Having read the title of this piece, I can say with some confidence that the first word ‘Swastika’ brought immediately to your mind’s eye, the stereotypical swastika that Hitler used for his Nazi Party. The swastika that represented hate, discrimination and evokes revulsion today in the 21st century. The swastika now is possibly the most powerful and universal symbol of hate known to man. However, what is often forgotten is that the swastika was a symbol of peace and tranquillity until Hitler appropriated it. The earliest known depiction of a swastika dates back to over 15,000 years ago. It was first discovered where current day Ukraine is now. It was a depiction of a bird carved out of the tusk of a mammoth with various designs also etched onto the tusk, including the swastika. Meaning Palaeolithic humans were carving them onto the tusks of what is now an extinct animal. Swastikas are found on Ogham stones in Ireland. Native Americans with no contact outside of Native America had swastikas present on their native designs, they used them to decorate personal items. Buddhism uses them. In Buddhism a swastika represents eternity and reincarnation. The Swastika is ubiquitous as a design, in pretty much every country in the world. Hitler came to power in Germany and realised the swastika was sufficiently iconic for him to use and irrevocably changed the outlook and perception of the swastika forever.
Interestingly, most swastikas around the world look the same. There have been fifteen millennia of carvings, etchings, drawings and paintings and all, for the most part are very similar. All easily identifiable. All instantly recognisable as a swastika. Hitler’s version too, was instantly recognisable. However, Hitler’s was different. Hitler’s was more striking. It was more imposing. The reason for this was that his version was on a blood-red background with a jet-black swastika laid on top of a snow-white disk. For 15,000 years every single swastika was uniform, until Hitler adopted his design in 1925 for his Nazi Party. You can travel anywhere in the world, search every nook and every cranny. You will not find any other swastika that resembles Hitler’s version, except for one place. Dublin.
In 1912 a company was founded in Dublin called the ‘Swastika Laundry’ it was exactly that, a laundry and dry-cleaning service, situated in Ballsbridge, Dublin. They too used a swastika as their company logo. Almost identical to Hitler’s version. There was just a slight difference. Their logo was on a blood-red background, with a snow-white swastika laid on a jet-black disc. Coincidence?
Furthermore, the company vehicles for the Swastika Laundry were blood red, electric vans. They were using electric vehicles in 1912 to transport laundry! Over 100 years before Elon Musk gave us the Tesla Roadster and Nissan gave us the Leaf. But I digress. The electric van becomes an integral link in the chain as to whether this is possibly the most bizarre of all coincidences. A young and in love couple, living in Dublin might give us the answer we are looking for.
Bridget is a young girl from Dublin. She is 17-years-old and just finished secondary school. She makes plans to go to see a horse show at the RDS in Dublin, one weekend in 1909. She meets a boy wearing a dangling gold chain and a Homburg hat. His name is Alois and he is from the continent. He is handsome and charming. Bridget is besotted with Alois. The feeling is mutual and they begin to date.
Alois tells Bridget that he comes from wealthy family of hoteliers and he himself is a hotelier touring Ireland and Europe. They go on dates to the National Gallery and various locations throughout Dublin and soon fall in love. Bridget is quoted as saying:
“I cannot deny that this stranger with his fine foreign manners made a great impression.”
Alois was indeed handsome and charming. But he wasn’t telling the truth. He was not from a wealthy family and he was not a hotelier touring Ireland and Europe. He was a waiter in the Shelbourne Hotel in Ballsbridge. Alois’s surname is Hitler. He is the older brother of Adolf.
Alois Hitler worked as a waiter in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. As a waiter, one of his main duties would have been to collect dirty tablecloths and laundry throughout the entire hotel. Meaning without question he would have been familiar with the Swastika Laundry Company. Throughout his day he would have come into contact with the Swastika Laundry on numerous occasions. It is possible that he would have had to drop off laundry and tablecloths and so on to the door of the business itself. So, Adolf Hitler’s brother, who was working in the Shelbourne would have been very familiar with the Swastika Laundry vans. It is fair to assume he would have known some of the company’s employees. He would have seen those blood-red vans, with the jet-black swastika laid on the snow-white disc, at his place of work every single day.
It is also fair to assume that he would have spoken to his brother via phone call from Dublin to Germany during this time and would have brought up in conversation the very unusual electric vans that were being used by a local laundry company. Electric vans that would have stood out like a sore thumb because of their colour and their unique electric engines. Particularly when the majority of other vehicles would have been petrol.
Can we assume that Adolf asked his brother to describe the eccentric electric vans? Just over a decade later we have the iconic swastika we are familiar with today. The swastika that epitomises Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party. Is this all too much of a coincidence?
