When Being a Member of the Swastika Club Was a Good Thing

Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons

 Long before Adolph Hitler adopted the swastika as the symbol for his Nazi party, it was a symbol of spirituality in Eastern cultures and a symbol of good luck in the West.

American Farmer, by Solon L. Goode. 1907, page 101. 

Many different groups adopted the swastika as a symbol, including one here in Medina County.

Finding a mention of a Swastika Club meeting in an old newspaper was shocking and I had to find out more about the group.

Medina Gazette, 29 March 1935, page 1.

Most of the newspaper articles about the club were just announcements of meetings or events like luncheons and banquets. The club's purpose was elusive.

Articles like this one did little to expose the club's purpose.
Medina Gazette 5 March 1937, page 3.

Articles like the following one, from a 1917 issue of Ladies Home Journal seem to indicate that it was a woman's club:

Ladies Home Journal January 1917 page 52.

But that was a national organization. The Medina club could have a different purpose.

Finally, this article from 1935 sheds some light on the Medina group:

Medina Gazette 12 March 1935 page 1.

So the Medina Swastika Club was a "girls'" business club loosely affiliated with the YWCA.

The articles in the digitized edition of the Medina newspapers only span the 1930's with a peak of articles in 1935. No one article showed the beginnings of the group, but this one tells what happened to them:

Medina Gazette 3 March 1939 page 2.

Because of the chaos as World War II commenced in Europe and because the Nazi Party had adopted the symbol, the ladies changed the name of their group. Bravo, Ladies!

Eastern cultures sometimes still use the swastika as a spiritual symbol, which can cause confusion among Western cultures who view it as a symbol of the terrors and genocide of the Nazi regime.

SOURCES:

• American Farmer, by Solon L. Goode. 1907, page 101.
• "File:Four-Swastika collage(transparent).png; Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, 2017.
• Ladies Home Journal January 1917 page 52.
• Medina Gazette
• 12 March 1935 page 1.
• 29 March 1935, page 1
• 5 March 1937, page 3.
• 3 March 1939 page 2.
• "Swastika" Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2018.