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00:00Hollywood loves an iconic villain and there are none better than Hitler's Nazis but did Indiana
00:12Jones's old enemy really plunder the world for ancient relics as depicted in the famous films
00:18the answer is yes spearheaded by Heinrich Himmler and the SS
00:27epic expeditions were mounted by Nazi scientists they called themselves the on an urba their weapons
00:38lies theft and murder they are Hitler's treasure hunters pagan rituals celebrity clairvoyance and
00:55military strategy guided by astrology it's hard to comprehend how people could have actually thought
01:02there was some value or truth in these thoughts how did the Nazis come to rely on the supernatural
01:08to win the war Himmler wanted to test whether you could use astrology for military purposes from a
01:16legendary crystal skull to celebrity clairvoyant Eric Jan Honewsson and even Himmler's personal
01:24astrologist Wilhelm Wolf how far were they willing to go to feed their occult obsessions
01:32Germany in the 1920s faced with the trauma of war and economic ruin Germans look for ways to rebuild
01:53their broken nation who would have thought a few years later they'd go hunting for mystical treasures and
02:00astrological signs to bolster their horrific regime post World War one there is a real questioning in where
02:11do we go from here among many Germans again the idea is that they had thought going into this war that this was a
02:18moment in which Germany was going to show its strong side and in reality it comes out extremely beaten and
02:27questioning the politics the culture the religious life in many pretty much there's nothing that's not up
02:37for grabs after World War one in terms of where do we go from here
02:45Religion becomes an all or nothing gambit for the masses
02:49Many reaffirm their faith stronger than ever before and that poses a problem for Hitler and his Nazi high command
02:58the Fuhrer should be the only thing worth worshiping in the fatherland they try instead to guide their
03:06people to mythology fables and magical thinking things with questionable backstories that they can control
03:17in a land of Viking legends and fairy tales supernatural thinking offers a comfort blanket steeped in heroism and adventure
03:27you see a resurgence of interest in things like astrology clairvoyance tarot cards spiritualism
03:39it deployed itself in science fiction and fantasy novels h.g wells jules verne h.p lovecraft
03:47you see a kind of public facing esotericism where it starts to come out in the way people think about
03:54politics society health science religion race and space
04:09as germans sought answers in the mystical adolf hitler and his on the nearby treasure hunters
04:15would capitalize on the spiritual crisis
04:19harnessing the appeal of the occult to tap into german pride
04:24i think this is a hallmark of adolf hitler in many different areas he had a far more pragmatic
04:32relationship with many aspects of the occult where he understood that they could be quite useful
04:39i think he was more than willing to play fast and loose with them for very specific ends
04:44but were the nazis true believers in the occult or cynical opportunists
04:52willing to manipulate the supernatural for their own nefarious needs
04:56the truth is a little bit of both deputy fuhrer rudolf hess had a known fascination with astrology
05:08one that would eventually lead to his capture
05:11the world's future hitler himself was once an avid reader of occult magazines that tied theories on race to magic runes and german legend
05:23and heinrich himmler's anna nurba research unit dedicated vast resources to the hunt for a mythical master race
05:33and the exploration of supernatural phenomena
05:38these men dabbled in the mystical but more importantly they recognized it as a means to control the masses
05:46the belief in the occult and mysticism amongst the iron erby reflects that wider trend in nazi ideology
05:54the idea to collect and control as much of human culture as they possibly can it's almost like the nazis
06:02didn't want to risk any of this stuff being true and not having control of it
06:08hitler himmler and the whole cultish anna nurba troupe would bring mysticism into the mainstream of 1930s germany
06:22inspired by two eccentric austrians who had a lasting influence on the 20th century
06:28the first was guido von list an expert in ancient germanic symbols despite being self-taught and prone to
06:45wild claims about the master race von list was quick to embrace the idea that the right symbol could unlock
06:53the secret wisdom of ancient aryans after heinrich schleeman discovered the swastika during the
07:02excavations of the city of troy von list celebrated in 1875 by suggesting they co-opt the swastika
07:12to unite anti-semitic groups under a single banner
07:16if you talk about the austrian occult tradition of guido von list there are lots of austrians and
07:26germans embracing these ideas on the far right and what unites them is that the jews are somehow in
07:32charge of both capitalism and socialism they're using it as a kind of pincer movement to destroy the
07:40hard-working blonde blue-eyed farmer and small businessman so this occult conspiratorial
07:46view of the world is very popular already 30 years later a former monk jorg lans von liebenfels
07:56picks up where von liszt left off preaching a mix of occultism and racial purity that would directly
08:04influence adolf hitler's own beliefs in his self-published ostara magazine von liebenfels
