Customer Reviews

The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust

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There are two recent books that touch on this subject. Ms. Pringle's and Christpher Hale's "Himmler's Crusade". Hale's book is about the expedition to Tibet, which also occupies a large part of this book. Even so, go with this one. Ms. Pringle is an excellent researcher and writes very well. She avoids veering off and making mistakes about military affairs, a major weakness in Hale's book. In addition, this book goes beyond the Tibet expedition (a fascinating subject) and takes up additional matters regarding the group set up by the SS to examine racial-biological-political issues. If you have an interest in Himmler or the SS, you won't be sorry you read this book.

Heather Pringle has done the world a service by producing a well-written account of the "science" produced by scholars working for the SS. The book is fascinating. Like all good history, it contains lessons for the modern world: 1. It is dangerous to mix politics and science, and 2. Even "smart" people can convince themselves of almost anything, especially if it will win them credit with powerful people. Unfortunately, as one looks around the world, the same willingness to ignore facts for the sake of ideology is still rampant. I wish more people would read Ms. Pringle's book.

While everyone knows something of the Nazi medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners, I did not appreciate the extent to which other areas of science were twisted and corrupted to serve Nazi ideology. It's sad to see the extent to which presumably intelligent people, professionals in their field, abandoned all the rigors of logic and the scientific method to satisfy their own preconceptions. "The Master Plan" is a fresh perspective on the Nazi abuse of science (especially archeology) in the furtherance of their favored (and, for the most part, bizarre) racial and historical theories. This is the only study of the Ahnenerbe (the elite Nazi research institute created by Himmler) that I've ever seen. The writing is a touch dry but the subject matter is compelling. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the Nazi period.

This is not the first book about the mysterious branch of the SS called "Ahnenerbe". But it is the most well-written one and also the first book to present all the amazing Ahnenerbe expeditions abroad. These expeditions bring Indiana Jones to mind but are far more interesting than the "Indy" movies, as they took place in real life.

As Ahnenerbe was to a great extent about motivating the pagan faith of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler and many early SS-officers the book is also about the relationship of the SS to the major religions. Both to buddhism (therefore the fascination with Tibet), hinduism (with its "Aryan" side), Islam (two SS divisions were largely Muslim) and Christianity (incompatible with true SS spirit according to Himmler).

Had Nazi Germany been victorious the SS would have dropped its wartime acceptance of Christianity and would have worked hard on replacing Christianity with its brand of pagan faith. "The Master Plan" gives a really fascinating insight into what was actually done in the SS to promote the new/ancient faith, and what the SS planned to do about religion, had the SS won.

In the bright daylight of modern day it's with some difficulty that one attempts to comprehend the horrendously monstrous things that the Nazi regime perpetrated against some of their fellow human beings. Everyone has read books or stories about the Nazi atrocities committed against the Jewish people, but Ms. Pringle's highly researched book really delves deeper into the "Final Solution" of the Third Reich and details the acts of the upper echelon of scientists and scholars involved in it.

All through this book I was wondering what could motivate seemingly "normal" people to devise and even participate in these terrible events? This even seems to be the author's final question about her own research. Probably the most striking thing about these events and the people involved in them is the fact that so many got away cleanly and continued to live normal everyday lives, some even going on to great accomplishments in academia.

For anyone interested in the WWII era or interested in the true underlying framework behind the Holocaust, I cannot more strongly recommend Ms. Pringle's book. Even for those like myself who have researched this area of history extensively, one can still be shocked by the almost unbelievably heinous motivations and actions of those who actually carried out the "Final Solution".

It is just possible that Heinrich Himmler was even worse than Adolf Hitler. This well-researched and equally well-written book tells the previously almost unknown story of Himmler's subversion of scholars, scholarship, and academic integrity in the pursuit of a justification for genocide. The author brings to light the story of the research activities sponsored by the SS in the attempt to create the mythology and folklore of the Aryan race. Archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnologists, and academics all put their own rise in Nazi Germany over truth and ethics. The remarkable expeditions taken all over the world, as far as Tibet, in pursuit of relics that were perverted to represent the purity and superiority of the Aryans, are described in thrilling detail. Of course, the outcome of all this research and pseudoscholarship was an intellectual rationalization for the genocide of Jews, and other so-called inferior races. The book is chilling as it makes us realize how far educated men and women will go to advance their own interests. It also shows that Himmler was planning to create an entire religion of Aryanism, that would eventually replace all other faiths in the Thousand Year Reich. Just when you think you have read everything worth reading about the Third Reich, a book like this comes along. A great read and worth every sobering moment

