Weekly Notes: Ahnenerbe

(German Society for the Study of Ancient Germanic History and Ancestral Heritage)

The esoteric society of Thule, which arose at the beginning of the 20th century, named after the mythical northern country from ancient Greek legends mentioned by Virgil in the Aeneid, was located in the Far North, according to ancient geographers. Founded by Rudolf von Sebottendorff, the society, named after the far northern part of Thule (Ultima Thule), most likely Scandinavia, served as the basis for the Nazi mystics to establish the Ahnenerbe. In addition to Thule's mythological legacy, the society was based on the ideas of the German religious philosopher and occultist Friedrich Hielscher (1902–1990), who served as deputy general secretary and first head of the Ahnenerbe, ethnologist and mystic Hermann Wirth. Initially, the main task of the Ancestral Heritage (Ahnenerbe) was "scientific proof of the theory of the racial superiority of the Germans through historical, ethnological, anthropological and archaeological research."

The Dutch-German scientist Hermann Wirth, who wrote the book "The Origin of Mankind", was the ideological inspirer and the first leader of the Ahnenerbe. Wirth, who studied philosophy, German studies, history and theory of music in Utrecht and Leipzig, co-authored with the ethnographer John Meier a scientific work "The Degradation of Dutch Folk Songs". As a supporter of Pan-Germanism, he literally idealized nationalist ideas, surrounding them with a halo of romanticism. Unlike most of his nationalist contemporaries, Wirth tried to give the German heritage a scientific basis, considering "cosmopolitanization to be responsible for the oblivion of folk songs, which led to the tragic collapse of Dutch culture." He sincerely believed in the existence of a monotheistic religion in the ancient world, which served as "the basis for the existence of the Nordic race" and sought to revive it.

In his book, Wirth wrote of "two struggling proto races standing at the origins of humanity: the Nordic race, the 'spiritual race of the North,' and the 'race of the South,' the baser instincts represented by the inhabitants of the ancient continent of Gondwana." The emergence of "aliens from the South," called "objects" by Wirth, in the south of Gondwana, known as "the land of night, chaos, wild instincts, unbridled emotions, and primitive beliefs that insult true religion," coincided with the appearance of "real people in the North, in the land of the Sun, reason, order, balanced instincts, and true faith" on the vast island or even continent of Arctogea. According to Wirth, the cause of "destructive processes in Nordic society was racial mixing with dumb and primitive beast-like southern creatures." Regardless of critical academics, Wirth's teachings served as the basis for the idea for Ancestral Heritage. A certain influence on the theory of the "Aryan race" was exerted by the teaching of Helena Blavatsky, who wrote about the existence of higher and lower races in The Secret Doctrine.

The Ahnenerbe, which was engaged in the study of "the spirit, deeds, traditions, distinctive features and heritage of the Indo-Germanic Nordic race," was charged with popularizing the results of research in a form "accessible and interesting to the broad masses of the people." The German professor and writer Johann von Leers (1902–1965), who first worked for Joseph Goebbels, then under the Perón government in Argentina, then in Egypt with Nasser, introduced Wirth to the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. As a result, in 1935, a historical exhibition “The Heritage of German Ancestors" organized by Wirth was opened in Munich, promoting the "Hyperborean" ideology of the heritage of the Aryans. Struck by the "visual evidence of the superiority of the Nordic race, especially in the form of ancient runic letters," Himmler declared the exhibition mandatory for members of the SS, Hitler Youth, women's and student organizations. It was Himmler's fascination that led to the use of the well-known runic symbols "Sieg", which formed the name SS. The Reichsführer asserted: "The death's head, the swastika and the Hagal rune are symbols of unshakable confidence in the final victory of our philosophy."

