All language subtitles for Forbidden History S06E07 Hitlers Occult Conspiracy 1080p DSCP WEB-DL AAC2 0 H 264-BTN_track3_[eng]

Narrator:
The nazis and their ruthless
Pursuit of world domination

Is the stuff of legend,

But is there any truth
To the idea

That hitler was using
Black magic

And witchcraft in his quests
To take over the world?

For the nazis,
The occult was like oxygen.

It was the backbone
Of their ideology.

They were trying to use
Pseudo-science of the time

To justify
Why the aryan race was superior.

Picknett: they basically turned
Normal, civilized

Human beings into monsters,

So that has to be
A sinister occult ritual.

Farrar:
If magic is ever used to destroy
Something it is used

To destroy evil,

Such as stopping the nazis
From invading britain.

Felix:
If the nazis had stopped all
This nonsense with astronomy,

Astrologers,
Dowsing, tarot cards,

If they'd stopped all that
And got on

With the war properly,

I think they'd probably
Have beaten us.

*

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Narrator:
In the years leading up to nazi
Germany's declaration of war,

A bizarre obsession
Began to take hold

Within the newly-formed
Political party.

A strange twisted mythology
Based on ancient pagan beliefs

And sorcery,
Was beginning to emerge.

Dr. Selwood:
Today, when we think of nazism,

We tend to look at
A political ideology

That was bent
On territorial conquests

And on racial extermination.

But actually it's broader
Than that.

There's a more philosophical
Part of nazism as well.

Picknett:
The nazis subscribed to an
Extreme version of ariosophy.

Ariosophy was the idea

That there was an ancient
Germanic aryan race,

That was a pure race,
A strong race.

Gough:
This notion of this ancient,
Mystic, aryan race

That's been around
Thousands of years,

They felt that gave them
Entitlement.

And was the motivation
And the justification

For all of their
Despicable actions.

Narrator:
Heinrich himmler was hitler's
Second in command

And the man chiefly responsible
For actively encouraging

Not only the belief
In the occult,

But also the idea that the nazis
Really were descended

From a super race of beings.

Gough:
Heinrich himmler was one of the
Most powerful men in germany.

He was hitler's right hand man
And the commander of the ss.

Dr. Bellinger:
He was a rabid occultist.

And really brought to hitler

A whole panoply
Of propaganda tools

That he could use to justify
What the nazis were doing.

And to really place it in the
Roots of a false aryan mythology

Designed to make the average
German person feel not just okay

With what hitler was doing,
But proud of it.

Mcmahon:
Heinrich himmler was the founder
And the head of the ss.

He also ended up leading
The gestapo

And eventually founded
The concentration camps

That killed millions of people.

And what drove him
In his mission

Was this underlying belief
That the german people

Were set apart
From the rest of humanity.

And in order to prove that,

He delved very deeply
Into the occult.

He needed to find a supernatural
Back story to the german people

And that led him on the trail
Of the holy grail.

It led him to send people
All over the world

Looking for non-evolutionary
Roots of the german people.

Narrator: eric kurlander
Is a historian and author

Who has researched
Nazi occultism for decades.

He has traveled to
Quedlinburg castle,

A 1,000-year old fortress
In central germany

To uncover the origin
Of himmler's occult obsession.

So we're approaching the
Quedlinburg castle and abbey

Which was founded 1,100 years
Ago by henry the fowler,

The great saxon king.

Henry the fowler was seen
As more authentically german

Than other germanic kings
Of the middle ages,

By heinrich himmler,
The reich's fuhrer ss,

Who decided that
This would be a site

Where you could celebrate
Germanic paganism.

Dr. Bellinger:
Henry the fowler was
King heinrich the first

And he unified
For the first time,

The german state in 956

And brought together everybody
Out of warring territories.

And it was the launch of what
Became known as the first reich.

So it makes a lot of sense
That himmler was going

To appropriate this myth
For propaganda purposes.

Kurlander:
So himmler was raised catholic,

But he very early on rejected
His christian upbringing.

