All language subtitles for Secret.Nazi.Expeditions.S01E01.The.Lost.Continent.720p.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-squalor

(soldiers chanting)

- [Andrew] In the early
part of the 20th century,

the Nazis rose to power
on a dark platform.

Till this day, their racist
ideology is overshadowed

only by their ambition for power

but behind the battles, lie
more secrets than we know.

Their most elite and
evil force, the SS,

plotted far beyond a conquest.

They mounted global expeditions
hunting for ancient relics

of power and long
forgotten remnants

of ancient civilization.

Hell bent on proving
a mythical heritage.

Now, secrets are revealed,

a new light is shed
on dark schemes

and desperate adventures.

(dramatic music)

- People love mystery

and the idea that there are
these great massive discoveries

that can be made.

- All these kinds of quests
are motivated by a search

for this connection to something
which is more than just

the humdrum realities
of human existence.

- This idea, and
the dream of it.

Was it true?

Is it as magical and
special as you believe,

or is it just some ancient ruin

that's hidden away in history?

- [Andrew] Atlantis, the
legendary lost continent

sought after for centuries.

- The story of Atlantis
is first found in Plato.

Plato was the fourth
century philosopher

who lived in Athens.

He wrote quite a
number of dialogues,

so brilliantly written with
such a diversity of topics

that after people just use Plato

as a reference for everything.

- [Andrew] Atlantis is
described by Plato as a powerful

and advanced island
kingdom stretching larger

than Libya and Asia
Minor put together

and protected by
the god, Poseidon.

- It's got so many
varying locations

depending on who you
talk to about it.

I know when I was growing up,

I had heard stories
about Atlantis

and I always had placed
it in the Mediterranean

because it was coming
from old Greek stories,

but then doing more research,

I discovered that it has
had various locations out

in the middle of the Atlantic,
off the coast of the UK,

closer up to Iceland.

- And this island kingdom
takes over much of Europe,

the Middle East, Africa,

but then they're
defeated by the Athenians

and Poseidon and the other
gods punish the Atlanteans

for their overreach by
destroying their island kingdom.

- But that's where the
discussion of Atlantis ends

and the dialogue breaks off.

He never completed it.

- [ Andrew] Eons later, a new
evil is hell bent on finding

this ancient land mass.

The myth of Atlantis lies

in the undercurrent
of Nazi ideology,

proving Germans are
descendants of superior beings

could be the key to this
rising party success

and restoring
Germany to greatness.

The SS established a
team to scour history

for any clue to its
potential whereabouts.

- It's wildly fantastical
but it would have bloody

and tragic consequences
for the world

when put in the
hands of the Nazis.

- The idea of Atlantis
lingered in the ancient world

a little bit because of the
weight of the name Plato.

But it is not significant
enough for people

to pursue any detailed inquiry

until the Madame Blavatsky wrote

the founding texts of theosophy.

- [Andrew] Helena Blavatsky

founded the theosophical
movement in the
late 19th century.

- Theosophy is kind
of this amalgamation

of Eastern Buddhism
and some Christianity

also kind of melded with
Western ideas of the occult.

- Madame Blavatsky spent a
great deal of time traveling

in the east going to Nepal
and spending time learning

from Buddhists and from the
Hindus gaining these pieces

of knowledge from the
Eastern esoteric beliefs.

- [Andrew] One key
tenant of Theosophy

is the idea that
humanity has descended

from a number of root races.

- There are seven route races
and then each of those seven

has seven more sub races
and you were getting

all of these kinds of higher
powers and higher beings.

- And so Atlantis becomes
part of this story

because it was the site
of one of these races.

- Helena Blavatsky kind of,
took what Plato was saying

about Atlantis and
she popularized it.

- But she develops it
a little bit further.

In Plato we get only,
they were good at mining,

they were good at metallurgy.

She says they also
had psychic abilities

and these Atlanteans were
sort of super beings.

They could even be giants.

These works become very
popular all over the world.

They're read in
theosophical circles

and Volkisch circles in Germany.

- [Andrew] The Volkisch movement

was a German
ethnonationalist movement

that in the late 19th century.

- They believed that the
ancient Germanic way of life

was richer, more fulfilling
as opposed to the intellectual

and spiritual poverty
represented by modernity

and Christianity.

- [Andrew] Antisemitism
became a cornerstone

of this growing movement
and Blavatsky's ideas

of superior route races
appealed to these nationalists.

