Arrow Cross

{{Short description|Graphic symbol}}

{{Expand Hungarian|A Hungarista Mozgalom jelképei|date=November 2018}}

Image:ArrowCross.svg

File:Emblem_of_the_Arrow_Cross_Party.svg

A cross whose arms end in arrowheads is called a "cross barby" or "cross barbée" in the traditional terminology of heraldry. In Christian use, the ends of this cross resemble the barbs of fish hooks, or fish spears.

In modern use, the symbol has become associated with extremist organisations after the Arrow Cross (Nyilaskereszt) symbol was used in Hungary in the 1930s and 1940s as the symbol of a far-right Hungarist fascist political party, the Arrow Cross Party, led by Ferenc Szálasi, and of this party's thuggish paramilitary organization.[http://hist.academic.claremontmckenna.edu/jpetropoulos/arrow/arrowsymb.html Arrow Cross Symbols] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050525012901/http://hist.academic.claremontmckenna.edu/jpetropoulos/arrow/arrowsymb.html |date=May 25, 2005 }}{{cite book|last=Patai|first=Raphael|title=The Jews of Hungary:History, Culture, Psychology|publisher=Wayne State University Press|location=590|year=1996|page=730|isbn=0-8143-2561-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LLuPS1yVDf8C }}Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust, Jack R. Fischel, Scarecrow Press, 17 Jul 2010, pg106 The symbol consists of two green double-ended arrows in a cross configuration on a white circular background on a red background. The arrow cross symbol remains outlawed in Hungary.{{cite web|title=Act C of 2012 on the Criminal Code, Section 335: Use of Symbols of Totalitarianism|url=https://thb.kormany.hu/download/a/46/11000/Btk_EN.pdf|page=97|website=Ministry of Interior of Hungary|access-date=21 February 2017|quote=Any person who: a) distributes, b) uses before the public at large, or c) publicly exhibits, the swastika, the insignia of the SS, the arrow cross, the sickle and hammer, the five-pointed red star or any symbol depicting the above so as to breach public peace – specifically in a way to offend the dignity of victims of totalitarian regimes and their right to sanctity – is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by custodial arrest, insofar as they did not result in a more serious criminal offense.}}

A variant symbol, the Crosstar, is used by the Nationalist Movement, a white supremacist group based in the United States.

The arrow cross was previously used by the Falange Venezolana (Venezuelan Phalanx), a far-right group based in Venezuela.{{cite web|title=Venezuela - Political Flags - Part 2|url=https://www.fotw.info/flags/ve%7D1.html#falven |website=fotw.info|access-date=6 June 2024}}{{cite web|title=Flags of Extremism - Part 1 (a-m)|url=https://www.loeser.us/flags/hate.html#fv |website=loeser.us|access-date=14 November 2020}}

{{Commons cat|Arrow Cross}}