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Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement with the Occult

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In this readable but thoroughly researched survey of the mythic/religio/occult ideologies that formed the basis of the Nazi movement, in UNHOLY ALLIANCE, the author has succeeded in making a dense, fact-laden topic spanning hundreds of years accessible to the non-specialist reader without sacrificing accuracy. This is probably the most thorough treatment of Nazi occult ideology in English, and where it surpasses similar works is that it continues documenting neo-Nazi survivals right up to the present. Anyone who doubts Levenda's thesis that the end of WWII only changed, rather than ended, the Nazi movement, need only check the unblushing anti-Semitism of some of the other reviews here.

Writers exploring the occult and its many flamboyant personalities frequently fall into either reflexive debunking or starstruck gullibility. While the author has done plenty of first-hand investigation, even getting into the Chilean Nazi enclave Colonia Dignidad during the Pinochet years, he succeeds in giving us a clear-eyed, even-handed view.

The Norman Mailer Foreword to this edition is an unexpected plus, a fine essay on metaphysics, occultism, and current events that gave this reader, who has always considered the enormous Mailer canon a mixed bag, a pleasant surprise: Mailer has a number of deeply insightful things to say about magic and the occult. Mailer says he's read UNHOLY ALLIANCE three times--once more than I have, though my first edition is a bit ragged from the many times I've also used it as a quick reference.

UNHOLY ALLIANCE belongs on the bookshelf of anyone with a serious interest in WWII, extremist religio-political ideologies of all descriptions, modern Roman Catholic history, or any branch of occultism. Thanks to excellent source notes and an index, it's a fine reference work that--a rare bonus in this field--is also a great read. The author's update to this new edition was obviously written post-September 11, and is a good, if somewhat sketchy, summary of developments since its original publication. One would wish Levenda could have had more space to explore the similarities between Nazi occultism and the current crop of terrorists in greater detail, but this is a very small quibble about an otherwise splendid work.

Reading the last few reviews of Unholy Alliance, I am struck by the fact that both reviewers are unapologetic anti-Semites. I guess everyone's entitled to their opinion, but they have misrepresented some of the facts. I only find a single reference to Tom Metzger in the book, and the author nowhere states that Metzger was a "rune master", whatever that is, only that his newsletter used to be a forum for pagan and Odinist views. I think that's correct. As for Hitler not being an occultist, the author states very clearly that Hitler was not a member of any occult group, but that he was fascinated by Lanz von Liebenfels, something that is well-documented, and was a protege of Dietrich Eckart. In fact, the entire book is well-documented with sources (from the Captured German Documents Section at the National Archives, among other places) that you won't find other places, and the author even gives microfilm roll numbers so anyone -- even an anti-Semite! -- can go to the Archives and look up the relevant documents themselves with ease. While one of the reviewers is an admirer of Goodrick-Clarke (who also writes about the occult background of the Third Reich), he does not like Unholy Alliance. I think the problem is that Unholy Alliance also focuses on modern survivals of Nazism in North and South America and takes a good hard look at groups like Metzger's, something that Goodrick-Clarke does not do (even though his books are excellent). Unholy Alliance puts it all in one place; and the author risked his life investigating Colonia Dignidad in Chile, a place where others were not so lucky to escape (an American math professor was taken to the Colony a few years AFTER the author, and tortured and killed as reported in the NY Times), and was personally acquainted with James Madole and Roy Frankhouser, all notorious racists and neo-Nazis. To attack the book because of a single reference on a single page to Metzger seems strange. And although the reviewer claims to have been a friend of Metzger since 1978, it is obvious that the author of Unholy Alliance has also been in the field at least that long (his trip to Chile was in 1979 for instance).

So, I think the book is worth a look by Nazis and anti-Nazis alike. Both will discover a wealth of information about the SS Ahnenerbe and its bizarre Tibet Expedition, about Otto Rahn and the search for the Grail, and about a host of other things that few other books have bothered to document as thoroughly.

