Himmler's Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race - Rilegato

Hale, Christopher

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0471262927 ISBN 13: 9780471262923

Casa editrice: Turner Pub Co, 2003

Riassunto

The compelling story of a trek across an exotic land–and the sinister consequences

It was an SS mission led by two complex individuals–one who was using the Nazis to pursue his own ends, and one so committed to Nazism that afterward he conducted racial experiments using the skulls of prisoners at Auschwitz. Himmler's Crusade relates the 1938 Nazi expedition through British India to the sacred mountains of Tibet in search of the remnants of the Aryan people, the lost master race. Based on a wide range of previously unused sources, this intriguing book reveals the mission–a pet project of Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler—to be the result of both a bizarre historical fantasy and a strategy to provoke insurgency in British India. Providing rare glimpses into Himmler's SS stronghold, this riveting tale sheds new light on the occult component of the racial theories that obsessed Himmler and his fellow Nazis.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

CHRISTOPHER HALE is an award-winning writer and producer who has made films for the BBC and all the major broadcasters, including WGBH and the Discovery Channel. He has made numerous films about both science and the arts, many combining cutting-edge anthropology with high adventure. Hale has traveled and filmed in literally unmapped regions of Mozambique and Yemen in search of the "Lost Tribes of Israel" and looked for the origins of ocean voyaging on one of the most remote islands of the Pacific.

Dalla seconda/terza di copertina:

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.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Turner Pub Co
• Data di pubblicazione: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0471262927
• ISBN 13: 9780471262923
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 464