Nazi salute
[8] In Italy, it is a criminal offence only if used with the intent to "reinstate the defunct National Fascist Party", or to exalt or promote its ideology or members.
[9] In Canada and most of Europe (including the Czech Republic,[10] France, the Netherlands, Sweden,[7] Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Russia), displaying the salute is not in itself a criminal offence, but constitutes hate speech if used for propagating the Nazi ideology.
Hitler took both the "Heil" greeting – which was popularly used in his "hometown" of Linz when he was a boy[18] – and the title of "Führer" for the head of the Nazi Party from Schönerer,[17][19] whom he admired.
[31] In 1919, when he led the occupation of Fiume, d'Annunzio used the style of salute depicted in the film as a neo-Imperialist ritual and the Italian Fascist Party quickly adopted it.
On 11 March 1945, less than two months before the capitulation of Nazi Germany, a memorial for the dead of the war was held in Marktschellenberg, a small town near Hitler's Berghof residence.
[44] The British historian Ian Kershaw remarks that the power of the Führer cult and the "Hitler Myth" had vanished, which is evident from this report: When the leader of the Wehrmacht unit at the end of his speech called for a Sieg Heil for the Führer, it was returned neither by the Wehrmacht present, nor by the Volkssturm, nor by the spectators of the civilian population who had turned up.
[44]The Swing Youth (German: Swingjugend) were a group of middle-class teenagers who consciously separated themselves from Nazism and its culture, greeting each other with "Swing-Heil!"
[48] Under a decree issued by Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick on 13 July 1933 (one day before the ban on all non-Nazi parties), all German public employees were required to use the salute.
[5] It stipulated that "anyone not wishing to come under suspicion of behaving in a consciously negative fashion will therefore render the Hitler Greeting,"[5] and its use quickly spread as people attempted to avoid being labelled as a dissident.
For example, the Portuguese Consul General was beaten by members of the Sturmabteilung for remaining seated in a car and not saluting a procession in Hamburg.
[54] For example, a memo dated 23 July 1934 sent to local police stations stated: "There have been reports of traveling vaudeville performers training their monkeys to give the German Greeting.
"[54] The salute soon became part of everyday life, a historically unique phenomenon that politicised all communication in Germany for twelve years, superseding all prior forms of greeting, such as "Grüß Gott" ("Hello"), "Guten Tag" ("Good day"), and "Auf Wiederseh(e)n" ("Goodbye").
[55] Small metal signs that reminded people to use the Hitler salute were displayed in public squares and on telephone poles and street lights throughout Germany.
[55] The salute was required of all persons passing the Feldherrnhalle in Munich, site of the climax of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, which the government had made into a shrine to the Nazi dead; so many pedestrians avoided this mandate by detouring through the small Viscardigasse behind that the passage acquired the nickname "Dodgers' Alley" (Drückebergergasse).
The whole ritual was performed with such self-conscious dignity and in such silence that hardly a word was whispered while Ribbentrop made his exhibitionistic acquaintance with the guests present.
Because refusing to salute Hitler was considered a crime, Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested, and their children attending school were expelled, detained and separated from their families.
[66] A compromise edict from the Reich Defense Ministry, issued on 19 September 1933, required the Hitler salute of soldiers and uniformed civil servants while singing the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" and national anthem, and in non-military encounters both within and outside the Wehrmacht (for example, when greeting members of the civilian government).
Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, head of the Armed Forces, had expressed a desire to standardize the salute across all organizations in Germany.
A giant figure representing right-wing capitalists stands behind Hitler, placing money in his hand, suggesting "backhand" donations.
Run in the Evening Standard on 3 July 1934, it shows Hitler with a smoking gun grimacing at terrified SA (Sturmabteilung) men with their hands up.
[79] One case involved Prince Ernst August of Hanover who was brought to court after using the gesture as a commentary on the behavior of an unduly zealous airport baggage inspector.
[79] On 23 November 2007, the Amtsgericht Cottbus sentenced Horst Mahler to six months of imprisonment without parole for having, according to his own claims, ironically performed the Hitler salute when reporting to prison for a nine-month term a year earlier.
The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, a South African neo-Nazi organization known for its militant advocacy of white separatism,[84][85] has espoused brown uniforms as well as Nazi German-esque flags, insignia, and salutes at meetings and public rallies.
[86] Hundreds of supporters in 2010 delivered straight-arm salutes outside the funeral for AWB leader Eugène Terre'Blanche, who was murdered by two black farm workers over an alleged wage dispute.
[90] On 18 July 2015, The Sun published an image of the British Royal Family from private film shot in 1933 or 1934, showing Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen, then a young girl) and the Queen Mother both performing a Nazi salute, accompanied by Edward VIII, taken from 17 seconds of home footage (also released by The Sun).
[96] American white supremacist Richard B. Spencer drew considerable media attention in the weeks following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, where, at a National Policy Institute conference, he quoted from Nazi propaganda and denounced Jews.
[100][101][102] In August 2021, a Michigan man named Paul Marcum gave the Nazi salute during a dispute over mask mandates and was fired from his job as a tennis instructor after Birmingham Public Schools announced that it would not tolerate any acts of racism, disrespect, violence, or inequitable treatment of any person.
"[107] On 20 August 2019, the school district announced that it was reopening the investigation into the incident because new photographs and another video has surfaced of the event, along with "new allegations" and "new claims".
[109] On 1 February 2022, one of the pupils from Charles H. Best Middle School in North York, a district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, performed a Nazi salute to a Jewish student while another who allegedly built a swastika, which led the Toronto District School Board to launch an investigation, and condemnation by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
[122] Various media outlets, including the Associated Press, reported that regardless of what Musk meant, his gesture was widely embraced by right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis.