Peter Levenda's _Unholy Alliance_ is at once a tale of adventure and intrigue and a useful source of information on the occult origins of Nazism. Much has been made of these occult beginnings and developments which led to the creation of Hitler's Third Reich and which have continued after its downfall in various forms of NeoNazism. In this book, Peter Levenda examines these occult aspects of Nazism from its early development in the Thule Society and among individuals such as Guido von List, Lanz von Liebenfels, and Rudolf von Sebottendorf to Nazi psychics up until the present day in which Satanism and other such dark forces have combined with Nazi occultism. Levenda rightly contends that Hitler himself was not overly influenced by occult ideas (contrary to the thesis put forth in _The Spear of Destiny_) despite his youthful readings of von Liebenfel's notorious magazine, "Ostara". However, according to Levenda the magical and occult aspects of Nazism cannot be denied. Levenda considers Nazism to be a sort of cult with an all powerful leader ("Der Fuehrer"). Much of the material in this book as far as the early roots of Nazism is available from other sources especially _The Occult Roots of Nazism_ by Nicholas Goodrick-Clark. However, Levenda provides new material in his examination of Nazi psychics, including Hanussen, his thorough discussion of the Ahnenerbe Society, his explanation of the Tibet expedition which has not previously been covered by other authors in this field, and his discussions of the notorious madman Aleister Crowley. In fact, a great deal of this book focuses on the shenanigans of Aleister Crowley but also discusses the roots of many German secret societies in the Theosophical Society of the medium Madame H. P. Blavatsky. The most interesting discussion in this book however is that of the survival of the Nazi cult in various manifestations particularly in South America. The far reaches of the tentacles of the Nazi octopus can be seen in the trail of Rudolf Hess, where he claims that he was being mind-controlled by various psychiatrists working for the Allied Powers. This is one among hundreds of bizarre instances involving the captured Nazi elite. The escaped Nazis may have traveled to South America via various underground channels. Individuals such as Klaus Barbie and Martin Bormann as well as the infamous physician, Dr. Josef Mengele, may have traveled to South America and survived in hiding under different aliases and involving themselves with various occult movements and lodges. The nation of Chile appears to be particularly likely to be infested with NeoNazis according to Levenda. Among others the occult writer and Chilean diplomat Miguel Serrano has written praising Hitler. Levenda himself investigated the secret Nazi center, the infamous "Colonia Dignidad", in Chile. This mysterious colony is run by the self-described "Baptist" zealot, Dr. Ernst Schafer, with unproven ties to Nazism. While in Chile, Levenda encountered this mysterious Nazi colony and barely managed to escape alive (luckily a report involving the statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes was being reviewed that day which may have allowed his escape). Rumors of mysterious deaths, torture, sexual abuse of children, and the practice of the black arts combining traditional Voodoo ritual with Nazi occultism have spread about the infamous "Colonia Dignidad". Whatever exactly this colony consists of, it is certainly not a wholesome affair. In the last full chapter in this book, Levenda turns his attention to NeoNazism. In particular, he examines the question of Nazi Satanism (taking a look at such organizations as the former National Renaissance Party) as well as the phenomenon of Nazi Skinheads. Nazi Satanists appear to base their rites off of those performed by the ultimate black magician and Reichsfuehrer of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, which he performed in his mysterious castle, Wewelsburg. Levenda makes some decent comparisons and analysis of Nazism and the Satanic abduction scare (in which he compares such mass murderers as Charles Manson with Nazi occultism and Satanic practices). Ultimately, upon finishing this book, it is clear to the reader that the Nazis were indeed based on an occult system of practice. While I dislike the idea that this was some form of neopaganism, it is more likely a restoration of the Gnostic heresy and a revolt against the Catholic Church, Christianity, and the Semitic religions. Levenda is unfortunately too harsh on the Catholic Church in this respect giving into many modernist and liberal biases. It is a fact that the Church tried to protect many individuals from the evils of Nazism and its death camps, despite whatever else certain of its members may have done. Also, the case against Pope Pius XII's involvement with Nazism is certainly far from being resolved in my mind at least. I believe Nazism constitutes a form of modern day Satanism and its ties to black magic and evil forms of occultism and degeneracy are all too apparent.

Also recommended: _The Morning of the Magicians_ by Pauwels and Bergier and _The Occult Roots of Nazism_ by Nicholas Goodrick-Clark.

