‘Swastika Acres’ No More: Colorado City Changes Neighborhood Name
A city council in Colorado voted unanimously Tuesday to change the name of one of its neighborhoods so that it will no longer be called “Swastika Acres.”
“It’s the right thing to do,” Cherry Hills Village mayor Russell Stewart told the Denver Post.
The subdivision in the Denver suburb was named in 1908 after the Denver Swastika Land Co., which sold plots of land in the area. The swastika is a Native American symbol that did not have negative connotations until the German Nazi Party appropriated it beginning in the 1920s.
The neighborhood did not have any signs proclaiming its name, but it still was visible on real estate documents, the Post reported. It will now be known as Old Cherry Hills.
One resident, however, opposed the name change – even though her family survived the Holocaust.
“I don’t think you should erase history,” Susan Cooper, who wrote a letter to the council opposing the name change, told the Post. “What would it be like if people denied the Holocaust? You have to get the facts of history.”
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor for the Forward. You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30