HIMMLER AND HIS DREADFUL AHNENERBE
| THE SS FANTASIES MACHINE |
| Under the pretense and the disguise of science and medecine, Himmler and the SS created an odious machine that spread havoc, misery and stupidities during 12 years. An endless nightmare. |
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Son of a school teacher of some repute and good social connections, who graduated in
philology, Heinrich Himmler was born in 1900 in a devout Catholic family near Munich ;
Himmler's godfather was the young Prince Heinrich Wittelbach, Bavaria's oldest aristocratic
family. His father was enthusiastic about history and archeology, all old German myths and
was keen to think of himself as having a prestigious lineage. At ten, the young Himmler
knew by heart Germany's most famous historic battles.
As a teenager, he was studious and committed but he was sallow and physically weak,
plagued by lung infections and a stomach ailment. His shrill voice squeaked on the high
notes and his laughter sounded like a "cackle". His fellow pupils did not like him because
he was considered a snitch, someone who would tell his father who was the author of a
prank in class. One day, they were so upset by his behavior that they stuffed him headfirst
into a garbage can in a locked room.
When WW1 broke out he was considered unfit for service until his father intervened and
made him acceptable to the 11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment in 1917. He spent the rest of
the war in training as a cadet and frustrated of his military ambitions he enrolled at the
Technical University of Munich. He joined the NSDAP in 1923, joined the office of Gregor
Strasser in 1924 who was then in charge of developing the Socialist Freedom Movement
(ex Nazi Party which has been banned after the 1923 putsch). In 1925 Gregor made him his
deputy in Bavaria. In 1929, Hitler made him head of the Schutzstaffel, the infamous SS, in
charge of the safety of the Führer.
In the meanwhile Himmler had married a woman eight years older, named Margarete
Boden, daughter of a West Prussian landowner. She owned a small clinic in Berlin that
specialized in homeopathic medicine, She was ugly and bossy and knew how to wrap
Himmler around her finger.
philology, Heinrich Himmler was born in 1900 in a devout Catholic family near Munich ;
Himmler's godfather was the young Prince Heinrich Wittelbach, Bavaria's oldest aristocratic
family. His father was enthusiastic about history and archeology, all old German myths and
was keen to think of himself as having a prestigious lineage. At ten, the young Himmler
knew by heart Germany's most famous historic battles.
As a teenager, he was studious and committed but he was sallow and physically weak,
plagued by lung infections and a stomach ailment. His shrill voice squeaked on the high
notes and his laughter sounded like a "cackle". His fellow pupils did not like him because
he was considered a snitch, someone who would tell his father who was the author of a
prank in class. One day, they were so upset by his behavior that they stuffed him headfirst
into a garbage can in a locked room.
When WW1 broke out he was considered unfit for service until his father intervened and
made him acceptable to the 11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment in 1917. He spent the rest of
the war in training as a cadet and frustrated of his military ambitions he enrolled at the
Technical University of Munich. He joined the NSDAP in 1923, joined the office of Gregor
Strasser in 1924 who was then in charge of developing the Socialist Freedom Movement
(ex Nazi Party which has been banned after the 1923 putsch). In 1925 Gregor made him his
deputy in Bavaria. In 1929, Hitler made him head of the Schutzstaffel, the infamous SS, in
charge of the safety of the Führer.
In the meanwhile Himmler had married a woman eight years older, named Margarete
Boden, daughter of a West Prussian landowner. She owned a small clinic in Berlin that
specialized in homeopathic medicine, She was ugly and bossy and knew how to wrap
Himmler around her finger.
They took up country life because as a trained agriculturalist, Himmler had great ideas for Germany's
agricultural development and a new rural Germany as his boss Hitler had for social and racial Germany.
So he started a poultry farm with the proceeds from the sale of Magda's clinic. Meanwhile the SS had
swollen in size with thousands of applications flooding in daily. He started a recruiting bureau in charge of
selecting applicants according to racial criteria and he recruited for the job a certain Richard Walther Darré,
an agriculturalist by training and specialized in the genetics of animal breeding.
agricultural development and a new rural Germany as his boss Hitler had for social and racial Germany.
So he started a poultry farm with the proceeds from the sale of Magda's clinic. Meanwhile the SS had
swollen in size with thousands of applications flooding in daily. He started a recruiting bureau in charge of
selecting applicants according to racial criteria and he recruited for the job a certain Richard Walther Darré,
an agriculturalist by training and specialized in the genetics of animal breeding.