- They wanted people
to be racially pure,

and they really wanted to
connect it to the earth

and to soil.

You could grow and develop
a community of pure people

and bring them all together.

And so for them, Helena
Blavatsky kind of gives them

this chance to really explore.

Can we hone in and link that
to our own dynasty as well

and create a modern day
version of Atlantis.

And they start tapping into
the ancient romantic past.

- [Andrew] The movement
revered historic heroes,

such as ninth century
war chief, Herman.

Herman had unified tribes
and led them to victory

in a bloody battle
against the Roman empire

epitomizing Germanic greatness.

(dramatic music)

To bring back glory to Germany,

some Volkisch look to an
origin story in Scandinavia.

- We have to go back a
little bit further in time

and to the current sort of
19th century nationalism,

particularly the work of
Jacobi Grimm, "Fairy Tales",

and what Grimm argues is that
there was an all powerful set

of German gods and the
German mythological system

got erased in Germany itself

because it converted quite
early to Christianity

in the seventh, eighth,
ninth centuries.

But by German, he really
meant the greater Germania

and that meant
Scandinavia as well.

So Grimm reckoned that
it was Scandinavia

which have preserved the
ancestral myths of the Germans

because the Scandinavians
had converted Christianity

that little bit later.

- The Icelandic Eddas,

a collection of ancient
stories and poems

about the Norse gods provides
a convenient connection

to Westphalia, the site
of Herman's great victory.

- The Pros Edda was composed
by an Icelandic historian

and scholar called Snorri
Sturluson in around 1230.

Baldr the son of Odin
was sent by Snorri

to have ruled over Westphalia,
the land of the Saxons.

- They were a people that lived
off the land and Westphalia

is filled with
trees and mountains.

So it really is epic
Germany at its best.

- [Andrew] Following Germany's
defeat in World War I,

people are desperate
for hope for the future.

The Volkisch movement
gets a surge in popularity

as new groups form
like the Thule society

which shares its name
with a mythical island

heralded by some as the
ancient Germanic fatherland.

This land will one day
play an important role

in the Nazi's search
where Atlantis.

- Thee societies take
as their inspiration,

the theosophical and
Aereosophic movements

that proceeded them.

What makes the
Thule society unique

is that Rudolph Hess, Hans
Frank, Alfred Rosenberg,

these important high-ranking
Nazis were once members

of the Thule Society.

- [Andrew] The Thule
Society sponsors

the German workers party
which is transformed

into the National Socialist
German Workers Party in 1920,

more commonly
known as the Nazis.

The Nazis capitalize
on Germany's misery

in the aftermath of World War I.

- They were an instigator
of World War I.

When they lose they're
punished by the victors.

Germany is faced with
de-industrialization,

demilitarization, they have
to pay war reparations.

This creates a ripe atmosphere
for Hitler to come in

with blame mongering,
scapegoating.

- If you had just fought
a war and humiliated

and came back and had no job

and then some guy comes
along and tells you,

hey, it's the Jews
who did that to you,

or it's the foreigners
who did that to you,

maybe even if you never
thought about that before.

- And this false promise that
Germanic are Lord's on earth,

(indistinct) Superman,

that they are a superior
race and it's their destiny

to rise out of the
ashes like the Phoenix.

- The Nazis are inextricably
linked to events

which produced tens
of millions of dead

and fundamentally changed
existence as we know it.

- [Andrew] Blavatsky theosophy
served as inspiration

for Nazi racial doctrine.

- So the Nazis have this idea

that they were direct
descendants of the Aryan race,

or they were still the
Aryan race themselves

and the Aryans where
the direct descendants

of the Atlanteans.

- So the argument was
the superior bloodline

had been diminished or weakened
because of years of breeding

with other races.

The Nazis believe that the
differences in the races

were so profound that they
were differences in species.

Master races were
Nordics, the Germanics,

the mud races were
everyone else,

Africans, Southern
Europeans, Jews.

So Madame Blavatsky
wasn't overtly advocating

some Germanic Nazi version
of the Aryan superman,

but her writings had
racist overtones clearly.

And when used by
Hitler and others,

they would have
devastating consequences

for the continent of Europe.

- [Andrew] References
to Atlantis

appear all over pseudo
scientific concepts

circulating Europe
at the same time

such as World Ice Theory.

