Re: The word "swastika" was mistranslated & created the "swastika myth"

rexy_at_ij.net
Date: 02/25/05 

Date: 25 Feb 2005 09:42:08 -0800

Please provide the Oxford dictionary info on swastika. The Oxford
English Dictionary includes "hakenkreuz" and it is below. Not that
it appears to state that "hakenkreuz" was used as an English word
in the Times in 1931. So hakenkreuz was a term that translators should
have used instead of Swastika.

     Hakenkreuz, hakenkreuz . [Ger.] The Nazi swastika. Also attrib.
 1931 _Times_ 23 Dec. 7/4 A large Nazi Hakenkreuz flag, `which can be
seen for
miles', flies from the tallest chimney. 1935 C. Isherwood _Mr. Norris
changes
Trains_ xi. 165 Hitler's negotiations with the Right had broken down;
the
Hakenkreuz was even flirting mildly with the Hammer and Sickle. 1966 M.
Albrand
_Door fell Shut_ xvi. 115 His eyes fell on a large hakenkreuz. To come
upon the
Nazi insignia so unexpectedly made Bronsky feel slightly sick. 1972
_Oxford
Times_ 28 July 9 Perhaps he [sc. Hitler] hoped the Hakenkreuz would
bring bad
luck to his enemies.

Translators do choose words, sometimes from multiple alternatives. My
topic is about the translation of the book by the leader of the
National Socialist German Workers' Party. Even to this day the word
swastika is clearly an "odd" or "foreign" sounding word to most people
in the West and all they know about it is its relationship to the
symbol. On the other hand, even to this day, the terms "hooked cross"
or "crooked cross" are not "odd" or "foreign" to most people in the
west, they are clear on their face, and especially so when discussing
the symbol used by the monstrous National Socialist German Workers
Party. All of my points are correct. The correct choice for the
translation was not swastika. The previous post by someone else
already conceded that I am correct that the term "crooked cross" was
the English term term used at that time (and so was "hooked cross").
The term swastika is still used to perpetuate a myth, the swastika
myth. http://rexcurry.net/swastikanews.html
And it slanders the word swastika and the bizarre myth that people
"over there" had something to do with inspiring the horrid National
Socialist German Workers' Party or their philosophy. No one should
defend that.

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