After Hitler came to power in 1933, Himmler began drawing plans for a
new Nordic academy, a cross between a monastery retreat and a
school for the upper echelons of the SS. He even ordered the
construction of a new SS complex from the rests of an old castle.
The whole organisation would be called Deutsches Ahnenerbe or
Bureau of German Ancestral Heritage. Himmler appointed himself
superintendent and hired a director named Dr. Herman Wirth, one of
the most famous and controversial German prehistorians.
new Nordic academy, a cross between a monastery retreat and a
school for the upper echelons of the SS. He even ordered the
construction of a new SS complex from the rests of an old castle.
The whole organisation would be called Deutsches Ahnenerbe or
Bureau of German Ancestral Heritage. Himmler appointed himself
superintendent and hired a director named Dr. Herman Wirth, one of
the most famous and controversial German prehistorians.
| Himmler, some friends and his wife Magda (center), a not very pretty woman but with some means and good social and family connections. Himmler like most Nazi dignitaries was an ambitious brat ready to anything to become powerful and socially acceptable. |
The Ahnenerbe was located at 29/30 Brüderstrasse in Berlin and set
itself on a buying spree of artefacts and molds, candleholders,
wreaths, anything that seem to hold some ancient Germanic symbols
or myths. Wirth was as fanatic as Himmler and believed that he could
decipher anything mysterious and proved or unlock to mysteries of
ancient Aryan religion.
itself on a buying spree of artefacts and molds, candleholders,
wreaths, anything that seem to hold some ancient Germanic symbols
or myths. Wirth was as fanatic as Himmler and believed that he could
decipher anything mysterious and proved or unlock to mysteries of
ancient Aryan religion.
He was determined to prove that the Nordic race has evolved in the Arctic region and that the Plato's
legend of the Atlantis was not a feat of the Greek author's imagination but that it had existed in the
North Atlantic. Deemed insane by serious scholars, Wirth was sometimes considered as "incapable
of distinguishing between probable, certain, possible and impossible."
Himmler then set the Ahnenerbe in a series of exploring missions all over the world under the
efficient authority of Dr Wirth and of the society's new managing director, a certain Wolfram Sievers, a
drop-out from school who had specialized on his own in racial studies and a member of the NSDAP
since 1929. Both men started a Scandinavian expedition in Norway to prove that
Aryans had lived there and started a great culture.
legend of the Atlantis was not a feat of the Greek author's imagination but that it had existed in the
North Atlantic. Deemed insane by serious scholars, Wirth was sometimes considered as "incapable
of distinguishing between probable, certain, possible and impossible."
Himmler then set the Ahnenerbe in a series of exploring missions all over the world under the
efficient authority of Dr Wirth and of the society's new managing director, a certain Wolfram Sievers, a
drop-out from school who had specialized on his own in racial studies and a member of the NSDAP
since 1929. Both men started a Scandinavian expedition in Norway to prove that
Aryans had lived there and started a great culture.
| Himmler's German family dream |
At the same time, the Society financed another expedition to Finland to study the legendary sorcery society of
Karelia under the aegis of a young Finnish aristocrat named Yrjö von Grönhagen in search of the "Kalevala"
or the land of the heroes. So Himmler believed that this land needed to be investigated and studied : could
the old songs of the region contain any valuable information about ancient Aryan culture and deeds ? He
even thought that the ancient chants and incantations of Karela were Aryan or very similar. Useless to say
that in Helsinki, Finnish researchers were very suspicious of the Ahnenerbe team.
But there was more than the Scandinavian expeditions. Some Orientalists too joined the Society and
persuaded Himmler to take on some research in the Middle and the Far East. All the more because Hitler
eventually got weary of Wirth's enthusiasm for the myths of the North and at a Nuremberg rally denounced
his researches as a waste of time and rare foreign currencies. More the Führer actually saw the Northern
legends as dangerous creeds supporting a civilization of witches and priestesses far away from the Nazi
ambition to turn every woman into a babies factory.
So Himmler who had no idea to close down the Ahnenerbe turned his attention to India and to some famous
Orientalist named Walther Wüst, an admirer of Hitler and a member of the NSDAP and appointed him
President of the Ahnenerbe in replacement of Wirth. Wüst was hired after a long lecture in the auditorium of
the Munich University about "Mein Kampf as a mirror of Aryan worldview" (sic). Würst arrived at the
meeting with a copy of the Rig Veda -one of the oldest Sanskrit scriptures- under his arm.
