Lutherans Meet Under the Swastika

November 15, 1933: More than a thousand deaconesses, Lutheran nuns, meet under the swastika. The Bishop of Berlin in his speech: "Permit me to compare our sisters with the SA!" (a paramilitary Nazi troop). (Though it may be coincidental, even the layout of this meeting, at least on this photograph, seems to resemble a huge swastika. This emblem of the Nazis probably originated in the swastika ornaments adorning the portal of the monastery of Lambach where Hitler had been a member of the choir as a boy). Contemporary photograph [KS]