Heather Pringle's "The Master Plan" gives an excellent history of the Ahnenerbe, the special branch of the Nazi SS made up of some of Germany's leading scientists and scholars whose purpose it was to document the history and prehistory of Germany and the Aryan race. These scientists, often hand-picked by Heinrich Himmler himself, were intended to provide the historical and scientific justification for the Nazi's ideology and conquests. Much of this story has remained largely unknown and Pringle's work is the first book that provides a comprehensive account of this fascinating subject.

Himmler was obsessed with the idea that he could validate the superiority of the Aryan peoples and the supremacy of the German "volk" by providing clear scientific evidence supporting these claims. Where such evidence was lacking, it could be invented. Thus was born the SS Ahnenerbe, a organization that operated under the guise of unbiased scientific inquiry by some of the leading German scholars of the day. The findings of the Ahnenerbe were used to justify the Final Solution and the sinister deeds of the Nazis as the German war machine steamrolled across the world. Pringle's book explores the lives of the many scientists who served the Ahnenerbe and the various expeditions that were undertaken in the service of the Reich. It was these very archaeological undertakings that partly served as the inspiration for the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

Pringle's book also makes clear Himmler's agenda to alter the very fabric of German society, especially religion. Himmler was a passionate anti-Christian who believed that Germany should be returned to the pagan religion of their ancestors. To that end, he used the SS as a prototype for a future society that would embrace the beliefs and practices of their Aryan forbearers.

Himmler understood that if you can control what people know and understand about their past and their ancestors then you can control the future of that society. History is written, or often RE-written, by the victors for a reason. The Ahnenerbe was created for this very purpose. It is an important piece in the complex puzzle of understanding the motivations of the Nazis and why they did the things they did. Pringle's book is an excellent addition to that understanding.

The Nazis used anything they could to justify their rule and the primacy of the "Aryan" race. They used many aspects of science to prove this point, but twisted and molded these ideas to suit National Socialist dogma. Heather Pringle's book investigates and illustrates how various sciences were used to show that "Aryans" were the superior race. Heinrich Himmler, being the dreamer he was, tried to twist history(prehistory) to show that the Germans were meant to rule the world and that they in fact were responsible for all the greatness of civilization. He enlisted scholars of all sorts to "flesh" this out. Along the way he encountered charaltans and crackpots and even respected acadmeics to his cause. Pringle tells this ghastly story well, well qualified from her earlier book about Mummies. This story will repluse some, but the lessons it teaches are well worth reading, it has exposed another of the inhumane and incredulous facet of the Third Reich.

Here's a review of the book from the website of Helsinki paper, Helsingen Sanomat. Review written by Pirkko Kotirinta and with a distinctly Finnish flavor.... thought I'd repost as it provides a slightly different look at the book.
Himmler was excited over Finnish Kantele .....Book reveals hushed-up cultural cooperation

Finnish anthropologist Yrjö von Grönhagen met German SS leader Heinrich Himmler in 1937 at Himmler's home, along with German music researcher Fritz Bose. The scientists were led into Himmler's study, and they were surprised at what they saw. Hanging on the wall of the study was a copy of a photograph that had recently been taken by Grönhagen, of Timo Lipitsä, a Karelian runonlaulaja, or "poem singer". The photo, which had been given to Himmler a year earlier, hung over Himmler's desk as if it were an icon. Von Grönhagen (1911-2003) and Bose (1909-1975) brought new gifts from Karelia. The Nazi leader was especially enthusiastic about the kantele, a traditional Finnish stringed instrument. Bose played for him, and the kantele was given to Himmler, who immediately ordered ten more for the SS.

Does this sound familiar in any way? The information is from a book by author Heather Pringle, The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust, which was recently translated into Finnish. The work by a respected Canadian writer of popular science touches upon Finland and the other Nordic Countries, especially the rock paintings in Sweden's Bohuslän Province, while describing in detail the activities of the Third Reich's Ahnenerbe research institute. The book is the most thorough account of the foreign expeditions of Ahnenerbe.

