¿Cruz Gamada o Esvástica Nazi? Esvástica o suástica, del sánscrito swastika que significa literalmente “forma bendita”.
EL PRESIDENTE MANUEL ÁVILA CAMACHO COMUNICANDO A LA NACION LA DECLARACION DE GUERRA A LOS ALEMANES.
During the first semester of 1940, Adolph Hitler and the German High Command were analyzing if their war power added to their efficient war tactics will allow them to win over two world powers at the same time: England and the Soviet Union. To face England, it was very important to know the support that they could receive from its ally, the United States, thus the Central Security Office of the Reich; (RHSA) started its investigation looking for the necessary means to end with the resistance on the other side of the Atlantic. The German Army, according to declassified files from the National Archives in Washington and diplomatic information from the Historical Archives of the Foreign Relations Secretariat and data from some writers and historians of the time, neededto know with detail the potential of the United States and its movement of its fleet and its military strategies choosing Mexico to establish an espionage center for the whole continent having as key points the State of Baja California and the City of Tampico. While form Baja California, the Unión Sinarquista (Synarchid Union) financed by Germany had the absurd idea that Japan had to install there a base to dissuade the United States to be part of the war, in the case of Tampico, the Germans found an important point to inform themselves of the ships that supplied the neighboring county and those that came from the old continent. In this city, the Germans look without success to create a Nazi party among the working class, but they won some adepts among affluent businessmen. These pro Nazi movements in the country were under the orders of German spies that travel all the Mexican territory, as an example is the case of Heinz Weber Gerken who in 1940 made an inspection trip through the Gulf of Mexico ports aboard the Tolteca motor ship, property of the Heynen Everbusch and Co. Agency that had offices in Tampico and of Dygyla Klienche that entered Mexico through this port with a shipment of Nazi propaganda, both cases are well documented in the internal security files. This German espionage brought as a consequence, the sinking of several Mexican oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico that departed from Tampico loaded with oil for the Allies, it is believed that the spies notified of these departures to German submarines. As an example is the sinking of the oil tanker Potrero de Llano left on May 13th, 1942 this port, manned by elements of the Mexican Navy and workers from Petróleos Mexicanos under the command of Lieutenant Gabriel Cruz Díaz. When sailing off 45 kilometers off the coast of the United States, near Miami, Florida was hit by a German torpedo according to records at 23.45 hrs. Suffering grave damages. Of the 35 crew only 22 were able to reach Miami and one of them died a few hours after, adding now to 14 lives lost. It was known after that the torpedo was from the German submarine U 564. Another similar incident happened a week later, between the night of May 2oth and the 21st, when the ship Faja de Oro was returning to Tampico after delivering fuel to the United States. This ship was hit by a torpedo launched by the German submarine U 106. Of the 35 crewmen of the ship, 6 were lost, the other 29 were recued by a United States coast guard ship, and one of them eventually died. These events left no other way to the Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho than to declare war on the Axis Powers, starting its declaration on May 28th , 1942 as follows; “I am here present before you to meet my most important duty as a head of State, and is to submit to the National Assembly the need to use the last resource that a country has to defend its destiny” and after it follows “to confront this repeated aggressions, that beaches all the people’s rights and a bloody event for our country, a free country and willing to maintain without any clout its civic execution, there is only one way, to accept valiantly the realities and declare that on this date there is an state of war between our country and Germany, Italy and Japan. Knowing the limits of the war resources of the county, the Mexican role did not consisted in war actions outside the continent, but on the need of a legitimate defense to respond to the aggressions of the adversaries, collaborating energetically to the defense of the Hemisphere. Tampico, being an strategic location due to its strategic geographic location and its energy resources, was witness of many important events in the role our country played in this war, forming thus part of history of one of the biggest war conflicts at world levels.
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ASIESTAMPICOESPIONAJENAZI
En 1920, Adolfo Hitler decidió que el partido nazi necesitaba su propia insignia y bandera. Para Hitler, la nueva insignia tenía que ser un símbolo de su propia lucha, así como un estandarte altamente eficaz, siendo el 7 de agosto de ese mismo año cuando en el Congreso de Salzburgo fue adoptada la esvástica como emblema oficial del partido Nazi convirtiéndose pronto en un símbolo del odio, antisemitismo, violencia, muerte y asesinato. Por ello hay quienes juzgan de mal gusto que el piso del pasillo central de la Catedral de Tampico conserve aún estos signos que se piensa fueron puestos por simpatizantes nazis. Tomando en cuenta que la Catedral fue consagrada el 12 de noviembre de 1931 cuando el partido Nazi aún no ejercía todo su horror, la iglesia argumenta que esta cruz gamada es un símbolo muy antiguo que aparece desde los inicios de la iglesia católica. Mientras tanto, otros piensan que es una clara evidencia de la afinidad de la jerarquía católica con las corrientes ultraderechistas de la época que pretendían acabar con gobiernos comunistas y liberales. Otra explicación puede ser que este signo era usado en los años 20’s por la poderosa empresa petrolera El Águila establecida en Tampico, subsidiaria de la empresa anglo holandesa Dutch & Shell que pudo haber aportado dinero a la construcción del templo. La verdad es que en ningún momento la iglesia apoyó el antisemitismo y no existe prueba alguna de cuál fue la razón para colocar estos mosaicos en el piso de nuestra Catedral que hoy en día siguen causando controversia pero al mismo tiempo se han conservado ya que forman parte del patrimonio histórico de nuestra ciudad.
In 1920, Adolph Hitler decided that the Nazi Party needed its own ensign and flag. For Hitler, the new ensign had to be a symbol of its own fight, as well as a highly efficient standard, In August 7th, of the same year, at the Congress of Salzburg, the swastika was adopted as the official emblem of the Nazi party, becoming shortly a symbol of hate, of anti Semitism, violence, death and murder. For this there are those who judge of bad taste that the floor of the central aisle of the Cathedral of Tampico still maintains these symbols that its is believed were placed there by Nazi sympathizers. Taking into consideration that the Cathedral was consecrated on November 12th, 1931 when the Nazi party still did not had all of this controls, the church argues that this trunked cross is a very old symbol that showed up at the beginning of the Catholic Church. While others believed is a clear evidence of the close affinities of the catholic hierarchy with the ultra right movements of the time that pretended to end with communist and liberal governments. Another explanation could be that his symbol was used during the 20s by the mighty oil company El Águila, established in Tampico and subsidiary of the Anglo Dutch company Dutch & Shell that could have provided money for the construction of the temple. The truth is that there is no existing proof that the reason, for placing these mosaics in the floor of our Cathedral that even today still cause controversy but at the same time are part of the historical patrimony of our city.