Friedrich Johannes Hielscher (1902–1990), a German religious philosopher, occultist, and leading collaborator of the Ahnenerbe, who worked on the "recreation of the ancient Germanic worldview," was in close contact with the German geopolitician Karl Haushofer (1869–1946), a professor at the University of Munich and head of the geopolitical school of German fascism, who headed a number of scientific and political organizations. At that time, Haushofer's assistant was the German politician and leading member of the NSDAP, Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß) (1894–1987), who was appointed Adolf Hitler's deputy in 1933. From the early 1920s, Hess, who served his sentence with Hitler in the comfortable, sanatorium conditions of the Landsberg prison, was part of the circle of the Fuhrer's closest associates. The director of Landsberg Prison, Otto Leibold, who was known as an ideological National Socialist, allowed prisoners who had formed a kind of military club (Emil Maurice, Hermann Kriebel, Friedrich Weber, and others) to gather together, talk, smoke, and play cards. They were allowed to play sports in the prison yard, grow vegetables in the prison garden, and receive visitors at any time bringing a variety of food, wine, and flowers. For three hours a day, classes on geopolitics with Hitler and Hess were conducted by Haushofer, who regularly visited the prison on Wednesdays and left educational literature, including his own writings and the Journal of Geopolitics.

Nevertheless, Hess preferred to become Hitler's personal secretary and having chosen a political career, parted ways with the university. Soon he became indispensable, creating the prototype of the party chancellery, which accumulated information in the NSDAP. As personal secretary, Hess replaced Hitler at work meetings and conferences, received visitors, went on business trips and even negotiated on his behalf. Having purchased a private plane, Hess often flew to Berlin on business and soon became an experienced pilot, took part in sports competitions. At his wedding to Ilse Prehl, which took place in December 1927 at the villa of the publisher Hugo Bruckmann, Hitler and Haushofer acted as witnesses, they sent the young couple on a honeymoon trip to Switzerland.

At a meeting of the Reichstag held on September 1, 1939, the Fuehrer appointed Hess as his second successor after Goering. Since Hitler considered allied relations with Great Britain to be the primary task of foreign policy, he repeatedly discussed with Hess the possibility of concluding a treaty on the division of spheres of influence. Providing for Germany a dominant position in Europe, with the return of all German colonies, while Britain, having lost the status of a European power, would continue to rule the rest of the world, because according to racial theory, the British were recognized as an ethnic group related to the "Aryan" people. Thus, May 10, 1941, was the last day in the brilliant career of Rudolf Hess. His sensational flight to Great Britain gave rise to one of the main historical mysteries of the 20th century. Archival documents related to Hess's stay in the UK remained classified until 2017, nonetheless, the official version of events is also questionable. It was Hess who introduced the philosopher Haushofer to the Reichsführer SS Himmler, who was concerned with "the idea of conquering Lebensraum for the Nordic race."

The alliance with the Reichsführer SS gave Wirth's "German Society for the Study of Ancient Forces and Mysticism" an official status that promised a substantial budget. The professor began to implement projects on the history of the ancient Germans, fully providing the Ahnenerbe Institute, created on July 1, 1935, with scientific personnel working in the field of "localization of the spirit, deeds, heritage of the Indo-Germanic race and popularization of research results in an accessible and interesting form for the general public, with constant observance of scientific methods and reliability of facts." Having found an influential ally in Himmler, the odious historian began to develop a scientific concept corresponding to the dogmas of National Socialism.

Hitler, who did not share Himmler's position regarding Wirth and the Ahnenerbe, openly declared the following at a meeting of the NSDAP held in September 1936: "We have nothing in common with those people who understand nationalism only as a collection of legends and myths and as a result replace it with vague phrases of Nordic content, conducting research based on the mythical culture of the Atlanteans." The Reichsführer SS, seeking to "liberate Germany from Catholicism, replacing religion with a new ideology," in 1937 skillfully used the Führer's dissatisfaction with Wirth to remove the historian from the leadership of the Ahnenerbe, since "Wirth's idea of the origin of the Aryans from the Atlanteans turned out to be untenable." Himmler became president and commissioner of the Ancestral Heritage, entrusting the role of liaison between men of science and the Reichsführer SS, one of the ideologists of the racial policy of the Third Reich, Wolfram Sievers, who served as General Secretary of the Ahnenerbe from 1935 to 1945. In 1947, Sievers, thanks to his own detailed diary, was found guilty of medical crimes in wartime and in 1948 executed by hanging.