08:13proclaims the aryan race to be the creator and preserver of all science art culture and divine
08:21beauty von liebenfels even argues that eugenic breeding is the spiritual duty of blonde-haired
08:29blue-eyed germans calling his ideas eriosophy meaning wisdom of the arians guido von list and
08:39lans von liebenfels were the kind of joint progenitors of eriosophy which is an occult doctrine
08:46that looked at darwinism and modern biology and science and said this this isn't really enough
08:52this doesn't make me happy i'm gonna combine the theories of darwinism and science and evolution
09:01with hinduism and buddhism and you know eastern spirituality and create a syncretic doctrine
09:08which had different levels of psychic and physical uh kind of superiority
09:16von liebenfels ideas remain on the fringes of a mostly christian nation until he meets with a young
09:23artist named adolf hitler while it isn't clear how much of his radical notions influence hitler
09:31within a decade the future german leader would give full authority to his deputies
09:38to hunt down ancient treasures that could justify his racist crusade
09:43the 1920s and hitler's ascent to power is underway
10:04while the furor stays tight-lipped about his own occult beliefs he keeps a close relationship with men
10:11like rudolph hess a devoted student of astrology alternative medicine and pagan mythology
10:19and a man that hitler would eventually appoint deputy furor
10:32but hitler's most controversial dalliance with the supernatural
10:36is his rumored close relationship with a celebrity clairvoyance a fellow austrian
10:44eric jan hannusen rises to wealth and stardom in 1920s berlin performing mind reading and hypnosis
10:53at venues like the berliner skala theater to audiences that included nazi party members
11:00of the universe despite his jewish background jan hannusen welcomes nazi paramilitary members
11:07called brown shirts into his palace of the occult for seances and personal readings
11:16interesting about hannusen is early on it's a kind of wink wink nudge nudge thing early on
11:22he doesn't really claim that these forces actually exist he's kind of a magician who makes money
11:28by performing when it becomes really really tough to live in germany his popularity gets even greater
11:39in 1932
11:41as germany grapples with financial hardship hitler is introduced to the flamboyant
11:48jan hannusen
11:49so i don't consider this a coincidence to become friendly with a number of nazis especially members
11:56of the berlin stormtroopers once introduced the relationship blooms as jan hannusen's own newspaper
12:04declares that only hitler can return germany to greatness while it's even believed that jan hannusen
12:12coaches hitler in public speaking adding the signature dramatic pauses and bold gestures
12:19that manipulate the emotions of crowds
12:31but the mystical meeting of minds
12:33is short-lived once the nazis take power hannusen becomes a kind of liability between him being jewish
12:45an occultist arrogant a bunch of stormtroopers owing him money and all sorts of other things he's
12:52eventually found dead a few weeks later in a forest in berlin but until that point it's pretty
12:59interesting that this very well-known boulevard occultist was seen as at least nominally a positive
13:07partner in moving the the early third reich or the late nazi party forward
13:15it's no coincidence that hitler's early years in power coincide with his dabbling in the mystical
13:22and the occult it would be only three years after meeting the clairvoyant
13:27jan hannusen that hitler gives himmler the space to pursue his pet project hunting down ancient
13:35treasures and so in 1935 the annanerba was born we see himmler who is trying to find evidence
13:46for all of these fringe scientific beliefs these miracle weapons parapsychology the occult
13:55he's also involved in trying to recreate a heroic history for the ancient aryan race as he sees it
14:05like hitler himmler's passion for the esoteric came from his youth growing up in a family who
14:12cherished the idea of an imaginary heritage
14:15it appears when himmler was younger that his family was very into reading from these ancient
14:27german sagas and these ideas of some mythical heroic past where there were these warrior-like heroes that
14:37lived and that himmler in many ways saw as his ancestors it does seem that that fundamentally colored
14:46how he viewed much of the world during his adult years as well
14:53of all his nazi elite himmler was someone who could spearhead the hunt for mystical powerful objects
15:01not just because himmler was as fervent a believer as him but because himmler's father had already
15:08spent a great deal of his life in this very field he often enjoyed hearing about his father's
15:16archaeological activities not so much for the quote unquote treasures themselves that they were finding
15:22but what they could use them for establishing the onanurba to research his dream of a legendary german
15:29past himmler sets out on a no holds barred exploration of myth magic and the occult
15:42he actually wanted to understand the history behind or mythology behind norse mythology he actually
15:48wanted to test whether you could use astrology or cosmobiology or radiesthesia for military purposes
15:57or scientific purposes he explored the idea that what was known as witchcraft was actually a pagan germanic
16:04religion as a quasi-scientific institute it was the onanurba's task to come up with hard evidence
