Behind the Crooked Cross
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"Behind the Crooked Cross" is a controversial song from the album South of Heaven by thrash metal band Slayer. It was written by guitarist Jeff Hanneman, son of an American WW II veteran.
"Crooked cross" is a reference to the Swastika, presumably a reference to both its crooked arms and to moral crookedness. The song discusses the growing doubts of conscripted Wehrmacht soldiers as Nazi Germany is both starting to lose the war and committing ever more and greater atrocities. (Unlike the Waffen-SS, nearly all of whom were volunteers in one form or another, most regular Wehrmacht soldiers were in fact conscripts "forced to fight behind the crooked cross".) It speaks of them being "trapped by a cause that [they] once understood", of being kept going only by blind obedience and by forgetting that there is such a thing as conscience, yet wondering "who will [they] really have to answer to" for their actions.
Like the Slayer classic Angel of Death, the song is sometimes misunderstood as Nazi apologetica by people who have never read the actual lyrics.
| Slayer |
| Tom Araya | Jeff Hanneman | Kerry King | Dave Lombardo |
| Discography |
|---|
| Albums and extended plays: Show No Mercy | Haunting the Chapel | Hell Awaits | Reign in Blood | South of Heaven | Seasons in the Abyss | Divine Intervention | Undisputed Attitude | Diabolus in Musica | God Hates Us All | Eternal Pyre | Christ Illusion |
| Live albums: Live Undead | Decade of Aggression |
| Compilations: Soundtrack to the Apocalypse |
| Videos and DVDs |
| Live Intrusion | War at the Warfield | Still Reigning |
| Songs |
| Angel of Death | Jesus Saves | Raining Blood | Behind the Crooked Cross | Blood Red | Dead Skin Mask | Seasons in the Abyss | Eyes of the Insane | Jihad |
