The Nazi salute was not invented by Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini, nor is it limited in time to the Second World War or in place to Europe. The salute dates all the way back to the Roman Empire and is properly known as the Roman salute (Saluto Romano).

The Roman salute is made by thrusting the right arm forward, palm facing downwards, at an angle of around 45 degrees (Mussolini's version was a bit higher; Hitler's lower).

Already in 1933, the Nazi Interior Minister, Wilhelm Frick, wrote in an inter-ministerial memorandum that now as the Weimar Republic was a thing of the past, ‘The Hitler Salute has become the German greeting.’

Indeed it had: the outstretched arm had been designed to permeate all of German society. It wasn't only in front of Hitler and military officers that the Nazi salute was used, but everywhere in administrative, commercial and social settings.

The National Socialist German Students' League went so far as to say that ordinary greetings such as grüβ Gott, auf Wiedersehen, guten Tag and so on should be abandoned. And then followed a sinister piece of advice: ‘All who wish to avoid the suspicion of consciously obstructionist behaviour will use the Hitler Salute.’

Five-year-olds were taught how to thrust the arm in the air. Stories abound from the period about how school children were punished for saying guten Morgen instead of Heil Hitler, and people were refused service in shops unless they did the salute.