How Did ‘Swastika Trees’ Appear in a German Forest?
Image by Wikipedia
Long after Germans pulled down monuments to Nazi rule, there remained a forest outside Berlin that each fall would commemorate the Third Reich.
Planted by an unknown person, the forest in the town of Zernikow was mostly evergreen pine trees. But a few strategically placed trees belonged to a different breed and would turn yellow every autumn, carving a swastika into the landscape that could only be seen from the air.
The German government discovered the Nazi relic in the 1990’s and cut down the trees to prevent them from becoming a shrine for neo-Nazis. Experts have speculated the trees might have been planted by the Hitler Youth.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