And sought to create
Through the ss,

A kind of pre-christian
Religious tradition in germany.

An ario-germanic religion.

One way he was going to do that

Was by taking
Christian festivals,

Like christmas
And replacing them

With the old
Winter solstice festivals,

The yule celebrations of
Pre-christian pagan tradition.

For example, in this room,
In 1936,

He inaugurated
The first festival

In honor of henry the fowler,
The great saxon king,

Who for him represented
The pre-christian german reality

That he wanted to recreate.

Himmler genuinely believed that
He was either the reincarnation

Or the descendant
Of henry the fowler.

And himmler,
In his deluded state,

Used to go to the abbey,
Hold séances in the abbey,

Prayed at the grave or
The shrine of henry the fouler.

And genuinely believed
That he was able to connect

With the spirit
Of his dead ancestor.

Kurlander:
So we're standing in the oldest
Part of the quedlinburg

Castle and monastery.

Where henry the fowler,

Who built the very foundations
Of this monastery,

Was buried a thousand years ago.

So one of the reasons that
Heinrich himmler

Found this space so interesting,

Is it wasn't just
The saxon origins,

The basis of
Ario-germanic empire

That he and the ss
Wanted to recreate,

He actually believed
He may have been

The reincarnation
Of henry the fowler.

So this space really represent
One part of what I call

The supernatural imaginary
That many nazis subscribe to.

It's linked to pagan religion.

An ario-germanic
Religious beliefs,

Kind of pre-christian beliefs,

That was an important pillar
Of nazi thinking.

It overlaps in some ways
With occult and esoteric ideas,

But it's not the same thing

And that's why
The quedlinburg is more

A kind of pagan religious site
For heinrich himmler.

Walters: so what you see
With this young himmler,

He's very impressionable.

He looks back along the prussian
And germanic past,

Myth and legend and there
He finds examples and stories

And the kind of heroes,
That he always wants to be.

And so therefore,
He's very seduced

By the whole feel
Of that legend and myth

And also by
The esoteric-ism of it.

And he really buys in to all
The runes and the culture

And the magic
And all the mumbo-jumbo.

Narrator:
But himmler's strange beliefs
In ancient german mythology

And esoteric-ism,

Soon took
A much more sinister turn.

While studying farming at the
Technical university in munich,

Himmler became fascinated
With breeding.

Selective breeding.

Not just animals,
But also human beings.

Could we create or recreate
More importantly, a master race?

Since himmler believed that
The aryan race

Had been perfect
Thousands of years earlier,

Maybe you could use modern
Breeding techniques

To bring this aryan utopia
Back into being.

Dr. Selwood:
Nazism was for the whole person.

It wasn't just about the
Political side of an individual.

And so elements that were
Brought in,

The people
Really identified with

And there's so much literature
From the period on this,

Was particularly linking,

They are descended
From these super people,

Who lived millenia ago.

So this is a tradition.

It's a continuation.

The nazis didn't think they were
Inventing something.

They thought they were tapping
Into an ancient force.

Narrator:
Inspired by german paganism,
Himmler took his occult

Thinking even further
And used an ancient code

To create the most feared
Symbol of all.

*

Narrator:
In the lead up to world war two,

The nazis became
Increasingly obsessed

With ancient german mythology
And black magic.

Mcmahon:
From the outset, the nazis
Were heavily influenced

By occult ideas.

Hitler, himmler, and others
Were desperate to prove

That the "Aryan race" had
Somehow originated

Separately from
The rest of humanity.

And in order to prove that
Highly unscientific theory,

They needed to resort
To something supernatural,

Something occult.

Dr. Bellinger:
By telling the german people
That they were descended

From a master race,
A superior race of beings,

That literally derived from epic
Mythology of superb peace,

Harmony, and achievement,
This is really canny.

I mean this was directly
Addressing

The psychological damage
Done upon

The german national psyche
By world war I.

Narrator:
Guido von list was a key figure
In early nazi occultism

And a major influence
On heinrich himmler.

Gough:
Guido von list was an occultist
Who revived a religious movement

Which showed the ancient aryan
Roots of the germanic people.

