THE VON ROSEN CROSS

Adolf Hitler made the swastika the symbol of his power and prominence.It doomed this unfortunate symbol forever. But it was not Hitler who originally used the swastika as an emblem.
It was a Swedish count- Eric von Rosen who did.

I learned about Count Eric Von Rosen because my younger brother is married to a Swedish lady who happens to be his granddaughter (her father being Egil Von Rosen, son of Eric ).
Count Eric von Rosen was born in Stockholm ,Sweden on 02 June, 1879 and died on 25 April, 1948. He was an honorary doctor,patron,explorer and ethnographer.He married Mary Frock and they had six children (one of whom was Egil, my brother's father-in-law).
Hermann Goring, Hitler's ill-fated right hand man, became Eric's brother in law because Goring married Eric's wife's sister, Carin von Kantzow.
Goring spent many days in Rockelstad Castle, the ancestral home of the von Rosens. Here, Goring saw the broken cross emblem that Eric used as his own personal mark.It was a sign of good luck for the Vikings.Von Rosen originally saw the symbol on rune stones in Gotland.

I am quoting this from Wikipedia:

"Knowing that the symbol(swastika/broken cross) signified good luck for the Vikings, he utilized the symbol and had it carved into all his luggage when going on an expedition to South America in 1901. Being a friend of Finland, he gave the newly independent state an aircraft, which signified the beginning of the Finnish Air Force. The aircraft, a license manufactured Morane-Saulnier MS Parasol/Thulin D, was marked with this his sign, a blue swastika on a white background. The Finnish Air Force adopted this as their national insignia.
Göring had noted the swastika during his stay in Sweden and at von Rosens' castle (forged into a metal piece at the fire place). However, the swastika of the German Nazi party had been adopted already in 1920, two years before Göring met Adolf Hitler".

Count Egil's home in Orevagen ,Sweden was sold a few month's ago and my brother and sister in law discovered many memorabilia there of Count Eric ,Goring and Adolf Hitler while packing all the stuffs in Egil's mini library.They noted that Eric had been using the broken cross or swastika symbol 20 years before Hitler adopted it as his own.They saw pictures of him circa 1900s already wearing this emblem.

Hitler made a mockery of the symbol which Count Eric von Rosen proudly carried as his own. Unfortunately for the Swastika, Hitler is the more famous (or infamous) person..
So no one now ,in his or her right mind, would use this symbol.It is one of the most misunderstood symbols in the world, thanks to Adolf Hitler.