The bulk of this book is an absorbing study of Nazi occultism. Levenda contends that this was not an eccentricity dabbled in by a few of the high command but was in fact central to fascism. In his research he read reams of documents from the Nazi era in various archives, piles of bureaucratic letters, newspaper clippings, reports and other things, so he has gone directly to the source. In addition to his extensive research of a fascinating subject, he has a wry humor and very readable style.

The problem comes when he tries to convince the reader that there is still a worldwide Nazi occult conspiracy which could break out and start wreaking havoc any day. He documents the escapes and probable present whereabouts of various Nazi war criminals, but his attempts to show that they are secretly pulling the strings behind, for example, various small racist groups in Europe and America are unconvincing. His own accounts of meeting with some of these groups suggest that they are mere random collections of nutbars.

He discusses the Manson murders at length, apparently believing that because the Manson gang was racist and subscribed to a bizarre cosmology, their crimes support his theory of a lingering Nazi occult conspiracy, but he is unable to show any kind of connection to the Manson gang and, well, anything. In addition, late in the book he talks about some subjects that I know something about, and I caught quite a few mistakes, and as a former true crime buff, one of them was about the Manson murders. Levenda tries to bolster the racism-occultism connection by stating that Manson girl Susan Atkins was a member of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan. No doubt this was asserted in numerous sensationalist newspaper articles, but one would expect a man who spent untold hours reading Nazi-era bureaucratic red tape to check his facts better than that. The connection between Atkins and LaVey is far more tenuous. Before she met Manson, she worked as a stripper. Once, her strip club decided to do a sort of horror theme show and had it choreographed by a local occultist named Anton LaVey. LaVey had not yet founded the Church of Satan, and in his youth had been a musician playing accompaniment for strippers, and so probably still had plenty of friends in the striptease industry. In her autobiography, Atkins, who became a born-again Christian in prison, claims that when they met LaVey gave her the creeps. The creepy feeling didn't stop her from playing her part in his horror strip skit, that of a vampire, a detail the newspapers would pounce on with relish after the murders. That was the extent of their association. She was never a member of the CoS. That I can catch him in a few mistakes which he could easily have better verified makes me wonder how seriously I can take the rest of his research, which is largely in languages I don't speak and buried in vaults that would take untold hours to dig through.

Another warning signal is Levenda's claims of anti-intellectual bias coupled with assertions that most Americans are not intellectual enough to suit Levenda. He spends several pages moaning about how ignorant Americans are about World War II and the Holocaust. At one point he says, if I may paraphrase, "According to a recent study, an appalling percentage of Americans have never heard of the Holocaust." Apparently the percentage wasn't as appalling as he wishes, or one imagines he would have shared the figure with us. In any case, I am frankly skeptical of his assertions. Maybe it's just that I don't spend much time talking to idiots, but I've yet to encounter an American who wasn't actually pretty knowledgeable about the whole thing. One feels he is talking through his hat so that he can make himself seem smarter by comparison with all those duffers who don't know what he does.

At one point, he complains that "all" governments, of every stripe, distrust intellectuals. According to him, in China intellectuals are suspected of being capitalists and in America intellectuals are suspected of being communists. Well, I'm an intellectual and I'm afraid I've just never seen any evidence of this institutional distrust of intellectuals he bemoans. This is the kind of thing people who think society isn't deferring to them enough whine about. Ironically, if the erudite Nazi occultists in his book are any indication, distrusting intellectuals is probably a very good idea.

Levenda says: "And those Americans for whom intellectual and cultural sophistication held certain attractions that could not be matched by Iowa corn country square dances or homespun Bible Belt homilies found themselves having more in common with the Hollywood image of the typical SS officer than with the type of American GI portrayed by, say, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne or Henry Fonda. As a certain, subtextual cultural identification with the SS began to take place among our basically intelligent but incompetently educated American youth it would not be long before political identification would occur... with unfortunate consequences."

The problem is, he never gets around to telling us what these "unfortunate consequences" are. He talks at length about contemporary occultists, who are often exceptionally intelligent people, but doesn't even attempt to argue that they are racist or violent or in any other way dangerous. The racist groups he met with in his research sound by his own account like very stupid people. He basically suggests that sophisticated people might be inspired by classic war movies to adopt Nazism without being able to cite even one example of one who did.