And why this was so important,

Is that it served
As the inspiration to himmler

Who would later adopt
These same beliefs.

Dr. Bellinger:
Guido von list was a paganist
Who was responsible,

Largely,
For the runic revival,

Which became a really
Central part of the symbolism

And iconography
Of the nazi party.

And particularly of the regalia
Worn by the ss.

Narrator:
It was list's teachings that
Encouraged himmler

To turn his twisted mind
To an ancient language

Made of magical symbols
Called runes.

Gavin bone is a historian
And expert on runes,

Who believes they are the key to
Understanding nazi iconography.

Bone:
So the word rune comes from
The old german, "Runyon"

Which means a mystery, a secret,
To whisper, something hidden.

And the runes originally were
A system of writing

Amongst the german peoples
Going back, they believe,

As far back as 200 bc.

Their origins in nazi occultism

Derive from
An austrian journalist,

Playwright and author
Named guido list.

Guido von list believed that
There had been a germanic empire

That worshiped
A pagan god, wotan,

And that used this runic script.

And in fact, the nazis
Latched on to this idea

Of the runic alphabet
Being the true german alphabet.

And it informed
Their iconography,

In particular the ss logo
That we all know today.

Bone:
Von list is responsible for is
The integration of the runes

Into the ss as symbols.

One of the most famous symbols
The nazi's were associated with

Was the double lightning flash,
The double sig

Or the schutzstaffel --
The ss.

Which comes from the sig rune
Also known as the sowilo rune.

This rune was originally
As symbol of success,

Of happiness, of peace.

It becomes twisted.

It becomes a symbol for victory,

Hence the nazi salute,
"Zeig heil" is "Hail victory."

Here you see the double
S patch, double sig patch.

Here you see it actually as it

Was originally in
The elder futhark runes.

Dr. Selwood:
Himmler wanted the ss to stand

For something out
Of the ordinary

And to do that,
He infused it

With all these different
Currents of the occult.

So most obviously he did it
Visually.

So things like the ss rune,

The two letters s you see,
The lightning bolts,

Those are old germanic runes,
It's called the sig rune.

They have meaning.
They can be interpreted.

Many other runes were used in ss
Uniforms, in ss banners,

On the daggers that they had,

All sorts of articles
Of ss paraphernalia

Were engraved and emblazoned
With these runes.

It was guido list who introduced
One of the most well known,

And has become of the most
Hated symbols in the world,

And that was the swastika.

Of course that was not
It's original german name.

It had several names.

The hakenkruis,
The hooked cross.

The fylfot,
The many-footed cross.

Now one of the great fallacies
Which has occurred

Since the second world war,

Is the nazis,
Specifically hitler and himmler,

Reversed the rotation.

That's actually not true.

As you can see from this sensa
From india,

It is in fact
Going the same direction.

The double sig, is actually
The same as the swastika.

If you take the two sig
And interlock them,

They actually
Become the swastika.

They originally meant
The same thing.

But of course the swastika
Was never originally

A symbol of hate.

You still find it
Around the world

In many cultures and traditions.

And still you see in places
Such as india, tibet,

The swastika is still in use
As a sacred symbol.

It represents the sun.

It represents good luck,
Good fortune.

Walters:
You've got to remember that
The nazis were really good

At the branding business,
Is what we call it today.

I mean there is no better brand
Than the swastika.

I mean it's a very,
Very powerful icon

Set on the white and the red,

You know these are incredibly
Captivating colors, normally.

And then the symbol of the
Swastika is very powerful

And equally the ss runes,

And they were runes,
From norse culture.

So obviously you even got
The uniform of the kind of elite

Armed unit of the third reich
Were dressed you know,

With these symbols, which had
Their roots in mythology.

Narrator:
Eric kurlander is an academic
And author who has spend decades

On covering the nazis
Occult obsession.

Core to the nazis
Twisted ideology,

Was a belief called irminism,
A pseudo-religion,

Which ss commander himmler
Believed

Was worshipped
At various pagan sites

In ancient history,
Across germany.

