After the end of World War II, the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler's dictatorship shocked the world.<\/p>\n
Images of the extermination camps became a stark symbol of the crimes of National Socialism. Therefore, after the war, the Allies carried out a denazification campaign in Germany<\/strong> to prevent the resurgence of the totalitarian movement that had inspired those crimes. All monuments from the nazi era were either demolished or stripped of their swastikas<\/strong>, the emblem of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).<\/p>\n Today, it is very difficult to see a monument with a swastika in Germany.<\/strong> In fact, that symbol is illegal in the country and is classified as a crime under Article 86a of the German Criminal Code. However, in a forest in Emsland, in northwestern Germany, there is still a nazi monument that retains its swastikas<\/strong>, although they are visibly chipped away. It is a kind of altar that includes a swastika on each side (both covered with a black diamond of paint) and an emblem of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labor Service)<\/strong>, an organization created by Hitler's dictatorship in 1935 with the theoretical aim of employing Germany's numerous unemployed in construction projects.<\/p>\n In reality, the Reichsarbeitsdienst ended up being a means of indoctrination in nazi ideals<\/strong>, using highly militarized labor camps where nazi symbols were part of daily life immersed in that totalitarian ideology and which included neo-pagan rituals that perhaps explain this curious altar<\/strong>. The German YouTube channel Simply_Adventure<\/a> has published a video showing this monument<\/strong> and explaining what was done in this labor camp, of which few traces remain (the video is in German; you can activate automatic English subtitles in the player's bottom bar):<\/p>\n
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