And he's jumping to all sorts of unwarranted conclusions. For one thing, there are plenty of movies that portray elegant people in a positive light. Maybe not those being made nowadays, but thanks to AMC and TCM, and the BBC, hundreds of such movies are readily available.

Now, my own amusements tend toward classic jazz, German expressionism, and classic novels. I've just started to take an interest in the great works of ancient Greece. In short, I'm one of those he talks about who might "culturally identify" with the suave S.S. officer of movies. And yet, oddly enough I can't feel the disdain he assures me I should for "Iowa corn country square dances or homespun Bible Belt homilies". Indeed, one of my personal maxims, which I have verified many times through brutal experience, is that people who dislike country music are rarely to be trusted. I admire these things. My refined education allows me to see the value in them the more keenly. Those people I know who turn up their noses at "Iowa corn country square dances or homespun Bible Belt homilies" are the stupid, uncultivated, unwashed masses, the kind who believe uncritically the slanted news the MSM dishes out and will voluntarily watch Beavis and Butthead.

Besides which, um, "Iowa corn country square dances or homespun Bible Belt homilies" are not really all that prevalent today. I live in the Bible Belt, surrounded by rural communities, descended on both sides from farmers, and I don't see that much of these things. Levenda accuses most Americans of getting their ideas about Nazism from "the movies", but apparently he gets his ideas of rural America from "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Doc Hollywood" (a movie whose portrayal of the rural South had the rural North Carolina audience I watched it with in stitches). Americans are hardly stuck with a choice between square dances and fascism.

EDIT: Except for correcting where I mistyped "Sharon Tate" when I should have written "Susan Atkins", I have not altered the above, but I am adding to my review in response to the author's comment on it. In it he insists that most Americans other than himself really are unintellectual, and to support this, he states that there is a decline in college educations in this country. Anyone who thinks that there is a connection between college education and intellectual prowess is highly detached from reality. Besides which, if he really thinks Americans are so stupid, who is he writing this for? Does he count on every single person of the thousands who bought this book to say, "Yeah, all those other Americans are dumb. It's just Levenda and me who are smart"? I don't know how many copies this book sold, but it's enough that the intellectual cachet is being spread a bit thin. Or perhaps we're supposed instead to say, "Thank goodness Mr. Levenda, who is so much smarter than me, is looking out for us all! Too bad he isn't in charge, but alas, governments don't trust people as smart as him." Hey, whatever bolsters your self-esteem.

Then he claims that I accused him of anti-intellectual bias and insists that he was defending intellectuals from the distrust governments feel for them. If you'll scroll up, you will see that I certainly did not accuse him of anti-intellectual bias, I pointed out that he was doing exactly that sort of "defense". I merely asserted that his insistence that intellectuals are widely distrusted is not something I have ever seen much evidence of. If anything, governments are entirely too ready to trust self-designated intellectuals who want to conduct social experiments according to their pet untested theories, brushing aside the objections of those "unintellectuals" with practical experience. Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia are only the most extreme examples of this.

He takes exception to my pointing out his mistaken statements about Anton LaVey and Susan Atkins, but in a way that shows that he has very real problems with reading comprehension. He says: "I know of very few people who acted in any film with Anton LaVey, and those that did I do know." Well, that's nice, but I fail to see what it has to do with anything, since I didn't say anything about any film. He goes on: "The fact that Atkins would wind up in a LaVey "Black Mass" that was filmed certainly demands a closer look." What fact? What Black Mass? What film? Is he claiming *I* said this? I didn't say anything about a Black Mass, I said a Halloween themed strip show (what Levenda is referring to when he says Susan Atkins was "working for" LaVey "as a vampire emerging from a coffin", and which his imagination has further transformed into a Black Mass that was filmed), and if you scroll up again, you will find no mention of anything being filmed. I no longer own LaVey's biography so I can't verify that the Halloween show took place before the CoS was formed, but I do think that is correct, and certainly Levenda, who claims that this one-shot performance was Atkins (and several other strippers) "working for" LaVey and then manufactures a filmed Black Mass out of whole cloth, is in no position to argue. Then he insists that Atkins was so a member of the CoS. If so, there is no evidence for it anywhere; not in her autobiography, the various books on the Manson killings, or the books on LaVey. None of the ones I've read claim that she was a member, though doubtless the sensationalistic newspapers made the assertion.