He had persuaded himself that members of the Nordic race had written it and colonized the deserts of Iran,
the high mountains of Afghanistan and the rich plains of India. By the end of 1937 the Ahnenerbe had 37
workers, 11 of whom senior researchers.
Karelia under the aegis of a young Finnish aristocrat named Yrjö von Grönhagen in search of the "Kalevala"
or the land of the heroes. So Himmler believed that this land needed to be investigated and studied : could
the old songs of the region contain any valuable information about ancient Aryan culture and deeds ? He
even thought that the ancient chants and incantations of Karela were Aryan or very similar. Useless to say
that in Helsinki, Finnish researchers were very suspicious of the Ahnenerbe team.
But there was more than the Scandinavian expeditions. Some Orientalists too joined the Society and
persuaded Himmler to take on some research in the Middle and the Far East. All the more because Hitler
eventually got weary of Wirth's enthusiasm for the myths of the North and at a Nuremberg rally denounced
his researches as a waste of time and rare foreign currencies. More the Führer actually saw the Northern
legends as dangerous creeds supporting a civilization of witches and priestesses far away from the Nazi
ambition to turn every woman into a babies factory.
So Himmler who had no idea to close down the Ahnenerbe turned his attention to India and to some famous
Orientalist named Walther Wüst, an admirer of Hitler and a member of the NSDAP and appointed him
President of the Ahnenerbe in replacement of Wirth. Wüst was hired after a long lecture in the auditorium of
the Munich University about "Mein Kampf as a mirror of Aryan worldview" (sic). Würst arrived at the
meeting with a copy of the Rig Veda -one of the oldest Sanskrit scriptures- under his arm.
He had persuaded himself that members of the Nordic race had written it and colonized the deserts of Iran,
the high mountains of Afghanistan and the rich plains of India. By the end of 1937 the Ahnenerbe had 37
workers, 11 of whom senior researchers.
| The perfect Aryan, young Finnish aristocrat Yrjö von Grönhagen |
| From SS OberGruppenFührer... |
| ..to helpless athlete, the epitome of a Nazi dignitary |
After the annexation of Austria, Himmler brought his
attention to the old Roman Empire of the Middle East
thanks to a scholar called Franz Altheim and his lover
Erika Trautmann, both famous, well connected and
ambitious. The Reich was extremely interested in the
gulf states for their oil reserves and in the fact that Iraq,
although independant since 1932, was actually a
British colony. But German entrepreneurs were deeply
involved in the construction of a railway connection
between Berlin and Baghdad and the Ahnenerbe
recruited the pair for espionnage and intelligence
works.
In August 1938, Altheim, his lover and a team headed
East. They went through Romania where they had very
useful political contacts with the Iron Guards of
Corneliu Codreanu, a Jew-hater who admired Hitler's
anti-semitic platform. Later they went to Lebanon and
Syria where they were under French surveillance.
attention to the old Roman Empire of the Middle East
thanks to a scholar called Franz Altheim and his lover
Erika Trautmann, both famous, well connected and
ambitious. The Reich was extremely interested in the
gulf states for their oil reserves and in the fact that Iraq,
although independant since 1932, was actually a
British colony. But German entrepreneurs were deeply
involved in the construction of a railway connection
between Berlin and Baghdad and the Ahnenerbe
recruited the pair for espionnage and intelligence
works.
In August 1938, Altheim, his lover and a team headed
East. They went through Romania where they had very
useful political contacts with the Iron Guards of
Corneliu Codreanu, a Jew-hater who admired Hitler's
anti-semitic platform. Later they went to Lebanon and
Syria where they were under French surveillance.
Then they drove to Baghdad where they had useful
contacts with the German envoy to Iraq, a prominent
Nazi member, Dr Fritz Grobba who even published
in the city a racist newspaper, called Al-Alim-al-Arabi
which published extracts from Mein Kampf. In the
North of Iraq they met Sheikh Adjil el Yawar, leader of
the most important Bedouin tribe who had grown
restive under British and French rule in the region.
They reported to Berlin that in these areas people
spoke the name of Hitler as though it was HOLY and
that everybody knew the exact route of the oil
pipelines. The SS were extremely impressed by the
information that Altheim and his lover passed onto
them. They dispatched by the diplomatic pouch
some Nazi propaganda to Iraq in the hands of the
Sheikh and his allies. All in all Altheim's works in
the Middle East was very successful even if their
contribution to the glorification of ancient Aryan
presence in the region was not significant.
contacts with the German envoy to Iraq, a prominent
Nazi member, Dr Fritz Grobba who even published
in the city a racist newspaper, called Al-Alim-al-Arabi
which published extracts from Mein Kampf. In the
North of Iraq they met Sheikh Adjil el Yawar, leader of
the most important Bedouin tribe who had grown
restive under British and French rule in the region.
