swastika
n.n. a symbol that looks like a cross with four arms that turn in a circle. In modern times, it is most often used to represent the Nazi party and the Holocaust.
n. a symbol consisting of a cross with four arms bent at right angles, typically arranged in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. Historically used in various cultures as a religious or decorative motif, it is now most widely associated with the Nazi regime and the atrocities of World War II.
The swastika is a powerful and controversial symbol.
The museum displays the swastika as a historical artifact while providing extensive context about its modern misuse.
While the swastika has ancient roots in Hindu and Buddhist iconography, its adoption by the Nazi party transformed it into a universally recognized emblem of extreme political violence and systemic racism.
Learned borrowing from Sanskrit स्वस्तिक (svastika), from सु- (su-, “good, well”) + अस्ति (asti), a verbal abstract of the root of the verb "to be", स्वस्ति (svasti) thus meaning "well-being" — and the diminutive suffix क (ka); hence "little thing associated with well-being", corresponding roughly to "lucky charm". First attestation in English in 1871, a Sanskritism that replaced the Grecian term gammadion. From 1932 onwards it often referred specifically to the version used by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (also called the "hooked cross", or German Hakenkreuz).