Actually i think that the symbol used in WWII was an inverted swastika. I think i read about it in an article that had some supernatural/occult connotations, saying that the original was a positive symbol and they used an inverted one, etc etc.
To be honest though, it's a symbol that has been used by a myriad of civilisations in the past...native Americans, Mayan Indians, i think even ancient Greeks had it at some place right there with their meanders even though it wasn't that widespread.
Germany is a country that has managed to come to grips with the darkest pages of their history so efficiently, accepted its mistakes and tried really hard to repair the material and moral damage it caused in the past with above average results and in a small timeframe. I can't seem to find another country that was so up front about screaming "mea culpa" after less than a century of the deed and it's not just about their government, their people today are educated about the whole thing as well.
Contrast this with all the former colonial powers in Europe, the US and the Soviet Union. Did the Union Jack get banned because Hindus were killed in Ghandi's peaceful rallies by British troops? Did the US insignia get banned for dropping napalm (Vietnam), or cluster bombs (Balkans) on civilians? What about the French insignia for the atrocities in Algeria or the Belgian one due to Congo, or the Soviet one due to Afghanistan?
To me it seems a bit silly to get bogged down on a matter as small as the depiction of a symbol when you have managed to achieve so much. Swastikas in a neo-nazi rally in the streets will offend a lot of people, but maybe the law could cut some slack if the symbol was used for purposes of historical accuracy. I mean, these guys actually admitted their mistakes and educated themselves to prevent something similar in the future, which is more than most of the others have ever done. Banning the swastika from use
as a historical reference is like denying the existence of a symbol when you have admitted the existence of far more troublesome things that came behind it, like mass murder. It's a bit like showing the victim's body to the cops and admitting guilt and then hiding the murder weapon
As far as the game is concerned, i don't expect a european version to have it, because anything that contains it is illegal in Germany. That means apart from a Russian version, a US one and a european version they would have to release a separate German version as well. They'll probably choose to save themselves the necessary time for that, since it might also need a different publisher to do it.
11-20-2008, 11:34 PM
Hybrid Mode