They reported to Berlin that in these areas people
spoke the name of Hitler as though it was HOLY and
that everybody knew the exact route of the oil
pipelines. The SS were extremely impressed by the
information that Altheim and his lover passed onto
them. They dispatched by the diplomatic pouch
some Nazi propaganda to Iraq in the hands of the
Sheikh and his allies. All in all Altheim's works in
the Middle East was very successful even if their
contribution to the glorification of ancient Aryan
presence in the region was not significant.
| Corneliu Codreanu, born Zelinski, was the founder of the Romanian fascist Iron Guard and is still revered today by some as a Romanian Orthodox Saint. He was eventually shot by King Carol's henchmen |
A sense of being dominant makes you Aryan
So along the years, Ahnenerbe researchers worked very hard to recover the lost history of the
fictional Aryan race. But research was only half the battle. They largely published their findings,
organized expositions, produced movies, printed magazines and brochures, the most famous
being Germanien, a montly magazine which covers German folk art to colorful paintings of
Nordic farmers to the great pleasure of thousands of good German suckers and the growing
dibelief of the serious international scholars.
Himmler became increasingly curious about Asia and the Far East as he began to suppose
that Aryan people went up to the Tibet and started there a dominating civilization. He seriously
thought that the Brahman priests, the Mongolian chiefs, the Japanese samurai, all descended
from ancient European conquerors, all Aryan. So in April 1938 "the German Tibet Expedition"
under the command of a certain Ernst Schäfer, a zoologist, departed for Tibet under the
auspices of the Reichführer-SS and in connection with the Ahnenerbe Association-Berlin. After
many adventures and setbacks, the team finally got to enter Lhasa where they were friendly met
by the Regent-Dalai Lama, a man named Reting Rimpoche. When Schäfer looked at him, he
was struck by lightning: the regent had the typical narrow face - "an especially long thin head"-
of the Aryans and one of Schäfer's assistant noted that "one of the regent's male attendant
seemed "to serve the inverted desires" of his master. (sic)
However the teams was greatly restricted in the scientific work they could do in Lhasa but
collected numerous artifacts, documents, grains and seeds from Tibet to help develop a new
agriculture in the future Polish and Russian SS colonies after the war, photographed 2,000
Tibetans, Sherpas and Nepalis, measured 376 individuals and cast the heads and faces of
17, including 2 of the most powerful men in Tibet. Schäfer was more than ever convinced that
racially mixed descendants of ancient Nordic invaders had swept into the Tibetan plateau ore
recently, giving rise to the "higher Tibetan classes." An assumption whose arrogance is only
equated by its stupidity but the team was satisfied with its crop of "narrow faces", " receding
cheekbones", " strongly protruding, straight or slightly bent noses", "smooth hair" and
especially a "sense of themselves as dominant." From that, they concluded that you were
Aryan because you had a sense of yourself as dominant. Amazing !!! So any Jewish tribe out
of Mesopotamia who had a sense of itself as dominant was Aryan too ?
They flew back to Berlin before WW2 broke out because the British started to feel
uncomfortable with such people in the region so close to India. Schäfer was greeted by
Himmler and flatly told him he had a letter from the Regent for Hitler. The next morning, all
across the country, Germans read sensational news of the expedition. People could read
headlines like "Hitler's delegation in Tibet", "The first Germans in Lhasa" and delighted into the
habitual Nazi propaganda and scientific lies. Schäfer nevertheless was invited to give a lecture
about the subject and der Führer himself would be in attendance.
| The stupidity and the pretense of Himmler were limitless : he convinced himself that even Japanese samurai descended from Aryan ancestors. In fact, the term Samurai originally meant "those who serve in close attendance to nobility", and was written in the Chinese character (or kanji) that had the same meaning. So Himmler did not do well enough his homework. Nazism was nothing but the triumph of ignorance. |
| Ernst Schäfer came back from Tibet as a hero and even gave a lecture with Hitler in attendance |
Legitimizing the looting of Poland's art treasures
One of the most disgusting aspects of the Ahnenerbe Association was to transform itself into a
powerful tool to loot Poland's art treasures and transfer them back to Germany. After WW2 broke out
in September 1939, the Ahnenerbe was potentially out of business : no more expeditions could be
sent to foreign countries to search for traces of a superior Aryan civilization. But after the invasion of
Poland, the managing director of the Association came up with the brilliant idea to seize in Poland all
useful materials -catalogues, reports of excavations, drawings and photographs- that could assist
scholars in fabricating evidence for claims that Germany was merely righting an ancient wrong and
seizing land that legitimately belong to it.