- World Ice Theory was created
by an Austrian physicist

called Hanns Horbiger.

Now, he believed that
the world originated

from a giant star.

- His idea is that there
is this waterlogged star

that crashes into
this giant star

and in the explosion
that ensued,

there's ice that is sent
out into the cosmos.

This ice forms our solar system.

- World Ice Theory is
discredited at the time

by other scientists.

It's not taken seriously.

It's a fringe belief,

but this is also a time
of extreme nationalism.

- This is perfect for
Himmler and Hitler

because it's Horbiger
who comes up with this

who's an Austrian.

It's not a Jewish scientist.

It's not an Albert Einstein
with the Theory of Relativity.

And pretty soon,
this begins to create

an alternative reality of
the history of the earth

and the history of humanity
that is rather Aryancentric.

- [Andrew] World Ice Theory
claimed that long ago

several satellites orbiting
the earth were drawn in

by the planet's gravity and
disintegrated in the atmosphere.

Their debris fell to earth
and shaped its landscape.

Then, around 1
million years ago,

the earth had a prehistoric
moon called Phobos.

Gravity, pulled it closer
and closer to the earth

and caused tidal waves to
rise up and submerge Atlantis.

- And then as the water rises,

the Atlantean ans have to flee

and they disperse into
different areas of the world.

- [Andrew] It was this
aspect of World Ice Theory

that would launch a
critical expedition

that would later
inspire the Nazis.

The Atlantis Edda and Bible,

a document banned until
recently makes connections

between World Ice Theory,
ancient Germanic markings,

Christianity, and
Nordic mythology.

It says that leading
up to Phobos' collapse,

the world was
uninhabitable resembling

the time before Ragnarok,

the cataclysmic end
of the world described

in the Icelandic Eddas.

- You have the thimble
fetish, the mighty winter,

and that's three years in
which there's a terrible winter

and no summer in between
all bonds between humans

will be lost before the world
plunges head-long to disaster.

When the end of the world
comes, humans are destroyed.

The gods die, the world itself
sinks back into the sea.

- [Andrew] Out of this
destruction came the rebirth

of a new world ruled by
gods who will establish

a reign of justice and peace.

- The world rises
again out of the sea

new and green and fresh,

and two people called Lif and
Lifthrasir, male and female,

emerge out of Hoddmimir's wood

and they create the
new human beings.

- [Andrew] The story
of Phobos' collapse

would motivate one
Nazi adventurer

to search for the
Atlanteans new home.

One of the biggest backers
of World Ice Theory

was Edmund Kiss, a
celebrated German author

and decorated World
war I veteran.

- Kiss fancies himself as a
scientist and archeologist

and he was neither.

He's an adventurer who seeks
the travel around the world

and prove his wild theories.

- He is also a supporter of the
Nazis and had an affiliation

with key party members
and the party itself.

And he certainly saw this
as a chance to promote

both himself within that,
as well as Nazi ideology.

- Anxious to bring proof
of World Ice Theory

to the Volkisch
circles he frequented,

Edmund Kiss corresponded

with amateur Austrian
archeologist Arthur
Posnansky in 1927,

who told Kiss about the
Tiwanaku ruins in Bolivia.

- I think Kiss is really hinged
on to the idea that Bolivia

could have been where the
Atlanteans ended up around

the world when they
started to migrate

and so he really wanted
to take an expedition.

- Traveling around
the world in the 1920s

is not like today, you don't
just hop on an airplane.

You get on a ship and
you sail for weeks

and you have to
finance your expedition

and it's months and months long.

- In 1928, Edmund Kiss
wins a writing contest.

And from this, he now
has the financial backing

to go and take an
expedition to Bolivia.

- [Andrew] Arriving in Tiwanaku,

he marvels at the architecture
believing it was created

by the prehistoric
race of the Atlanteans.

Kiss explores the ruins,
looking for clues,

making sketches and floor
plans of his findings.

He stumbles upon an ancient
man's head sculpture,

believing it depicts
a Nordic ancestor.

- He goes to this pre-Colombian
ruin in south America

and he looks at a
statue and he says,

ah, that's someone
from Atlantis.

That statue is never
materialized, it's
lost the history.

Some scholars believe or
suspect that it never existed.

Kiss just made it up.

- They're not looking
at the evidence

and then going from there
to try to figure out

what is the truth,

they're looking for evidence
that will fit their narrative.

