Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich
Paranormal, European history, World War II
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Summary
&“A dense and scholarly book about . . . the relationship between the Nazi party and the occult . . . reveals stranger-than-fiction truths on every page.&”—Daily Telegraph The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is… often dismissed as Himmler&’s personal obsession or wildly overstated for its novelty. Preposterous though it was, however, supernatural thinking was inextricable from the Nazi project. The regime enlisted astrology and the paranormal, paganism, Indo-Aryan mythology, witchcraft, miracle weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis in reimagining German politics and society and recasting German science and religion. In this eye-opening history, Eric Kurlander reveals how the Third Reich&’s relationship to the supernatural was far from straightforward. Even as popular occultism and superstition were intermittently rooted out, suppressed, and outlawed, the Nazis drew upon a wide variety of occult practices and esoteric sciences to gain power, shape propaganda and policy, and pursue their dreams of racial utopia and empire. &“[Kurlander] shows how swiftly irrational ideas can take hold, even in an age before social media.&”—The Washington Post &“Deeply researched, convincingly authenticated, this extraordinary study of the magical and supernatural at the highest levels of Nazi Germany will astonish.&”—The Spectator &“A trustworthy [book] on an extraordinary subject.&”—The Times &“A fascinating look at a little-understood aspect of fascism.&”—Kirkus Reviews &“Kurlander provides a careful, clear-headed, and exhaustive examination of a subject so lurid that it has probably scared away some of the serious research it merits.&”—National Review