World War I left Berlin, and all of Germany, devastated. Charlatans and demagogues eagerly exploited the desperate crowds. Fascination with the occult was everywhere – in private séances, personalized psychic readings, communions with the dead – as people struggled to escape the grim reality of their lives. In the early 1930s, the most famous mentalist in the German capital was Erik Jan Hanussen, a Jewish mind reader originally from Vienna who became so popular in Berlin that he rubbed elbows with high ranking Nazis, became close with top Storm Troopers, and even advised Hitler.
Called “Europe’s Greatest Oracle Since Nostradamus,” Hanussen assumed he could manipulate some of the more incendiary personalities of his time just as he had manipulated his fans. He turned his occult newspaper in Berlin into a Nazi propaganda paper, personally assured Hitler that the stars were aligned in his favor, and predicted the infamous Reichstag Fire that would solidify the Nazis’ grip on Germany.
Seasoned with ruminations about wonder and magic (and explanations of Hanussen’s tricks), The Nazi Séance is a disturbing journey into a Germany as it descends into madness—aided by a “clairvoyant” Jew oblivious to the savagery of men who pursued a Reich they fantasized would last 1,000 years.
"Hanussen (and his relation to Hitler) is one of the strangest enigmas of the pre-war era. Arthur Magida has done a great service in illuminating this figure of mystery--and the light his story reflects on the growing darkness surrounding him."--Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler and How the End Begins.
About the Author
Arthur J. Magida is writer-in-residence at the University of Baltimore, a journalism professor at Georgetown University and recipient of multiple awards in journalism and the humanities, including the Simon Rockower Award from the American Jewish Press Association, the A.D. Emmart Award and the Smolar Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. His books include The Rabbi and The Hit Man, Prophet of Rage: A Life of Louis Farrakhan and His Nation, Opening the Doors of Wonder and How To Be a Perfect Stranger. A native of New York City, he lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Arthur J. Magida's new book, The Nazi Séance - a biography of Erik Jan Hanussen, "Hitler's Jewish clairvoyant" - will be published by Macmillan in November. "An astonishing story, brilliantly told," says Roger Moorhouse, author of Killing Hitler. Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler, agrees: "Hanussen (and his relation to Hitler)is one of the strangest enigmas of the pre-war era. Arthur Magida has done a great service in illuminating this figure of mystery--and the light his story reflects on the growing darkness surrounding him." "Well-written... Since there have been exaggerated accounts of Nazi interest in... the occult, it is refreshing to have this subject engaged in a thoughtful way... Readers will obtain a real sense of how many in the upheavals of post-World War 1 Germany flocked to the most unlikely sources of information and comfort" -- Gerhard Weinberg, eminent history of the Nazi era Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America, says, "Arthur Magida's haunting and vivid historical portrait illustrates how opportunism and spiritual fashion flourished on the margins of the Third Reich. It is a chilling parable about the ultimate price paid by those who blindly allied themselves with brute power." Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, scholar-in-residence, Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco, and author of Kabbalah: A Love Story, observes, "In a history that reads like a novel, Arthur Magida, gives us much more than a finely written and well-researched examination of the "Nazi" Jewish psychic. The Nazi Seance may also be a disturbingly fit metaphor for Jewish existence among the nations." Narrative possesses the "palpable dread of a thriller" -- The Urbanite
Magida's previous book, Opening the Doors of Wonder, explains rites of passage in a variety of religions - bar/bat mitzvahs, confirmations, baptisms, Hindus' sacred thread ceremonies, Muslims' shahada, Buddhists' jukai. Interviews include Deepak Chopra, Elie Wiesel, Ram Dass, Roz Chast, Chinua Achebe, Robert Thurman and Yusuf Islam (the former Cat Stevens). Comments about Opening the Doors of Wonder include "Goes far toward helping us understand one another - a much-needed venture in our 9/11 age." -- Henry Louis Gates Jr Magida's The Rabbi and The Hit Man, the true story of a New Jersey rabbi given life imprisonment for hiring a hit man to kill his wife, was praised for "compelling, "measured," "stately" tone and its "dense, yet tight pacing... that reads like a top-notch crime novel." One critic deemed the book "required reading in all seminaries." Prophet of Rage: A Life of Louis Farrakhan and His Nation also received critical acclaim: "A key biography of perhaps the most flamboyant African American leader of our time."(The San Francisco Chronicle); "Perceptive, balanced, and vividly evocative..." (The Washington Post.) Magida also wrote How To Be a Perfect Stranger and The Environment Committees, a study of environmental politics commissioned by Ralph Nader. A professor at Georgetown University, writer-in-residence at the University of Baltimore and consultant to a recent two-hour PBS film on "forgiveness," Magida has been a columnist for the on-line religion magazine, Beliefnet.com; a contributing correspondent to PBS's "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly;" a consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; editorial director of Jewish Lights Publishing, which specializes in books on religion/spirituality; senior editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times; environmental reporter for National Journal; writer/editor for Ralph Nader; director of publications for an energy conservation project; and a reporter for two Pennsylvania newspapers. His op-eds have appeared in major newspapers around the country and he has free-lanced such publications as Conde Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Tikkun, and Geo, Islands and Historic Preservation magazines. His work appears in several anthologies. Magida is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Religion, Who's Who in the East and International Authors and Writers Who's Who. He has appeared on Dateline, the CBS Early Show, Court TV's "Catherine Crier Live," "The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour," ABC's "World News Tonight," C-Span's "Booknotes," NPR's "Morning Edition" and an A&E documentary. He has received 16 Simon Rockower Awards from the American Jewish Press Association; five A.D. Emmart Awards for writing on the humanities; two Smolar Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism; two National Mass Media Certificates of Recognition from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The Fund for Investigative Journalism and The Dick Goldensohn Fund have supported his work. He has spoken at colleges and civic and religious groups around the country.
This review is from: The Nazi Séance: The Strange Story of the Jewish Psychic in Hitler's Circle (Hardcover)
Arthur Magida's latest book at times made me forget that this man actually lived and breathed and fell into cahoots with the Nazis to secure his status in Berlin. The Nazi Séance reads like fiction, and that is a wonderful thing. Though it is a historical work, I was not overwhelmed with chronological context or an abundance of dates as both were elegantly woven into the story as a backdrop to the book's true focus: who was Erik Jan Hanussen and how did he, a poor Jewish boy from Vienna, wind up as Helldorf's right hand man and closely tied to the Nazis? I am not a devoted scholar of history and found the book incredibly readable and, at times, downright captivating. Magida has certainly done his research, but he has worked just as hard to make sure that Hanussen, not the time he lived in, takes center stage in a masterfully told tale that shows just how magical Hitler's Jewish clairvoyant had to be to stay one step ahead in his game of deceit.
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This review is from: The Nazi Séance: The Strange Story of the Jewish Psychic in Hitler's Circle (Hardcover)
An incredibly researched an beautifully written account that reads like a novel. The combination of a world of magic, mystery, and terror is superb.
Couldn't put it down.
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This review is from: The Nazi Séance: The Strange Story of the Jewish Psychic in Hitler's Circle (Hardcover)
An intriguing book before opening the cover, The Nazi Séance: The Strange Story of the Jewish Psychic in Hitler's Circle steals the reader's attention in very much the same way a magician captivates an audience. The tale is almost too fantastical to believe, but here it is, laid out through the hard work of a writer who approaches this history as if he had infiltrated 1930s Germany as a time-traveling journalist.
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