The Nazi salute, Hitler salute (German: Hitlergruß, lit. 'Hitler greeting', IPA: [ˈhɪtlɐˌɡʁuːs] (listen); also called by the Nazi Party deutscher Gruß, 'German greeting', IPA: [ˈdɔʏtʃɐ ˈɡʁuːs] (listen)), or Sieg Heil salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. The salute is performed by extending the right arm from the neck into the air with a straightened hand. Usually, the person offering the salute would say "Heil Hitler!" (lit. 'Hail Hitler!', IPA: IPA: [ˌhaɪl ˈhɪtlɐ] (listen)), "Heil, mein Führer!" ('Hail, my leader!'), or "Sieg Heil!" ('Hail victory!'). It was adopted in the 1930s by the Nazi Party to signal obedience to the party's leader, Adolf Hitler, and to glorify the German nation (and later the German war effort). The salute was mandatory for civilians but mostly optional for military personnel, who retained the traditional military salute until the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944.
Use of this salute is illegal in modern-day Germany (Strafgesetzbuch section 86a) and Austria (Verbotsgesetz 1947), and is also considered a criminal offence in modern-day Poland and Slovakia. The use of any Nazi phrases associated with the salute is also forbidden. In Italy, it is a criminal offence only if used with the intent to "reinstate the defunct National Fascist Party", or to exalt or promote its ideology or members. In Canada, the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and Russia, displaying the salute is not in itself a criminal offence, but constitutes illegal hate speech if used for propagating Nazi ideology.
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