Cruciada lui Himmler

by Christopher Hale

Combinand o documentatie bogata cu propriile investigatii intr-o cronica ampla nelipsita de ironie si de umor negru, Christopher Hale reuseste sa reconstituie episodul calatoriei in Tibet a unor cercetatori germani, trimisi de SS in cautarea originilor ariene. Expeditia, cum ne explica pe larg autorul, este un rezultat direct al „prosperului“ mariaj dintre stiinta si putere in Germania nazista. Din aceasta Itaca intunecata vor porni si tot aici se vor intoarce, in preajma celui de-al Doilea Razboi Mondial, protagonistii grotesti ai unei odisei bizare. Biografiile lor surprind modulatiile psihismului nazist, de la simpla ambitie academica la indiferenta morala si la cruzimea finala. Visandu-se din copilarie eroi in povesti de vanatoare sau in fictiuni de inspiratie colonialista, zoologul Schafer si antropologul Beger isi vor consuma teribilismul si setea de aventura, dar si perversitatile „profesionale“, prin exoticele taramuri asiatice.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Germany, Biography, Military Fiction, Occult

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Cronicadelibros · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hacía tiempo que quería leer este ensayo sobre la expedición alemana al Tibet poco antes de que empezara la 2ªGM. Pero ha sido de esos libros que vas dejando en el tiempo y cuando los lees te decepcionan. Siendo generosos solo una cuarta parte del libro trata sobre dicha expedición y dicho sea de paso narrativamente es la mejor parte del libro. El resto del libro intenta tratar de la preparación de la expedición pero es más un libro sobre algunos científicos y pseudo-científicos que tuvieron alguna relación con los participantes de la expedición, sobretodo sus actividades durante el tercer reich.

Después de la expedición un poco de lo mismo, con lo que hicieron algunos de los participantes de la expedición y su participación en la guerra. A parte de esto el estilo del libro se hace pesado al utilizar una técnica que yo vengo a llamar tirar del hilo, presentando el personaje principal y despúes ir tirando del hilo para presentar personas que tuvieron influencia en él y incluso seguir tirando del hilo para conocer los maestros de sus maestros, lo que hace que llegue un momento que pierdas el hilo

. El otro problema que hace su lectura costosa es que el autor decide de un buen principio que allí donde los datos son circunstanciales (que son muchos) él ejercerá juicio de valor decidiendo que la documentación inglesa es del todo cierta y en la alemana se esconden cosas. A parte de todo esto, este libro hubiera sido mucho mejor, si hubiera sido un libro de 300 páginas que sólo tratara la expedición y no un libro de casi 700 llenos de juicios de valor hechos por el autor.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh my aching wrists. Sam Goldwyn once remarked, "Read it? I couldn't even lift it."

I know what he meant.

Seriously, this book cried out for a firm editorial hand. While there was a great deal of interesting material, I felt as if I were mucking through the straw in search of it. Perhaps you know the feeling, usually when reading a book with a cast of hundreds of personages. Which ones are crucial to the central narrative?

In Himmler's Crusade, Hale blithely includes so much extraneous material that it becomes a strain not just to lift the book but to follow the story. I was ultimately left with the impression of an enthusiastic author who was loath to leave out any favorite anecdotes. The author is a documentary film maker who has done extensive research on the topic. This is his first book, and regrettably, it shows.

Hale would often engage in sensational "foreshadowing," which I found rather annoying. Not content simply to let the striking circumstances unfold in an unmuddled narrative, he couldn't resist letting the reader know the outcome at the beginning of episodes. For the life of me, I couldn't imagine why he thought it wise to preinstruct the reader this way.

One thing I did enjoy, however, was his debunking of the "noble Tibetan" myth. The central chapters on the expedition's time in Tibet were a real eye opener. Hale's analysis of power struggles in Tibet was particularly juicy.

