The Nazi Occult

Osprey Adventures

by Kenneth Hite

In the dark dungeons beneath Nazi Germany, teams of occult experts delved into ancient and forbidden lore, searching for lost secrets of power. Ordered by Hitler to discover new weapons that he could unleash on his enemies, the occultists experimented with dark magics, mystical artifacts, and creatures thought only to exist in nightmare. This book tells the complete history of the Nazi occult programs, from their foundations in Hitler's early esoteric studies and the Nazi quests for the Ark of the Covenant, the Spear of Destiny, and the Holy Grail, through their experiments with lycanthrope and zero-point energy. It also includes sections on the shadow war fought in the dying days of the Reich as the Nazis sought to stave off defeat through pacts with diabolic entities, attempts to save the Fuhrer's brain, and the deployment of the strange flying saucers that battled to save the final Nazi stronghold in the Antarctic.
     For years, the Allied governments worked to keep this information from reaching the public, and sought to discredit those few who dared to seek the truth. Now, using a combination of photography and artwork reconstructions, the true story of the most secret battles of World War II can finally be told.

Genres: History, Horror, Mythology, Nonfiction, Occult, Gaming, Reference

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Kenneth Hite (born September 15, 1965) is a writer and role-playing game designer. Author of Trail of Cthulhu and Night's Black Agents role-playing games, Hite has been announced as the lead designer of the upcoming 5th edition of Vampire: the Masquerade.

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where to begin? This is wonderful stuff so long as you are not daft enough to take any of it seriously.

The Nazis have been associated in the popular imagination with the occult with increasing intensity over time, much to the despair of professional historians. The introduction by Kenneth Hite perhaps does not have sufficient health warning here.

It is true that Germany was riddled with occultist societies and that this infected early German nationalist circles. The best source is always Goodrick-Clark who made a specialty of unravelling what was true and what was false about occult claims to great effect.

It is also true that astrology was possibly more important in interwar Germany as a cultural phenomenon than elsewhere and that secret magical societies could be found in many places - and that Hess and Himmler had occultist interests as others had neo-pagan concerns.

However, culturally fascinating though all this is, German politics and culture were as materially grounded as any other, there were no occult elements in the conduct of social control or military direction and Hitler himself found the interests of his colleagues laughable.

Having got the obligatory health warning out of the way, what we have here is a chaos magical approach to the subject - setting up the story of Nazi occultism as if it were true and then playing it out with the sort of solid illustrative work for which Osprey is well regarded.

What, however, Osprey, as publishers, are doing here is a bit mysterious. They have built a strong brand on reliable accounts of military matters - weaponry, campaigns, battles, sieges - and yet here they have embarked on a deliberate assault on the hokum market.

This is the first in a series called Dark Osprey so we canot wait to see what else they have in store for us (the Templars apparently!) - but this short dense illustrated book with its further reading in comics, games and movies is not what we are used to from the house.

But get past the surprise and we have some loony joys where the author has genuinely tried to make the nonsense plausible with historical and military fact - we are drawn into the madness through plausible enough accounts of the Ariosophists, Ahnenerbe and Thule Society.

Then we have mad science based on magical energies, death-wielding rabbinical literature, meetings with yeti in Tibet, the search for the Ark of the Covenant, witch soldiers on the Eastern Front, failed attempts to raise a zombie army, resistance werewolves ...

... and Nazi UFOs in Antarctica with the wonderful conclusion that, Byrd's Expedition to oust the Nazis having failed because of the threat of the globe-shattering Thorshammer weapon, an armistice was agreed to allow Majestic to come up with an Allied occult counter-weapon!

The odd aspect is that Hite has done his research into the actuality of Nazi Germany. The insanities are embedded in a framework of reality that might be quite seductive to imaginative teenagers. Should we be 'concerned'? I think not ... this is now popular culture, not politics.

In any case, any non-teenager who takes at face value such lines as "The Ryokuryukai [Japanese occult researchers] exchanged the Mireniamu data for nuclear material in March of 1945, and the Reich had true werewolves at last" or ...

... "Their program to create an army of Nazi zombies never altered the war's strategic balance: undead soldiers remained vulnerable to artillery ..." might suggest a serious failure in our general educational system.

At one level, of course, this could all be seen as an insult to the millions of dead of seventy years or so ago but we live in a free society and imaginative nonsense might be regarded as prophylactic - we can laugh at Nazis or we can turn them into symbols of dark evil.

In the end, national socialism was not very funny and was more a bunch of half-educated people lurching from chaotic crisis to chaotic crisis than anything so interesting as a force of deliberate evil harnessing occult forces.

It may be that we find it hard to cope with this truth. If we cannot laugh at them and don't want the explanation that they were just us only in different conditions, then, in a world without God, reconstructing them as a dark occult force exorcises something.

Certainly, this book is no encouragement to a political programme. The worst it might do is encourage some naive ceremonial magical play and, though that might frighten the local evangelical vicar, it should not frighten us.

So, if you enjoy imaginative play, then this book is amusing ... otherwise don't bother.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been waiting for this book ever since I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark and heard the phrase "Hitler's a big believer in the occult". Ken Hite has taken a lifetime of study of the subject and turned it into a coherent narrative.

He traces the Nazis interest in magic from the late 19th century, and the influence of various groups on the evolution of their occult beliefs and structures.

I'm not sure if it's a quality of Osprey to exclude them, but for the slower of us at home the book might have been easier to absorb if the info had been presented in supplementary formats (a glossary of terms, a timeline, and a list of people). This concern may be diminished in subsequent readings.

Overall, though, this is a great resource on magic on the Third Reich. I look forward to the sequel.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing melding of fictional (or more fringe-belief nonfiction than most accept) and factual accounts and details to craft a great source for any WWII era games or urban fantasy works. The fact that it was hard to sometimes tell where the lines between facts and conjectures popped in make this an exemplary source on how to fold fringe matters into historical fictions.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ken Hite is always fun. I'm more than a little bit of a WWII buff, but I consistently couldn't identify the line between history and fiction in this book.

[Tolga Sarıkaya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Akademik bir kitap değil. Çok fazla yalan bilgi içeriyor

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pretty excited about this when Ken started plugging it on the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast. (I’ve slowly been going through the entire archive.) It was clear from the segments he did about the real world facts and inspiration that he knew a lot about the subject matter. And while I’d never heard of Osprey Books before, it seemed like a cool format. But I admit I’m a bit disappointed by the end product. The idea of treating Nazi occultism in the same straightforward manner as any other World War II subject is neat. It’s just that this book feels a bit light and uninteresting compared to the free podcast material.

I will say that the presentation of the book is generally good. It’s just eighty pages, but these pages manage to pack in a fair number of photos and illustrations. There are a few full page pieces of artwork that are quite good and would probably be great inspirational material for an RPG campaign or fiction work. There’s some nice sidebars and the text is generally well presented and organized. There’s also a bibliography, which feels a bit too short but I like that it mixes books, movies, and games. Speaking of, Ken references Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, which I love. Finally, I really appreciate that Ken never forgets the Nazis were monsters and he makes sure not to involve the Holocaust in his story.

My main issue is that the content feels a bit too sparse. From what I can tell, the typical nonfiction Osprey books dive really deep into one tiny piece of a conflict. There’s a whole book about one operation to get Mussolini, for example. This book, on the other hand, is a high level overview. There’s a section on the Nazi quest for various relics like the Spear of Destiny and the Grail, and you could make whole books out of these. (People have, and I plan to read the classic Spear text soon.) I also feel like it doesn’t do enough to present a coherent picture of an occult war that feels like a real alternate history. It’s a little too diffuse, and I think it also suffers on that front from not presenting the Allied occult forces. Plus, other than the end of the book, it seems like the Nazi magic efforts didn’t have a huge impact on the war effort. I do like the end, as it sets the stage for an ongoing war between the Allies and a band of Nazis in UFOs, somewhat like Hydra from the Captain America comics. I think there’s another Osprey book about a Nazi Moonbase that follows on from this idea and I may check it out some time. In some ways, it’s the coolest part of the whole thing because Ken didn’t go into it too much but it make me want to read more about the conspiracy theorists that think that really happened.

I guess that’s my takeaway from this book - it makes me want to read more. But I was already sort of there when I listened to the podcast episodes, and I was hoping that I would get more out of this. Even a longer bibliography would have me more enthused, but it only has a handful of books. I think this isn’t necessarily a bad introduction, but it feels fairly introductory, and I wanted something more in depth, especially considering the author and the price point. I still had a kinda fun time reading it, though, and I definitely don’t recommend against it. I just wish it was everything I thought it would be when I heard that Ken Hite was going to write a book about the Nazi Occult.

