Caroline, the swastika was in use in the east and the sub-continent, and in some native American nations long before it was adopted in the 1930's by the German Nazi party. A little research on-line will help your understanding. My suggestion would be to start here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
There are also many examples in Christian Artwork throughout Western Europe and the Near East dating from the early (Christian) Roman, through Byzantine periods onwards.
An extract:
'A swastika is a symbol found in many cultures, with different meanings, drawn in different styles.
The swastika (as a character 卐 or 卍) is a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon used commonly in the Indian subcontinent, East Asia and Southeast Asia, where it has been and remains a sacred symbol of spiritual principles in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In the Western world, it was historically a symbol of auspiciousness and good luck; but in the 1930s, it became the main feature of Nazi symbolism as an emblem of Aryan race identity, and as a result it has become stigmatized in the West by association with ideas of racism and antisemitism.
The name swastika comes from Sanskrit (Devanagari: स्वस्तिक) and denotes "conducive to well being or auspicious". In Hinduism, the clockwise symbol is called swastika, symbolizing surya (sun), prosperity and good luck, while the counterclockwise symbol is called sauvastika, symbolizing night or tantric aspects of Kali. In Jainism, a swastika is the symbol for Suparshvanatha – the 7th of 24 Tirthankaras (spiritual teachers and saviours), while in Buddhism it symbolizes the auspicious footprints of the Buddha.'
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