16:14that would substantiate himmler's wild theories it was a dream come true for a man who had grown up
16:22listening to his father's tales of archaeology a call to adventure long before indiana jones made
16:30archaeology look cool a big part of the appeal especially of the ss i have to say and the onanurba
16:37within that you know kind of organization it's a bit of the sort of a boy's own story you know this is
16:44like every every teenage boy's kind of dream that you get to go and explore you're looking for you
16:49know new civilizations and new worlds and you get to wear a cool uniform while you do it for this little
16:55band of adventurers no treasure however strange was out of bounds
17:01by the late 1930s the full resources of the onanurba are exploring ever stranger lines of inquiry
17:15in a bid to fulfill himmler's aryan odyssey and hitler's hunt for power himmler is also a very efficient
17:24man he employs in his onanurba organization for example over 200 people many of them also believing
17:33in these very to us crazy ideas but at the same time being very efficient and they are able to organize
17:40lots of resources and lots of people to essentially make a variety of projects and a variety of expeditions
17:48of the things that happen research is in full swing as both the legitimate and self-taught academics
17:57scour the globe for physical artifacts and evidence that would either prove aryan master race theories
18:05or at the very least give the nazis the ability to alter history and control culture
18:12enter a young recruit otto huth who's fascinated by 13th century records relating to the spanish canary
18:23islands in the atlantic huth was an archaeologist and he was attempting to prove the aryan dominance
18:33of the world so on the canary islands he was attempting to prove the existence of blonde mummies
18:40which by extension would have proved the existence of arians on those islands before
18:47later settlers or indeed the classical civilizations that reached them it was another example of
18:56a bizarre quest to prove the unprovable
19:02huth zeroes in on the canary islands because of one innocuous historical account from spanish settlers
19:10who spoke of the indigenous guanche population having pale skin and blonde hair
19:18excitedly he concludes these nordic features mean the guanche must be descended from ancient aryans
19:27it's an absurdly long bow to draw but so was the master race theory in the first place
19:33he intends to take this expedition to the canary islands because he again wants to find evidence for
19:42this sort of ancient aryan culture that's went there that was largely undisturbed in his mind until
19:50around the 15th century and one of the best pieces of evidence for this that he finds are these allegedly
19:57blonde mummies already excited there was another piece of information that would elevate the theory
20:07from oddball to a cult because the guanche embalmed their dead hooth believed there could still be
20:16physical evidence on the canaries of blonde-haired aryan mummies
20:23sensing opportunity hooth presents himmler with an audacious proposal
20:29for an expedition to seek out evidence of the mummified master race
20:34the bold mission is planned for the autumn of 1939 but just as summer ends modern history intervenes
20:49when hitler lashed out at poland in 1939 the german people followed him into war without regrets
20:55after the invasion of poland spain declares neutrality denying the onanerba permission to visit the canaries
21:06hooth's occult expedition is scuppered by the advent of war now of course the mummies are blonde because
21:13their hair has largely been bleached and this was something that was known more generally at the time
21:18and brought up yet otto hooth largely chooses to ignore that the whole saga nevertheless reveals the
21:26absolute magnet that himmler's onanerba was to crackpots and geniuses alike drawing anyone they could
21:35into their orbit of treasure hunting schemes this is an example of an otherwise serious academic
21:47who with the rise of the nazis was forced to adopt the rhetoric the language of the nazi party while
21:57hooth's occult ideas were curtailed by conflict magical thinking was about to play a key role
22:05in a series of military episodes that could decide the war
22:16as world war ii began strategic military decisions would come to be guided not just by nazi generals
22:26but also by the stars and the mystical power of astrology
22:38astrology kind of made a comeback as this kind of
22:41everyday way of of getting insights into the universe and one's personal kind of psychology
22:49the scary thing about the third reich is not that there were a bunch of people susceptible to
22:54astrology or who read their horoscopes every day it's that a number of people in the party seem to
23:00actually think it mattered nazi fascination with astrology was spearheaded by a mystical vanguard in the
23:08shape of an ambitious swiss astrologer named carl ernst craft determined to modernize occult ideas to match
23:17the changing times craft set out to reinvent the age-old superstition as science
23:24the changing times craft carl ernst crafter was a young astrologer in the 1930s who like a number of
23:36so-called scientific occultists saw themselves as exploring new frontiers or going beyond the borders
23:43of mainstream science, materialist science,
23:46and looking at what's really going on
23:48in terms of hidden energies,
23:52in terms of spirituality, clairvoyance.