So Dr Sievers, managing director of the Ahnenerbe, recruited a fanatic Nazi, the SS-Untersturmführer
Dr. Peter Paulsen, professor of Archeology at the university of Berlin, to draw up the list of the most
important Polish museums. Paulsen itemized 36 major Polish museums and academic institutes
and tabulated dozens of smaller archaeological collections in schools and local museums. In
September 1939 whereas the war in Poland was not yet finished, Himmler approved a plan to send a
detachment of scholars to Poland to secure art and archaeological treasures. One of the main
mission of Paulsen was to travel to the old royal capital of Krakov and to seize and transport back to
Berlin one of Poland's greatest and most beloved art treasures, the Veit Stoss altar,. a masterpiece of
15th century Gothic art by German sculptor Veit Stoss or Wit Stwosz as he was known by the Poles.
Paulsen departed for Krakow on October 1, 1939 and two weeks later exactly was back in Berlin with
the altar which had been sawed in several separate pieces by the SS. The parts were stowed in a
huge underground vault in Nuremberg where it remained until the summer of 1945. Immediately after
this theft, Heydrich ordered Paulsen to go back to Poland to plunder with scientific exactitude the
Polish collections important to the work of the Ahnenerbe. What was important would be of course
decided by the Ahnenerbe itself and his staff and not by the Poles. However when Paulsen and his
henchmen came back to Krakov, Hermann Goreing had already dispatched to Poland a similar team
of experts on an identical mission and put in charge an art historian with a shady reputation, named
Kajetan Mühlmann who will play a more sinister role later in the looting of France. After the war,
Mühlmann became for a while Leni Riefenstahl's lover.
Paulsen had to content himself with the treasures of the State Archaeological Museum in Lazienki
Park in Warsaw. He tackled as well the State Zoological museum, the Warsaw's libraries, the Sejm
Library and the Judaic Library in the great synagogue, the collection of 1500 books of the Seminar for
indo-european languages at the University of Warsaw and finaly put his hand on the Suprasl Codex,
an 11th-century manuscript containing the oldest-known written example of the proto-Slavic language,
valued at 4-5 million Reichmarks (over $25 millions today). Eventually Paulsen persuaded Mühlmann
to release some important Jewish and Freemasonry artifacts from Pland's National museum.
One of the most disgusting aspects of the Ahnenerbe Association was to transform itself into a
powerful tool to loot Poland's art treasures and transfer them back to Germany. After WW2 broke out
in September 1939, the Ahnenerbe was potentially out of business : no more expeditions could be
sent to foreign countries to search for traces of a superior Aryan civilization. But after the invasion of
Poland, the managing director of the Association came up with the brilliant idea to seize in Poland all
useful materials -catalogues, reports of excavations, drawings and photographs- that could assist
scholars in fabricating evidence for claims that Germany was merely righting an ancient wrong and
seizing land that legitimately belong to it.
So Dr Sievers, managing director of the Ahnenerbe, recruited a fanatic Nazi, the SS-Untersturmführer
Dr. Peter Paulsen, professor of Archeology at the university of Berlin, to draw up the list of the most
important Polish museums. Paulsen itemized 36 major Polish museums and academic institutes
and tabulated dozens of smaller archaeological collections in schools and local museums. In
September 1939 whereas the war in Poland was not yet finished, Himmler approved a plan to send a
detachment of scholars to Poland to secure art and archaeological treasures. One of the main
mission of Paulsen was to travel to the old royal capital of Krakov and to seize and transport back to
Berlin one of Poland's greatest and most beloved art treasures, the Veit Stoss altar,. a masterpiece of
15th century Gothic art by German sculptor Veit Stoss or Wit Stwosz as he was known by the Poles.
Paulsen departed for Krakow on October 1, 1939 and two weeks later exactly was back in Berlin with
the altar which had been sawed in several separate pieces by the SS. The parts were stowed in a
huge underground vault in Nuremberg where it remained until the summer of 1945. Immediately after
this theft, Heydrich ordered Paulsen to go back to Poland to plunder with scientific exactitude the
Polish collections important to the work of the Ahnenerbe. What was important would be of course
decided by the Ahnenerbe itself and his staff and not by the Poles. However when Paulsen and his
henchmen came back to Krakov, Hermann Goreing had already dispatched to Poland a similar team
of experts on an identical mission and put in charge an art historian with a shady reputation, named
Kajetan Mühlmann who will play a more sinister role later in the looting of France. After the war,
Mühlmann became for a while Leni Riefenstahl's lover.
