existence fifteen

years before the Aryans invaded India. that

what people

seals,

we

settle that question.

Mohenjo Daro and Harappa with splendid representations

In the volumes published by the

Archaeological Survey of India in 1931 fifteen of these are reproduced,

the design

and

was by no means

this

number shows

sporadic, but rather

[21]

that

was

THE SWASTIKA exceedingly

common.

period, has been the Swastika's

and

it

known

has long been

there, for over

during her historic

India,

two thousand

home

par excellence;

that the symbol

had

years, a frequency

and

Now we

variety of usage not paralleled elsewhere.

was

see that the Swastika

tablished in India's

pears

among her

more

also thoroughly well es-

ancient antiquity.

first civilized

It

ap-

remains, as early as

2500 B.C., possibly 3000 B.C., and appears in forms perfealy developed, in contrast with slightly older but more primitive and less perfea forms found farther westward.

It

arrival of the Aryans,

Swastika.

existed in India before the

who gave

it

the Sanskrit

name

Like other symbols which the Aryans of

India used on coins and stone sculpture,

them from non-Aryan

predecessors.

It

it

came

was a

to

single

minutia of the spoils the viaors had taken from those they had vanquished.

In the ''Japhetic'^ Region

In a number of localities west of India

many

other

early examples of the Swastika have been found.

Recent cursory explorations in Baluchistan have

[22]

re-

THE SWASTIKA vealed an extensive and ancient civilization, as old as that of the Indus Valley, yet like

decade ago, and

among

it

unknown

few remains brought

the

back from the preliminary reconnaissance of are seals bearing the Swastika.

Still

west, in the general "J^P^^^^^

mentioned above, more

seals

a

'

its sites

farther to the

^^gioiij

which we

have been found show-

ing several varieties of the Swastika, including the

most primitive yet

These, too, are from

identified.

And

a time around 3000 B.C.

tery of Susa, Persia, in that

in early painted pot-

same region and of that

same period, there have been found some

excellent,

beautifully executed examples.

In this same Japhetic region, there also appears at this

This consists of three bent

time the triskelion.

radii,

or three bent legs, radiating

centre, a device

known

to us

from a common

from the Greeks and

other peoples of Europe, and sometimes regarded as a variant of the Swastika.

These various examples of the Swastika (and the triskelion)

date from

before the

arrival into that region,

Indo-European

which we believe was

2000 B.C.

[23]

after

THE SWASTIKA In the Aegean Culture

The

next chronological stratum for the Swastika

appears to be Hissarlik, the

and of many older before

it.

cities

site

that

had

There, in the "second

as the "burnt city," dated

risen

and perished

known

city,"

around 2000 B.C.,

been found frequently on terra sarlik

of Homer's Troy

cotta.

was a part of the "Aegean"

has

it

Ancient His-

civilization;

throughout the bronze period of that

down

also

and

civilization,

to around 1100 B.C., the Swastika appears

pottery ornamented with geometrical designs

other objects.

At

on

and on

Hissarlik or elsewhere in Asia

Minor the Indo-Europeans may have met the Swastika.

It

for the

was not long

first

time

after

2000

B.C. that the Hittites were establishing their empire nearby, and

it is

possible that other Indo-European

elements were then sifting into the population of that region.

Entry Into Europe Hissarlik

may

reasonably be considered the point

from which the Swastika spread

way of the Aegean

it

went

to

to Greece,

[24]

Europe.

and

By

in post-

THE SWASTIKA Mycenean the

times, that

Aegean

is,

civilization

after the Grecian phase of

had

collapsed,

appears

it

upon vases of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Athens from the seventh century B.C.

and on the

depiaed on a funeral

figure of the goddess Artemis

Asiatic deities. it

It is

It also

reached northern

car,

and other

where

Italy,

has been found on certain urns often regarded as

funerary.

The

great bronze industry of the Aegean, and

especially of Hissarlik, sent its

wares and

its

When,

nique along the trade routes into Europe. late in the

bronze period, ornamented objects appear

in the lower

Danube

The

the designs. ers in

region, the Swastika

Celts,

who were

bronze and gold, used

Finally

the

abundantly. at the

tech-

proficient

Germans acquired

They were employing

it,

work-

it

and used

it

for ornament

taa with the Romans they decorated it.

among

it.

end of the bronze period, and after

plaques with

is

their con-

elaborate

In at least one instance, the Swas-

tika

and other symbols appear with a male

who

is

figure,

possibly a god, but certainly not the Christian

[25]

THE SWASTIKA Both the Gallic and the Germanic peoples

God.

employed

it,

in Aquitania it

is

and during the Gallico-Roman period and

Britain,

it is

found on

altars,

associated with the thunderbolt, a

recalls the association the

Swastika

is

where

faa which

said to have in

Scandinavia with the god Thor.

Some Ancient

Civilizations Ignorant

of the Swastika

One

of the most interesting features of the history

of the Swastika

comparative absence in certain

is its

sections of the civilized

world of

seems to have been without

Greece had as far as I

arisen.

it

antiquity.

until very late,

Although by 2000 B.C. across to the Hellespont,

it

it

it.

extended from the Indus

passed to the north of the

great Semitic territory and missed that people.

have known

it.

it.

when

Ancient Assyria and Palestine,

know, were also without

Jews did not use

Egypt

The

Early Christianity seems not to

The

Christians used the Swastika

only after their religion was well established in

Europe.

