London, November 17 The Nazis tried to remove religious references of Christ from Christmas by replacing them with glittering swastika, iron cross and carols drawn on pagan traditions, research for a new exhibition has found.

A new exhibition at the National Socialism Documentation Centre in Cologne discovered that the changes made under Hitler sought to remove the influence of Christ from the festival.

The Nazi version, including traces of the Third Reich Christmas in the rewritten lyrics of favourite carols, replacement of the Christ references with images of snowy fields, were said to be still in use today, reports the Telegraph.

Heidi Bertelson, 42, a lawyer who visited the exhibit told Times: "I always thought that Unto Us a Time Has Come was a song about wandering through winter snow. I didn't realise that Christ had been excised."

Judith Breuer, who helped her mother, Rita, pull together the exhibition added: "The most important celebration in the calendar did not match their racist credo so they had to push out the Christian elements." (ANI)