23:57By mixing mathematics with statistics
24:00and the supernatural,
24:03Kraft claimed to have created his own brand
24:06of methodical prophecy.
24:08He believed it was a roadmap to seeing the future.
24:13A chance prediction against Hitler's life
24:17would garner him a reputation as one who could be trusted,
24:22no matter how outlandish his so-called science seemed.
24:30The Beer Hall Putsch of November 8, 1923,
24:35was a failed coup led by Hitler
24:38against the Weimar government,
24:40sparking street battles with police
24:43in the heart of Munich.
24:45The uprising led to the deaths of 15 party members,
24:49while Hitler was sentenced to five years
24:52in Landsberg prison
24:53for his part in rousing the usurpers.
24:57He served just eight months.
24:59The violent revolt became the stuff of Nazi folklore,
25:04with Hitler leading annual pilgrimages
25:06to the Bavarian capital once he took power.
25:11On the 16th anniversary of the failed coup, however,
25:15Hitler instead became the target,
25:18as a bomb exploded just minutes
25:20after he had addressed the party,
25:23killing eight and wounding 63.
25:25In the aftermath, a senior Nazi revealed
25:29that Karl Ernst Kraft had sent a letter one week earlier.
25:34It warned that Hitler's life would be in danger
25:37between November 7th and 10th.
25:40So Kraft ends up supposedly predicting
25:44an attack on Hitler's life.
25:47That's why Kraft is important.
25:48He's both an insider
25:50in this kind of new scientific community
25:53that's developing
25:54of serious occultists, scientific occultists,
25:57even as the Third Reich cracks down
26:00on so-called popular occultism.
26:02And he has a lot of influence
26:03in the kinds of projects they take on.
26:05So was Kraft involved in the plot?
26:11Or had the methodical mystic
26:13genuinely predicted events
26:15using his pseudoscientific powers of prophecy?
26:19As a longtime Nazi supporter,
26:23Kraft is quickly cleared of any involvement.
26:26But the mystery behind his foresight
26:29soon reaches Hitler's propaganda minister,
26:32Joseph Goebbels,
26:34who senses an opportunity
26:35to harness Kraft's shamanic reputation
26:38and turn it into a weapon.
26:42Goebbels ends up hiring him
26:44because he wants to have really good astrologers,
26:47scientific astrologers,
26:48helping him interpret Nostradamus' prophecies
26:52so he can then manipulate those prophecies
26:54both to manage domestic and foreign propaganda.
26:59Nostradamus is history's most famous astrologer.
27:04Goebbels was already a fan,
27:07quoting him several times.
27:09Now, the Nazi propaganda minister
27:12sees an opportunity to use astrology
27:15to strike a military victory.
27:18Goebbels believes the real treasure
27:20is the human mind.
27:23If he can influence not just the Germans,
27:26but their enemies,
27:27through propaganda and pseudoscience,
27:31then maybe the battle is already won.
27:35He believes if he can have thousands of pamphlets
27:39that Kraft and Kritzinger
27:40and these other people write
27:42about how Hitler is really the Germanic hero
27:47that Nostradamus points to
27:49who's going to take over the low countries,
27:51then maybe the Belgians and the Dutch
27:53will just surrender.
27:58As the Nazi troops advance,
28:01Kraft cooperates,
28:03authoring his own interpretation
28:05of the Nostradamus' prophecies,
28:08confirming an inevitable Nazi victory.
28:12Kraft managed to weasel his way
28:14into some early success,
28:15but like many of the occultists
28:18and treasure hunters under their purview,
28:21his influence with the Nazis
28:23didn't always work in his favor.
28:25In 1941,
28:37only Hitler himself outranks Rudolf Hess,
28:41the deputy Führer.
28:42Hess holds a deep belief
28:44in esoteric and occult ideas.
