Customer Reviews

Hitler and the Occult

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I have read a number of books on Hitler's supposed fascination with, mastery of, and belief in various occult doctrines. In Hitler and the Occult, Ken Anderson delivers a chapter-by-chapter debunking of many of the theories surrounding Hitler's occultic leanings and gives what appear to be logical explanations for some of his actions which have been taken by some to prove his involvement in the occult. Most of the book is spent deconstructing the theories of Trevor Ravenscroft and reinforcing this deconstruction by attempting to discredit Ravenscroft himself. I have read the main target of Anderson's scorn, The Spear of Destiny, and have to admit that some of Ravenscroft's assertions in that volume seem quite far-fetched and incredible. But between his wilder claims, Ravenscroft does offer the reader food for thought. Anderson dissects his more plausible assertions with the aplomb of an undertaker preparing his umpteenth corpse. The Spear of Longinus, Lanz von Lebenfels, and the Thule Society are all given short shrift. Although it is true that many top Nazis were involved in secret societies and occultic fantasies, that was not uncommon at the time so there is nothing particularly significant about it. Hitler was more of a realist and seems to have had little time for or little patience with such notions. Though one might be tempted to believe that Hitler was controlled by otherworldly forces with which he had made a Faustian bargain, I tend toward Anderson's view that that is all nonsense. Reading this book will help interested persons sort out contradictions in theories of an occultic Hitler and bring them back to earth with a more prosaic view of Hitler's actions and motivations.

It's rather easy to show, as Anderson does, that some of Ravenscroft's claims are simply incredible. But it's also easy to show, as do several other books much more credible than Ravenscroft's Spear, that Hitler was certainly interested in theory of the occult, while not himself being a committed occultist in practice. This is not uncommon among highly intelligent but somewhat emotionally deranged persons. It's also rather hard to deny, when one reads the words of the man himself, in Mein Kampf and in Rauschning's non verbatim record of conversations, that Hitler was fascinated and influenced by concepts and beliefs which are identifiable with occult theory of history and race, and which can be traced from Blavatsky to Gurdjieff to Crowley. But he was not a follower, but a leader, not a theorist but a pragmatist, and his use and abuse of such ideas was peculiarly his own. No one however can claim that he was original in inspiration.

I purchased this book this last spring and was to busy to read it, so it sat on my shelf till this weekend. I was in the mood for a good read, I remembered this book, picked it up and didn't put it down till finished. When I bought it, I thought it would be a book that detailed the Nazi involvement with the Occult. As I read it, I began to realize that the book in large part takes issue with a single man's (Ravenscroft) work on the Nazi's and the occult. Ken Anderson does a nice, precise, point-by-point review of Ravenscroft, and his "evidence" about the Nazi involvement with the occult. Anderson points out that Ravenscroft details about his own personal involvement in a raid to kill Rommel in the Second World War were fictitious. From that Anderson builds a case against Ravenscroft's allegations that Hitler was driven by his contact with the "spear of destiny" - a spear that was used to make sure Christ had died. When I finished the book, I was amazed to find that with the substantial evidence in this book, I believe that Hitler was not "driven" by the occult. He was simply evil. Something his young niece realized when she was 17, and shot herself with his .32 Walther.

I have more than a working knowledge of WW2, the events and the history. Last summer I spent two weeks riding around Germany on a BMW motorcycle seeing the WW2 sites. I very much appreciate this book for detailing information I had not known before, and linking it with information that I am quite familiar with. The end result was my belief that Anderson's information is accurate and well told. If you're into the history, you'll love this book.

I saw a program on this subject on the history channel and promptly went to pick up this book. I'm glad I got it from the library rather than buying it however. While the subject is fascinating and the writing quite nicely paced, the book absolutely fails to deliver the depth of analysis and information that I was hoping for. However, I can say that all of the information presented in the book seemed to be well supported.