Himmler's Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race
This is a brilliant and incredibly well researched book analyzing a little known, but powerfully important, part of National Socialist history. I picked the book to read because it received such a stellar review by Michael Burleigh, the most renowned international authority on the Third Reich. Immediately, I was entranced by every aspect of Hale's account of an SS-sponsored expedition to Tibet in 1938-39. Hale goes way beyond doing a comprehensive book study of the subject. He actually conducted his own expedition to Tibet, retracing the steps that the SS-sponsored expedition leaders took and interviewing individuals who were either part of the expedition or who were associated with it. For example, throughout the book Hale provides astonishing information from his interviews with Bruno Beger, an anthropologist and SS member who would later be brought to trial and imprisoned for selecting over 100 inmates for "study" at Auschwitz . I would recommend Hale's book for anyone interested in the origins and perpetuation of Nazism. Himmler's Crusade is already a classic in the field. --David KirkFrom the Inside Flap It is a pilgrimage that thousands have taken in search of enlightenment, inner peace, or even sheer adventure. When five officers of the Nazi SS made the arduous journey to Tibet s forbidden city of Lhasa in the winter of 1938, however, the objects of their quest were mysterious, sinister, and, ultimately, deeply malevolent. Under orders from Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, these scientists were to find proof of a bizarre historical fantasy, lay the groundwork for a global political and military strategy, and pinpoint the origins and remnants of the Aryan "master race." Himmler s Crusade tells the riveting tale of one of the most perverse, eccentric, and frightening scientific expeditions in history. Based on a wide range of previously unused sources, including journals, new interviews, and original research in German archives as well as in Tibet, this real life drama combines the highest standards of narrative history with the high adventure and exotic locales of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Central to this chilling tale is the complex and problematic character of Ernst Schäfer, the expedition s leader. A serious and extremely competent young zoologist, Schäfer was so consumed by ambition that he was eager to become Himmler s protégé and to do anything his patron commanded in return for opportunity, fame, and influence at the very highest levels of Nazi power. Though they had their own projects to pursue, Schäfer s team spent most of its time in Tibet doing Himmler s bidding, which included sowing the seeds of rebellion, undermining Britain s relationship with the Tibetan ruling class, and confirming Himmler s grotesque theories about the origins of the Aryan race. Part spy thriller, part detective yarn, and all real life adventure, Himmler s Crusade takes you from Himmler s SS stronghold at Wewelsburg Castle, where he inculcated elite SS recruits with the appropriate racial thinking, to the dizzying Himalayan heights, where Schäfer and his team examined Tibetan nobles for signs of Aryan ancestry. It asks penetrating questions about the relationship between science and politics and sheds new light on the occult theories that obsessed Himmler and his fellow Nazis. Supplemented with dozens of fascinating photos taken during the expedition, this engagingly told tale provides deep insight into one of the strangest episodes in the tumultuous months just prior to the outbreak of World War II. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From the Back Cover "As the Indiana Jones films showed, Nazis, new age mumbo jumbo and exotic locations are a formula that works. Christopher Hale s gripping and well researched tale of an SS sponsored scientific mission to Tibet in 1938 39 has the whole shebang: mad occult beliefs, mountains, strange charactors called Bruno or Ernst and stomach churning concentration camp experiments to round things off."  The Sunday Times (London) --The Sunday Times (London)This book looks at a part of the mythology behind the third Reich the belief in the Aryan ideal it's roots and searching for this "truth" were people who believed that the German race was descended from these Aryan super beings not the archetypal National Socialists, but scientist who hitched their stars to the party and Hitler. Himmler believed in the old Norse gods and the occult  This book details an expedition financed by National Socialist Germany to find the roots of the Aryan race in Tibet measuring bone structure looking for clues to the birth place of the Aryans A worrying book in that you can see that these expeditions could be spun by politicians to look like adventures, a search for scientific truth and the evidence gathered and interpreted by experts to support policy without question being allowed or anyone who does question being beaten down by the so called evidence an interesting book but not light reading and not entertaining in the sense of amusement --By Timothy Wakefield--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.