Kurlander:
So arminism or irminism as
The ariosophists called it,

Believe that there is
An ancient germanic civilization

That lived in pre-history,

Where there were frost giants
And dwarves.

And potentially that this
Aryan civilization

Had originated from meeting
With extra-terrestrials,

Which is why it was so powerful,

And had a third eye
And could you know,

Exercise greater mental acuity
Than normal races on earth.

And this superior civilization
Practiced a kind of religion,

A culture
That they thought lasted

Until the early medieval period.

And was practiced here
At the externsteine.

Narrator:
Also compared to stonehenge,

The externsteine is a collection
Of giant sandstone pillars,

Used a pagan religious site
For millennia.

Kurlander:
To the externsteine are a site

Where himmler's various
Fantasies kind of come together.

His religious beliefs about
A pre-christian

Germanic religious tradition,
His border scientific beliefs

That you could use
Archeology and astrology

To recreate the foundations

Of this ancient
Germanic civilization.

And of course his occult belief,

All of that comes together
At the externsteine.

Dr. Selwood:
Himmler was a nutter
And like all nutters,

He was preoccupied
With pseudo-science.

So he created,
Within the ss,

A division called
The ahnenerbe,

Which means ancestral heritage.

And his idea was that
This would be a think tank

That would roam the world

And gather evidence
Of these ancient cultures

And demonstrate that his racial
Theories and theories

About germanic super people,
Were actually right.

Janulis:
And they even got scientists,
Archaeologists, biologists,

Et cetera in on these teams
Going around

Looking for the origins
Of true aryans.

And the ancient giants,

The niflheim
And these sorts of things

And measuring people's
Heads out in nepal.

And so I can't imagine
Respected scientists

Signing up for one
Of these projects,

Unless they were forced
To do so politically.

Narrator: according to legend,
The irminists,

Like the mythical civilization
Of atlantis,

Had a fantastically
Advanced technology.

And himmler believed that
If he could find evidence

Of this ancient technology
At the externsteine,

It would prove that
The german people

Were descendants
Of a master race

And therefore,
The true rulers of the earth.

So one of the things that the
Archaeologists in the institute

For ancestral research,
Were looking for,

Was evidence of a superior
Pre-christian civilization,

Tens of thousands of years old.

They were excavating,

Looking for evidence
Of this superior civilization.

What they found were neolithic
Tools and other evidence

Showing that
There had been some you know,

Transient human settlements
Here

But nothing co-noting
A great germanic civilization.

Narrator:
But himmler wasn't deterred
By this lack of

Archaeological evidence.

Meanwhile, what were hitler's
Beliefs during this time?

Like himmler,
Was he under the influence

Of black magic and mythology?

*

[ shouting in german ]

Narrator:
Nazism was more than just
A political ideology.

It was a philosophy full of
Occult ideas

Based on pagan mythology.

Gough:
The nazi occult beliefs
Were extreme.

For a start they believed
That their lineage

Went back thousands of years.

They believed that their life
Was seeded on earth

From a meteorite from space,
Not like the rest of us.

Dr. Bellinger:
The occult was centrally
Important to the nazis.

Like not just for what people
Thought it might

Effect as magic,

It meant so much
On a false but,

Deep, deeply rooted
Mythological basis,

That legitimized
The entire project.

Narrator:
Heinrich himmler was hitler's
Right hand man

And founder of the dreaded ss.

Himmler fully believed
In the occult

But what about
The fuhrer himself?

What influence, if any,

Did black magic
Have on adolph hitler?

Janulis:
Hitler had a very unique skill.

He had the ability to capture
An audience,

To capture their minds,
Their eyes, their attention

And their hearts
All at the same time.

And he used that
To great effect.

And he got better and better
At it as he became more

And more powerful
Within the german government.

Hitler didn't really use magic,

Although is hold over people
Was almost magical.

And I think that's an important
Thing to bear in mind,

That hitler presented himself
And was presented,

As a kind of messianic figure.

