sieg heil should you be offended?

Question

is it inapporaite to say that to your friends it means hail victory by the way and should people be offended by that phrase just because the nazis happened to use it during the second world war and it was said with the phrase heil hitler

Answer 1

The only way I've seen it used halfway-acceptably is to mock someone hitlerish, and even there you have to be careful. Other than that, it just got so associated with the Nazis that it's not acceptable and very offensive, regardless of its seemingly benign literal translation.

Answer 2

You can do as you wish of course but I'd think that it is inappropriate as hell.

You aren't speaking German to your friends normally, so why say that particular phrase in German?

Incidentally, German people themselves never say that anymore. They still might say the sieg part to wish someone good luck, for example; "good luck with your ski trip, sieg ski"!

But if you want everyone to look at you like your some neo-Nazi, that's up to you. Even well-meaning white people used to call black people the "n" word. Times change you know?

Answer 3

Nah,doesn't bother me!