And if it doesn't
fit, they make it fit

or they get rid of it.

- Kiss feels certain
the Atlanteans we're
here in Tiwanaku

but he'll need more to impress

his Nazi companions
back in Germany.

Then, he finds the proof
that he has been waiting for,

the gateway to the sun.

Kiss examines its inscriptions
pondering their connection

to the Atlanteans
who settled here.

- Kiss looks at and concludes

that there's an
advanced calendar,

that some civilization came up

with all this long
before everybody else

and of course it
must be the Aryans.

- [Andrew] He believes
he can see markings

that indicate 12
months of the year

each possessing 24 or 25 days.

He also reads that
each day has 30 hours

and each hour has 22 minutes.

It dawns on him this
calendar was made

when the ancient moon,
Phobos was rapidly orbiting

the earth as described
in World Ice Theory

- It's proof that
somebody was there,

but is it actually
the Atlanteans?

- [Andrew] Despite
having no evidence

of when the Atlantean
migration might have happened,

Kiss leaps to the
conclusion that Tiwanaku

is millions of years old

but modern scientific
methods estimate

that it was most likely
founded around A.D. 110.

- By saying that it's
millions of years old,

that supersedes anything else
that we already have known

in terms of humans.

So they're trying to say,

you see, we really
are the master race.

We are the ultimate
beginning of all humankind.

- [Andrew] After his
year long expedition,

Kiss triumphantly returns
to Germany in 1929.

Kiss shared his discoveries
with his like-minded fellows.

The thousands of members of
the Cosmo Technical Society

and Horbiger Institute,

which had been founded
in the early 1920s.

He also published a series
of novels about Atlantis

and the sun gate
calendar popular

among Aryasofis and
Nazi party members.

- Bolivia is a far away
place in the 1920s.

People in Europe knew
nothing about it.

Kiss could come back and say,

there were people
that were 20 feet tall

and they were purple.

I mean, people would
believe most anything.

And he comes back with
these wild stories

of a great civilization.

That's pretty caloric
for a lot of people,

especially the Nazis.

- Eventually, a whole
SSR would be dedicated

to this type of research
inspired by Kiss' success

and the work of
another Nazi scholar.

This mysterious building
in the city of Bremen

was bombed in 1944
but its remnants

are still standing today.

The building is inspired by
one man's unwavering belief

in Atlantis.

- Herman Wirth was a
historian and he believed

that the ancient myths
of Atlanteans was truth.

- [Andrew] Wirth published
a book on the prehistory

of the Nordic Atlantean race.

He specialized in studies
of ancient symbols

and religion
connected to Atlantis.

- A lot of people with
legit qualifications

are still prone to fantastical
ideas, dangerous ideas

that's never changed.

And in his particular case,

he buys into to
some of the notions

of Atlantis in particular
and even draws down

to the idea that Atlantis
is in the North Sea.

- [Andrew] Herman Wirth's
belief in Atlantis caught

the attention of
Ludwing Roselius,

the rich inventor
of decaf coffee.

In 1929, Roselius
hired German architect

and Nazi sympathizer
Bernard Hutkurt

to create a building to
encourage Wirth's endeavors.

He named it House Atlantis.

- It's built to
look like a temple

and they think they're going
to find evidence from Atlantis

and bring all this
back to this museum.

- One of the first things you
were walking into and seeing

is Odin crucified in a
massive wooden sculpture.

- There's a story
recounted by Odin himself

of how he hanged himself
on Yggdrasil, the world ash

for nine days and nine nights.

So this idea of Odin as the
sacrificial god parallels

with the Christian myth.

- It is I think a way
of kind of easing people

into that culture.

Yes, it's secret, yes
it's new, yes it's weird,

but there's enough there,
I think, that resonates

with certain people that
they can kind of recognize.

- [Andrew] The art deco and
futuristic winding staircase

is built of glass and steel
leading up to the second floor,

hemo Sal or heaven's hall

decorated with blue and
white glass blocks meant

to take visitors on a
spiritual journey to Atlantis.

- And it's able to connect
widely, disparities

about epic Nordic poems,
rule-based theory,

and to draw them together
into a pseudo-scientific nut

that people can
therefore crack, right?

They can say, oh, it
all makes sense now.

