Esoteric Nazi Spiritualism Backtracked to Odin and the Rune Ar

It would be difficult to find someone who did not know anything about the Nazis, whose reign ended with the outright slaughter of approximately six million Jews, whom they regarded as subhuman, and the worldwide death of approximately 70 to 85 million people: about three per cent of the entire world’s population. Perhaps due to such magnitude, an enduring fascination with Nazism lingers, but few people would know that Nazi leaders viewed their movement as a spiritual one.

Every year, new books about the subject are published, new movies and documentaries are produced, and there is a neo-Nazi movement that envisions a fourth Reich. The continued search for missing Nazi henchmen and the priceless artwork they had stolen has mysticized Nazism, as had claims that Hitler faked his own death and moved to Argentina. Hitler’s personality, too, which many have described as divine and magnetic, has led some to suggest occult involvement. In reality, Hitler, Himmler, and his other minions were interested in the occult, but their beliefs and the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) movement were founded on older spiritual and religious traditions. Nazi leaders’ diaries reveal that they viewed their movement as a spiritual one.