Hate on Display™ Hate Symbols Database

 

This database provides an overview of many of the symbols most frequently used by a variety of white supremacist groups and movements, as well as some other types of hate groups.

26 Results

Totenkopf

Hate Symbol
Totenkopf
ALTERNATE NAMES: Death's Head"Totenkopf" is German for "death's head" or skull and typically refers to a skull-and-crossbones image.  During the Nazi era, Hitler's Schutzstaffel (SS) adopted one particular Totenkopf image as a symbol.  Among other uses, it became the symbol of the SS-Totenkopfverbande (one of the original three branches of the SS, along with the Algemeine SS and the Waffen SS), whose purpose was to guard the concentration camps.  Many original members of this…
ALTERNATE NAMES: Death's Head
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Volksfront

Hate Symbol
Volksfront
Volksfront is a hybrid racist skinhead gang/neo-Nazi group that started in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s.
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Volksfront Flag

Hate Symbol
Volksfront Flag
Volksfront is a hybrid racist skinhead gang/neo-Nazi group that started in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s.
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Volksfront (hand sign)

Hate Symbol
Volksfront (hand sign)
Members of the white supremacist group Volksfront have used several handsigns to represent their gang. A common one-handed sign features the fingers of the right hand divided into a "V" shape, often held over the chest. A two-handed sign uses one hand to make a "V" shape (using two or four fingers) and the other hand to make the shape of the letter "F."
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Wolfsangel

Hate Symbol
Wolfsangel
ALTERNATE NAMES: Wolf's Hook, DopplehakenThe Wolfsangel is an ancient runic symbol that was believed to be able to ward off wolves. Historically, it appeared in Germany in many places, ranging from guidestones on the sides of roads to heraldic use in the coats of arms of various towns; there is even a German city called Wolfsangel. Along with many other runic symbols, Nazi Germany appropriated the Wolfsangel. It appeared as part of the divisional insignia of several Waffen-SS units, including…
ALTERNATE NAMES: Wolf's Hook, Dopplehaken
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Zyklon B

Hate Symbol
Zyklon B
Zyklon B was the name of the sodium-cyanide-based gas used to kill over a million victims, most of them Jews, in the death camps constructed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Because of its association with killing Jews, Zyklon B has been adopted as a symbol by modern-day white supremacists, who often use it to make sick jokes about killing Jews. Additional Images:
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Submit a Hate Symbol to ADL at hate-symbols@adl.org

All the symbols depicted here must be evaluated in the context in which they appear. Few symbols represent just one idea or are used exclusively by one group. For example, the Confederate Flag is a symbol that is frequently used by white supremacists but which also has been used by people and groups that are not racist. Similarly, other symbols in this database may be significant to people who are not extreme or racist. The descriptions here point out significant multiple meanings but may not be able to relay every possible meaning of a particular symbol.

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