28:48As Hitler's aggressive expansion plans
28:50threaten German security,
28:53Hess becomes concerned,
28:54hatching a bizarre plan
28:56to save the Reich.
28:58Hess really worried about the fact
29:00that Hitler was about to expand the war
29:02into a massive two-front war,
29:05including this attack on the Soviet Union.
29:10So his hope is that he would somehow
29:13both save Germany
29:14and get back in Hitler's good graces
29:17by flying to Britain,
29:19negotiating on behalf of the Third Reich
29:21with the British,
29:23somehow convince them to do
29:24what Hitler and no one else
29:26had convinced them to do,
29:27which is to sign a peace
29:28with the Third Reich.
29:32Already a devoted fan of astrology,
29:35Hess turns to the Nazis'
29:36new favorite fortune teller,
29:39Karl Kraft.
29:40It reveals that on the moon
29:42of May 10th, 1941,
29:45six planets will align
29:47in the sign of Taurus.
29:48seizing the auspicious timing,
29:51Hess lifts off from Augsburg airfield,
29:54flying solo towards the coast of Scotland
29:57in pursuit of the ultimate treasure,
30:00a peace treaty between the British
30:02and the Third Reich.
30:05Under cover of darkness,
30:06he evades interception
30:08before eventually running out of fuel
30:10close to Glasgow.
30:12In the most bizarre and astounding event
30:14of the war so far,
30:16Rudolf Hess,
30:17number three Nazi,
30:18is now a prisoner in Scotland
30:20after a mysterious solo flight
30:22from Germany.
30:23Unarmed,
30:24he was captured by a farmer
30:25after bailing out
30:26when his gas supply ran low.
30:28Hess parachutes to the ground,
30:30not far from his intended destination,
30:33Dungavelhaus,
30:35home to the Duke of Hamilton.
30:38Hess believes the Duke,
30:40a fellow aviator,
30:42will help to secretly negotiate peace
30:44between Britain and Germany.
30:47Before he can reach the Duke,
30:48Hess is captured
30:49and becomes a prisoner of war.
30:53After the Nuremberg trials,
30:55Hess will spend the rest of his life
30:57in prison.
31:01As the war turned against Germany,
31:04Nazi occultists were about to begin
31:07a hunt for their greatest treasure yet.
31:10Not an object,
31:12but a man.
31:19It's 1943,
31:21and the Axis powers of Germany and Italy
31:24face wave upon wave of Allied attacks.
31:29As Italian morale crumbles,
31:32a coup sees fascist leader Benito Mussolini
31:35deposed and arrested.
31:37The first dictator is knocked out,
31:40and Italy,
31:41even under martial law,
31:42hears il Duce's fall.
31:44For Hitler,
31:45it spells disaster.
31:48Without Mussolini,
31:49he fears Italy will surrender to the Allies,
31:53leaving Germany vulnerable.
31:54After the Allies invade Sicily
32:00and move up into Italy,
32:02Mussolini is overthrown by his own people
32:04and captured and put on some island
32:07in the Mediterranean.
32:08At which point,
32:09Hitler decides,
32:11we've got to rescue Mussolini.
32:16The treasure hunt begins.
32:20Mussolini's location
32:21is a closely guarded secret.
32:24When Nazi intelligence
32:25provides zero leads,
32:28Heinrich Himmler
32:28offers up a radical idea.
32:32He sequesters a crack unit of occultists
32:34led by his personal astrologer,
32:38Wilhelm Wulff.
32:38Using the stars,
32:41pendulum dousing,
32:43psychic reading,
32:44and the generous hospitality
32:45of the Nazi party,
32:47the unit searches
32:48for signs of Mussolini
32:49on the astral plane
32:52of all places.
32:54This is Operation Mars,
32:55and they're put to work,
32:56and of course,
32:57it was very costly.
32:58They kept saying
32:59they needed really good food
33:00and wine and cigars
33:02and cigarettes,
33:03so he has to ply all of them
33:05with all this stuff.
33:06And somehow or another,
33:09there is some kind of intelligence
33:13that comes through
33:14that predicts Mussolini
33:16being in one of these islands
33:18in the Mediterranean.
33:20Wulff and a pendulum master
33:22divine that Mussolini
33:24is being held
33:25on the island of Ponsa,
33:27just off the coast of Naples.
