 |
highly recommended |
Whoever Controls the Past, Controls the Future... 
Heather Pringle's "The Master Plan" gives an excellent history of the Ahnenerbe, the special branch of the Nazi SS made up of some of Germany's leading scientists and scholars whose purpose it was to document the history and prehistory of Germany and the Aryan race. These scientists, often hand-picked by Heinrich Himmler himself, were intended to provide the historical and scientific justification for the Nazi's ideology and conquests. Much of this story has remained largely unknown and Pringle's work is the first book that provides a comprehensive account of this fascinating subject.
Himmler was obsessed with the idea that he could validate the superiority of the Aryan peoples and the supremacy of the German "volk" by providing clear scientific evidence supporting these claims. Where such evidence was lacking, it could be invented. Thus was born the SS Ahnenerbe, a organization that operated under the guise of unbiased scientific inquiry by some of the leading German scholars of the day. The findings of the Ahnenerbe were used to justify the Final Solution and the sinister deeds of the Nazis as the German war machine steamrolled across the world. Pringle's book explores the lives of the many scientists who served the Ahnenerbe and the various expeditions that were undertaken in the service of the Reich. It was these very archaeological undertakings that partly served as the inspiration for the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark".
Pringle's book also makes clear Himmler's agenda to alter the very fabric of German society, especially religion. Himmler was a passionate anti-Christian who believed that Germany should be returned to the pagan religion of their ancestors. To that end, he used the SS as a prototype for a future society that would embrace the beliefs and practices of their Aryan forbearers.
Himmler understood that if you can control what people know and understand about their past and their ancestors then you can control the future of that society. History is written, or often RE-written, by the victors for a reason. The Ahnenerbe was created for this very purpose. It is an important piece in the complex puzzle of understanding the motivations of the Nazis and why they did the things they did. Pringle's book is an excellent addition to that understanding.
Nazi Nutcases
I've been a fan of Heather Pringle ever since I picked up The Mummy Congress and spent an entire day in Acapulco in my room reading it in preference to splashing about in the Pacific. This book is, of course, entirely different and concerns the efforts of Heinrich Himmler to establish a anthropologic/historical "school" called the Ahnenerbe to indoctrinate young Nazis by advancing the theory of the "master race" and tracking the history of advanced civilizations back to thier presumed Aryan ancestors.
While Himmler's efforts were in themselves crackpot and gathered quite a few kooks along the way such as his assistant, former mental patient named Karl-Marial Wilgigut who traced his family back to the Norse god Thor, more interestingly is that many of the reputable German scientists of the day followed along either through fear of political censorship or quite possibley through shared beliefs.
Throughout, Ms. Pringle pops up with interesting facts such as Hugo Boss' supplying of the Nazi uniforms and Ludwig Roselius' invention of decaffeinated coffee (sufficient reason in itself to dislike the Nazis.)
This book is well worth the price particularly as it presents the acceptance of craziness and promulgation of insanity in modern civilization and deals with an area of the Third Reich which would otherwise be unfamiliar to most readers. Highly recommended.
Read this one
There are two recent books that touch on this subject. Ms. Pringle's and Christpher Hale's "Himmler's Crusade". Hale's book is about the expedition to Tibet, which also occupies a large part of this book. Even so, go with this one. Ms. Pringle is an excellent researcher and writes very well. She avoids veering off and making mistakes about military affairs, a major weakness in Hale's book. In addition, this book goes beyond the Tibet expedition (a fascinating subject) and takes up additional matters regarding the group set up by the SS to examine racial-biological-political issues. If you have an interest in Himmler or the SS, you won't be sorry you read this book.
Groundbreaking and a good read indeed
This is not the first book about the mysterious branch of the SS called "Ahnenerbe". But it is the most well-written one and also the first book to present all the amazing Ahnenerbe expeditions abroad. These expeditions bring Indiana Jones to mind but are far more interesting than the "Indy" movies, as they took place in real life.
As Ahnenerbe was to a great extent about motivating the pagan faith of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler and many early SS-officers the book is also about the relationship of the SS to the major religions. Both to buddhism (therefore the fascination with Tibet), hinduism (with its "Aryan" side), Islam (two SS divisions were largely Muslim) and Christianity (incompatible with true SS spirit according to Himmler).
Had Nazi Germany been victorious the SS would have dropped its wartime acceptance of Christianity and would have worked hard on replacing Christianity with its brand of pagan faith. "The Master Plan" gives a really fascinating insight into what was actually done in the SS to promote the new/ancient faith, and what the SS planned to do about religion, had the SS won.
Good Read, but fails to deliver 
Although I enjoyed the read, by the end I was left somewhat disappointed by the content. The details of the Nazi occult belief system are glazed over. I understand that this is a difficult topic to get to the bottom of, and many have tried before, but the author seems more at home dealing with the external logistics of Himmler's strategy rather than explaining the ideology that lay behind. When reading of the primeval blond-haired master race I couldn't help thinking of the "Nordic" aliens who feature so regularly in UFO abduction stories and in alien conspiracy books, and how Nazi scientists appeared in Speilberg's "Taken" series working hand in hand with the little grey aliens on the operating tables. No doubt a respected journalist, such as Ms Pringle, would be disinclined to follow that line of thought, but I wouldn't put it past Himmler. He was also inhuman. But more to the point, why would Himmler, or Hitler for that matter, be so obsessed with tall, blond hair blue-eyed types when they so obviously did not resemble them? Did the thought not occur to the author? It must have.
reviews: page 1, 2, 3
THE MASTER PLAN is a groundbreaking history of a little known Nazi SS archeological research institute, the Ahnenerbe, and the key role it played in the Holocaust. The Ahnenerbe was the brainchild of Himmler, the Reichsfuhrer SS and architect of the Final Solution, who was intensely interested in Germany-s ancient past. His intent was not only to rewrite the history of what he and others termed the -Aryan Race,- but also to use that mythic past to shape a more glorious future for Germany. While attempting to prove that Aryans were responsible for all of civilization-s greatest achievements, he also hoped to use tall, blond-haired SS men as stock to breed future generations of Germans in a racially purer mold. In the tradition of Hitler-s Willing Executioners, THE MASTER PLAN is also an expose of the work of German scientists and scholars who allowed their research to be used to justify extermination, and who, in some cases, directly participated in the slaughter-many of whom resumed their academic positions at war-s end. Intensely compelling and exhaustively researched, THE MASTER PLAN is based on extensive personal interviews and previously ignored archival material.
master plan, master, plan
|
based on 11 reviews