- [Andrew] Herman Wirth
was given an office

in House Atlantis and with
an inspiring study space

and a wealthy patron,

he continued to research
ancient symbols and religion

connected to Atlantis.

He translated the symbols
in the Friesian Orlinda

into German text, dubbing
it, the Nordic Bible.

And it would later prove
to be his calling card

to impress the Nazi hierarchy.

At the time of House
Atlantis construction,

Germany was once again
in economic disrepair.

- Currency is
worthless, businesses
and banks have closed,

people are unemployed,

and year after year the pain
of that is just building anger.

And along comes the Nazi party

and its message is
beginning to resonate,

not just among all
ultrnationalists

and the far radical right wing,

but it's becoming mainstream.

- Again later in 1930, when
a general election happens,

the Nazis actually win
over 18% of the vote

and this puts them in as the
second largest political party

in Germany.

- [Andrew] A new era
was coming to Germany

and the search for Atlantis.

In 1933, the Nazis officially
gained control of the country

marking the beginning
of the Third Reich

and one of the most powerful
figures in the Nazi leadership

enters the picture.

- Heinrich Himmler comes
from upper middle-class,

Roman Catholic family.

He was born in 1900, so
he misses World War I

and that's a key
development is life.

He be a great soldier.

- He's a sickly,
frail and small person

who looks nothing like
the tall, muscular,

blonde blue eyed, Germanic
ideal that he advocated.

But Heinrich Himmler's
rise within the Nazi party

is meteoric.

He joins the party
back in the beginning

and in the early 1920s.

Within a few years,
he's the head of the SS.

The SS is incorporated into
every facet of German society

by the late 1930s which expands
Heinrich Himmler's profile.

He's easily one of the most
powerful people in Nazi Germany.

- [Andrew] The Nazi party's
power was rising steadily,

but threats of opposition
still remained.

- The SA which is basically
the storm trooper military unit

of Hitler's Nazi party
becomes too powerful

and the idea creeps
into Hitler's head
to have its leader,

Ernst Roehm maybe a personal
threat, that he may be arrival.

- [Andrew] In 1934, the SS
assassinate, Ernst Roehm

along with 85 others.

Thousands more are arrested

eliminating all concerns
about the SA's involvement

in German military operations

and consolidating
Hitler's power.

This attack solidifies SS
leader, Heinrich Himmler

as the number two Nazi.

After German President
Paul Von Hindenburg death

a few months later,

Hitler uses his position
as chancellor to abolish

the Office of the President
becoming Germany's dictator.

- By 1935, they have banned
all political parties,

they have eliminated
any freedom of the press

and they have censored
universities and
academics therein,

they have implemented the
infamous Nuremberg Laws,

which dictates
citizenship and race.

It's a totalitarian regime
and they're not taking no

for an answer.

- Himmler has this pet project

one that Hitler maybe doesn't
necessarily approve of,

but he's not gonna
get in Himmler's way.

And he starts by
basically making it

kind of this secret
society within the SS.

- [Andrew] It was
known as the Anhnenerbe

and it officially
came to life in 1935

co-founded by Himmler and Wirth.

Though Wirth was considered
a brin scientist,

Himmler was one
of his supporters.

He was impressed by Wirth's
early Olynda translation

and saw it as a
valuable connection

to Germany's Atlantean heritage.

- Heinrich Himmler hires
some of the best scientists,

archeologists, and
biologists in all of Germany.

He also hires some
absolute crackpots

and he sends them on
expeditions all across the world

to find evidence of
these mad and wild ideas.

- [Andrew] Their first
official expedition

would be led by Wirth
himself to an ancient site

that hides strange inscriptions.

- Was he on side with
the Nazis at that point

or was it really for him
just such an opportunity

of a lifetime that he was
willing to do what they asked,

but at the same time be
able to study that site

where money was no object.

- In 1936 Wirth and
his convoy of six

head to Germany's Baltic
coast to begin the voyage

to the Bohuslan
region of Sweden.

- Bohuslan is actually one
of the largest, neolithic

rock carving areas in the world.

There's 10 or 12 in
different locations,

all fairly close to each other.

- [Andrew] Their mission
is to make plaster casts

of the ancient engravings
to be displayed

in a museum devoted to
the thousand year Reich.

- You can take a picture
of your discovery,

but that never has the
power of bringing back

some physical, tangible
evidence that you can touch.

You can show it to the Fuhrer,

you can show it to Himmler,
you can put it in a museum.

