Nazi salute
The Nazi salute or Hitler salute is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. The salute is performed by extending the right arm in the air with a straightened hand. Usually, the person offering the salute would say "Heil Hitler!" (Hail Hitler!), "Heil, mein Führer!" (Hail, my leader!), or "Sieg Heil!" (Hail victory!).
It was adopted in the 1930s by the Nazi Party to show obedience to the party's leader, Adolf Hitler. It also gave honour to the German nation (and later the German war effort).
The salute was required for all civilians.[1] It was mostly optional for military personnel who retained the traditional salute until shortly after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944.[2]
In modern times
Use of this salute is currently a criminal offense in Germany, Italy, Japan, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Uzbekistan.[3] In Switzerland, France, Canada, the Netherlands and Sweden, the salute is illegal hate speech if used for promoting Nazi ideology.[4][5] In the United States, and most of the world (including Latin America, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, China, South Korea, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Norway, Denmark and Finland), use of the salute is not itself a criminal offense or constitutes hate speech, but contains discourteous phraseology if used for constituting Neo-Nazism.