Nazis and the Occult, The

Hitler and the Holocaust. One life, six million deaths. What allowed a great nation to affirm Hitler in unquestioning obedience? Ms. Sklar finds the answer in the dark side of the intellect: a belief in the occult.

Ms. Sklar is not the first to discover a link between the proliferation of occult groups and the rise of Nazism in Germany, but she is first to treat the subject seriously, and in depth. She details the history of the occult movement, which held tremendous sway in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Germany, and exposes its underlying fascist tendencies. Overlapping memberships in mystical societies strengthened political alliances. The rituals, symbols, and attitudes – including virulent anti-Semitism – foreshadowed in astonishing and horrifying detail the language, thoughts, and deeds of der Fuhrer. The Nazis had their roots in an occult sect which believed that the racial struggle between the “pure” Aryan and the “subhuman” