Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism

by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke

The rarely told story of Savitri Devi―a Frenchwoman and one of Hitler's most powerful advocates

In this window onto the roots and evolution of international neo-Nazism, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke reveals the powerful impact of one of fascism's most creative minds.

Savitri Devi's influence on neo-Nazism and other hybrid strains of mystical fascism has been continuous since the mid-1960s. A Frenchwoman of Greek-English birth, Devi became an admirer of German National Socialism in the late 1920s. Deeply impressed by its racial heritage and caste-system, she emigrated to India, where she developed her racial ideology, in the early 1930s. Her works have been reissued and distributed through various neo-Nazi networks and she has been lionized as a foremother of Nazi ideology. Her appeal to neo-Nazi sects lies in the very eccentricity of her thought―combining Aryan supremacism and anti-Semitism with Hinduism, social Darwinism, animal rights, and a fundamentally biocentric view of life―and has resulted in curious, yet potent alliances in radical ideology.

As one of the earliest Holocaust deniers and the first to suggest that Adolf Hitler was an avatar―a god come to earth in human form to restore the world to a golden age―Devi became a fixture in the shadowy neo-Nazi world. In Hitler's Priestess , Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke examines how someone with so little tangible connection to Nazi Germany became such a powerful advocate of Hitler's misanthropy.

Hitler's Priestess illuminates the life of a woman who achieved the status of a prophetess for her penchant for redirecting authentic religious energies in the service of regenerate fascism.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Occult, Religion, Politics, World War II

278 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1998

About the author

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, D.Phil. (St. Edmund Hall, Oxford; B.A., Bristol University) was Chair of Western Esotericism at University of Exeter and author of several books on esoteric traditions.

He is the author of several books on modern occultism and esotericism, and the history of its intersection with Nazi politics. His book, The Occult Roots of Nazism, has remained in print since its publication in 1985 and has been translated into 12 languages. He has also written on the occultist aspects of neo-Nazism in Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity.

He was Professor of Western Esotericism and Director of the Centre for the Study of Esotericism (EXESESO) within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. He lived in Southern England with his wife and sometime collaborator Clare.

Reviews

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devi was more or less completely insane, especially her wacky ideas about Hitler being an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu but if your smart enough to weed out the psychosis she did write some good stuff. Her anti-monotheism, ecological and animal rights stuff in particular is very good.

So much about her reflects how nutty and contradictry she was. For example she was obsessed with Nazism and Aryan racial purity but she married a man of Indian ancestry. She had a genius level IQ and a phd in a hard science but had her strange ideas about Hitler being a Hindu God. This book is worth reading because, whether you like her or not, she did live an interesting life. For what it was worth at least she was an original thinker.

[Owlseyes]

Maximiani Portas was her first name.

She believed India should be receptive to Nazism; she had found an island named Rameswaram, imbued in the Aryan culture, and whose festival, in 1935 , Devi attended. She believed also in a "pan-Aryan" doctrine, and Hinduism as an Aryan legacy.

In Palestine she had taken the decision to honor the pagan gods, and fight the western Judeo-Christian tradition.

She kept her beliefs, and her writings, till the end, despite the Nazi Germany defeat. And horror, I would add.

[John Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read this book in 1998, it was like a revelation, as I was introduced to many figures and ideas that I had never heard of previously. Looking back on it now, however, I realize that it is a very flawed book, and the definitive book on Savitri Devi remains to be written. Still, until that book is written, this one still offers a decent introduction and overview of the subject of Savitri and "esoteric Hitlerism" more generally, by the author of the classic "Occult Roots of Nazism."

[Bood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nazi cat lady!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

An inspirational, well-researched book. Introducing Savitri Devi's rich, active and interesting life, her journeys across Europe and Asia, and her political contacts with well-and less-known fascist/nazi/nationalist activists as well as non-political friendships.

As crazy as she obviously was, she was also a very intelligent, brilliant thinker, straighforward and true to the cause, whatever it was. She could only be an example of not giving up, fighting for beliefs and causes, and religious devotion.

I also learned about various activist and political leaders in the NS/Fascist scene, introduced by short biographies, which I found interesting and educational, everything that was left out of school history books.

My personal thoughts are that the Hitler of her religious love (she'd never met him in person) and the Hitler known to the world are different. I also found it strange that as much as Savitri Devi believed the Indians to be proto-Aryans and ancient Aryan homeland in India, Hitler himself looked down on the Indian people as an inferior race and denied the ancient Aryan homeland in India and its people being proto-Aryans. Yet she was still devoted to Hitler, and as hard as she fought in India as a Hindu nationalist, later on she regretted that she "wasted" all those years in India and missed the "glorious days of the Thid Reich".