Paulsen had to content himself with the treasures of the State Archaeological Museum in Lazienki
Park in Warsaw. He tackled as well the State Zoological museum, the Warsaw's libraries, the Sejm
Library and the Judaic Library in the great synagogue, the collection of 1500 books of the Seminar for
indo-european languages at the University of Warsaw and finaly put his hand on the Suprasl Codex,
an 11th-century manuscript containing the oldest-known written example of the proto-Slavic language,
valued at 4-5 million Reichmarks (over $25 millions today). Eventually Paulsen persuaded Mühlmann
to release some important Jewish and Freemasonry artifacts from Pland's National museum.
| The Veit Stoss's altar was made in the 15th century by a German sculptor born in Nuremberg but who chosed to live in Poland where he got a lot of commissions from, notably this famous wooden altar erected in St Mary's Church in Krakov. The Nazis considered it was a German piece of art, set it into pieces and transferred it to Nuremberg where it stayed in a vault until the end of the war. It was then returned to Poland by the Allies. |
Last but not least, Himmler found a way to "legally" confiscate the assets of Polish and Jewish citizens of Poland. He took
control through the Ahnenerbe of a public corporation founded by Goering to cover piracy in Poland : the Haupttreuhandstelle
Ost or Main Trust Center East. So the Ahnenerbe scholars fanned out into the Polish countryside, inventoried archives,
museums, public collections, castles, manors, and other wealthy homes, registered and seized all portable valuables. In 15
months, the scholars of the Main Trust Center East ransacked 500 castles, estates and privates apartments, 102 libraries, 3 art
galleries and 10 coin collections.
They plundered the silverware of Prince Radziwill, the pearls and gold and silver jewelry of Karl Albrecht von Habsburg
-Lothringen, the Dürer drawings at the Lemberg museum and collections from the museum of Ethnology and Natural Sciences
at Plock. By March 1941, they had amassed a large storehouse of treasures, some 1,100 paintings, 500 pieces of furniture, 35
boxes of church treasures and 25 sets of rare metal objects. The value of the confiscated loot was estimated by the managing
director of the Association at 3 million Reichmarks ($16 millions today). Göring received the lion's share of the proceeds of the
loot's sale but the Association submitted a bill for its service, charging 10% that naturally Göring never paid.
control through the Ahnenerbe of a public corporation founded by Goering to cover piracy in Poland : the Haupttreuhandstelle
Ost or Main Trust Center East. So the Ahnenerbe scholars fanned out into the Polish countryside, inventoried archives,
museums, public collections, castles, manors, and other wealthy homes, registered and seized all portable valuables. In 15
months, the scholars of the Main Trust Center East ransacked 500 castles, estates and privates apartments, 102 libraries, 3 art
galleries and 10 coin collections.
They plundered the silverware of Prince Radziwill, the pearls and gold and silver jewelry of Karl Albrecht von Habsburg
-Lothringen, the Dürer drawings at the Lemberg museum and collections from the museum of Ethnology and Natural Sciences
at Plock. By March 1941, they had amassed a large storehouse of treasures, some 1,100 paintings, 500 pieces of furniture, 35
boxes of church treasures and 25 sets of rare metal objects. The value of the confiscated loot was estimated by the managing
director of the Association at 3 million Reichmarks ($16 millions today). Göring received the lion's share of the proceeds of the
loot's sale but the Association submitted a bill for its service, charging 10% that naturally Göring never paid.
Trying to determine who was Jewish and who was not
After the start of the Russian campaign, it became evident even to the most stubborn German
scholars that it was difficult to draw the lines between ethnic groups and tribes in Russia. So
in December 1941, the Ahnenerbe decided to call in one racial specialist, called Bruno
Beger, in order for him to define the racial characteristics of Jews. Since 1939, the biology
department of the Society had unsuccessfully tried to come up with some definitive
conclusion on this issue. So in December Beger proposed to the Association to go about the
Jewish research in a completely different way : he needed a large collection of Jewish skulls
from all over Russia to do his measurements, at least 120. The Ahnenerbe's director, Dr.
Sievers got Beger in touch with the director of the anatomical institute ar the new Reich
university of Strasbourg (France), Dr. August Hirt, who had just got permission from Himmler
to receive for his diverse experiments "prisoners and professional criminals who would not
be given their freedom anyhow, as well as people who are scheduled to be executed."