33:29But when it came to swinging
33:31a pendulum over a map
33:33to find a deposed Italian dictator,
33:36even the cultish Himmler
33:37had reservations.
33:39Until, shockingly,
33:42the information is confirmed
33:43to be accurate.
33:45Wilhelm Wulff does such a great job
33:47in helping to find Mussolini,
33:49he becomes Himmler's personal astrologer,
33:52and it does turn out
33:53he's in one of those islands.
33:55What's unclear to me
33:56is did someone
33:57in the intelligence service
33:59feed this to one of the occultists
34:01to make Himmler feel good,
34:03alerts one of the many occultists
34:05showing up every day
34:06with their cigarettes
34:07and their alcohol,
34:09and they then say,
34:09oh, we found it,
34:10it's in this island,
34:12you know,
34:12with their pendulum dousing, right?
34:14Whatever the source
34:17of the occultists' insight,
34:19before a rescue mission
34:20can be mounted,
34:22a fresh intercept
34:23by German intelligence
34:24updates the dictator's location.
34:28Using the new intel,
34:30Hitler dispatches
34:31an audacious rescue mission.
34:34A team of commandos
34:35use military gliders
34:37to silently land
34:39on the high mountain plateau,
34:41extracting Mussolini
34:43to safety.
34:44Benito Mussolini,
34:46fallen star of fascism,
34:47is liberated by
34:48Hitler's parachutists,
34:50shown in these
34:51captured German films.
34:53It's a huge propaganda victory
34:56for the German military,
34:58and remarkably,
34:59one of the only
35:00successful treasure hunts
35:01Hitler and Himmler
35:03ever managed to pull off.
35:05In contrast,
35:07there was no amount
35:08of magical thinking
35:10that could aid the Anunerba
35:12when it came to
35:13one of their most
35:14bumbling hunts
35:15for a cultish treasure
35:17so strange,
35:19even the fourth
35:20Indiana Jones film
35:21couldn't make it seem believable.
35:25The Crystal Skull.
35:26In what has gone down
35:34as the weirdest
35:35and most fantastical
35:37of the Indiana Jones adventures,
35:39we see him on the hunt
35:41for an extraterrestrial
35:43crystal skull.
35:45It's remarkable, then,
35:46that this particular tale
35:48is actually rooted in fact.
35:50The Crystal Skull,
35:53made famous
35:54in the Indiana Jones film
35:56of the same name,
35:58is actually real.
36:02There are
36:02archaeologically attested
36:04crystal skulls.
36:05The legend of the crystal skull
36:14was magnetic.
36:15The saga begins
36:16with English adventurer
36:18Frederick Albert Mitchell Hedges.
36:24In the early 20th century,
36:27Mitchell Hedges hacks his way
36:28through the dense jungles
36:30of Belize,
36:31seeking lost Mayan cities.
36:33After uncovering
36:36the ancient ruins
36:37of Lubantin,
36:39Hedges' 17-year-old daughter Anna
36:41spots a glimmer of light.
36:44Crawling inside
36:45a collapsed temple,
36:46she discovers
36:47a perfect crystal skull.
36:51A decade later,
36:52a magazine article
36:53on the skull
36:54attracts the attention
36:55of a Nazi officer
36:57with a deep interest
36:58in the occult.
37:00He is Heinrich Himmler's
37:02spiritual advisor.
37:04Carl Maria Williguth,
37:07he's one of these
37:08pre-war occultists
37:11who considers himself
37:13something of an academic
37:14without formal training
37:16because he reads a lot
37:18of mythology
37:19and practices
37:20Germanic runes
37:21and worships
37:23Nordic mythology.
37:24An occultist after Himmler's
37:28own heart,
37:30Williguth uses his knowledge
37:31of pseudoscientific mythology
37:33to exert a level of influence
37:36over the spiritual research
37:38of the Anna Nerva.
37:40That makes him very interesting
37:42to Himmler
37:44who eventually starts
37:45giving him some money
37:47and having him
37:48give him advice
37:49on making SS daggers
37:51and rings
37:52and talking about
37:53ancient origins
37:54of the Aryan race.
37:57Himmler is convinced
37:59by Williguth
37:59that the crystal skull
38:01must have originated
38:02on a very specific
38:04lost continent,
38:05one that has dogged
38:07the Anna Nerva treasure hunters
38:09for years.
38:14The Lost City of Atlantis
38:17Atlantis was always
38:19a Rosetta Stone
38:21for Hitler, Himmler
38:22and their treasure hunters.
