NAZI SALUTE

Evening Star, Issue 22004, 13 April 1935, Page 20

NAZI SALUTE

TOKEN OF SUBMISSION Dr A. S. Yahuda, the distinguished Biblical scholar, writing to the editor of the ‘ Daily Telegraph,’ London, 'states:— Sir, —In my lecture before tbe Royal Asiatic Society on the Joseph story in the light of Egyptian monuments, which was reported in the ‘ Daily Telegraph,’ T showed a slide depicting notables saluting the Vizier by raising the arm, in the same manner as the Fascists and Nazjs salute to-day. I have since received several letters from correspondents eager to know whether there is a real connection between these two salutes. “ The Nazis, it will be recalled, declare that this salute is one most appropriate for the scions of ‘ True Ayran ’ nobility, as the raising of the arm is a,symbol of manliness, courage, and rifctership. It may be of interest to ifiiuduce here one of the many Egypof soldiers and royal officers saluting the Pharoah. “ The Fascist salute is, consciously or unconsciously, an exact reproduction of the ancient Roman salute, which can be traced farther hack to the Greeks, Now, as the Greeks and Romans were for many centuries in close contact with the Egyptians, and took over from them many a custom and many an idea, it cannot lie far off the mark to assume that this gesture of saluting also has been adopted by them from the Egyptians. ,

“ The raising of the arm was originally a gesture of defenceless and unconditional submission. It was the first move of the defeated warrior before the vindictive and brutal conqueror, by which he showed his empty hands and implored his life. It became thereafter also a gesture of_ adoration and acclamation of gods, kings, and high personages. ' “ Thus the Nazi-Fascist salute has nothing Nordic or 1 Aryan ’ in it, but is of Egyptian origin and has a negroid stamp. Nor is there anything virile or heroic about it. Actually it was a manifestation of abject and slavish submissiveness imposed by tyrants. “ The same confusion of mind arises in the case of the swastika, which is proclaimed to-day as the most sacred ‘ Aryan ’ symbol. “ The oldest traceable clue leads to Eastern Asia, whence the _ swastika probably spread to other Asiatic and African countries, and later to Europe. It appears as a decorative design in ancient Egypt, and even figures on old Jewish ceremonial objects and in Palestinian synagogues of the first century of the Christian era. “Nothing is more _ characteristic of the historical perversion found in the spirit and the of Nazi leaders than the representation of a servile salute as an authentic gesture of lordship and racial supremacy belonging to the Germanic peoples, and the adoption of an ornament which was of common use among Jews and Christians as the emblem of a power which proclaims its ideal to be the annihilation of the Jewish people.”