[Mary Storm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the sensationalist title, a fascinating and scholarly look at one of the great crackpots of the 20th c.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring.

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad, I was expecting the typical hit piece one gets when attempting to read about any anti-communist. She isn't portrayed in the most positive light but had she been he would of had an even harder time finding publication and distribution.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is objectively the best biography of anyone I’ve ever read—it combines an unusually colorful subject with straightforward and lucid academic prose. The author deserves serious credit for being able to stay on track, given how bizarre his subject’s life was. In many ways, she's the antipode of Ayn Rand—both were intelligent and iconoclastic women who lived from 1905 to 1982. One was a Russian Jew who rejected the Christian society around her to immigrate to America and champion capitalism and individualism, the other a French Greek who rejected the Christian society around her to immigrate to India and champion Aryan paganism and Nazism. The one downside of the book is probably its title—it gives the impression that the book is sensationalist, when it’s an incredible academic biography. The final paragraph is especially prescient, given the book was written in 1998: "Constantly serviced by television and computers, modern man inhabits an electronic ‘virtual’ reality drained of organic natural content. The sensory poverty of a synthetic order devoid of life could well lead to contempt for mankind and a compensating idealization of animals. Here again, one may detect the reviving appeal of Savitri Devi’s vehement misanthropy. A computerized and superurbanized humanity might long for contact with nature while entertaining violent visions of hatred and destruction for its own species. […] The cybernetic encirclement of man and his complete divorce from nature could well foster a more fundamental alienation. In a congested and automated world, Savitri Devi’s sentimental love of animals and hatred of the masses may find new followers."

[Radu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Savitri Devi was on odd one; she was a white Hindu convert who could speak 8 different languages (and was familiar with several others), had two degrees, was a strict vegetarian, and was an animal rights activist who loved all of God's creatures... except Jews. Come to think of it, I probably should have mentioned that she was a Hitler devotee at the start.

Anyway, she had a very interesting life and was very influential in the post-war period in the burgeoning neo-Nazi movement worldwide for her contributions towards an esoteric interpretation of Nazism based around Vedic scripture interpreted through a biocentric worldview. Other notable events from her life were her believing that Hitler was an avatar of Vishnu and her claim that she had used astral projection to give Hermann Goering the cyanide pills he used to kill himself before his execution.

All in all, this book was a very entertaining read... though I wouldn't give it five stars for two reasons; a lot of unnecessary details about other people who Savitri Devi met in her life and the author seemingly feeling the need to remind the reader that Savitri Devi has unacceptable views at least several points in every chapter.

[অচুপ্তা | acchupta!!! · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a highly intelligent raving madwoman who managed to get two PhDs but also unironically believed Hitler was the last great avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu destined to bring about a golden age. Unfortunately, her ridiculous schizoid delusions have been immensely popular in far-right, neo-nazi, hindutva, and ecofascist circles and we are living through the consequences of it. Nightmare fuel.

I did take some schadenfreude at ‘Maximiani’ (im not calling her Savitri, fuck off nazi bitch) bemoaning about how numerous Bangali Muslims are. Serves her fucking right. All power to my ancestors for pissing off this deluded nazi freak.

CW: Antisemitism, cultural appropriation, genocide, Hindu extremism, imprisonment, Islamophobia (brief), racism, religious bigotry, and xenophobia.

[William Sariego · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating story of a woman whom I had never heard about until five years ago. Certainly a religion centered around "Esoteric Hitlerism" was quite a revelation. Devi (and others) believed Hitler to be an Avatar of the god Vishnu. Born in France of Greek descent, she would move to India and link its caste system to racial beliefs. I'd read Goodrick-Clark's book on esoteric cults that influenced early National Socialists, and found it dry and academic. Perhaps because he concentrates on one individual rather than many groups and characters, the writing here is more vibrant and interesting.

[Claire g · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 stars for the book itself, +1 for being up my alley

[Pranjal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. I've been looking for this sort of history for a while, and the author addresses pretty much every question/problem I had... easy to read, fascinating, and the general points that he makes about the lasting influence of Savitri Devi's 'misanthropic environmentalism' on ideas like primitivism or Deep Ecology is something I've been thinking about for a while. For me this was the perfect book at just the right time.

[Dave Sticher · Rating 3 out of 5]

She's a fascinating subject, and this book is as complete as we'll ever get on her. Unfortunately, when read for pleasure and not for research, the attention to detail seems overly cumulative.