How Hitler hijacked the swastika
QUESTION Is it true the Nazis never used the word swastika?
Adolf Hitler called the Nazi emblem hakenkreuz, which in english versions of Mein Kampf was translated as the Sanskrit word swastika rather than its literal meaning of hooked cross.
As a boy, Hitler saw the ancient symbol in lambach Abbey, Austria. He created the hakenkreuz by switching it to the right and it became the Nazi party emblem in 1920.
the earliest examples are found in india, where swastika symbols were used by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists.
Swastika is a combination of the Sanskrit words su meaning good and asti meaning to exist. this roughly translated as ‘all is well’ in the ancient indian language. the symbol of auspiciousness and good fortune still adorns indian homes, businesses, cars and temples.
People in Ancient Greece and turkey used it, as did the Celts and Nordic
countries. the Phoenicians saw it as a symbol of the sun.
Some of the oldest examples are found in eastern europe. A bird decorated with a swastika pattern carved from a mammoth tusk in Kyiv, Ukraine, has been dated to Paleolothic times.
the swastika became associated with Anglo-Saxon culture and was used on cremation vases and in churches.
the Nazis used the hakenkreuz to represent their warped notion of a master race, the Aryans, whom they believed had dominated areas of europe and Asia.
irish Catholic priest turned journalist James Murphy published the first unabridged english translation of Mein Kampf in 1939. He is thought to have used swastika rather than hakenkreuz to distance Nazism from Christianity.
Simon Bishop, London NW5.
QUESTION What’s the best reply to someone who pulls rank by saying ‘Do you know who I am?’
TONY BLAIR reputedly asked an old lady in a retirement home: ‘do you know who i am?’ She replied: ‘No, dear, but i expect matron will tell you.’
Frank Allen, Lyme Regis, Dorset.
THIS phrase has become the mantra of the famous and infamous, the entitled and the insecure.
Philosopher A. J. Ayer allegedly came across a young Mike tyson acting improperly and attempted to intervene.
tyson warned him: ‘do you know who i am? i’m the heavyweight champion of the world!’
Ayer replied calmly: ‘And i’m the former Wykeham Professor of logic. We are both pre-eminent in our fields, so i suggest we discuss this like rational men.’
Not being a philosopher, i reply to the question with: ‘Why, have you forgotten?’
Ian MacDonald, Billericay, Essex.
WHILE serving at RAF Valley on Anglesey, i was working the night shift in the battery charging room.
When i arrived to replace a chap called Mel, he was in an excited state. the phone had rung earlier and Mel had answered irreverently with: ‘Belfry, duty bat speaking.’
the voice on the other end said: ‘do you know who this is?’ Mel replied ‘No’ to get the reply: ‘this is the wing commander.’
So he replied: ‘do you know who this is?’ the wing commander answered: ‘No.’ Quick as a flash, Mel replied ‘thank **** for that’ and put the phone down.
the wing commander, who was calling to see if he could get his car battery charged, didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to uncover the culprit. Mel was punished with 14 days’ jankers!
Joe Slater, Ulverston, Cumbria.
When i worked in a coal mine, a new recruit was caught skiving by the manager on one of his visits to the coal face.
the boss started reprimanding the miner, who had never seen him before and so decided to dismiss him with a sarcastic comment.
the manager asked: ‘do you know who i am?’ the pitman shouted: ‘Hey lads! there’s a bloke here who doesn’t know who he is!’ He got sent back to the surface and lost a day’s pay.
Peter Davies, St Helens, Merseyside.
QUESTION The 19th-century mathematician George Biddell Airy wrote the paper On Certain Conditions Under Which Perpetual Motion Is Possible. What are these conditions?
ASTRONOMER royal George Biddell Airy’s 1829 paper is a failed attempt to find a mathematical proof for the concept of perpetual motion. He concluded it ‘was not possible with any laws of force with which we are acquainted’.
His paper is an investigation of under what conditions a particular mathematical model would lead to a situation where a ‘machine might move with uniform velocity, and might at the same time do work. Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues for ever in an unperturbed system’.
the scientific consensus is that perpetual motion in an isolated system violates the first and second laws of thermodynamics: the conservation of energy; and that as energy is transferred or transformed, more and more of it is wasted.
Airy’s many scientific achievements included improving the orbital theory of Venus and the Moon, producing a mathematical study of the rainbow and computing the density of the earth by swinging a pendulum in a deep mine.
in 1827, he made the first successful attempt to correct astigmatism in the human eye (his own) by using a cylindrical eyeglass lens. He was key in establishing Greenwich as the location of the Prime Meridian. Dr Michael Baines, Amersham, Bucks.