While reading this book, I often had to chide myself for looking for someone -- anyone, really -- whom I could feel some sliver of compassion for. It was never clear to me whether Hale meant for the reader to work up some sliver of sympathy for Schäfer, the moody, imperious expedition leader, or whether the author was doing his utmost to arouse a feeling of disgust for him. In any case, the feeling of ambivalence -- was Schäfer a scientist or scoundrel? or both? -- made the account seem even more tedious.

Strangely enough, there was a curious dovetailing in my own life with the book and something I saw in a museum in Brno, Czech Republic, recently. I was in the city's Roma Museum, which (naturally) contains a large exhibit on the Roma holocaust. There in the center of the room were head casts made by Nazi anthropologists seeking to define Roma "types" -- in fact, there was a whole wall of Nazi memorabilia that sought to classify this "degenerate" people. It was sickening. However, having read Hale's account of Berger's (one of the key expedition members) anthropological methods and his mania for categorizing (and in Himmler's case, eliminating "inferior" racial "types"), I better understood the warped genesis of the "Final Solution."

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excitingly written yet solidly researched history of Heinrich Himmler’s Ahnenerbe paranormal research institute and their expedition to Tibet to find the origins of the Aryan race (which Himmler believed was descended from aliens who landed in the Himalayas). Describes many of the stranger aspects of the SS and its leader, such as their castle headquarters complete with Arthurian round table. Also fascinating is the history of Tibet and early European expeditions in the area, which will disabuse those who think of pre-Chinese Tibet as a peaceful Buddhist paradise. Great reading for lovers of strange tales who also have a scientific bent.

[Peter Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave it five stars, considered four. The key to evaluating this book is to know what it is and what it is not. Most of the work is a detailed, well footnoted traveloque of five European scientists shortly before world war two who take a scientific expedition to Tibet and collect specimens of the plants and animals and film the people and peoples who they met along the way. They meet many bureaucratic obstacles and travel under difficult conditions. If this interests you, and I have studied explorers and archeologists and paleontologists of this time, then it should be of interest to you. Of course, these five scientists also happen to be members of the Nazi SS and the expedition was approved by Himmler so a reader will learn a great deal about the Nazis and the SS and Nazi science and ideology and racial ideas and Nazi genocide as well, and the general, strange nature of this evil, destructive, and, fortunately, short lived regime as well. So if this interests you, you will like this book. (The leader of the expedition rose to prominence during the way in the SS archeological research section.) However if you are seeking a non-fiction account of battle and warfare in world war two this is not your book. The expedition was five people and there was no combat. Also, please be advised, this is the author's first book and while well researched and footnoted, he does, however, include almost every interesting fact he found on the subject resulting in a large, thick book that is often slow reading.

[Paul Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real life adventure that was almost unbelievable.

[Mark Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not the story I wanted to read. I wanted to read about a bunch of pseudo-scientists bumbling their way ,on a disastrous trek, thorough a hostile environment. I wanted a search for the entrance to the underground domain of the hidden masters, the lost Atlantian's. I got my magic and superstition but not surprisingly it was mostly practiced by the Tibetans. If you are interested in the Great Game, you might like the book.

[Regina Lindsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't think I've ever given a WWII book such a low rating. It was the subtitle, "The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race," and the inside jacket cover's promise to show how a Himmler's sponsored expedition into Tibet was undertaken to tie the occult theories of the Nazi regime together that prompted my interest. However, there is nothing new here. This may be a decent read for someone new to Himmler's obsession with Occult theories. But, it is an introductory work at best for who Himmler was and his fascination with Atlantis, a supreme pre-historic Nordic race, and world-ice theory. Even at that, very little attention is given to these aspects. This is more of a travelogue for the Shafer led expeditions into Tibet. The reader is certainly given a blow by blow account of the difficulties of traveling in China and Tibet during this time period. The most interesting aspect of the book is actually a bit of Tibetan history. But, that lasts 50-100 pages at best.

[Hippocleides · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written competently, but it's more or less a con--the book jacket namedrops Indiana Jones a couple times and talks about how "bizarre" and "frightening" the SS Tibet Expedition was, but what I read was a bunch of Germans who go into Tibet, shoot some deer, read Goethe, and mildly annoy a British official before heading back home. Of far more interest were the eccentric pseudo-archaeological beliefs espoused by Himmler which jump started this expedition, as well as what the SS officers did during the meat of WW2, after the expedition. However, these were not the foci of the book, and consequently my overall thoughts are roughly "meh."