And what do messianic figures
Have to have?

It's not just charisma,

But they also have to have
This sense of other-worldliness.

Felix:
So was it just charisma?

But if it was, surely that

Would have showed much earlier
In his life.

You don't just learn that.

You've got it or you haven't.

So it must be something
Surrounded as he was,

With all of this occult,

With dowses and tarot cards
And mediums and then perhaps

He became some form of conduit
For the whole thing.

And perhaps hitler really
Was possessed

By something to do with satan
Or the devil

Or some other deity
Of some sort.

Perhaps it's real.

[ shouting in german ]

Narrator:
So was hitler really channeling
Demonic forces

During the infamous
Nazi rallies?

Or is there another explanation?

Neil tobin is a chicago
Born playwright and performer.

In 2015 tobin wrote a play
About arch-nazi occultist

Eric yon henderson,

The man credited with
Teaching hitler mass hypnosis.

Eric yon henderson was the most
Popular psychic entertainer

In germany pre world war ii.

He conducted performances
That incorporated hypnotism.

He was a telepathist --
He read minds.

He made predictions.

He filled the largest
Performance spaces in europe.

Picknett: he was very popular
With the nazis mainly

Because it is said at least,

That he was hitler's teacher
In one sense.

He taught him stage craft.

He taught him how to hold
An audience

In the palm of your hands.

How to look them in the eye.

How to mesmerize them.

[ shouting in german ]

When we look
At the newsreel footage,

Of hitler at one
Of the great rallies,

You see how he uses his body.

You hear how he,
Even if you don't know german,

You hear how he uses
His voice for emphasis.

You see the broad gestures,

The sense of drama that can
Carry through an immense space.

And one has to think that that
Did not just happen by accident.

[ shouting in german ]

[ cheering ]

Dr. Bellinger:
The interesting thing,
Eric yon henderson

Was not the danish person
He claimed to be.

He was in fact jewish
And he was playing with fire.

One would have thought
He would have known better.

Gough:
The fact that yon henderson
Was found murdered

With a bullet
Through the back and the head,

Is probably due
To several things.

One, the discovery
That he was jewish.

Two, he was so wealthy
That prominent players

In the nazi party,
Owed him a lot of money.

And also he had perhaps become
Too influential with hitler.

So there would have been
This issue of jealousy.

So there were many motives

Why the nazis would want
To have him murdered.

Narrator:
In 1939, war broke out,

But the nazis weren't
Just using bullets and bombs

Against the allies.

They also enlisted the power
Of dark forces.

*

Narrator: in 1939,
War finally broke out

And the nazis forces
Of darkness,

Fueled by the twisted
Occult ideology of arianism,

Invaded europe.

Missiles were launched,
And bombs dropped.

But in hidden bunkers,
A much more sinister force

Was being put to work --
Witchcraft.

Felix: the difference between
The allies and the germans,

The nazis,
Was that we were using radar

To find their submarines
And their planes.

They were using dowsing
Pendulums,

That's a piece of string with
A bit of brass on the end of it,

Or some quartz crystal.

They were dangling it over a map
And looking for our submarines.

Dr. Selwood:
Hitler even brought these faddy
Beliefs into battle planning.

Instead of using intelligence
And spotter planes

And all the normal things,

Hitler had teams of dowsers
And bizarrely,

It actually seems to have been
Successful on more occasions

Than you would imagine.

Gough:
The nazis were so impressed,

It inspired them to take
The occult far more serious

And really put a lot of money
Into that division of the ss.

So they created
This organization

Called the institute
For occult warfare.

Full of mediums and psychics
Who are using all these strange

Occult powers
To fend off the west.

Mcmahon:
In the last desperate stages
Of the war,

The nazis even released
Thousands of astrologers

And magicians and dowsers
From concentration camps,

Trying to help hitler
Win the war.

*

Narrator:
As the nazi forces of darkness
Ravaged europe,

Hitler had his sights
Set on england.

The luftwaffe dropped
Thousands of bombs.

Children were evacuated and fear
And chaos shrouded britain

Like a great dark cloud.