I chose this factual error out of quite a handful I found in the book. I didn't expose every one so as not to make my review too terribly long. Now I'm tempted to go back through the book and find them all and expand this review, but I traded it in at a used bookstore and I'm not sure I care enough to bother to buy another copy. Still, any reasonably well-informed person can catch them for himself, though of course Levenda doesn't believe there are many of those out there.

But here's the kicker: Levenda says, "Further, the biography [of Anton LaVey] states that LaVey had performed a "Hippie ritual" on the night of August 8, 1969 to purge the earth of "vermin" ... and read in the papers the following day of the Tate murders. Thus, the connection between LaVey, the Church of Satan, and Susan Atkins -- and from there to Manson and the murders -- seems clear enough to me."

Okay, first off, yes, LaVey's biography does make this claim. But does it follow that he really performed this ritual? The only evidence is the word of his biographer, who bore a child by him and took over the CoS after his death. LaVey also claimed that one evening he cut an article out of the newspaper and then discovered that he had decapitated a photo of his mistress and follower Jayne Mansfield on the other side. Shortly afterwards, he received a phone call informing him of her death in a car accident, in which she was nearly beheaded. Anton LaVey spent years working for a travelling carnival. He had a self-acknowledged streak of showmanship a mile wide. Is there any reason to believe he didn't simply make these stories up?

But even if LaVey really did perform that ritual, and on the date when he said he did, what is the "clear" connection between it and the Manson murders? You have it in Levenda's own words: Levenda believes that the Manson killings - which Manson planned for weeks in advance - were caused by A SPELL CAST BY ANTON LAVEY.

I can't dispute Levenda's assertions about the activities of Nazis in South America or about links between Islamic terrorists and antisemitic groups in America because I don't know much about these particular topics, but given that he can't even remember what a reviewer he's arguing with said long enough to insist that it isn't true, I wouldn't take him as a reliable source. If I need information about, say, Colonia Dignidad, I'm not going to trust anything he says, I'm going to seek out other books or articles on the subject, because Levenda can't keep his facts straight.

In closing, since according to Levenda, Anton LaVey was able to cause the Manson murders by performing a spell, maybe we should just do a spell to rid the world of Nazis.

In this definitive history of Nazi religious/occult thinking, UNHOLY ALLIANCE meticulously traces the roots of this primal evil. Levenda's warnings that the beast is not dead, but sleeping, and likely to wake again, have become tragically accurate since its initial publication. While the author has been at pains to avoid hysteria and paranoia, passage after passage in this brilliantly-researched mix of historical analysis and contemporary investigation is eerily prescient.

This new edition adds an author's update, a small but excellent photo section, and a Foreword by Norman Mailer who reveals his own take on magic and Nazi occult thinking. Sadly, the daily headlines supply so many examples of the dangers of cultic, far-right ideologies that one hopes the author is sketching out notes for a third edition. The darkest instincts of human nature are now everyday images on the TV news. Two misfit high school honor students spend a year planning vengeance on their tormenters and turn an affluent school campus into an abbatoir---on Hitler's birthday. And as the Colorado suburb mourns its dead children, a wave of copycat crimes and threats sweeps America. And as more details surface, we learn that the teenaged killer/suicides of Columbine had hoped to hijack jets and crash them into--yes--the World Trade Center.

We know only too well what is exploding into our headlines. For thoughtful readers who want to understand where and how it began, and continues underground right now, UNHOLY ALLIANCE belongs at the top of any must-read list. The expanded content, the photos, the Norman Mailer essay, and a larger, more readable format all enhance this classic that now more than ever belongs in the library of every reader with a serious interest in world affairs. A disturbing but very worthwhile read.