- This is very much about
notions of grandeur,

greatness of destiny.

Hitler believes certainly
in his own personal destiny,

he believed in the
destiny of the Nazis.

That's why he calls it
the thousand year Reich.

We're going to be around
for a thousand years

much like the holy
Roman empire was.

- [Andrew] A lot of the carvings

were in remote areas
covered by thick forest.

That didn't matter to
Wirth, he was relentless.

- There were no roads that just
drove into these locations.

You had to hike
many, many miles in.

- [Andrew] Arriving at Backa,
Wirth's team set up camp

and start unpacking
their materials.

- Backa is the oldest
rock art site in Sweden.

It has some of the
earliest known carvings.

- [Andrew] As the expert,
Wirth decided which petroglyph

the team would cast.

- I've worked with plaster.

It's very chalky, very
porous, it breaks very easily

and if it's not mixed
properly, the consistency,

it can become very
brittle and dry.

There's also the problem of
trying to remove the piece

after being poured in one chunk

so that you're not
breaking it, right?

So it is quite a
delicate process.

- [Andrew] With their field
preparations well underway.

Wirth's team of Nazis is
itching to get a closer look

at the ancient
rock art in Backa.

- And what they found
there was images of people,

men gathering, and getting
in their boat and traveling.

And I believe that what this
depicts is a hunting party.

- [Andrew] But Wirth believes
that these ancient carvings

may reveal secret
messages left behind

by their Atlantean ancestors.

Scattered among the carvings
of people, animals, and boats,

the team observes a number of
circles, lines and crosses.

- So when Dr. Verse tries to
interpret these petroglyphs,

rather than taking a cool,
measured academic perspective,

he takes yet another
giant leap of faith

that this is an ancient
alphabet from Atlantis.

- [Andrew] Wirth's
interpretation of these symbols

is that a circle with a
line through the middle

means one year,

two circles linked
by a vertical line

means rebirth of life
at winter solstice.

These questionable
conclusions warm their way

into Nazi doctrine
and publications.

- We know the oldest forms of
writing come from Mesopotamia,

but were these symbols in
Bohuslan a form of writing?

No, they were pictographs.

It is a language in a sense
but not a spoken language

and alphabet that would
be used to spell words.

- Was he a true believer
or was he just trying

to put one-on-one
together and get three

and find the evidence he
needed to go back to Himmler

to justify his expedition,

to justify this whole
underlying premise

of Aryan superiority?

- [Andrew] Wirth discovers
a drawing of a man.

He interprets this as a
symbol for primeval divinity

and names it, the son of God

believing it predates
Christianity by
thousands of years.

- Can we say that
it's the son of God?

Well, it certainly wouldn't
be any God we identify with.

For me, what I see, what my
interpretation is of those,

is warriors, hunters.

- [Andrew] Wirth's team
furiously begins making casts

of the so-called
Atlantean alphabet

and the son of God, glyph.

These will be great
artifacts to show off

to their Nazi counterparts.

Once the plaster casts harden

the team begins trekking
them back to the camp site.

From there, they'll get
packed into sturdy crates

and driven to the nearest port

where there'll be
shipped to Griffin Baird,

the homeward bound for Germany.

1936 marks the ultimate
rise for Himmler and the SS

as Hitler appoints him
Chief of all German police.

Himmler's power is nearly
unmatched in Nazi Germany

and his quest or Atlantis
gains new intensity.

- He really did believe
that the Atlanteans

had conquered the world.

He wanted to follow
that footsteps.

- The Atlanteans became very
successful and very advanced,

but at some point they decided

that they were gonna
be imperialists

and capture large portions
of the Mediterranean world.

Plato says that
initially the Atlanteans

held onto the divine
element in them

which led them to value
virtue and friendship

above everything else.

They lost that contact
with the divine element,

which led to a desire and greed

and that is what brought about
the end of the Atlanteans.

Plato is cautioning us
that if we get obsessed

with power and wealth,

we lose out what's
important in life.

What the Nazis did was they
made power and absolute end.

And in some sense, I
think there is a will

to self-destruction national
in socialist thinking.

It's like we will
pull ourselves down,

but you will suffer when
we destroy ourselves

the whole world will suffer.

- Himmler and other
Nazis were willing

to latch on almost any idea,
no matter how harebrained

to prove their point
and one of those

was the idea of Thule.