Himmler personally sanctioned the organization's most important projects, including the Ahnenerbe in the Concentration Camp Inspectorate as a department. In this way, he integrated the Ahnenerbe, which had 50 research institutes, into the SS system, including all the leaders of the society in his personal staff. The post of president of the Ahnenerbe during Nazi Germany was held by SS-Oberführer and part-time rector of the University of Munich from 1941 to 1945, who taught Sanskrit, Walther Wüst, who was considered a major specialist in ancient sacred texts. Since the merger of the society with the SS, it has become mandatory to teach every member of the SS the Edda epic and the reading of runes. To give the ideology of Nazism the appearance of independence of judgment, archaeologists, ethnographers, philologists and historians worked for Himmler, developing special ideological programs and making propaganda films.

In addition to studying ancient Germanic history, which intricately combined the natural sciences with romanticism, confirming the superiority of the Indo-Germanic race, Himmler was primarily interested in the legendary Atlantis. By the way, it should be noted that the term "Aryans" was not used in the official documentation of the Third Reich, despite the unconditional implementation of the order to ensure the "racial theory". In the second half of the 1930s, the Ahnenerbe, trying to find artifacts of the ancient power of the Germanic race, sent several research expeditions to Karelia, Scandinavia, Tibet, the Middle East and even Antarctica. Solid funding attracted first-class scientists to the research of the Ahnenerbe, who achieved certain results.

The study of ancient German culture, which contributed to the political success of von List's ideas, was distributed by the Ahnenerbe staff among the soldiers of the Sonderkommandos and the guards of the concentration camps for the "scientific justification of the total destruction of the enemies of the Thousand Year Reich." One of the world's best experts on Gothic and Viking cultures was the German historian and archaeologist, the head of the Ahnenerbe, SS Obersturmbannführer Dr. Herbert Jankuhn (1905–1990), who asserted the "ruthlessness of the ancient Germans, who drowned traitors, homosexuals and apostates in the swamps." Arrested in 1945, Jankuhn was released in 1948 and led the next excavations, then from 1952 devoting himself to the path of a university professor, he became a member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. In 1980, he received the title of honorary member of the International Union of Slavic Archaeology (Union international d’archéologie Slave) and became a member of the Board of Trustees of the New School magazine (Nouvelle École), published by the Scientific Research Group of European Civilization (Groupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne). These are the weird paths of European civilization.

The headquarters of the Ahnenerbe was the Wewelsburg Castle, built on the territory of an ancient cemetery, which became a temple of the Nazi religion, which was a mixture of belief in Nordic gods, solar cults and theories about the uniqueness of the Germanic race. For the first time, the castle, erected by order of Duce Dietrich von Fürstenberg on the land of the northern Rhine, is mentioned in historical documents for 1603. Located on a hill in the ancient Teutoburg Forest, the castle is a triangular fortress bounded by three strong, stone walls with many defensive towers. Inside Wewelsburg, in addition to the King Arthur Hall, there are other rooms, each with its own mystical history. One of the most significant was the North Tower, intended for the funeral of SS leaders, who were burned on funeral pyres according to ancient convention. The ashes were kept in a hall with a domed vault supported by twelve columns, called the "Stone Font". In the crypt, which has an acoustic phenomenon, an eternal flame burned, and occult rituals were performed. This effect greatly contributed to the ideological indoctrination of SS officers, for the reason that the phrase whispered in the center of the crypt echoed throughout the room.

With the outbreak of the war, Ahnenerbe employees began to spread ideas of racial superiority to people, using prisoners in death camps as experimental material. For example, the Swiss-German anthropologist and anatomist, SS Hauptsturmführer, head of the SS Anatomical Institute in Strasbourg, August Hirt, being the head of the medical programs of the Ahnenerbe, alcoholized the bodies and collected skulls and skeletons of people of different nationalities. After all, in addition to the knowledge that contributed to the creation of the latest developments in aircraft engineering and weapons, such as the creation of the world's first long-range ballistic missile, the V-2, the organization was engaged in projects of "Aryanization" of conquered territories, conducting research on prisoners. After the submission of Nazi Germany, the activities of the Ahnenerbe were considered by the Nuremberg Tribunal, but very few were punished. For example, Hirt committed suicide after presenting evidence in the form of a collection of skulls, while Wirth, who was removed by Himmler from the leadership of the Ahnenerbe, like many other defendants, escaped repression and successfully continued his scientific activities.