Ahnenerbe, or Deutches Ahnenerbe, Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte ("Study society for primordial intellectual history, German Ancestral Heritage"), was established in 1935 for the stated purpose of studying the legacy of Germany's Aryan forefathers. Its real purpose was to create myths. According to Pringle, its leading researchers dedicated themselves to falsifying the truth, and to churing out carefully tailored information to support the racial doctrines of Adolf Hitler. Pringle tells of the most imaginative arguments used to prove the glorious past of the Aryans. In addition to Northern Europe, expeditions were conducted in Tibet, Iraq, Greece, Libya, and Croatia. When the Second World War broke out, Ahnenerbe's work was co-opted for the war effort, and for solving "the Jewish problem". Especially chilling is the chapter on a skeleton collection, which tells about the mustard gas experiments by anatomist August Hirt (1898-1945) and his work for the establishment of a collection of Jewish skeletons.

Pringle met Bruno Berger (1911-2004), an expert in race research, who took part in the Tibet expedition of Ernst Schäfer, and also took part in the establishment of the skeleton collection, for which he was sentenced as a war criminal. During their three-hour meeting in 2002 Berger never showed any pity or sympathy toward the 86 Jews whom he was sending to the gas chambers. Ahnenerbe was interested in Finland and Karelia in the early phase of its activities - specifically through the activities of Yrjö von Grönhagen, who was born in St. Petersburg. The young aristocrat, who studied at the Sorbonne, had decided to travel on foot from Paris to Helsinki, and to practice "practical sociology" on the way, by collecting greetings in his diary from people whom he met on the way. During his hike, Grönhagen made it to Germany. For him Germany immediately seemed familiar, because Grönhagen spoke the language, and hated communists.

A Frankfurt newspaper published Grönhagen's article on the Kalevala, and soon a meeting with Himmler was arranged. Himmler also wrote a greeting into his travel diary: "Germans and Finns always remember that they once had the same fathers." It is from this common foundation that the young anthropologist soon got a job in Ahnenerbe, where he rose to the leadership of the recently established Indo-Germanic-Finnish Research Institute in two years, at the age of 26. Grönhagen and Fritz Bose made a research expedition into Russian Karelia in 1936, taking along the illustrator Ola Forssell. Grönhagen returned to Karelia again in 1937 and 1938, alone both times. On the first trip, Bose had a brand-new AEG tape recorder with him, with a sound quality that was far superior to previous recording devices. Finnish researcher Risto Blomster says that this was "apparently for the first time in the history of the world" that a tape recorder was used for collecting folk traditions. Tape recorders became more commonplace in the 1940s.

Grönhagen was among the directors of Ahnenerbe only for a few months. The new chairman of the institute, Dr. Walter Büst dropped him as incompetent. The focus of research moved from the north to the east, partly because Hitler preferred to emphasise the assumed connections between Aryan culture and ancient high cultures. The intense interest that Himmler felt toward the Nordic region as a target of research irritated Hitler: "It is bad enough that the Romans built magnificent buildings while our forefathers were still living in clay huts; now Himmler is starting to dig up these clay hut villages, and gets excited about every fragment of a clay pot, and every stone axe that he happens to find", Hitler once said to Albert Speer.

Personally (and this is my own comment, not from the Helsingin Sanomat review), I find it interesting that, while there's so much criticism of the Nazi's and their "racial cleansing" and all the rest of it, very few readers and reviewers seem to realise that much of the Nazi's medical / eugenics theory and practice originated or was taken from from medical theory and practice in the USA in the 1920's. Much of what went on in the USA in the 1920's was almost as barbaric as anything that happened in Nazi Germany, the only difference being the industrial scale with which the Germans applied the theory during the war years.

Heather Pringle has done an exceptional job in writing this book. Her writing style is dynamic, interesting, and personal unlike the talent of many Holocaust book authors who are authoritative but dry. I consider this one of the top two books I have ever read relating to the Holocaust, and I have been reading about this subject for over 15 years. I am in awe of her research and ability to have gone so deeply into this subject. There is much to learn here not only about Himmler and the maniacal search for a source/invention for the Aryan Race, but grasping a real sense of the Nazi mentality in how they approached their cause in general. Ms. Pringle really delivers on her goal of sharing Himmler with the reader. Congratulations! I eagerly await her next book.