Hate on Display™ Hate Symbols Database

This database provides an overview of many of the symbols most frequently used by white supremacist groups and movements, as well as a variety of other groups and movements. It is one of ADL's many resources related to signs, symbols and codes which also include an antizionist hate resource, a coded hate resource and the memetic violence field guide.

All the symbols depicted here must be evaluated in the context in which they appear. Few symbols represent just one idea or are used exclusively by one group. For example, 100% is often used as an amount or an expression and it is also used by some by some white supremacists as shorthand for "100% white." Similarly, other symbols in this database may be significant to people who are not extreme or racist. The descriptions here point out significant multiple meanings but may not be able to relay every possible meaning of a particular symbol.

29 Results

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SS (hand sign)

Hate Symbol

In the 2000s, white supremacists created a handsign intended to memorialize the Schutzstaffeln or SS of Nazi Germany, Hitler's secret police, political army, and concentration camp guards. The handsign utilizes both hands to make a lightning bolt symbol, as a pair of lightning bolts was the main symbol of the SS. Additional Images:

Sturmabteilung

Hate Symbol

The Sturmabteilung (or SA) symbol is the emblem of Hitler's brownshirted stormtroopers (Sturmabteilung or "storm units" in German). The Sturmabteilung were paramilitary formations used by Hitler to intimidate political opponents and Jews before and after his rise to power in Germany. It declined after 1934 when its leaders were murdered at Hitler's orders and was largely supplanted by the SS. After World War II, some neo-Nazis, especially in Europe, turned to the…

Swastika

Hate Symbol

The swastika is an ancient symbol used in many cultures that was adopted by Adolf Hitler and turned into a symbol of hatred. Since then, the swastika has become perhaps the most notorious hate symbol in Western culture.

Totenkopf

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Death's Head"Totenkopf" is German for "death's head" or skull and typically refers to a skull-and-crossbones image. During the Nazi era, Hitler's Schutzstaffel (SS) adopted one particular Totenkopf image as a symbol. Among other uses, it became the symbol of the SS-Totenkopfverbande (one of the original three branches of the SS, along with the Algemeine SS and the Waffen SS), whose purpose was to guard the concentration camps. Many original members of this…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Death's Head

Volksfront

Hate Symbol

Volksfront is a hybrid racist skinhead gang/neo-Nazi group that started in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s.

Volksfront Flag

Hate Symbol

Volksfront is a hybrid racist skinhead gang/neo-Nazi group that started in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s.

Volksfront (hand sign)

Hate Symbol

Members of the white supremacist group Volksfront have used several handsigns to represent their gang. A common one-handed sign features the fingers of the right hand divided into a "V" shape, often held over the chest. A two-handed sign uses one hand to make a "V" shape (using two or four fingers) and the other hand to make the shape of the letter "F."

Wolfsangel

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Wolf's Hook, DopplehakenThe Wolfsangel is an ancient runic symbol that was believed to be able to ward off wolves. Historically, it appeared in Germany in many places, ranging from guidestones on the sides of roads to heraldic use in the coats of arms of various towns; there is even a German city called Wolfsangel. Along with many other runic symbols, Nazi Germany appropriated the Wolfsangel. It appeared as part of the divisional insignia of several Waffen-SS units, including…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Wolf's Hook, Dopplehaken

Zyklon B

Hate Symbol

Zyklon B was the name of the sodium-cyanide-based gas used to kill over a million victims, most of them Jews, in the death camps constructed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Because of its association with killing Jews, Zyklon B has been adopted as a symbol by modern-day white supremacists, who often use it to make sick jokes about killing Jews. Additional Images:

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