38:25Forever in pursuit
38:26of an ancient Aryan race
38:28that civilized the world,
38:30they felt that Atlantis,
38:32one of the greatest
38:33lost treasures in history,
38:35was actually home
38:37to these Nordic heroes.
38:40If they could prove as much,
38:42they could justify their war,
38:44not because they were
38:45conquering the world,
38:47but rather reclaiming
38:49what was once theirs.
38:51They think that there are
38:53these ancient Aryans
38:55who some believe
38:57that they originate
38:58in sort of an Atlantis-like island
39:01that was in the Atlantic somewhere,
39:03but there is this idea
39:05that they slowly but surely
39:08eventually spread
39:09to various parts in the world.
39:12Thrilled by the chance
39:14to prove his exotic origin theory,
39:17Himmler dispatches
39:18an Anna Nerva research team
39:20on a secret expedition
39:22to Brazil.
39:24their mission,
39:27to steal the crystal skull
39:30from the vaults
39:31of a tightly guarded museum.
39:37The treasure hunt
39:39reflects the ongoing mission statement
39:41of Himmler
39:42and his Anna Nerva.
39:44Himmler's interest
39:46in crystal skulls
39:48can more simply be explained
39:49as part of the Nazi desire
39:52to collect,
39:53to steal,
39:54to hoard
39:54other people's cultural treasures.
39:58While many of the Anna Nerva
40:00treasure hunts
40:01end in failure
40:02due to lack of evidence
40:04or critical understanding,
40:06the hunt for the crystal skull
40:09is perhaps their most
40:10embarrassing adventure.
40:13Despite the high espionage billing,
40:17Himmler's crack team
40:18is arrested by local authorities
40:20long before they get anywhere
40:23near the museum.
40:25It's a comical end
40:26to a cartoonish quest.
40:32One that would make
40:33the likes of Indiana Jones
40:35and his rival Nazis
40:37hang their heads in shame.
40:41Despite their failures,
40:43the appeal of the crystal skull
40:44remains a snapshot
40:46of Nazi faith
40:47in the power
40:49of the supernatural.
40:52The crystal skull
40:53shows us the Nazi fascination
40:55with the mystical
40:56and the occult,
40:59both as a means
41:00to create their own
41:02myths and ideologies
41:04of Aryan supremacy,
41:05but also as a strange fascination
41:08with the unusual,
41:12the pseudoscientific,
41:14the potentially alien.
41:15As the war came to a climax,
41:20no amount of magical thinking,
41:23astrological predictions,
41:25or crystal skulls
41:26could have saved Hitler
41:28and his Nazi regime
41:30from blood and ruin.
41:35As the Russians weep on,
41:46Germany sees certain doom
41:48on two fronts.
41:48As their empire collapses
41:50around them,
41:52the Nazis' exotic obsessions
41:53are finally exposed
41:55for what they were,
41:56the fantasies of dictators
41:58and zealots
41:59that were pursued
42:01in the hopes
42:01a treasure here
42:03or occult there
42:04would give them
42:05the power
42:06to control the masses
42:07and subdue their enemies.
42:10One million Germans
42:11are in flight
42:12as the smoke of defeat
42:14clouds all Germany.
42:16But while Nazi occult ideas
42:19were consigned
42:20to history,
42:21their influence
42:23lives on.
42:24I think it is very easy
42:26for us to say,
42:27look at the Nazis.
42:28They believed
42:29in these crackpot theories
42:31and to just sort of,
42:32you know,
42:32almost set them aside
42:34and say,
42:34they're nothing like us.
42:36But I think
42:37the real question
42:38that we need
42:39to ask ourselves
42:40is,
42:41how easy is it
42:43for us
42:43to become like them?
42:45The people
42:47at that time
42:48and today
42:48who are most obsessed
42:50are precisely
42:52the people
42:52most prone
42:54to anti-democratic
42:55and unscientific thinking
42:57now.
42:57And that's what makes
42:58Nazism so frightening.
43:20So,
43:22you know,
43:24we'll see you
43:24in a second.
43:26Amen.
43:27We'll see you
43:29next time.
43:29We'll see you
43:30next time.
43:31See you next time.
43:36Bye.
43:42Bye.
43:46Bye.
43:47Bye.
43:48Bye.
43:49Bye.
43:49Bye.
43:50Transcription by CastingWords
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