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Nazi salute
Gesture used as a greeting in Nazi Germany / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute,[lower-alpha 1] or the Sieg Heil salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. The salute is performed by extending the right arm from the shoulder into the air with a straightened hand. Usually, the person offering the salute would say "Heil Hitler!" ('Hail Hitler!'),[lower-alpha 2] "Heil, mein Führer!" ('Hail, my leader!'), or "Sieg Heil!" ('Hail victory!').[lower-alpha 3] It was officially adopted by the Nazi Party in 1926, although it had been used within the party as early as 1921,[4] to signal obedience to the party's leader, Adolf Hitler, and to glorify the German nation (and later the German war effort). The salute was mandatory for civilians[5] but mostly optional for military personnel, who retained a traditional military salute until the failed assassination attempt on Hitler[6] on 20 July 1944.
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Use of this salute is illegal in modern-day Germany (Strafgesetzbuch section 86a), Austria and Slovakia.[7] The use of any Nazi phrases associated with the salute is also forbidden.[8] In Italy, it is a criminal offence only if used with the intent to "reinstate the defunct National Fascist Party", or to exalt or promote its ideology or members.[9] In Canada and most of Europe (including the Czech Republic,[10] France, the Netherlands, Sweden,[7] Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Russia), displaying the salute is not in itself a criminal offence, but constitutes hate speech if used for propagating the Nazi ideology.[11][12][7] Publicly performing the salute is also illegal in Australia under Commonwealth law unless for a religious, academic, educational, artistic, literary or scientific purpose.[13]