I would be surprised if this topic has not come up before. But I was wondering what people think about the lengths gone to cover up the swastika in some material directly referencing World War II.
Is this appropriate?
I don’t know. But as someone with quite an interest in the war - it feels a bit like censorship impacting quite a major piece of symbolism - semiotics as it were - of the war.
The swastika represents Nazism - to pretend that Germany became embroiled in WWII independent of Nazism is wrong. For the years 1933-45 Germany literally was Nazi Germany. Symbolised by the swastika - an emblem which insinuated it’s way into every facet of german culture - and was even grudgingly accepted by the Wermacht.
The Hammer and Sickle is a symbol with equally terrible (if opposite) political and philosophical implications - yet this is represented in the game and notably on the game box.
I have no objection to the current use of the Iron Cross symbol on the gameboard and National Control Markers. They were definitely major insignias of German Military Forces. But do object to the (to me) blatant way on many boxes there is the Russian, British, US, and Japanese national flags - and the German National Flag (circa 1940) is obviously obscured by a face or tank or whatever.
It reminds me of an instruction manual for a PC WWII flight simulator which had photographs in it which had been doctored to remove swastikas from Luftwaffe aeroplane tails! Standard markings of German WWII aircraft were that swastikas were on the tail fin - not according to some game makers however.
Nazism was evil. It was predicated on racial purity and the extermination of millions of people either directly or through overwork. It argued that this was ‘survival of the fittest’ (a term not coined by Darwin but by social darwinists much later) - and carried it forward as actual genocide. The Nazi war machine arose in Germany and spread blood and death across Europe, Africa and the Atlantic killing millions of people - Americans, Europeans and Asians. It’s symbol was the swastika.
I believe the swastika should be seen. We should never forget what it stood for.
My father believes A & A trivialises a terrible time in history (he thinks it is wrong to make such a game)- and while I agree with him to an extent- I play because I think it keeps people interested and brings in ‘new recruits’ who want to learn about this vitally important time in World History. But do us a favour - and don’t sanitise it too much.
I say put a swastika somewhere - they do on the covers of some WWII books or books about the workings of the third Reich. Let’s get real.