The educational and research departments of the Ahnenerbe showed interest in museum exhibits of the occupied countries, appropriating certain displays, especially those related to ancient German history. According to Himmler's decision, after the occupation and plundering of the Crimea in 1942, it was planned to carry out the "Aryanization" of the peninsula in 20 years, sowing its territory with oaks and beeches, "in order to make the local nature similar to the Germanic one." Regardless of the general fascination of the entire Nazi leadership with "parapsychology, esotericism and occultism necessary for the conquest of the world", the ancient mythology fascinated the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, who oversaw almost all secret projects of the Third Reich.

Himmler sincerely believed in reincarnation and "personally communicated with the spirits of outstanding people of the past, considering himself the embodiment of King Arthur of the Britons and the late monarch Henry I." Quite naturally, Himmler became the head of the organization that studies the historical heritage of the Germans, based on numerous data from world expeditions that extract magical and occult artifacts as evidence of the chosenness of the Aryan race. The Ahnenerbe was quite seriously engaged in the search for the legendary biblical vessel of the Holy Grail, "giving its owner power over the whole world." According to the ancient German myth, "the Grail comes to the surface of the earth every 700 years", therefore, in accordance with the calculations of the Reichsführer, on March 16, 1944, an expedition led by Alfred Rosenberg went to the habitat of the Cathars, who are considered the keepers of the relic according to legend, the castle of Montsegur in the Pyrenees. The Ahnenerbe's envoys set up an acrobatic display with the symbol of the Celtic cross over the castle, then the pilot, who could have been Otto Skorzeny or Rahn, flew off towards Toulouse. Thus, on March 16, 1944, the inhabitants of the Montsegur district honored the memory of the 700th anniversary of the massacre of the Cathars, who were burned in 1244 by order of the pope.

In accordance with the tasks of the secret information service specially created by Himmler, which dealt with the "field of the supernatural", the search for the Holy Grail led to the south of France, to Mount Montsegur, known as "the last stronghold of the Cathars". The leader of the expedition was SS Sturmbannführer Otto Rahn (1904-1939), who wrote a lot about the relic and was absolutely sure of its reality, and who died under very mysterious circumstances. Negotiations on the organization of the expedition were handled by Otto Skorzeny, who promised to take out the relic and assured Himmler, who arrived in the Pyrenees on this occasion, of the success of the operation. In 1943-1944, German geologists, historians and ethnologists were indeed engaged in excavations at Montsegur. This information is detailed in the book "The Desecrated Abbey", published in February 2007, written by Montserrat Rico Góngora. The co-founder and head of the SS and the Gestapo was indeed in Spain on a secret mission related to the search for the Grail. The author presented an interview with the former monk André Ripoll Noble, who knew German and served as Himmler's guide who visited local castles, including Cuermanco, during his visit in 1940. There is also a photograph of Himmler standing against the backdrop of the ruins of the building with SS officer Otto Rahn, who lived in the south of France.

However, Himmler's activities extended to any research if the results could be useful to the Reich. The most exotic project of Himmler, who supervised the Tier-Sprechschule ASRA dog school founded in 1930 near Hanover, was a project to train dogs "with the aim of developing telepathic communication between dog and man." The training school organized by Margarete Schmitt in her own home in Leutenburg and existing until the end of the war received "the most gifted samples collected from all over Germany." There is documentary evidence confirming the fact that Hitler personally invested in the construction of a training school, because he sought to replace the guards in the concentration camps with dogs. The dogs did not have to work independently as supervisors, but during the existence of the special school, it was possible to achieve perfect training of service dogs.