[Varmint · Rating 2 out of 5]

there have been a series of hitler and the occult type documentaries on lately. all of which seem to circle around the SS sponsored tibetan expedition. this put me in the mood for some sort of debunking book. the fact that it was int he barnes and noble bargain bin helped.

the author mostly ignores the art bell type stuff. but fails it telling the real story. climbing the himalayas, exotic cultures, yeti hunting and desperate dashes across guarded borders simply can't be as dull as he makes it seem.

[Kristinn Valdimarsson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Í síðustu köflunum er farið yfir örlög sumra leiðangursmannanna. Bókin en ekkert illa skrifuð en maður þarf að hafa mikinn áhuga á langdregnum ferðalögum sem höfðu lítil sem engin áhrif á gang sögunnar til að hafa gaman af henni.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been a fascinating story but it was so plodding and slow that it took me a month to read it when it should have taken me about a week.

[Andreas Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro che descrive la poco narrata (e spesso mistificata) spedizione nazista in Tibet. Scordatevi la ricerca di Agharti, o qualche altro mistico motivo. La spedizione di Ernst Schaefer, un esploratore che poi fu "costretto" a servire nelle SS, fu più che altro una spedizione di tipo scientifica (per quanto ci fa ridere al giorno d'oggi che la scienza dell'epoca - e parlo anche per voi americanisti - considerasse il fatto che le varie razze avevano origini differenti e tratti particolari del corpo che erano manifestazione del carattere e dell'indole). Una spedizione scientifica e ovviamente una spedizione politica, Himmler infatti volle tenersi aperta una porta, con l'idea di inviare armi attraverso l'Unione Sovietica neutrale (ancora non si pensava di muovere guerra alla Russia di Stalin) verso il Tibet per armare così milizie locali addestrate dalle SS per sferrare un attacco all'India del Commonwealth. L'ho trovato interessante, ma io sono un ossessionato dalla 2° guerra mondiale.

[Chik67 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shangri-la, il mitico regno di la dalle montagne è esistito davvero. E' esistito quando esistevano ancora regioni inesplorate del pianeta e gruppi di folli esploratori, quando ancora si poteva giungere in un luogo di cui non esistevano nè mappe nè racconti.
La spedizione nazista in Tibet narrata da questo libro parte alla ricerca delle origini dei mitici ariani e parte alla ricerca di un altrove da conquistare, contendere, svelare. Nasci per ragioni geopolitiche e per rincorrere il sogno. Questo libro ne racconta le vicende con chiarezza, dettaglio ma senza mai cedere alla tentazione dell'accademismo o del sublime. Riesce nello scopo e ci fa rimpiangere, ancora, il regno perduto di Shangri-la, quello spazio di sogno al di là delle montagne che ormai, da decenni, non esiste più.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty interesting book.

In spite of Germany being one of the most scientifically advanced nations of the early 20th century, the Nazis embraced all kinds of occult and superstitious beliefs. One such belief held that the origin of the Aryan master race could be traced to the Himalayas. Thus, on the eve of World War II, Himmler sent a supposedly scientific expedition to Tibet to investigate such ideas.

Led by Ernst Schafer, the expedition measured the Earth's magnetic field, performed measurements on human heads and bodies, collected animal and plant specimens, shot film and photos and generally made a nuisance of themselves to the British.

Extremely well researched. Balanced, author doesn't seem to have any axe to grind or pet theory to promote. Entertaining.

[E. Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ignore the clickbait title and the purple prose description. This is a slow, painstaking history of a 1938 expedition by group of SS-affiliated scientists (and possibly spies) into Tibet, with a some biography and a bit of Tibetan history thrown in for color. Frankly the narrative leaves a lot of questions unanswered, simply because of the secretive nature of the expedition and the participants' interest in having their unsavory past forgotten.