- [Andrew] Thule was first
mentioned in ancient Greece

by the Explorer Pytheas.

- Pytheas was a Greek
Explorer who went out beyond

the pillars of Hercules, which
is the straits of Gibraltar,

which was a real
boundary for the Greeks.

They tended to like to
stay in the Mediterranean.

Pytheas saw all these
things, supposedly,

that no one had ever
seen before and Thule

was one of the
places he visited.

- The Nazi's idea of Thule

was that it was the ancient
capital of Hyper Borei,

the origin of one of
Blavatsky's root races.

- Early on in the Greeks,

they talked about
the Hyper Boreans.

According to one story,

Apollo went to the land
of the Hyper Boreans

before he set up
his career as a god.

- These are the
second root race.

They were described as being
golden and somewhat plant-like.

They're beings, but
they're not human.

They resided in the north

but the north then was
considered tropical and warm

and not cold and icy.

- This island was
supposed to be the origin

of the Germanic people.

I think at some point, Thule
and Atlantis start to blend.

- [Andrew] With a successful
Scandinavian expedition

under their belt, the
Ahnenerbe is hungry for more.

Ancient rock art in
Sweden peak the interest

of Nazi scholar,
Bruno Schweizer,

a high ranking former
classmate of Heinrich Himmler.

Schweizer believed
that Thule and Atlantis

were ancient aliases for Iceland

and had well-preserved evidence

of the white Nordic
Atlanteans, the first Germans.

Schweizer was so
convinced of this

that he married
an Icelandic woman

believing that marrying
and breeding with a woman

from Thule would
restore his lineage

back to its Atlantean roots.

- The argument here is if
Aryans breed with Aryans,

after a few generations,
you will produce

this Aryan in Superman
that they idealized

and they imagined.

- In Iceland, they still
speak what is closest

to the old Norse.

They've managed to retain
a fairly pure concept

of the old language so I
think that this is where

the belief is that they
are still the original.

They haven't changed, right?

They haven't bred
with the outer world.

They haven't dirtied or
muddied up their bloodline.

- [Andrew] Schweizer begins
planning an expedition

to Iceland to expand on some
previous Nazi reconnaissance.

- The idea of Thule something
that's really been imposed

on Iceland from the outside
rather than something

that Icelanders themselves
have ever believed in.

Thule was of course, part
of classical learning

and it wasn't something that
people in the 70's and 80's

were particularly aware of.

- The Greeks didn't map a
lot of the world beyond.

Thule could have
literally been Portugal

or the, as Ozar
Islands or the UK

or, you know, any of these
islands outside the mouth

of the Mediterranean.

- [Andrew] In 1936, a Nazi
agent traveled to Iceland,

visiting Snorri
Sturlson's former home

and meeting with
his descendants.

Recorded observations lament
that modern day Icelanders

know nothing of their
Atlantean forefathers.

- It's not that the Icelanders
have forgotten their history

because they're
deeply proud of it

and they can trace their
ancestry back to the era

of the sagas.

But they have also been
Christians since the year 1000

and their understanding
of the north squads

is exactly the understanding
that Snorri set down

for them in the 13th century.

Snorri was himself a Christian
and is always filtering

what he knows through a
kind of Christian lens.

- [Andrew] Though
the 1936 expedition

to Iceland proved inconclusive,

it was enough to wet
Himmler's appetite.

- He does get excited by this.

So they do wanna
investigate further

and see if they can
actually find that thread

that's gonna tie them
back to the Thule

or the Atlanteans.

- Iceland is the dynamic
place because of glaciers

and volcanic activity.

The land is constantly
being changed and remade.

So what a better place
for the Nazis to ascribe,

this was the
location of Atlantis.

- [Andrew] Iceland's
glaciers preserved

a lot of ancient settlements.

Now with climate change
and the ice caps melting,

more clues about their
history are being revealed.

- This is happening
all over the world

where we still have
current glacial plateaus.

The glaciers will
have rapid melt

and these things
will start to reveal.

So I think that they
thought if they went back

and they did more investigation
into glacier fields

and outlying areas that they
may actually find artifacts

that would prove that the
Thule or the Atlanteans

did reside there.

- [Andrew] In 1938,
Schweizer draws up plans

to excavate an ancient
farm and a Pagan temple.

These findings will shed some
light on the agricultural

and spiritual practices of
his Icelandic forefathers.

