Digging for Hitler: The Nazi Archaeologists Search for an Aryan Past

by David Barrowclough

Overview

During the 1930s, in the build up to the Second World War, the Nazis established a band of specialists, the SS-Ahnenerbe, under the command of Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Wirth. Their aim was nothing less than to prove the superiority of the Aryan race, and with it the unique right of the German people to rule Europe. The occult figured as a key feature in many of these increasingly desperate quack ‘research’ efforts. Part ‘science,’ part espionage, and part fantasy. Archaeological expeditions were sent to Iceland, Tibet, Kafiristan, North Africa, Russia, the Far East, Egypt, and even South America and the Arctic. The Nazi ‘Ancestral Heritage Society’s’ chief administrator was Dr Wolfram Sievers, who cruelly conducted medical experiments on prisoners in concentration camps, and was responsible for the looting of historic artifacts considered ‘Germanic’ for ‘return’ to Germany. He rewarded those academics that took part with high military office, whilst those academics who contradicted or criticized the SS-Anenerbe were carted off to concentration camps where they faced certain death. This book tells the true history of the real life villains behind the Indiana Jones movies. Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781555002
Publisher:	Fonthill Media
Publication date:	10/13/2016
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

David Barrowclough is a historian and archaeologist at the University of Cambridge. He has a special interest in the role that archaeology played in supporting Nazi ideology in 1930s Germany, a topic that he has researched extensively. He is author of a number of academic and popular books on archaeology and history and has acted as archaeological consultant for the BBC.

Table of Contents

Preface 5

1 Indiana Jones and Nazi Archaeology 9

2 Ideology: Aryans, Anti-Semitism and Racism 32

3 The Nazis in South America and the Search for the First Aryans of Atlantis 45

4 Tibet and the Search for the Aryan Homeland 58

5 Icelandic Sagas: Germanic Myths and Legends 78

6 Reading the Runes in Scandinavia 95

7 Finland: In the 'Land of Heroes' 112

8 Spies in the Caves 123

9 Greece: The Gates of Hades and the Delphi Treasure 138

10 Symbols of Power in the New Germania 144

11 Claiming the Past 157

12 The Quest for the Holy Grail 167

13 Conclusion: A Warning from the Past 180

Endnotes 189

Bibliography 208