MovieChat Forums > The Widow from Chicago (1930) Discussion > Swastikas on Swifty's Suitcase

Swastikas on Swifty's Suitcase

posted 12 years ago by cowgoesmoo
3 replies | jump to latest

In the opening minutes, we see a man (identified as Swifty) jump off a train and leave his suitcase behind. The suitcase has some rather large swastikas on it and it makes a reappearance midway through the film. However, this film was released in 1930, three years before Hitler took power.

The significance is never explained and there are no Nazis. I'm guessing that the movie makers simply wanted something distinctive to let us know that it's the same suitcase in both scenes and that the swastika had yet to become notorious.

Anyone know for sure?

[–] rfman45 12 years ago

Swastikas were used as symbols by american indians and other races to denote, among other things, good fortune and eternity long before Nazis came on the scene.

[–] iwals 12 years ago

The Nazis adopted, and ruined, the Swastika as their symbol. In 1930 America, few had even heard of the Nazis. As the previous poster said, it had previously been used by other cultures. In 1930, it would have been no more significant than having four-leaf clovers on your "grip."

Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.

[–] jonkennedy 7 years ago

In addition to what others have said here, the U.S. Army's 45th Infantry Division originally had a yellow swastika as their shoulder patch insignia from the 1920's into the '30s. It wasn't officially changed to another Native American symbol, the Thunderbird, until 1939. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_Infantry_Division_(United_States) (History/Inter-war Years section)