Slayer Band, Racist, Pro Nazi? You Decide.

The eagle combined with the swastika is a very powerful symbol and Adolf Hitler and the Nazi leadership already knew it in the 1920s. During the Third Reich (1933 - 1945) it was the symbol of German renewal as well as the Nazi state, and was known in German as the Hoheitszeichen or Hoheitsabzeichen (“National Emblem”).

A known Slayer band logo with a Nazi eagle and with a five double-edged swords forming a pentagram. Many German youths admire Slayer, maybe because of the song Angel of Death

Slayer used the controversy created by "Angel of Death" to use the Eagle atop swastika as their logo in the 1990s to gain further publicity

The song drew accusations of racism, although the band denied these claims. In addition, the band's producer and close friend Rick Rubin has Jewish ancestry, their vocalist/bassist Tom Araya is Chilean, their drummer Dave Lombardo is Cuban, and King had a guest appearance on the Jewish hip hop group Beastie Boys' song "No Sleep till Brooklyn". The band members are often asked about the accusations in interviews, and have stated numerous times that they do not condone racism and are merely interested in the subject.

Capitalizing on the publicity generated by the controversy, the band utilized Nazi imagery by adapting a logo to one similar to the eagle atop swastika, during the Seasons in the Abyss period. Hanneman placed SS stickers on his guitar, and wrote "SS-3" a song about Reinhard Heydrich, the second in command in the Schutzstaffel organization.





The SLAYER'S gateway to Metaldom performing the song Angel of Death



I Did this writings about Slayer not because I'm a big fan of them, As a musician I really not admire or embrace such images a band is trying to portray, I am more on how they perform as band, their talent, the melody and the awareness to the society. And I think that's how Slayer should be describe. I believe their are just a mirror of the society and somehow also takes their music to what people can digest including taking the opportunities along the way to gain popularity and controversy and as a result more selling of their records, Slayer is a professional band their music is there bread and butter their life their passion.

Hitler, The Fuhrer of Germany, views on Religion

Adolf Hitler

People often make the claim, specifically most of the christians nowadays that Adolph Hitler adhered to Atheism, Humanism or some ancient Nordic pagan mythology. None of these fanciful and wrong ideas actually hold. .

In fact Hitler held many hysterical beliefs which not only include, God and Providence but also Fate, Social Darwinism, and ideological politics. He believe he fought for the German people and against Jews by using Godly and Biblical reasoning. Indeed, one of his most revealing statements makes this quite clear:

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."

This quotation is from Adolf Hitler Book Mein Kampf, Volume 1, Chapter 2

In 1897. Hitler attended a Catholic school located in an 11th-century Benedictinecloister, where the walls were engraved in a number of places with crests containing the symbol of the swastika. It was in Lambach that the eight-year-old Hitler sang in the church choir, took singing lessons, and even entertained the fantasy of one day becoming a priest.

At age 15, Hitler took part in his First Holy Communion on Whitsunday, 22 May 1904, at the Linz Cathedral. His sponsor was Emanuel Lugert, a friend of his late father.

Although Hitler did not practice religion in a churchly sense, he certainly believed in the Bible's God.

Hitler's anti-Semitism grew out of his Christian education. Christian Austria and Germany in his time took for granted the belief that Jews held an inferior status to Aryan Christians. Jewish hatred did not spring from Hitler, it came from the preaching of Catholic priests and Protestant ministers throughout Germany for hundreds of years. The Protestant leader, Martin Luther, himself, held a livid hatred for Jews and their Jewish religion. In his book, "On the Jews and their Lies," Luther set the standard for Jewish hatred in Protestant Germany up until World War II. Hitler expressed a great admiration for Martin Luther.

Thus, Protestantism will always stand up for the advancement of all Germans as such, as long as matters of inner purity or national deepening as well as German freedom are involved, since all these things have a firm foundation in its own being; but it combats with the greatest hostility any attempt to rescue the nation from the embrace of its most mortal enemy, since its attitude toward the Jews just happens to be more or less dogmatically established.

-Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

Here are some Quotes of Hitler's book mentioning some biblical reasoning

Their sword will become our plow, and from the tears of war the daily bread of future generations will grow.

-Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

Note: "Their sword will become our plow" appears to paraphrase Micah 4:3 about beating swords into ploughshares, but his tears of war more resembles Joel 3:9-10 "Beat your plowshares into swords."


Verily a man cannot serve two masters. And I consider the foundation or destruction of a religion far greater than the foundation or destruction of a state, let alone a party.

-Adolf Hitler speaking like Jesus in Matthew 6:24 (Mein Kampf)

The anti-Semitism of the new movement [Christian Social movement] was based on religious ideas instead of racial knowledge.

-Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

Hitler's belief of the existent of God in the bible as manifest in his book Mein Kampf stand asaproof for himself, but we are not certain of what his heart intent, maybe He uses such biblicalreasoning for a certain reason not as he actually believes on it. Or more easy to say that He wasrouse-up and taught of the wrong doctrines by the false religion during his early years. And certainly his corrupted belief drawn-up by ignorance to the true doctrines of Christian in the bible was amplified by Satan that lead him to acquire power and dominance leading to massive killing and genocide.

A Nazi flag flies in front of the Cologne Cathedral, 1937 (Source USHMM)

SMOKING GUN!
Hitler wth Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo,
the papal nuncio in Berlin, 1935

Hitler leaving Church
Hitler leaves the Marine Church in Wilhelmshaven.
(Source: The German Propaganda Archive



Ludwig Muller, a Nazi sympathizer, and a candidate of Hitler, was elected to the position of Reich Bishop in 1933 as Hitler attempted to unite regional Protestant churches under Nazi control. Hitler did not practice separation of Church & State.

Although Hitler had problems with the Catholic Church and eventually wanted to replace Catholicism with his brand of Christianity, the very fact that Hitler wanted a united German Church proves that he supported Christianity.

Berlin, Germany, November 17, 1933.

(Source: USHMM)


Vocabulary

Anarchy - The absence of government or law in a society.

Demagogue - A person who gains power through impassioned public appeals to the emotions and prejudices of a group by speaking or writing. Free Corps - A paramilitary organization of German World War I veterans who organized to oppose Communist insurgency.

Fuhrer - A leader, especially one exercising the absolute power of a tyrant. Hitler's title as leader of the Nazi party, and Chief of the German state.


Imperialism - A foreign policy which includes the taking of territory by force or coercion.

Lebensraum (Living Space) - A German term indicating the Germans' imperialistic designs on Europe. It also refers to the additional territory deemed necessary to the nation for its economic well-being.

Mein Kampf - "My Struggle" in German. A book written by Hitler while in prison which became the standard work of Nazi political doctrine.

Nazism - The abbreviation for National Socialist German Worker's Party. The fascist dictatorship under Adolf Hitler in Germany from 1933-1945.

Paramilitary - Describing an organization which operates in the style of an army, but in an unofficial capacity, and often in secret, such as the S.A. Putsch - A revolt or uprising.

Reparations - Payments made by a defeated country to the victors to make amends for losses suffered.

S.A. - The Sturmabteilung (Stormtroopers), also known as the "brown-shirts." It was the Nazi paramilitary arm under the command of Ernst Rîhm. It was active in the Nazi battle for the streets against members of other German political parties and was notorious for its violent and terroristic methods.

Swastika - An ancient symbol in the form of a twisted cross which was adopted by the Nazi party as its logo in the 1920s.

Third Reich - The Third Empire. It refers to Hitler's name for his German Empire as a successor to the 1st Empire of the Roman Emperors (First Reich) and the Empire of Bismarck in 19th century Germany (Second Reich).

Weimar Republic - The German democratic government from 1919-1934 formed after Germany's defeat in World War I. Its capital was located in Berlin.