In Adolf’s book Mein Kampf written in 1925, he wrote:
“I myself meanwhile after enumerable attempts had laid down a final form, a flag with a red background, a white disk and a black swastika in the middle after long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika.”
Bridget Dowling married Alois Hitler. They had a son. They named him William Paddy Hitler. Bridget Hitler’s parents did not approve of the relationship and the couple moved to Liverpool. Bridget Dowling Hitler wrote a memoir of her supposed encounters with the Fuhrer entitled ‘My Brother-in-Law Adolf.’
Her most controversial contention is that Adolf Hitler came to stay with her and Alois in their flat in Liverpool just before World War One. She claimed that Adolf visited them in England to avoid conscription into the Austrian army. The Dubliner described young Adolf in her memoir as a “pale unsteady-eyed lad’’, who sat in her kitchen and played with her two-year-old baby.
The relationship between Bridget and Alois was shortlived and he moved back to Germany in 1914. He fought in World War One alongside his brother. After the war was over he had a message sent to Bridget to tell her he had died in service. He later remarried and was charged with bigamy.
When he reached adulthood Paddy Hitler showed himself to be an opportunist. Patrick travelled over to Germany to exploit his connections after Hitler became Chancellor. The pair apparently had a stormy relationship, but uncle Adolf found Paddy work in a bank. He later became a car salesman for Opel. He began to ape his uncle’s mannerisms, including the characteristic Fuhrer’s pose with crossed arms. He even grew a similar moustache. Paddy Hitler was in demand at society dinner parties in Germany. Adolf soon found him to be an embarrassment, however, and described him as his “loathsome nephew’’. Patrick was reported to have made veiled threats to expose Adolf’s Jewish ancestry, and demanded a more senior job.
Flying into a rage with his nephew, Hitler demanded that he become a German citizen if he wanted a more senior position. Fearing a trap, Paddy then fled Germany. Both he and his mother Bridget emigrated to the United States. Remarkably, he joined the US Navy in 1944 and fought against Nazi Germany. He saw action and received a shrapnel wound in the leg. He received an honourable discharge. Having cashed in on the Hitler name before and during World War Two, Bridget and Paddy then decided to drop out of public view completely. They vanished and assumed new identities as the Stuart-Houston family in Long Island, New York. Bridget Hitler died in 1969 and her son Paddy passed away suddenly in 1987. They are buried alongside each other in Long Island. Neither grave gives any indication of its occupants past.
The Swastika Laundry Logo and the Nazi Party Emblem
Coincidence or not? You decide.
"Kwa kuwa nimesoma kichwa cha kipande hiki, naweza kusema kwa uhakika kwamba neno la kwanza ""Swastika"" lilileta mara moja kwa akili yako, swastika ya kawaida ambayo Hitler alitumia kwa Chama chake cha Nazi." Swastika ya kwanza ya dunia ilitengenezwa kwa ajili ya chuki, ubaguzi na chuki ya watu wa karne ya 21. Sasa swastika yaweza kuwa ishara yenye nguvu zaidi na ya ulimwengu wote ya chuki inayojulikana na mwanadamu. Hata hivyo, mara nyingi watu husahau kwamba swastika ilikuwa ishara ya amani na utulivu hadi Hitler alipoichukua. Picha ya kwanza ya swastika ilitolewa zaidi ya miaka 15,000 iliyopita. Iligunduliwa kwa mara ya kwanza mahali ambapo sasa ni Ukraine. Picha hiyo ilionyesha ndege aliyetengenezwa kwa kutumia mdomo wa mamati na picha mbalimbali zilizochongwa kwenye mdomo huo, kutia ndani alama ya swastika. Watu wa Paleolithic walichonga kwenye nywele za wanyama waliopotea. Swastikas hupatikana kwenye mawe ya Ogham huko Ireland. Wenyeji wa Amerika wa asili ambao hawakuwa na mawasiliano nje ya