The German historian Helmut Werner described Hitler's fascination with the most ancient occupation of magicians and occultists - alchemy. Initially, Himmler, inspired by the promises of Heinrich Courschildgen, tried to implement the idea of turning water into gasoline. Conversely, pretty soon, the disappointed Reichsführer SS sent the would-be sorcerer to a concentration camp. Despite the unsuccessful previous experience, Himmler again decided to believe Karl Malchus, who promised to get gold with the help of stones, paraffin and sand from the bottom of the Isar River in Munich. The Reich certainly needed the precious metal; besides, small gold nuggets were indeed found at the bottom of the Bavarian rivers, and Malchus guaranteed the receipt of the precious metal in unlimited quantities. On the territory of the Dachau concentration camp, a secret alchemical laboratory was organized for Malchus's employees. The laboratory staff was thoroughly searched for the presence of valuable metal, but Malchus managed to smuggle cigarettes into the camp, with grains of gold hidden in them. For several weeks, the fake alchemist showed Himmler the gold extracted from cigarettes, passing it off as the result of laboratory experiments. Subsequently, Malchus joined the prisoners of Dachau, but soon managed to be released.

Thus, in addition to the widely publicized initial activities of the Ahnenerbe, which consisted in the study of the origin of the German nation, along with incredible fantastic projects, the society, having entered the "racially pure, elite ranks of the SS" on January 1, 1939, received a new status and another task to conduct "scientific research", consisting in experiments on prisoners in concentration camps. With the outbreak of war, the "study of ancient German culture" gave way to new projects supervised by the SS structure. The Ahnenerbe Society turned into a criminal organization, led by people like SS Sturmbannführer Dr. Hirt and others, engaged in terrible medical experiments on humans.

Many people know the sinister inhuman medical experiments on tens of thousands of prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp, conducted by the German scientist, Doctor of Medicine Josef Mengele (1911–1979). Mengele, who joined the SS in 1938 and in 1942 after being wounded at the front, initially took the position of doctor of the "Gypsy camp" in Auschwitz on May 24, 1943. After all the prisoners had been sent to the gas chambers, he was appointed chief physician of Birkenau, where he conducted medical experiments on prisoners by dissecting live infants, castrating males of different ages without the use of anesthetics, sterilizing women with X-rays, and testing them with high-voltage shocks, and other similar methods.

Meeting each new train arriving at the camp, Mengele personally sorted the prisoners, paying special attention to the twins from 1943. According to the few surviving data, he conducted experiments on about 450-1500 pairs of twins, of which no more than 300 survived. Showing interest in physiological anomalies, Mengele tried, by stitching twins, to artificially create conjoined twins; by injecting various chemicals, to change the color of the child's eyes; by amputating organs, to study the possibility of survival of the organism and other terrible experiments. Those who survived such experiments were also subsequently killed. It is known that Mengele conducted a series of experiments on dwarf musicians (Ovitz family) from Romania, who ended up in Auschwitz.

In April 1945, Mengele was arrested by the Americans while trying to escape, but was released after a short time and initially hid in a village in Bavaria, until in 1949, with the help of the church, he moved to Argentina, where he was met by Hans-Ulrich Rudel and Adolf Eichmann. In Buenos Aires, Mengele practiced illegal medicine for several years, gaining a reputation as an "abortion specialist" until the death of a patient led to his arrest in 1958. However, he again escaped punishment and even opened a private pharmacy, at the same time working as a veterinarian. Living with his family in a German boarding house in the suburbs of the capital, Mengele managed to go to his father in Germany, where he had an accident, nevertheless, he returned to Latin America without any problems. All attempts to bring him to justice were unsuccessful, and when the Israeli Mossad kidnapped Eichmann, Mengele fled to Brazil, where he lived happily for the rest of his life. He drowned on February 7, 1979, while swimming in the ocean due to a sudden stroke.

Another German physician, SS-Hauptsturmführer Sigmund Rascher (1909–1945), known for his research in the field of cancer, became an employee of the Ahnenerbe after meeting Himmler on May 1, 1939, receiving a position as a doctor in the Dachau concentration camp. Rascher's research focused on experiments to identify the link between the use of fertilizers and the occurrence of cancer in cows, as well as research on the use of gnawer cancer infection as a fight against them. Above all, Rascher attracted Himmler's attention by spreading rumors about the development of new generations of the Nordic race, claiming that his wife, who had reached the age of 48, had three children of the best racial qualities. In reality, the Rascher family used children of concentration camp prisoners with appropriate racial characteristics.