[26]

THE SWASTIKA Further Diffusion of the Swastika

The Almost

later history of the

forty years

symbol

voluminous.

is

ago Mr. Thomas Wilson, of the

United States National Museum, wrote and published (1896) a 250-page treatment of

of the material then available.

more material has been that

which

I

much

A treatment today as its

half as long again as

When Buddhism

basis

discovered, including part of

have used above.

make a book

on the

Since then

thorough as that of Mr. Wilson's for well

it

time could

his.

spread from India,

it

popular-

ized the symbol in Central Asia, Tibet, China, Japan,

and other regions.

As

the cultures of Greece,

and Byzantium, and then

later of Arabia,

Rome,

were taken

abroad by various conquerors, the Swastika became

common

A

in northern

and other parts of Africa.

curious problem lies in the presence of the

Swastika in America before the time of Columbus. It

is

frequent in northern, central,

America, and has that

it

may have

many

variant forms.

originated

on

and southern It is

possible

this continent inde-

pendently of Europe and Asia; on the other hand,

[27]

THE SWASTIKA it

may have migrated

Asia and America are

Early contaas between

here.

now

accepted, but their nature

and extent are uncertain.

IV Conclusions

UR tain

available evidence permits us to

more

Swastika.

make

cer-

or less definite generalizations about the Its early

centre of gravity appears to have

been the Iranian plateau, but the exact place of origin

may have been anywhere between

on the

and hithermost Persia or upper Irak on

east

the west.

It

3000 B.C.

was spread over

It

that entire region by

appears next in the Aegean culture,

particularly at Hissarlik,

and from there

it

from about 2000 B.C. on;

went on the one hand to Greece,

and on the other to the lower Danube.

two regions It

the Indus

it

From

spread throughout the rest of Europe.

was not invented by the Indo-Europeans.

peoples

these

among whom

called ''Japhetic"

it first

The

appeared were the

so-

and Indus Valley peoples. What-

[28]

THE SWASTIKA ever these various peoples were, they were not Indo-

Europeans; and the Indo-Europeans, as far as our evidence indicates, did not

know

the Swastika until

a thousand years after the time of

served specimens.

met

it

nium

in Asia

pre-

its earliest

The Indo-Europeans may have

Minor very

early in the second millen-

upper Irak or in Persia shortly

after-

wards, and again in India shortly after that.

The

B.C., or in

Germans do not seem the

had the symbol

until

millennium B.C.

first

It

to have

has had a very high position in the cult of cer-

tain Indian religions,

and possibly was important

certain western Asiatic religions.

But

great value in Christian symbolism,

currence

is

it

in

has held no

where

only incidental and relatively

its

late,

oc-

not

primary. It is clearly

neither a peculiarly

culiarly Christian it,

emblem; where these groups have

they have borrowed

more

Aryan nor a pe-

it

from older

religions or

early civilized peoples.

The

present Nazi claims are imtenable.

their theory of

Aryan

Just as

racial purity is fanciful, so, too,

[29]

THE SWASTIKA their use of the Swastika as bol,

with aspeas of

anti-Marxism,

is

an Aryo-Christian sym-

anti-Judaism, anti-pacifism,

entirely

arbitrary.

"Aryan" or "Indo-European" race integrity

and only a

human

The term nothing of

relative degree of cultural

uniformity, while the Swastika

general a

signifies

and

is

far too ancient

and

property to bear their limited con-

struaion.

[30]

SWASTIKA

The A

Study of the Nazi Claims of

Aryan Origin

its

By W.

NORMAN BROWN

The

swastika is the symbol used on flags, arm bands, books and banners by the National Socialists of Germany, the Nazis.

Adolf Hitler and other leaders of the Nazis have made the claim that the swastika is the

property

historic

Aryan people and

that

of the so-called has a traditional

it

Christian significance.

What What

is

is

really

known

about the swastika?

the scientific basis for the

Aryan

claim ?

Dr.

W. Norman

American

Brown, a distinguished

scholar, professor of Sanskrit at

the University of Pennsylvania and a leading Orientalist, submits the Nazi claims to the tests of historical, scientific evidence.

In this terse essay, Dr. Brown gives a complete account of the origin of the swastika

symbol and

its

use

Emerson Books, Inc. 126 Maiden Lane

New York

among

ancient peoples.

115

City

Gentlemen: Please send, without charge or obligation,

advance announcements of your publications.

Name Address City

OTHER EMERSON PUBLICATIONS HITLER,

MENACE TO MANKIND By SIDNEY

"Stripped to his Nazis,

its essentials,

here

is

WALLACH

the story of the rise of Hitler and of

and what his revolution means

to

Germany, and possibly

—The Boston

the world."

An

Emerson Booklet

to

Globe

35 cents

THE SEX TECHNIQUE IN MARRIAGE By ISABEL EMSLIE

HUTTON,

M.D.

Foreword by Ira S. Wile, M.D. "I have a high opinion of Dr. Isabel Hutton's

THE SEX TECHNIQUE

IN MARRIAGE;

I

on

it

is

one of the few books

recommend

Eighth Printing

to inquirers

—Havelock

this subject."

Ellis

$2,00

FORTHCOMING PSYCHO-ANALYSIS FOR TEACHERS By

Anna Freud

is

AND PARENTS

ANNA FREUD

the daughter of

Sigmund Freud, pioneer him in his work. She

in psycho-analysis, and has assisted

has been indefatigable in experimental research and has achieved an enviable reputation.

"A

lucid

and simplified exposition of Freudian principles."

—The Times

Literary

Supplement (of the Enghsh edition)

Probable price

$1,50

EMERSON BOOKS, 126 Maiden Lane

New York

City

INC.