But beneath the surface, an
Occult war was being waged too.

Gough: it's fascinating
When you realize

That there was this secret
Occult war going on

And it didn't take long
For the allies

To realize that the germans
Were using magic, map dowsing,

And with great accuracy,
Finding their ships.

So what did they do?

They had to retaliate with some
Occult magic of their own.

So they are alleged
To have enlisted

The most famous occultist
In britain,

Alistair crowley who is said
To have helped churchill

By giving him the v
For victory symbol.

As far as I know,
British intelligence

did recruit alistair crowley
To help them in the same way

As the germans
Were doing against us.

It was alistair crowley's idea
To combat the nordic runes

That the germans were using,

They came up with the victory
V sign to sort of,

For want of a better word,
Point at the germans,

When they were pointing
Their runic devices at us.

Narrator: but it wasn't just
British intelligence

Who began using magic.

In the forests
Of southern england,

A coven of witches took it
Upon themselves to gather

And perform a ritual called
The cone of power,

In an attempt to stop
The imminent nazi invasion.

Picknett:
Operation -- cone of power,

Was basically a bunch of
Modern witches

Getting together
In the new forest,

Under the guidance
Of gerald gardner

Who more or less created
Modern wicca,

To do a ritual to prevent
The nazis from invading britain.

Narrator:
Philip heselton is part of that
Ancient order

Of witches or wicca.

He has spent decades researching
What happened

On the night
Of the cone of power.

Heselton:
We don't know how or where,
This ritual took place.

Gerald said "We were taken at
Night to a place in the forest."

It would be in the forest,
It wouldn't be any open air.

It would be however, a clearing,
Something like this, I reckon.

So that they had enough space to
Do what was a really big ritual.

Apparently, they had 17 people
And they held hands.

Rushing forward
And at the same time,

Giving the wording
Which was something like,

You cannot cross the sea,
Not able to come,

Not able to come,
You cannot cross the sea.

And they repeated that.

And it wasn't just words,
It was the mind power

Was concentrated
And working together

And they created this,

What they called
A cone of power.

It wasn't physical,
You couldn't see it.

But it was there
On the psychic level

And was sent over specifically,

To the german high command,
To change their thinking.

Of course the human mind is
One of the most flexible things.

It's one of the things that's
Easier to work magic with.

Narrator: janet farrar is a
Wiccan high priestess

And is one of the world's
Leading experts

And teachers of witchcraft.

Janet has performed the cone
Of power ritual multiple times.

Farrar: ritual is a drama.

Now witchcraft is not just
About ritual.

It's about the equivalent
I suppose,

Of in christian terms, prayer.

That's what magic is.

It's when you transport
Your mind

To a place where you say

"I know this can be made
To happen."

When you perform the dance
Of the cone of power,

It feels as if you're floating,

As if you're about six inches
Off the ground.

And there's a sensation that,

No matter
How fast you're dancing,

That you're
Moving twice as fast.

And sometimes you get the very
Strange effect,

Time stands completely still.

And it's as if that cone
Of power stops time.

You feel totally elated from it,

Totally in harmony
With the universe,

Totally elated inside yourself
And of course

This is what would have happened
To the coven in the new forest.

They would have achieved
What they wanted.

They'd have gone home
That night,

Probably made some hot chocolate
And gone to bed.

Forgotten all about it,
Don't talk about it,

Don't discuss it
Amongst ourselves, it's done.

It's the full stop.

It's the telegram
That's been sent.

Narrator:
With the allies now fighting
Back using magic, in germany,

Himmler had even grander plans.

To build a giant nazi fortress,

Based on the mythological
King arthur's camelot.

*

Narrator:
In the midst of world war ii,

A secret occult war
Was being waged

Between the ruthless nazis
And the allies.

Mcmahon: british intelligence
Was aware of hitler

And himmler's rather
Dark obsession with the occult.

So much so, that they tried to
Use the occult against the nazis

And one of the things they did
Was creating a fake magazine,

German occult magazine
Called zenit

Which was circulated
Within germany,

With dark
Astrological predictions

Against hitler and himmler.