- Viking is really
a job description

and it's not an ethnic identity.

And therefore the
people who went viking

came from different
parts of Scandinavia

and each of those parts had
a slightly different set

of religious traditions

and we have archeological
evidence to show that.

And so it's really
hard to reconstruct

what any individual Viking
would have believed in

and what worship of those
gods might have entailed.

- Schweizer also wants to
make a detailed inventory

of ancient assembly places,

examine sod houses,
photograph artifacts,

and gather soil samples.

He also hopes to record
Icelandic folk songs

and film the famous ballad
dances of the Faroe Islands.

- From about the
16th century onwards

you have some ballads
which are based on stories

that we find in the Edda and
they're quite often simplified.

And in the Ferris in particular,

the idea of singing these
ballads and dancing,

the famous circle
dances of the Faroes

is something that
persists until this day.

- [Andrew] As Schweizer
prepared for his expedition

in 1938, global hostility
towards Germany was on the rise.

- Germany is re militarized
re industrialized

in violation of the
Treaty of Versailles.

They annex Czechoslovakia,
they annex Austria,

this notion of leaving
Strom or breathing room

is so important for Hitler's
thousand year reign.

- [Andrew] As part of this
expansion of the German empire,

Himmler believed Schweitzer's
data from Iceland

would provide great insight

for regulating future
SS colonies in the East.

Plans were moving along.

Schweitzer chose seven
young SS officers

for this important mission.

- Schweizer is very
politically astute,

Heinrich Himmler is
going to be pleased

that SS officers are a part
of it rather than scientists

who are gonna report back
that we found nothing,

that this is all
baloney or bunk.

- They're trying to
keep fairly hush hush

about this whole thing but
it ends up being leaked

and the Scandinavian
press picks it up

and they really have sort
of a field day with it.

- [Andrew] Himmler was furious

about this public humiliation.

He immediately ordered
Schweizer to scrap all plans

for the Iceland
expedition dashing hopes

for the ultimate trip to
the Atlantean homeland.

- Himmler was acutely
aware of public opinion.

What he was mostly
concerned about

was that he or his agency was
deemed to be unsophisticated

and uncivilized.

- [Andrew] But the prospect
of building a database

of his Atlantean heritage
was too tempting to pass up.

Low profile planning
of this trip resumed,

but it wasn't long until they
hit another major roadblock.

Himmler's staff
couldn't get their hands

on enough Icelandic kronur
to fund the expedition.

The Nazis imposed major
restrictions on foreign currency

because of the rearmament
program introduced by Hitler

which emphasized financial
self-sufficiency.

With no quick fix to solve
the currency problem,

the Ahnenerbe were
forced to postpone

this trip until 1940.

Himmler believed Iceland

held the key to Nazi
world domination

but this expedition
spate would be sealed

by something way
bigger than him.

- 1939 was the event the
year everything changed.

On the 1st of September,
the Nazis invade Poland.

The Atlantic expedition

that they were going
to conduct stops.

- Places like Iceland become
very difficult to get to

with any safety.

You of course have to
cross both the Baltic

and the North Sea
and then the Atlantic

and that is British
territory by and large.

This sort of obsession
naturally takes a back seat.

Doesn't mean he
abandoned it altogether,

but it means that
he has other tasks.

- There are still mysteries
that we do not know about

the Nazi search for Atlantis.

In the closing days of the
Third Reich, senior Nazi leaders

were killed or committed suicide

as the allies were
racing to Berlin.

Berlin was being bombed
and reduced to rubble.

Government buildings and
documents were all destroyed.

- [Andrew] The secrets of
the Atlantean civilization

are still out there
waiting to be discovered.

- The search for Atlantis
has endless appeal.

It's part history,
enforcing law and mythology.

- I think that it
would be futile

to try to search for Atlantis.

The efforts and the money and
the time could be better spent

on so many others things.

Search for sunken treasure,

that's more productive
in some sense, right?

And that has a tangible
result at the end.

But this just seems
to be a waste of time.

It's like searching
for the Yeti.

- The legacy of the Nazi
search for Atlantis to me

is one of absolute folly.

How an educated,
scientifically advanced culture

and group of people could
pursue with such zeal

something like this,
it's sheer folly

and it shows that the Nazis
will go to any lengths

to enable their political
objectives of continental,

if not, global domination.

(dramatic music)