11-12-2006, 03:07 AM
Quote:A swatika in WW1???? That's a bit before it's time, right? The Germans did not use the symbol before the nazis.
It was a very popular good-luck charm in the late-19th early 20th centuries, particularly amongst aviators (the first American aviatrix, Harriet Quimby, wore one as an amulet around her neck... didn't save her from falling out of her aircraft over Boston Harbour, though...) and a number of German pilots flew with it on their aircraft (Werner Voß being perhaps the best-known on his Albatros III) and only came to bear a more sinister meaning with its adoption by the Nazis. And yes, there were high-scoring Jewish pilots in the Luftstreitkräfte, Frankl springs to mind, but they were 'airbrushed' out of later history books for fairly obvious (and to our minds reprehensible) reasons (although one high-scoring non-Jewish pilot, Jacobs, went on to be a vociferous opponent of the Nazis' anti-Jewish policies).
Mike Bishop