[Brian Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book in Osprey Publishings new "Dark Osprey" imprint. In a fiction-as-fact* approach, they present a breakdown of Hitler's interest in the occult and then branch that into different organisations within the German army with their own agendas and goals.

As with all Osprey titles, this is well illustrated, making use of drawings and photo's. It looks at certain actions in detail, explaining the uniforms and insignia of these occult branches of the army.

Would appeal to anyone who enjoys the pulp of Indiana Jones, or Weird World War II such as Iron Sky etc.

* Unless that's what THEY want you to think, and it may actually be fact-as-fiction, hiding in the open

[kbreezy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun look at the insane world of the Nazi Occult. Hite writes clearly and concisely, but he also continually blurs the line between historical fact and outright fantasy. He's skilled enough that the truth/fiction line is hard to spot. For example, while it's obvious that German counterinsurgents after WWII (called Werewolves) did not actually include units of actual werewolves, it's not clear whether or not the Germans actually trained units of soldiers in occult magic in the hopes of turning the tide of battle. It's just plausible enough to make you pause, and the book is all the more entertaining because of this.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good, don't get me wrong. It's a slim volume full of nazi occult wackiness, much of which was new to me, that isn't tied down to any game system. It's also densely written, full of interconnections, divided by concept rather than time and not as indexed as I would like. That makes it hard to hop back to and forth between the key players who were involved in more than one part of the German occult movements in the first half of the 20th century.I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

[Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started off as an historical overview of occultism and its ties to the Nazis but it gradually descended into overly dry fictional account of how the Nazis researched and used otherworldly forces during world war 2.
It was somewhat interesting and I can appreciate what Kenneth Hite was trying to do, but it didn’t quite work for me. The RPG crowd would get some use for this if used to set up weird war campaign or something like that!

[Mike O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are at all interested in "Weird WWII", this book is for you. The book does a really good job of presenting an overview of various occult and weird science chapters concerning WWII. If you are looking for background for an RPG set in WWII, such as Godlike, or just a fast fun read then this is worth picking up.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well put together alternate history of the esoteric side of WWII, specifically the German side of things. I look forward to a companion book covering the esoteric war against the 4th Reich and their secret Antarctic base and squadrons of flying saucers.

No, seriously - that's where this book leaves off.

[Stefan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me say that this was an entertaining book to read, but a little too far up the hokum scale for me.

The actual history that is in this book is littered with pure unadulterated BS in my opinion.

There was plenty of eye-rolling going on while I read this book... but like I said, it was entertaining to read. I even had a few chuckles while reading it.

[Jason Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kenneth Hite has put together an interesting resources for gamers who want to use the Nazi occult themes within their game.

There is enough of a blend of fact and fiction to spark ideas for scenarios and campaigns. It is not system specific but instead focuses on key figures and timelines.

[Gurvan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a funny book mixing up truths, half-truths and outright fabrications into a coherent and believable whole...

I really enjoyed it and must add that this book should not be taken at face value! But what a nice yarn!

[Joe Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book. I am really liking the Osprey Dark series. They are written to appear to be serious works of research instead of obvious fiction. I loved the subtle reference the the events in the movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was actual events.

[Jeremiah Genest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good counterfactual, especially of the occult variety. Hite does an excellent job of taking some of the saner Nazi-occult craziness and turning it into a believable narrative.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great source of material for a Weird War II campaign, or perhaps something a little more modern.

[Benjamin]

Another Bundle of Holding bundle of RPGs that I am only now getting around to skim-reading. This was the Osprey Adventures +2 bundle. Osprey is more famous for its books on soldiers (and what they looked like) throughout time, but they branched out with the Adventure line into fiction. Included in this bundler were

1)
Three book in the Myths and Legends Series, which all have the same sort of structure: here is a myth, here's some other related (or variant) myths, here's some historical backing. The book were Wizards (some anecdotes about famous historical wizards); The War of Horus and Set (what it says on the tin); Theseus and the Minotaur (probably my favorite of the set since it feels more comprehensive and deeper).

These books are... probably never going to be looked at again. The info in them can probably be found elsewhere if I ever ran a game requiring knowledge of (say) Egyptian mythology and they did not exactly inspire me to run such a game.

2)
Three books which I will group as about Hunters--people fighting some monster types. These books are written as if non-fiction in the world in which these are real, which is a fun conceit and allows the writer to give footnotes and also declare uncertainty. The books were Zombies (from necromantic to viral, with zombie dogs included); werewolves (every country has werewolf soldiers, that is, both soldiers who are werewolves and soldiers against werewolves); and aliens (in the far future, aliens from Alien and Starship Troopers will attack and only space marines can save us).

These books might be useful as fluff if I was running a game that involved any of these things, but they're also pretty generic. There is no particular take on Zombies or Werewolves or Aliens. Just the movies and books we've seen before. (Also, in this particular moment, zombies feels even more problematic than usual since Zombie stories essentially start from the fantasy of shooting masses of fellow citizens.)

3)
Three books that don't really fall neatly into other categories:
a) We will destroy your planet -- a guide to alien invasion from the alien point of view.
b) The Headless Horseman -- imagines Washington Irving as a psychical detective who battles headless ghosts and monsters around the world, which is fun, but might be better as a story than a guidebook.
c) Kenneth Hite's _Nazi Occult_, which I was really looking forward to because I like his work (with the asterisk that he never misses a chance to blame something on the left: Communist terror? The fault of the left; Pinochet's terror? The fault of the left) and which is also, for me, the standout book of this bundle, combining so much actual history and erudition with some flights of fancy. (I do also love his commitment to recognizing the evil of people rather than, say, pawning off historical crimes as the work of devils or Mi-Go.)

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this work of pseudo-history from Ken Hite is brief by design, it tries to cram too much information into 80 pages, which makes for an overwhelming reading experience. The details come thick and fast, and this firehose of information largely defeats the author's ability to maintain a coherent narrative.

As an introduction to a topic that other writers have covered in greater depth, The Nazi Occult is a decent place to start, with the caveat that the reader will need to do some outside research (thank goodness for Wikipedia!) to make sense of all the names, locations, and organizations that Hite mentions without much explanation.

[Gene Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This really is just a gaming supplement for any Weird War 2 setting. Kenneth Hite, who wrote the wonderfully insane Supressed Transmissions column for Steve Jackson Games, continues with his weaving of fact, fiction, and conspiracy theory madness into a convoluted alternative pulp history here. Useful for what it is, I'm not going to be involved in any such games in the foreseeable future, so I was a tad disappointed. This is part of the Dark Osprey Series from Osprey Publishing, a name which should be familiar to wargamers and model-makers. I might check out one or two more. Some of the titles are intriguing.

[Gregory Klages · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is alarmingly earnest in its wacky claims. Patently ridiculous? Over-the-top humour? Who knows. This book should be read for amusement only, or if you need an excuse to repeatedly slap your forehead and exclaim, "What the fah?"

Example: Hite writes, "Their program to create an army of Nazi zombies never altered the war's strategic balance: undead soldiers remained vulnerable to artillery." This might be included as simple wisdom in some post-apocalytic guide to military strategy... it doesn't offer much help in understanding the Second World War.

[Francisco Becerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book mixes history, speculation, conspiracy theory and fantasy bout the bonkers Nazi occultism, in an incredibel seamlessly way. Here one can find tons and tons and tons of inspiration to use the real life most nasty evil group, and create your own stories and nasty evils. Tons of photos, diagrams and drawings make the reading experience even more rich. However, one must thread carefully through the book and see the fact form the fiction, even talking about fictional concepts that were believed true.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt this was poorly written, it made many outlandish claims without providing evidence. he illustrations looking like something from a video game did not help it's credibility.

[Pål · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, loads of fun, and scary.

[Terrell Tucker]

Interesting book

[Tatiana Alejandra de Castro Pérez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro con pinceladas de historia y muchas ideas sobre ocultismo. Genial para darle más color a las partidas de rol con nazis.

Como siempre, es una gozada leer a Hite.

[Cevizin_kitaplari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anlaşılması çok güç olacak şekilde isim karmaşası var. Ne okuduğunuzu anlamanız zorlaşıyor. Zaman akışı iyi yönetilmemiş.

Kitap kitaplıkta bulunması gereken eserlerden ama okunmuyor

[YogScott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tim Power's-ian fiction rather than history (no surprise given the author's fondness for Powers)

[E. Kahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yetis, magic battles and Nazi zombies, oh my.

This book is pure nonsense but it might be useful to someone planning an RPG campaign with Nazi occultists as villains (or protagonists, if they're real sickos). This might actually be the purpose of the book; the author is apparently involved in the RPG industry.