Toporzeł

The Toporzeł is an emblem created by Stanisław Szukalski in 1935 to replace the traditional White Eagle of Poland. The Toporzeł was created through a combination of the axe and eagle. The head has the form of a hook shaped like an eagle's head, symbolising a break with tradition. A symbol based on the Toporzeł, but with a cross instead of an eagle's head, the Topokrzyż, appeared in Szukalski's magazine Krak. It bore the inscription GOJ - Gospodarczą Organizujmy Jedność and was intended by the author to be used to mark non-Jewish shops. At the beginning of 1940, in German- occupied Warsaw, the symbol was used by Polish antisemites from the paramilitary Atak group to mark Christian shops, in order to economically boycott Jews.