| 3,000 members of the Hitlerjugend (“Hitler Youth”) form a broken sun cross swastika, the symbol of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP (“National Socialist German Workers’ Party”) Deutsche Glaubensbewegung German Faith Movement. Closely associated with University of Tübingen professor Jakob Wilhelm Hauer (April 4, 1881 – February 18, 1962). The movement sought to move Germany away from Christianity towards a religion that was based on Germanic paganism and Nazi ideas. It’s likely this is a photograph of a rehearsal, due to the lack of fired torches, the center pyre isn’t lit, and there are few attendees in the audience. On August 27, 1933, while Reichskanzler (“Reich Chancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) visited the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg memorial with Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg (October 2, 1847 – August 2, 1934), thousands of Hitlerjugend marched past the Neue Wache (“New Watchhouse”), the Unknown Soldier Monument on the Unter der Linden in Berlin. Then they formed this Swastika, probably on the Tempelhof Feld. Hitler and Hindenburg flew to Niederwald Mountain above Ruedesheim on the Rhine, and addressed 30,000 Germans, mostly Saarlanders. Hitler assured them that Germany would never give up territorial claims on the Saar. That same week, a decree stripping German citizens abroad of their citizenship took effect. 33 people, writers, politicians, enemies of the Nazis, intellectuals, were named and their property in Germany was seized, leaving some of them destitute. The German Club in London posted their photos, with the slogan “Wenn ihr einen trefft, schlagt ihn tot!” (“If you hit one, kill him!”) | |
| Image Filename | wwii1766.jpg |
| Image Size | 81.16 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 700 x 433 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | World Wide Museum |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 27, 1933 |
| Location | Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof |
| City | Berlin |
| State or Province | Berlin |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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