Amerika ya Asili walikuwa na swastika kwenye miundo yao ya asili, waliitumia kupamba vitu vya kibinafsi. Dini ya Kibuddha inawatumia. Katika Ubudha swastika huwakilisha umilele na kuzaliwa upya. Swastika ni muundo unaopatikana kila mahali, katika karibu kila nchi ulimwenguni. Hitler alipofika madarakani, aliona kwamba swastika ilikuwa na maana ya kutosha kwa ajili yake na hivyo akabadilisha mtazamo na maoni ya swastika milele. Jambo la kupendeza ni kwamba, alama nyingi za msalaba ulimwenguni pote zinafanana. Kwa miaka elfu kumi na tano, michoro, michoro, michoro na michoro ya kale imeonekana kuwa ya kawaida. Yote yanaweza kutambuliwa kwa urahisi. Yote yanatambuliwa mara moja kuwa swastika. Toleo la Hitler pia, lilitambuliwa mara moja. Hata hivyo, Hitler alikuwa tofauti. Ya Hitler ilikuwa yenye kuvutia zaidi. Ilikuwa yenye kuvutia zaidi. Sababu ya hilo ilikuwa kwamba tafsiri yake ilikuwa juu ya mandhari nyekundu ya damu yenye swastika nyeusi iliyowekwa juu ya diski nyeupe kama theluji. Kwa miaka 15,000, swastika zote zilikuwa sawa, hadi Hitler alipopitisha muundo wake mwaka 1925 kwa ajili ya Chama chake cha Nazi. Unaweza kusafiri popote ulimwenguni, ukitafuta katika kila kona na kila sehemu. Huwezi kupata swastika nyingine yoyote inayofanana na toleo la Hitler, isipokuwa mahali pengine. Jiji la Dublin. Kampuni ya kufulia nguo ya Swastika ilianzishwa mnamo 1912 huko Dublin, na ilikuwa na ofisi ya kufulia nguo na kusafisha nguo huko Ballsbridge, Dublin. Wao pia walitumia swastika kuwa nembo ya kampuni yao. Karibu sawa na toleo la Hitler. Kulikuwa na tofauti ndogo tu. Nembo yao ilikuwa kwenye mandhari nyekundu kama damu, ikiwa na swastika nyeupe kama theluji iliyowekwa juu ya diski nyeusi kama theluji. Je, ni bahati mbaya? Isitoshe, magari ya kampuni ya Swastika Laundry yalikuwa magari ya umeme yenye rangi nyekundu ya damu. Mwaka 1912 gari la umeme lilitumiwa kusafirisha nguo. Mwaka wa 2020 Elon Musk alitoa Tesla Roadster na Nissan Leaf. Lakini mimi kugeuka. Gari la umeme linakuwa kiungo muhimu katika mlolongo kama hii inaweza kuwa ya ajabu zaidi ya matukio yote. Wenzi wa ndoa wachanga na wenye upendo, wanaoishi Dublin wanaweza kutupa jibu tunalotafuta. Bridget ni msichana mchanga kutoka Dublin. Ana umri wa miaka 17 na amemaliza shule ya sekondari. Mwaka 1909 alipanga kwenda kwenye maonyesho ya farasi huko Dublin. Anakutana na mvulana aliyevaa mnyororo wa dhahabu na kofia ya Homburg. Jina lake ni Alois na anatoka bara. Yeye ni mrembo na mwenye kuvutia. Bridget amependezwa sana na Alois. Hisia hizo zinapatana na wanaanza kuchumbiana. Alois anamwambia Bridget kwamba anatoka katika familia tajiri ya hoteli na yeye mwenyewe ni hoteli anayetembelea Ireland na Ulaya. Wanaenda kwenye tarehe kwa National Gallery na maeneo mbalimbali kote Dublin na hivi karibuni kuanguka katika upendo. "Bridget alisema: ""Siwezi kukataa kwamba mgeni huyu na tabia zake nzuri za kigeni alifanya hisia kubwa. """ Lakini hakuwa akisema kweli. Hakuwa kutoka familia tajiri na hakuwa mmiliki wa hoteli aliyetembelea Ireland na Ulaya. Alikuwa mhudumu katika Hoteli ya Shelbourne huko Ballsbridge. Jina la familia ya Alois ni Hitler. Yeye ni ndugu mkubwa wa Adolf. Alois Hitler alifanya kazi akiwa mhudumu katika Hoteli ya Shelbourne huko Dublin. Kama mhudumu, mojawapo ya kazi zake kuu ilikuwa kukusanya vitambaa vya meza na nguo za kufulia katika hoteli nzima. Maana bila shaka angekuwa na ufahamu wa Kampuni ya Kuosha nguo ya Swastika. Katika siku zake zote angekuwa amekutana na Swastika Laundry mara nyingi. Inawezekana kwamba alilazimika kutoa nguo na vitambaa vya meza na kadhalika kwenye mlango wa biashara yenyewe. Ndugu ya Adolf Hitler, ambaye alikuwa akifanya kazi katika Shelbourne, alikuwa na ufahamu wa magari ya Swastika Laundry. Ni haki kudhani kwamba angeweza kuwa alijua baadhi ya wafanyakazi wa kampuni. "Alikuwa ameona magari hayo ya rangi