Documents from the Nuremberg Tribunal show that Himmler made a positive decision in response to Rascher's message in the spring of 1941 that he was allowed to conduct dangerous experiments to "investigate the effects of rapidly changing human stress on prisoners." Having delivered the pressure chamber from Munich to Dachau, Rascher immediately began experiments, since there was no shortage of "human material". In order to "simulate the oxygen deficiency and low-pressure characteristic of high altitudes, air was gradually pumped out of the device." In the book by Valya Biktashev "We are older than our death: notes of a Dachau prisoner" the memoirs of Anton Pakholeg, who worked as an assistant to Rascher, a Dachau prisoner from Austria, are published: "The prisoners who were tested went crazy, tore their hair out, trying to reduce the pressure. Such experiments ended, as a rule, with the death of the subjects." Rascher dissected the survivors of the experiments without anesthesia, wanting to understand what processes occur with the brain. About 200 people became victims of such experiments, more than 80 of them died during the tests, the rest were tortured later. The "research program" ended in May 1942 with the transfer of gratitude to Himmler from Reich Marshal Goering for carrying out Rascher's "pioneering experiments."

Rascher preferred to conduct experiments on people's tolerance to low temperatures, "necessary for studying the limits of human abilities," because "the climate of Dachau is milder and warmer than in Auschwitz, and besides, the subjects scream too loudly when frozen." Cruel experiments to study the effects of low temperatures on humans were conducted in order to "identify ways to save from severe frostbite." The subjects were placed in a tank filled with ice water, monitoring the change in temperature in different areas of the body with the help of special thermometers. The terrible experiment began with immersion of the occipital region in water, then the cerebellum and part of the neck were placed, often such a procedure immediately ended in the death of the test subjects. The study of the effects of cold temperatures on the human body was also carried out in another, no less cruel way, when naked prisoners were left in the cold or in the snow under the close supervision of Rascher. Some subjects were then exposed to hot water, "Aryan herbal tea," or human body heat. Rascher ended his life as a prisoner in Dachau, because of the deception he arranged with his children. Three days before the liberation of the camp, on April 26, 1945, he was shot on Himmler's direct orders, and his wife (widow of theater director Oskar Diehl and former singer) Caroline Diehl had previously been hanged in Ravensbrück.

After the inclusion of the Ahnenerbe in the personal staff of the Reichsführer SS on January 1, 1942, the activities of the organization were completely reoriented to military needs, the Ahnenerbe Institute for Military Studies appeared, headed by SS Oberführer Wolfram Friedrich Sievers (1905-1948), one of the few convicted and hanged in 1948 in Nuremberg. Sievers was responsible for "technical and economic preparations for the creation of research laboratories and institutes on the territory of concentration camps." After all, at the end of the war, the Ahnenerbe turned into an influential secret force controlling the surreptitious program for the creation of the first ballistic missile, headed by SS-Sturmbannführer Wernher von Braun.

With the help of 60 thousand prisoners, of whom at least 20 thousand died due to terrible conditions of detention, an underground factory called Mittelwerk was built. Von Braun repeatedly visited the nearby Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp, where workers lived. The creator of many inventions (from jet engines to anti-aircraft missiles), surrendered to the Allies in May 1945 along with a team of employees. In the United States, Wernher von Braun became a spacecraft designer, and after the creation of NASA, he took the position of head of the Space Flight Center. He then worked as a consultant in private companies until his death from pancreatic cancer in 1977.

Himmler's lack of interest in the atomic project being developed in Germany since 1942 was undoubtedly successful, due to its inconsistency with the beliefs of the Reichsführer SS. At a conference of the Reich Research Council, Himmler, who divided physics into "Aryan" and "Jewish", in response to the conclusions of the physicist Erich Schumann, stated that nuclear physics had no practical significance for the manufacture of weapons. Himmler's priority goals, especially with the outbreak of war, were to participate in the looting of European museums and libraries, especially in the seizure of collections of Masonic and occult books. The main goal of the Third Reich was to seek legitimacy, the superiority of the "Aryan race for all time," based on a weird combination of history, natural sciences, and mystical romanticism.