And suggestions framed
In an astrological kind of way,

That germany was bound
To lose the war.

Narrator:
With the allies now attempting
To dispel the nazis using magic,

Heinrich himmler,
Hitler's right hand man,

Was stepping things up
Back in germany.

Eric kurlander is an academic
And historian,

Who has spent years
Researching nazi occultism

And he believes that
Wewelsburg castle is the key

To understanding himmler's
Bizarre chivalric beliefs

Connected to the mythological
King arthur.

Kurlander:
So, we're on our way to a castle

Known as the wewelsburg
And himmler,

When he saw the castle
For the first time,

And he consulted
With other ss leaders

About whether this would be
The right place to create

An order castle for the ss,

A place for ss education,
Ss indoctrination

And eventually almost a kind
Of religious center for the ss.

Dr. Selwood:
The ultimate statement
Of himmler's occult,

Chivalric beliefs,
Was wewelsburg castle.

He purchased this
And wanted to turn it

Into the cult center of the ss.

There was a room in the basement
With places for

The 12 knights of the ss who all
Had death's head rings.

There were rooms above
With solar suns on the floor,

Black suns for occult ceremonies
And ss weddings.

It was to be the tip of a spear,
The top of a cosmic spirit

That would be the spiritual
Center of the ss cult.

Wewelsburg was the heart
Of himmler's vision of the ss.

*

Narrator: kirsten john-stucke
Is the museum curator

At wewelsburg castle,
An expert on it's dark history.

Kurlander: right.

Himmler wanted his castle
At wewelsburg

To be a kind of nazi camelot

And that was hugely significant
For him

Because he revered
The arthurian knights

And also the german
Legendary knight, parcival,

As people who had been on
The quest for the holy grail.

And he was obsessed with finding
The holy grail as well because,

He thought that the grail,
It wasn't about jesus so much,

As finding a key
To the underlying truth

About the aryan race.

Himmler was fascinated
By fairy tales of king arthur,

The holy grail.

He was also into knights
Templars and stuff like that.

He was fascinated
By the number 12

And he had 12 ss officers
Who used to,

I suppose for want of
A better word, attend,

Stand round the table,

Representing the 12 knights
Of king arthur.

Narrator: in the north tower
Of the castle,

Is a very strange room indeed.

Originally
A christian prayer space,

Himmler had it redesigned
With 12 pillars

Representing the 12 knights
And mysterious black sun symbol.

Kurlander:
But if we look at the plans
For this room,

They took a sacred space

From the christian tradition
Of this building

And they mapped onto it
A more pagan religious,

Germanic pre-christian
Symbology.

And that's characterized best,
By this sun wheel.

Zone and rod with the 12
Different sig runes.

Walters:
The point about wewelsburg,

It's himmler's effort to try
And create a camelot.

You know, if himmler is arthur,
Wewelsburg is camelot.

This is where his high order
Of knights,

The ss, will have as
Their quazi-spiritual home.

And it's from there that every
Ss man's ring, when he's killed,

Will be sent back
To be held in eternity.

These are kind of religious,
Cultist concepts

And wewelsburg
Was the perfect place for that.

Gough:
Wewelsburg is a creepy place
Today, it really is.

You walk into the north tower

And you feel like you're walking
Into an evil, ritual center

Where gosh only knows
What rituals were performed,

But you have swastikas
Everywhere.

You have eagles,
You have a black sun,

You have fire marks
On the walls.

It really feels like something
Bad had happened here

And it's imbued it
With that sort of energy.

*

Kurlander:
So if we think about himmler's
Personal journey,

We have everything
That himmler aspired to,

Coming together in this site.

The center of his entire empire,
Where he hoped after the war,

To become kind of the second
In command,

The second most important
Leader of this third reich,

Next to hitler,
His right hand man.

So it's fitting that we conclude
Our journey at the wewelsburg,

Because the wewelsburg
Brings together

All three of the strains
That kind of

Made up himmler's
Supernatural imaginary.