Although I could go on and on, like the other reviewers, I'll try to keep this short. Peter Levenda did extensive research for this book, and its obvious looking at the bibliography. There was a lot going on in the world before and during WWII, and this book really opened my eyes as to how many significant events were inspired by the occult and superstitions. I always viewed historical texts focused on this particular time frame as very dry and dull, but this book really got down and dirty with the alterior motives behind all the strategy that took place during those years.

This book was NOT an easy read, however... but it was well worth the effort to stay focused. There was no filler material like most books have - each sentence and paragraph was full of information and detail, so if you drift off into thought about what you just read, you'll miss something important.

I just wish I could buy it in hardback.

I picked this book up at a local academic library several years ago and read it in it's entirety.

Since it has been a while, I cannot remember everything about what I read in Levenda's book. But I feel compelled to write a review, because of the rather unfair, juvenile feedback it has been getting from some other reviewers. I feel I am partly to blame for the bad reviews, since a while back, I gave a deservedly negative review to a Margaret Atwood novel, and referred to Mr Levenda's book in that review. Hence the sophomoric reviews from these public high-school propagandized robots who seem to be retaliating.

This book is controversial in that it makes the case that National Socialists (Nazis) were pagans. The standard propaganda line is that Nazis were Christians. That is false. Sure, some genuine Christians fell for Hitler, but the idealogy of the National Socialists was pagan in nature. There's ample evidence of that in the primary literature, if you take the time to investigate. For example "Bevor Hitler Kam" by Sebotttendorf. This is a rare book, there are a handful of copies in existence, and few libraries have it. It was banned by Hitler (and the author executed) because he did not want the German population at large to be aware of their "religion." (Also, he did not want the Germans to know about the rampant homosexual activities going on in party circles but that's another story.) And for whatever reason you may conclude yourself, the propagandists of today do not want you to know about it either.

But you do not even need to go so far as to hunt down rare books. Consider the swastika itself. It is an eastern, pagan symbol for peace (largely replaced today with another pagan symbol which represents peace). You commonly see it in old books, even some popular ones. If you go to India, you might see it in various places. Not a Christian symbol.

Anyway, Levenda's book is a worthwhile read. If you are interested in books about this rather dark chapter of a dark century, check out "Rise & Fall of the 3rd Reich" by Shirer, "Order of the Death's Head" by Heinz Hohne, and "Pink Swastika." (I forget the authors names of the last one.) Flush out all the anti-Christian propaganda you've been spoon fed over the years. Question authority, isn't that what they tell you?

_Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement with the Occult_ by Peter Levenda is a bizarre book on how Nazism was created by right-wing extremist occult secret societies after the First World War. The back cover says the book will appeal to an audience anxious about something great and unseen, beyond morality and our individual perceptions of reality, that is "constricting our existence." This certainly describes me. _Unholy Alliance_ begins with the author's first person narrative of a trip he made to Chile back in the seventies to investigate a rumored Nazi compound known as Colonia Dignidad, which apparently served as a torture center for Pinochet's regime. Levenda's history of occult Nazism begins describing the histories of Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy and Alestier Crowley: the British occultist who founded the OTO (Order of the Eastern Temple) known for his practice of sex-magic. The "volkish" pagan mystic Guido von List and the ex-Cistercian monk Lanz von Leibenfels promoted esoteric metaphysical theories concerning the secret history of the Aryan/Germanic race and the corrupting nature of Christianity and Judaism. The "volkish" paganism they expounded rejected Christianity, the Jews, democracy and modernism. They romanticized the German peasantry and traditional, irrational, cultic beliefs and rituals, and placed an emphasis on the organic unity of the race, (the "volk,") and nation. The mythical Holy Grail was viewed as an Aryan symbol, not the container of Christ's blood, but instead a metaphor for the racially pure blood of the German race. _Ostara_ was a noted occultist publication in this genre and Hitler was among its readers. Following World War I, Germany was a shambles and faced a takeover by socialists and communists. The Thule Society was formed to promote a nationalist reaction against the forces of revolution. The Thule created the German National Socialist Worker's Party/Nazi Party to appeal to a wide working class audience. Hitler, according to Levenda, was a product of the occult societies. _Mein Kampf_ is dedicated to Hitler's mentor, Dietrich Eckhardt, a proto-Nazi poet and mystic. Levenda documents the role that secret societies, astrologers, psychics and assorted mystics played in the Third Reich and the British intelligence service during the war. Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy; Heinrich Himmler, the fuhrer of the SS; Alfred Rosenburg, a Nazi philosopher and Haushaufer, the chief Nazi geo-politician, were all seriously involved in occult theories and doctrines. After the defeat of the Third Reich, the SS, inspired by the memory of Gnosticism, Manicheanism, the Knights Templar, the Cathars, and the Arthurian guardians of the Holy Grail, went underground. Nazism gets credit for being a religiously anti-modern philosophy, but remaining anti-Christian, millenarian, utopian, and romantic in character. Even Charles Manson is mentioned--and it appears that the Sharon Tate murders served some kind of obscure propaganda purpose. Manson, who wanted to provoke a race war and admired Hitler, even carving a swastika on his forehead, ironically tends to reinforce the Nazi image of short, bearded, brown-eyed men ravishing attractive blonde women. Levenda maintains that the Nazis still exercise an influence in the world today from their secret Chilean hideout in the Andes Mountains. He claims that Nazis orchestrated the coup against the leftist Salvador Allede in Chile and funded domestic terrorism in the United States. Although Colonia Dignidad is certainly an odd place, it is questionable that it is a center of gravity for a global Nazi underground conspiracy against democracy, socialism, Jews and non-white races. Levenda also believes that there is evidence for a white conspiracy to destroy the black race through biological warfare and mass murder. The conclusion his "Nazi Occultism Today" chapter pessimistically predicts that if the economy collapses and Americans loose faith in the current political establishment, Nazi-style cults will take over the country, a new Medievalism will prevail, and race and religion will be all that matters. This seems like a possibility, although such scenarios will probably be one where Jews encourage colored races to attack whites like they have been for the past sixty years. The foreword by Norman Mailer is also interesting, apparently to give some credit to this book. _Unholy Alliance_ covers a fascinating subject with good writing but with its sensationalistic, journalistic authorship and spurious claims, it needs to be taken with a large grain of salt.

This book was one of the best read's I have ever had.... The details of Nazism and it's cult roots is right on! The author really did his research well here and I have never seen or read anything else that describes in such detail the Nazi's roots and its influence today. The compound in Chile was an inceredible read also... You learn soooo much from this book and it really makes you think hard about Nazism and it's lingering influence today..

Believe it or not there are many people today that do not know the words Nazi or Hitler. This especially pertains to today's youth. The older generations that remember them or fought against them are dieing out, their oral stories no longer being told. Further still history classes in high school sadly never even make it to WWII, let alone anything past that, that is related to modern history. It doesn't really get any better in scholarly classes and academia in college. Unless you're social studies or history major taking 400 level classes you won't ever truly learn about it in college either. What this in essence means is that the times that today's youth hears the terms Nazi, Hitler, Holocaust, or Genocide will be very rare indeed, let alone to do any sort of study into the area. What does the mean for the future?

Still there are some people that know these terms, and this area of History. Even still within these are people and whole governments that deny that the Holocaust ever ever happened, and that it was never as bad as everyone made it out to be. Worse still you have people that know what happened, believes that the Holocaust happened, and they think it was a good thing, that more of the Jews should have died, that Hitler's ideology was spot on.

If someone does know those terms and a bit about history they are likely to tell you that Hitler was a dictator, and would be world conqueror. They might even tell you that he hated the Jews and wanted them all dead. If they a little bit more about history than the normal person they might even tell you that he thought the Germans were the master race whose fate was predetermined to rule the world. Though very few people will tell you or even know that the Nazi's were an occult group of magi, pagan sorcerers, and devil worshippers.

If you are interested in a very little known aspect of the nazi war machine, which was the occult, then you can look no further than this book "Unholy Alliance". This book details just how all of it came about, the deep seated SS involvment including rituals, and other black magic that the nazi party relied upon. It notes hitlers facination with the occult, and how he may have been a pawn of more sinister forces. The book gives you insight from the early beginnings of occultism in the nazi party and follows its use all throughout the war. This book is suitable for college level research papers that deal with the subject matter. If You want to read a book and gather knowledge about all the aspects of nazi occultism, then this is a book that you should read.