Himmler, the founder of the SS and patron of the Ahnenerbe, believed in all seriousness that the woman who was the founder of his family was a witch who was burned at the stake. And the trials of witches, which very seriously affected Germany in the Middle Ages, he called nothing other than genocide of the German people. A military historian, veteran of special services, author of a number of sensational books on the history of the Third Reich, Alexander Rudakov, agreed to tell our publication about the interest of the leaders of the Third Reich in witches.
- Research in the field of ancient cults and sacred knowledge, which under the leadership of Himmler was carried out by the SS, SD and "Ahnenerbe", deserve the most careful study. Indeed, possessing practically unlimited power, Himmler and his subordinates managed to confiscate thousands of cases of people accused of witchcraft in Europe, India and South America. The card index he collected numbered 33,846 sheets.
What was Himmler looking for in these archives and court cases of the Middle Ages? Are not there ways to knock out readings?
- This version is very popular today, but in fact, Himmler sincerely wanted to revive the ancient occult knowledge of the German nation, and it was the description of the esoteric practices and beliefs of the ancient Germans that he was looking for in these files and archives. For this purpose, the 7th Directorate under the name "Sonderkommando X" was created in the General Directorate of State Security, whose employees were engaged in the collection of occult knowledge, including cases of witches and sorcerers around the world.
Rudolf Levin, the head of this unit, presented Himmler with a plan of action to study this problem. There were many points, from researching the racial and historical implications of fighting witches to examining the legacy of ancient Germanic magic and the power of the sun worship.
Thousands of books have been written about the war today, but this side of Hitler's policy is the least covered. Tell me, did such secret research of "Sonderkommando X" in any way influence the social life of Germany?
- Little is written about this today, but in the Third Reich, these studies have generated many scandals. Himmler was not only going to study the knowledge of witches - he wanted to popularize his views as much as possible among the German nation.
The fact that the top of the Third Reich was seriously carried away by mystical ideas and teachings is widely known. But Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was a seriously religious Catholic country with a large flock. How did the priests feel about the love of the Nazi government for witches and sorcerers?
- Of course, sharply negative. In the Third Reich, the German peasantry, on which Himmler was going to rely, more than once, under the leadership of Catholic priests, raised revolts against the forcible return of old German beliefs. So, in 1935, the heat of passion reached its climax, when in the Germanized "peasant calendar", specially published by the Imperial Food Cabinet, on Good Friday it was proposed to commemorate "4500 Saxons killed by Charlemagne, injured heretics, champions of the faith and witches." Such passages in this calendar (in the absence of official Christian holidays in it!) Aroused the stormy wrath of the episcopate. The priests, not afraid of reprisals, declared that this calendar had no place in the Christian family of German peasants. And one of the bishops even declared during the sermon,that such calendars are corrupting the "popular community" of the Third Reich.
Have these words been heard by the country's leadership?
- They were heard, but that's all. After all, rumor attributed the authorship of the calendar to the closest associate of Hitler, Alfred Rosenberg, the author of the book "Myth of the XX century", forbidden to read and disseminate by the Vatican itself. In Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, it was the second most popular book after Mein Kampf. In it, the author tried to substantiate the incompatibility of the Nordic way of life with the processes against witches. He believed that the fear of the underworld imposed by the church and the patronage of the sire and the poor were absolutely antagonistic to the desire of the Nordic man to be free, strong and healthy. Only witches with their Vedic knowledge were, in his opinion, able to preach such a correct way of life.
Was he alone in his views?
- Not at all, similar things were stated by Nietzsche, Guido von List, and many others. Such views were generally popular in the first half of the 20th century in Germany and Austria. Therefore, the petition of the representative of the press service of the Imperial leader of the peasants to ban the "non-Christian calendar" was not satisfied, and its submitters were repressed.
But why exactly witches, and not sorcerers, magicians or someone else? Why were the witches chosen as the object of worship?
- Because, as they say, the man is the head, and the woman is the neck. It has always been so, and to this day a woman makes any successful man. And the stronger the energy of a woman, the more success her man will achieve. Nazi Germany knew this. Moreover, many of the wives of the Reich elite were real witches. One of them, back in the 1920s, wrote the work "Christian cruelty against German women." And Hitler himself, as they say, had 12 witch-bearers who guarded him from negative moral and witchcraft influences, and also warned about the dangers.
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How did the study of the trials against witches in the Third Reich end up?
- At that time, everything ended for the "Zone derkommando X" the same as for the entire Reich. In 1944, the head of this structure, Rudolf Levin, tried to defend a thesis on this topic, but failed, and a year later the war was over. True, many theorists of the Nazi regime not only managed to avoid the tribunal, but after the war continued to carefully study ancient German history, including on the basis of the archives collected by "Ahnenerbe" and "Sonderkommando X".
Do you know that…
One of the Nazis close to Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, instructed his subordinates to check the version of the origin of the Himmler family. Himmler was indeed soon informed that his great-great-grandmother, Margareta Himbler, had been burned at the stake on April 4, 1629.
Guido von List
The greatest contribution to the study of pre-Christian German culture and mythology was made by the famous historian, who died shortly before the start of World War II, but extremely popular in Germany and Austria, the ideologist of many nationalist secret communities, including "Thule" - Guido von List. In one of his works, he wrote that nowhere was there such a reverence for women as in ancient Germany. They were infinitely respected for their deep wisdom, foresight of the future and beneficent disposition. Guido von List managed to deduce the images of the three goddesses of fate, whose deputies were considered to be all the priestess witches of Ancient Germany. They, in turn, were divided into three castes: those who believed (or trusted), sorceresses and who chose the dead - known today from Valkyrie folklore. Moreover, if a girl living in a sanctuary had sexual intercourse with a man,then the child that appeared later was considered, as Liszt claimed, the son of God. The best of the best were selected as a pair of such children of the gods. Thus, quite naturally, a race of perfect people emerged. In addition, the priestesses who lived in the sanctuaries won popular love for themselves, acting as doctors, fortune tellers, counselors and incorruptible judges.
Magazine: History - Incredible Facts # 8. Author: Alexander Rudakov, interviewed by Dmitry Sokolov