The only way to provide Hirt and Beger with the desired amount of skulls was to use the Jews
killed in accordance to the infamous Hitler's "Commissars Orders" that portrayed Soviet
political officers and officials as Jews and decided that they should not be made POWs and
rather be killed. In January 1942, the Final Solution for Jews was adopted near Berlin and it
became instantly much easier to provide skulls to the needs of Hirt and Beger. Beger was
now certain that he would easily find a way to establish a much clearer picture of the Jewish
race. Three months later, Himmler created the Institute for military scientific research with
Dr. Sievers as director. Later in the year, the Ahnenerbe picked his needs directly up from the
concentration camps, notably Auschwitz and a camp near Strasbourg, close to the village of
Natzweiler.
In August 1943, everything was set and Hirt could start to carry out the orders for the Jewish
Skeleton Collection. A train carrying the prisoners from Auschwitz rolled in on the 2nd and on
the 11th of August the killing began. The first ones to be killed were 11 Jewish women who
were gassed with hydrogen-cyanide salts. The death took only 30 seconds. The day after
another contingent of 69 women were killed and shipped to Strasbourg by special van. A third
shipment of men was brought four days later bringing the total of desired skulls, after
removing flesh and skin, to 120. Most bodies were young and healthy.
At Nuremberg, the director of the camp, Josef Kramer, nicknamed the "beast of Belsen", said
that he felt "no emotion in doing these acts because I had received the order to execute 80
inmates." He was sentenced to death. Needless to say that not Hirt nor Beger found anything
about the characteristics of the Jewish race.
After the start of the Russian campaign, it became evident even to the most stubborn German
scholars that it was difficult to draw the lines between ethnic groups and tribes in Russia. So
in December 1941, the Ahnenerbe decided to call in one racial specialist, called Bruno
Beger, in order for him to define the racial characteristics of Jews. Since 1939, the biology
department of the Society had unsuccessfully tried to come up with some definitive
conclusion on this issue. So in December Beger proposed to the Association to go about the
Jewish research in a completely different way : he needed a large collection of Jewish skulls
from all over Russia to do his measurements, at least 120. The Ahnenerbe's director, Dr.
Sievers got Beger in touch with the director of the anatomical institute ar the new Reich
university of Strasbourg (France), Dr. August Hirt, who had just got permission from Himmler
to receive for his diverse experiments "prisoners and professional criminals who would not
be given their freedom anyhow, as well as people who are scheduled to be executed."
The only way to provide Hirt and Beger with the desired amount of skulls was to use the Jews
killed in accordance to the infamous Hitler's "Commissars Orders" that portrayed Soviet
political officers and officials as Jews and decided that they should not be made POWs and
rather be killed. In January 1942, the Final Solution for Jews was adopted near Berlin and it
became instantly much easier to provide skulls to the needs of Hirt and Beger. Beger was
now certain that he would easily find a way to establish a much clearer picture of the Jewish
race. Three months later, Himmler created the Institute for military scientific research with
Dr. Sievers as director. Later in the year, the Ahnenerbe picked his needs directly up from the
concentration camps, notably Auschwitz and a camp near Strasbourg, close to the village of
Natzweiler.
In August 1943, everything was set and Hirt could start to carry out the orders for the Jewish
Skeleton Collection. A train carrying the prisoners from Auschwitz rolled in on the 2nd and on
the 11th of August the killing began. The first ones to be killed were 11 Jewish women who
were gassed with hydrogen-cyanide salts. The death took only 30 seconds. The day after
another contingent of 69 women were killed and shipped to Strasbourg by special van. A third
shipment of men was brought four days later bringing the total of desired skulls, after
removing flesh and skin, to 120. Most bodies were young and healthy.
At Nuremberg, the director of the camp, Josef Kramer, nicknamed the "beast of Belsen", said
that he felt "no emotion in doing these acts because I had received the order to execute 80
inmates." He was sentenced to death. Needless to say that not Hirt nor Beger found anything
about the characteristics of the Jewish race.
| Karinhall, one of Goering's private residences, was stuffed with artifacts and paintings stolen from European homes, churches and museums. He had so many paintings that some had to be attached to the ceiling, |
| In addition to the extreme working conditions, medical experiments at Natzweiler-Struthof were common. Testimonies at the Nuremburg trial related the details of experiments using mustard gas on patients and detailing their effects. Gas was applied directly to the skin, inhaled, or injected and the effects were recorded. |
In 1944 the US Army discovered the Ahneberbe files in a dark cave in a small Bavarian village. The boxes they found there
contained thousands of documents recording in minute details the war crimes and experiments of the Ahnenerbe, the greedy
plundering of museums and private art collections from Poland to the Caucasus, the cold brutality of human medical experiments
at Natzweiler and Dachau and the conspiracy to murder Jewish concentration-camp prisoners for their skulls.
