The SS and the Occult

This production by Bob Carruthers is an uneven effort at condensing a complex topic down into a 50 minute TV program. It has some good points so I'll begin with them. Bob shoots a bit of interesting footage of Wewelsburg Castle, a subject for which visuals are thin on the ground. This is not a full tour or anything by any means, but any footage at all of this site is welcome. And the first thirty minutes or so of this dvd are a decent summary of the contributions made to SS/Nazi occult ideology by Volkish philosophy, and important contributors such as; Madame Helena Blavatsky, Guido von List and Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels. The role of eugenics is highlighted, but without any reference to the reality that eugenics was not unique to Germany, but in fact, started by British social thinkers and enthusiastically embraced right here in the U.S. The Germans, in fact, felt that they were playing a game of "catch up" with other western nations. If one believes Carruthers, one would think the Germans invented social policies that targeted the mentally and physically disabled, Jews, alcoholics, etc. for special discrimination...not at all the case. So, much information is either missing, or misconstrued. Nowhere in this dvd is there any mention of The Thule Society, no mention is made of the influence occult beliefs had on the thinking of prominent architects of Nazi ideology such as Alfred Rosenburg and many others. Karl Maria Wiligut is mentioned only in passing. No mention is made of the SS Ahnenerbe, nor anything about its expeditions to Tibet nor any of the many expeditions it sponsored all over Europe in search of Aryan origins. Annoyingly, one inappropriate visual pops up more than once; Eliphas Levi's well known illustration of the, "Sabbatic Goat". This is Levis', semi-famous picture of Baphomet; the stereotypical image of Satan. Neither Levi, nor his illustration have anything what-so-ever to do with the SS or with Nazi occult philosophies. Neither one has any place in a serious discussion of the subject at hand. Carruthers includes some nice present day footage of the Heidelburg Thingplatz. It's a pretty site and interesting to see, but Carruthers chooses this point to digress into an entirely superficial critique of Pagan/Wiccan theological beliefs; again, an inappropriate commentary. And from there (about 45 minutes into the program), things go downhill as Carruthers completely loses his focus and meanders into loose discussion about the final fate of the surviving Nazi leadership during the Nuremberg Trials. This serves as his "wrap-up". All in all, this is a disappointing effort. It's almost a cheap shot at this point to harp on the low quality production values of much of the dvd; the over reliance on low quality, grainy, b&w stock footage or the unevenness of the audio track, or the one color shot of Heinrich Himmler and his henchmen that is used over and over at least six times. I would recommend to anyone interested in this very interesting subject to pick up a copy of Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke's excellent book, "The Occult Roots of Nazism", or a copy of Heather Pringle's, "The Master Plan", or a copy of Christopher Hale's, "Himmler's Crusade", or even a copy of the four part dvd set, "The Occult History of the Third Reich". All of these will give anyone who is interested a much better head start into learning about occult influences on the SS and the Nazi regime. Read more