It’s Peace, Not Hate, Thank Goodness

Evelyn Silverman must have thought she was confronting a nightmare when her daughter described the new gates that had appeared in their Chatsworth neighborhood. On the wrought-iron gates of a De Soto Avenue home were what appeared to be Nazi swastikas. “Who but neo-Nazis could be so hateful?” neighbors asked. Silverman, whose grandmother was one of 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, wondered the same.

But this was not an invasion of hate. It was an important history lesson, and another indication of the racial, religious and ethnic melting pot that has transformed this neighborhood. There is a further lesson, too, of the care that must sometimes be taken to explain amid such diversity.

The symbols on those gates (actually a reverse image of the Nazis’ repugnant mark) are an ancient sign of peace to Buddhists and Hindus. The home is being converted to a Buddhist studies group temple. A similar Navajo symbol represents the gods of wind and rain.

It was Adolf Hitler who stole this image in 1919, reversed it and turned it into a symbol of murderous hate that endures to this day.

Silverman’s fears have been eased, as have those elsewhere in the neighborhood, which now includes Asians, Latinos and Middle Easterners. But we have a suggestion. We suggest installation of a large plaque or sign that explains the original meaning of the symbol and the later Nazi perversion of it. Only that can prevent anxiety and anger over the gates in the future.