Since 1938, all archaeological excavations in Germany, and later in the occupied territories, have been carried out by the Ahnenerbe, which receives almost unlimited funding. Involving university scientists in the research, the organization dig out Viking fortifications, organized expeditions to the Middle East and Tibet, and carried out research on ancient settlements and burial mounds on the territory of the USSR. In 1942, the Ahnenerbe organized an expedition to the Caucasus, led by the well-known German archaeologist Herbert Jankun. The main mission of the expedition was "to search for traces of the tribes of Goths who previously lived in those parts, and who were considered the ancestors of the Aryans." Also, during the operation "Edelweiss", on the top of Mount Elbrus, German mountain troops installed flags with Nazi symbols. In addition to showing interest in the "Gothic roots", the Nazis were attracted to the Caucasus by numerous ancient dolmens and megaliths, which were considered sources of magical power.

Ahnenerbe searched for traces of ancient Aryans in the burial mounds of the Northern Black Sea region in southern Russia, Ukraine and Crimea. Digging up the settlements and burial mounds of the Scythians, the Nazis transported to Germany in trains the valuables extracted during excavations and looted in local museums. The prey of the Ahnenerbe was the artifacts of the Goths, archaeological finds from the Crimea, Russian chronicles and apocrypha, exhibits of museums in Smolensk, Pskov, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kerch, Taganrog and Krasnodar, including runic stones from the museums of Tver, which, according to legend, have magical power contained inside. In 1942-1943, the Nazis organized an expedition to the Stone Grave located near Melitopol, which is a huge mound decorated with sculptures, drawings and inscriptions with grottoes and caves. The Germans found many artifacts, including stone tablets with inscriptions, allegedly deciphered by the German Sumerologist Arno Pebel (however, the decipherment was never published). According to Pebel, the Stone Tomb contained the heritage of the Sumerian culture, which was considered Aryan in the Ahnenerbe. The traditional Sumerian territory (Mesopotamia) remained inaccessible to the Germans, since Iraq and Iran were controlled mainly by England, which declared war on Germany.

By the way, in December 1942, the Ahnenerbe prepared materials containing "historical grounds" for recognizing the Cossacks as Aryans. Based on this, the Reich Ministry for the Eastern Territories, headed by Alfred Rosenberg, officially declared the Cossacks to be descendants of the Goths, recognizing them as "racially complete and worthy of having their statehood in the future under a Greater German protectorate."

In addition to the incredibly secret expedition to Antarctica, which required a separate detailed study, one of the most famous projects of the Ahnenerbe was the expedition of Ernst Schäfer to Tibet (1938-1939) in search of the mythical country of Shambhala. However, the official goal of the expedition was to study the local culture, flora and fauna, since Schaefer sent to Germany as a gift to the Reichsführer "Aryan horses to breed the best kind and Himalayan bees that produce the right honey." However, the occultists of the Third Reich, like Blavatsky and the Roerich earlier, failed to find the way to the mysterious Shambhala, which was considered "the heir of Atlantis, once inhabited by people of the superior race". Nevertheless, in 1938, the Nazis were lucky enough to find their mythical homeland - the island of Thule in Iceland, then in 1939 expeditions were planned to megaliths with petroglyphs similar to Germanic runes, to Bolivia and the Canary Islands, whose inhabitants of the Guanches had surprisingly blond hair and delicate clean skin. These facts were supposed to be used as evidence of "the worldwide spread of the Aryans and, consequently, the validity of the right of their heirs to own the world."

At the end of the war, the Ahnenerbe society, after the victory of the Allies over the Third Reich, officially ceased to exist and even an attempt to organize a trial of war criminals was made, most of whom managed to escape punishment and live quite prosperous lives, unlike the victims tortured by them. In 1945, part of the archives of the Ahnenerbe was seized by Soviet counterintelligence and taken to the USSR as war trophies. It was these documents, along with similar materials collected by Soviet researchers, that Yeltsin handed over to representatives of B'nai B'rith, which I described in a previous article.