Reductio Ad Hitlerum, Part III: When swastikas became a symbol of protest

In a curious turn of events, the swastika has become an anti-fascist protest meme.

Ad placed by British campaign group People vs Profiteers on an east London bus stop.

No adult I knew in the 80s and 90s would have been caught dead driving a Mercedes.

Even if they could afford one, Mercedes were “Nazi cars.” German products — even ones with little or no association to the Third Reich — were considered verboten. (Don’t get me started on German Shepherds; that one was always hard for me.)

But Mercedes carried a unique association for Holocaust survivors and their families — understandably. The Mercedes-Benz was not only Hitler’s car, and a symbol for high-ranking Nazi officials, but Daimler-Benz produced armaments for the war effort (military trucks, tanks, airplane motors) and horrifically conscripted approximately 46,000 slave labourers to manufacture them.

The association between Mercedes and Nazism faded over the years, especially as the car company accepted accountability for its role in the war effort and their use of slave labour. (Mercedes talks about its own history with Hitler and Nazism here. It paid out US$12 million to survivors and their descendants in 1998.) When I lived in Israel in the mid ‘90s, it shocked me to see so many Mercedes used as taxis.

Symbols and brands can evolve. But growing up with Holocaust survivors, the one symbol that appeared irrevocable was the swastika. The sight of it spray-painted on a wall never failed to strike terror in my chest. Its usage was nearly synonymous with a hate crime.

Now, I see it so often online that I barely flinch. It’s like a Banksy for the Bluesky crowd. It makes a visually gratifying image for socials. But with the meme-ification of Elon Musk and Tesla, the swastika appears to be evolving into a symbol of protest.

So how do we reconcile the meaning when a car company — associated with its CEO’s extremist ideology — is showered with the very symbol detractors accuse it of embodying?

Well, we don’t. But something is going to give, either Tesla image or the Nazi imagery that often accompanies it now.

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