nyekundu ya damu, yenye alama ya ""swastika"" nyeusi kama theluji, kwenye mahali pake pa kazi kila siku." "Hata hivyo, ni sawa kudhani kwamba alikuwa amezungumza na ndugu yake kupitia simu kutoka Dublin hadi Ujerumani wakati huo na angezungumzia ""vani za umeme zisizo za kawaida"" ambazo zilikuwa zikitumiwa na kampuni ya kufulia nguo ya eneo hilo." Magari ya umeme ambayo yangekuwa yameonekana kama kidole kikuu kwa sababu ya rangi yao na injini zao za umeme za kipekee. Hasa wakati wengi wa magari mengine yangekuwa ya petroli. Je, twaweza kudhani kwamba Adolf alimwomba ndugu yake aeleze jinsi magari hayo ya umeme yalivyokuwa? Baada ya miaka kumi tu, tulipata alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama ya alama. Swastika inayofananisha Ujerumani ya Nazi na Chama cha Nazi cha Adolf Hitler. Je, haya yote ni mambo ya kushangaza sana? "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika kitabu chake cha Mein Kampf, ""Mimi mwenyewe, baada ya majaribio mengi, nilikuwa nimeweka fomu ya mwisho, bendera yenye msingi mwekundu, diski nyeupe na swastika nyeusi katikati, baada ya majaribio marefu, pia nilipata uwiano dhahiri kati ya ukubwa wa bendera na ukubwa wa diski nyeupe, pamoja na umbo na unene wa swastika.""" Walikuwa na mwana. Walimwita William Paddy Hitler. Wazazi wa Bridget Hitler hawakukubali uhusiano huo na wenzi hao walihamia Liverpool. "Bridget Dowling Hitler aliandika kumbukumbu ya kukutana kwake na Fuhrer, ""My Brother-in-Law Adolf,"" na alidai kwamba Adolf Hitler alikuja kukaa naye na Alois katika nyumba yao huko Liverpool kabla ya Vita Kuu ya Kwanza ya Dunia." Alidai kwamba Adolf aliwatembelea huko Uingereza ili kuepuka kuandikishwa katika jeshi la Austria. "Mwanamke huyo wa Dublin alielezea Adolf mchanga katika kumbukumbu zake kama ""mvulana mweupe mwenye macho yasiyo na utulivu"" ambaye alikaa jikoni mwake na kucheza na mtoto wake wa miaka miwili." Baada ya kuolewa, alirudi Ujerumani mwaka 1914. Alipigana katika Vita vya Kwanza vya Ulimwengu pamoja na ndugu yake. Baada ya vita kumalizika alimtumia ujumbe Bridget kumwambia kwamba alikuwa amekufa katika utumishi. Baadaye aliolewa tena na kushtakiwa kwa sababu ya ndoa mbili. Alipofikia umri wa watu wazima Paddy Hitler alijionyesha kuwa mpenda-faida. Patrick alisafiri kwenda Ujerumani ili kutumia uhusiano wake baada ya Hitler kuwa Kansela. Yaonekana wenzi hao walikuwa na uhusiano mgumu, lakini mjomba Adolf alimpatia Paddy kazi katika benki. Baadaye akawa muuzaji wa magari kwa Opel. Alianza kuiga tabia za mjomba wake, kutia ndani tabia ya Fuhrer ya kushikilia mikono. Hata alitoa ndevu kama hizo. Paddy Hitler alikuwa akitafutwa katika karamu za chakula cha jioni za jamii nchini Ujerumani. Hata hivyo, upesi Adolf aliona kwamba alikuwa mtu mwenye kuaibisha, na akamfafanua kuwa "mjomba wake mwenye kuchukiza". Patrick aliripotiwa kuwa amefanya vitisho vya kufichwa ili kufunua ukoo wa Kiyahudi wa Adolf, na alidai kazi ya juu zaidi. Hitler alikasirika sana na kumwambia mwana wa ndugu yake kwamba anapotaka cheo cha juu zaidi, anapaswa kuwa raia wa Ujerumani. Kwa kuhofu mtego, Paddy alikimbia Ujerumani. Yeye na mama yake Bridget walihamia Marekani. Alijiunga na jeshi la wanamaji la Marekani mwaka 1944 na kupigana dhidi ya Ujerumani ya Nazi. Aliona vitendo na akapata jeraha la vipande vya risasi mgongoni. Alipata msamaha wa heshima. Baada ya kupata jina la Hitler kabla na wakati wa Vita Kuu ya Pili ya Ulimwengu, Bridget na Paddy waliamua kutoonekana kabisa kwa umma. Walitoweka na kuchukua utambulisho mpya kama familia ya Stuart-Houston katika Long Island, New York. Bridget Hitler alikufa mwaka 1969 na mwanawe Paddy alikufa ghafla mwaka 1987. Wamezikwa kando-kando katika kisiwa cha Long. Kaburi lolote halitoi dalili yoyote ya watu walioishi humo zamani. Nembo ya Swastika Laundry na Nembo ya Chama cha Nazi Ni Tukio la Ghafula au La? Wewe huamua.