After the war, Yrjö von Grönhagen was arrested and remained in jail until 1947 when the British set him free. Franz Altheim went to
a brilliant career at the Free University in Münster. Ernst Schäfer went in hiding and departed for Venezuela in 1950, came back in
Europe at the request of the Belgian royal family (sic) and died aged 82 in Lower Saxony. Peter Paulsen did his best to bury his
past and in 1981 landed a prestigious job as a medieval expert in Würtemberg. Bruno Beger was captured in 1945 but was
"exonerated" in 1948. Wirth was classified by the American authorities as a "political victim of the Third Reich". Hirt committed
suicide to escape prosecution. Sievers was judged at Nuremberg, the only one of the list to be prosecuted and was sentenced to
death, guilty on all counts of war crimes. He went to the gallows in June 1948. As for Himmler. the great architect of the Holocaust
and the founder of the Ahneberbe, unwanted by his former colleagues and hunted by the Allies, he wandered for several days
around Flensburg near the Danish border, capital of the Dönitz government.
Attempting to evade arrest, he disguised himself as a sergeant-major of the Secret Military Police, using the name Heinrich
Hitzinger, shaving his moustache and donning an eye patch over his left eye, in the hope that he could return to Bavaria. He had
equipped himself with a full set of false documents, but someone whose papers were wholly in order was so unusual that it
aroused the suspicions of a British Army unit in Bremen, Germany.
Himmler was arrested on May 22, and in captivity, was soon
recognized. Himmler was scheduled to stand trial with other
German leaders as a major war criminal at Nuremberg, but
committed suicide in Lüneburg by swallowing a potassium
cyanide capsule before interrogation could begin at the great
frustration of the British officer in charge of his interrogation.
The most hated war criminal escaped his judges.
contained thousands of documents recording in minute details the war crimes and experiments of the Ahnenerbe, the greedy
plundering of museums and private art collections from Poland to the Caucasus, the cold brutality of human medical experiments
at Natzweiler and Dachau and the conspiracy to murder Jewish concentration-camp prisoners for their skulls.
After the war, Yrjö von Grönhagen was arrested and remained in jail until 1947 when the British set him free. Franz Altheim went to
a brilliant career at the Free University in Münster. Ernst Schäfer went in hiding and departed for Venezuela in 1950, came back in
Europe at the request of the Belgian royal family (sic) and died aged 82 in Lower Saxony. Peter Paulsen did his best to bury his
past and in 1981 landed a prestigious job as a medieval expert in Würtemberg. Bruno Beger was captured in 1945 but was
"exonerated" in 1948. Wirth was classified by the American authorities as a "political victim of the Third Reich". Hirt committed
suicide to escape prosecution. Sievers was judged at Nuremberg, the only one of the list to be prosecuted and was sentenced to
death, guilty on all counts of war crimes. He went to the gallows in June 1948. As for Himmler. the great architect of the Holocaust
and the founder of the Ahneberbe, unwanted by his former colleagues and hunted by the Allies, he wandered for several days
around Flensburg near the Danish border, capital of the Dönitz government.
Attempting to evade arrest, he disguised himself as a sergeant-major of the Secret Military Police, using the name Heinrich
Hitzinger, shaving his moustache and donning an eye patch over his left eye, in the hope that he could return to Bavaria. He had
equipped himself with a full set of false documents, but someone whose papers were wholly in order was so unusual that it
aroused the suspicions of a British Army unit in Bremen, Germany.
Himmler was arrested on May 22, and in captivity, was soon
recognized. Himmler was scheduled to stand trial with other
German leaders as a major war criminal at Nuremberg, but
committed suicide in Lüneburg by swallowing a potassium
cyanide capsule before interrogation could begin at the great
frustration of the British officer in charge of his interrogation.
The most hated war criminal escaped his judges.
|
| The Allies left him one hour on the carpet before to pick up his grotesquely looking body. Click here to watch a film of his death, the surrendering of the Nazis to the Allies in 1945 and even the dead bodies of Mussolini and his mistress beeing hung by the Italian crowd. |
| Madness and mass murder : Hitler's legacy |