Narrator: with the nazis
Now mercilessly bombarding

The allies
With bullets and sorcery,

Hitler was about to let his
Belief in the occult go too far.

*

Narrator:
The nazis' ideology of racial
Discrimination and hate

Was built on twisted
Pagan mythology and black magic.

Dr. Selwood:
On one level, all this nazi
Occult activity is deeply silly

And a great distraction,

But on another actually,
It's deathly serious,

Because this sense
Of superiority,

This sense of being descended
From a greater race,

A different race,
A race apart,

They thought they came
From divine sperm,

Not from the apes
Like everybody else.

This actually created a mind set
That was capable of the horrors

Of the second world war
And ultimately,

Their own defeat by taking on
Far more than they could manage.

*

Narrator:
And hitler's faith in the occult
Was about to seal his fate.

Mcmahon: himmler's obsession
With the occult

Had an appalling consequence

When it came to the battle
Of stalingrad,

Because apparently,
He told hitler that it would be

Okay having the german soldiers
Marching into the russian winter

Because aryans could withstand
Cold better than non-aryans.

Well that proved to be
Entirely false.

Janulis:
So despite being fantastic
Strategists,

Engineers,
Military organizers,

They still had some really
Interesting ways

Of approaching decision
Making.

And one of them was that
They were using occult

Sort of processes

And they believed
That they could invade russia

And succeed
Where napoleon failed,

Because their ancestry dated
Back to the hyperborean culture,

The northern climate,
Fierce people.

And they thought that even
If they ended up

Stuck in russian winter,
They were tough enough.

They had the genetic background.

They could deal with it.

If the nazis had stopped all
This nonsense with astronomy,

Astrologers,
Dowsing, tarot cards,

If they'd stopped all that

And got on
With the war properly,

I think they'd probably
Have beaten us.

*

Narrator: in 1945,
Hitler committed suicide

And nazi germany surrendered.

Millions had been killed
And world war two

Would cast
A dark shadow forever

But what went wrong
For the nazis?

How did they get so close
To world domination

Only to fall
So spectacularly?

Picknett:
Certainly not every last nazi

Was into what we would call,
The occult.

In fact very,
Very few of them ever were.

And even heinrich himmler who
Was the great nazi "Occultist"

Was more really of a,

What we would think of,
As a new ager.

More mystically inclined
Than, you know,

Casting dark spells,
Although of course,

He was a nazi,
He didn't have to.

Dr. Selwood:
They were desperately
Dark sides to this

Occult obsession as well.

The planning and execution
Of the final solution

Was left to the ss
And there's no doubt

That this was one of the most
Horrific acts in modern history,

Was carried out by people
Who believed

That they were
Superior to others.

And those occult beliefs had
A strong component

In creating
That vision of the ss

As people who were capable of,
And entitled to do this.

Walters: the nazi obsession
With the occult

Is one of the reasons
Ultimately why project hitler,

Or project third reich,
If you like,

Was going to be doomed.
Why?

Because they kind of saw
This idea of a story

Before it even took place.

So they had this idea that
There's a narrative

That we're going to last
For a thousand years

And we're going to build
These enormous buildings

And leave behind
All these runes,

And this temple
Called wewelsburg, effectively.

Therefore, you know,
We are going to be

This new kind of culture
And civilization

That has it's own religion
And mysticism.

So what you're doing is you're
Creating a narrative

For yourself that's going to
Go on for a thousand years.

And what does that give you?

That gives you an enormous sense
Of arrogance and hubris.

It makes you think
That genuinely you

Are going to last for that long
And actually instead,

It doesn't
Really work out like that.

It goes from 1933 to 1945,

You know,
And it ends with a big bang.

*

Farrar: magic is neither
Black nor white.

It's like electricity.

You can plug in something
So useful or an electric chair.

The energy of the universe
Is neutral.

People who misuse it,
Such as the nazis,

And, yes, that's black magic,
Ended up destroying themselves.

From the moment they put
The finger in the socket,

It was the electric chair,
All the way down the line.