If this sounds interesting to you go for it. I liked it but I know it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

[Novall]

The best books on the Tibet Expedition under Ernst Schaefer were written by the late Isrun Engelhardt.
Tibet in 1938-1939: Photographs from the Ernst Schäfer Expedition to Tibet,
also https://info-buddhism.com/Nazis-of-Ti...

[Barun Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read which makes you think how hard it was to travel to places "Off the map" before the advent of modern technology like GPS. The race theories behind the Nazi regime also help explain how and why they committed most of the atrocities of WWII. A must read for students of war hostory in particular.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating exercise in how seemingly insane pseudoscience can become mainstream.

[Jason Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and detailed look at the careers and activities of the men that formed the 1938-1939 Nazi expedition to Tibet.

Some of the detailed information of their "careers" in the SS during World War 2 is chilling and graphic. Their time in Tibet is very detailed and brings into question the motives for the expedition. It seems that there may have been a secret mission to cultivate a group of subversives who would be able to rise up and divert additional British military and diplomatic forces to Asia in the event that Britain opposed German "expansion" in Europe.

Some of the data gathering activities initiated by the Germans in the name of finding the source of the Aryan race is quite revealing about their lack of humanity and feelings of superiority.

Beger is lucky to have not been tried for war crimes and hung for his part in the Nazi "research" on human subjects. At the very least, one would have thought that he would have spent the remainder of his life in prison.

Schafer is also lucky to have only been interned for a few years by the Allied Military Government. After being so closely tied to Himmler and his crackpot ideas before and during the war, it raises questions about why he was released and allowed to travel to Venezuela where he lived for several years as a university professor.

Due to the muddled nature and the cover-your-ass surviving paperwork of the Nazi's the full story of their Tibet expedition and subsequent work with the SS will never be fully known.

[TomF · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, Nazi 'Number 2' Himmler believed in reincarnation, an immaculate Aryan creation myth, homeopathy, and plenty more. And yes this had an impact on the convergence of science and savagery which forged the 'Final Solution'. This investigation wends a snakelike path through these issues, via the unlikely destination of Tibet.

A worthy tome that unfortunately packs in too much ancillary detail and speculative dramatisation, it is a bit like trawling up the Yangtze yourself at times. At its heights, it can be magical in its descriptions though, from the tinkling icicles clinging to yaks to the grotesque fascinations of Tibetan 'sky burials' (feeding the dead to vultures).

The specifics of Himmler and Hitler decrying the 'Jewish science' of Einstein etc and turning to the ludicrous creation myths worthy of Ron L Hubbard are also intriguing. And there's plenty of bread and butter WW2 history too, some of which may be new to readers (I didn't know the Nazis always targeted education and 'police' positions on their rise to power, for example). As we follow the various expeditions into Tibet, and then later as they worm their way further into the bosom of Nazi patronage, you get presented with a smorgasbord of war deceptions, cultural clashes and some truly compromised characters.

Aside from tiresome repetitions, and a rather unconvincing attempt to forgive some of the scientists for their early collusions, there's just enough meat on this scattered historical corpse to make it worth offering up for a sky burial in your mind's eye ;)

3+

[Ralph Britton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cool and well researched account of the expedition to Tibet led by Ernst Shafer in 1938. Schafer was a daring explorer and genuine scientist with a difficult temperament. The story of the expedition is an exciting one, but what lay behind it is even more interesting. Himmler sponsored the attempt and made it reflect some of his fantastic beliefs in the Aryan race and the arrival of supermen from the skies wrapped in ice. It was also a spying mission much like Kipling's 'Great Game' to explore the possibilities of taking over the British Empire and annexing Tibet to the Reich. A more sinister theme is the way Schafer and his assistants became gradually emeshed in Himmler's plans. Already members of the SS they found themselves, sometimes willingly, sometimes very reluctantly into the heart of Himmler's plans for the Holocaust. Schafer was asked to film barbaric experiments on prisoners in concentration camps and his anthropolist, Bruno Berger, found himself selecting inmates to be killed and turned into skeletal exhibits in Nazi racial collections. Exactly how far they went is in doubt, but Christopher Hale gives a very fair summing up of the evidence. This book throws a most unusual light on the third Reich by approaching it from a new perspective.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

