Second Wolrd War - Nazi salute

[VHG]

I am currently watching the repeats of the Colditz drama on "Yesterday".

Sometimes the German officers give a "Nazi" Hiel Hitler salute, other times a normal bent arm, open palm salute to the head.

Why the two different salutes, and when did they use them?

How did a solider know which one to use?

[NazNomad]

The Nazi salute was adopted in the 1930s by the Nazi Party to signal obedience to the party's leader Adolf Hitler and to glorify the German nation and later the war effort. The salute was mandatory for civilians but optional for military personnel until 1944, after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_salute

A group of German Army officers led by von Stauffenberg tried to kill Hitler and overthrow his regime. Following this attempt, every officer who approached Hitler was searched from head to foot by his SS guards. As a special degradation all German military personnel were ordered to replace the standard military salute with the Hitler salute from this date on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht

[ludwig]

I may be wrong but I think Hitler always favoured the palm up 'High five' version.

[jno]

just looking at Google images, it seems Hitler's arm wasn't much above the horizontal when he saluted, eg

http://scrapetv.com/N...olf-hitler-salute.jpg

[dimamuzhetsky]

The nazi salute is a replica of the sanskrit letter "E".The nazi standard contains swastka(the hindu symbol,just like the star of David is the symbol of judaism).More.Why 1943?19.40 PM?The jewish national dance is called "7.40".Think Yourself now