'These were the same 'theories' that had preoccupied leading figures in the Third Reich like Himmler and Hess. Both men had been involved in occult societies in the early 1920s and their membership overlapped with those of the embryonic Nazi Party. Their interest in Social Darwinism and pseudoscientific ideas about lost polar civilisations seemed, at first sight, to be marginal to the realities of the Third Reich and the annihilation of European Jewry and gypsies. It became clear, however, that this bogus history of an Aryan Master Race had both energised and apparently ennobled the racial thinking that led to what historians have called the 'Racial State' of Nazi Germany. Myth is never harmless'

'If the fate of the Nazis lay in my hands, I would have all the intellectuals strung up, and the professors three feet higher than the rest.'
(German-Jewish diarist Victor Klemperer, writing in August 1936)

'If I looked like Himmler I would not talk about race.'
(Member of Himmler's personal staff)

[Merty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed taking a college anthropology class and since I'm German,this book seemed of interest to me.

The book is more than just about a crazy and bizarre expedition to find the origins of the Aryan Race but rather it tries to explain how a zoologist, a botanist/entomologist, geographer and a anthropologist turn science around and fall prey to Hitler's brainwash.

The book explains how in Nazi Germany, anthropology led to mass murder.

I've visited Dachau, so if you've not visited, you should at least visit a Holocaust museum. This book explains in detail what led scientists to do what they did and how their thought process evolved in thinking they would find this mystical race.

I have to say that the highlight of the book was when the Third US Armoured Division spearheads into Germany and ends the total madness.

One thing this book did was make me think about how these brainwashed scientists must have scampered to seek their proclaimed innocence when the trials began.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read even if the author sometimes gets mired in political correctness when dealing with this topic. The Nazis were evil and collectively psychopathic...at least aggressively amoral. This should be taken as read when writing histories of them. Unfortunately, Mr. Hale returns to this notion again and again. The result is that this obsessive redundancy becomes distracting.

With that one caveat it was an interesting read if you are interested in a side-show to the Second World War and the Holocaust.

The book goes into some detail on the ideology and the demented reasoning that led Himmler, and his scientists, to believe the Aryans, if there were such a people, originated in Tibet but not enough. In the end the book reads less like a history and more like a travelogue. Interesting...of course. Informative...perhaps marginally.

Rating 3 out of 5 stars

Recommended for fanboys of Nazis oddness & evil.

[Tomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I enjoyed this book, I didn't feel that it was about the Nazi search for the origins of the Aryan race as much as it was the story of Ernest Schafer. It was interesting, though, and the descriptions of Tibet, India, and the areas around those places brought the scenery to life. I am amazed at how important India was to the European great powers and wonder how differently things would have turned out if Europe - and China - had let that area develop on its own. Schafer's story was also interesting. It is hard to believe that he and his associates could possibly be taken seriously when they proclaimed their innocence regarding the Holocaust in post-war trials.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book filled with assorted tidbits of information, particularly great deal of information concerning the Blavatsky-influenced occult and racialist beliefs that were behind the German-led genocides of the Second World War. The book worked well, though it might be a bit chaotic for a person without some background in south and central Asia.

[Alexandru · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well documented book as well as entertaining, which is a rare thing to find among history books.

It opens secondary reading directions at almost every 10 pages. I'd recommend it to be read with an atlas on the side as well as an encyclopedia for there is quite a lot of information in it that is worth to be looked up.

[DoctorM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, admit it. You'd smile and be nice to Himmler for a free trip to Tibet, too. All the more so if you could be looking for proof of crackpot anthropological theories rather than sent off to the snows of Russia.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complex story - this book is obviously well-researched. It was controversial when published (there were complaints to Channel 4 from people defending Ernst Schafer and Bruno Beger's reputation); but a well-told tale.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part history, part biography of an SS expedition to Tibet to try to prove the existance of the Aryan race.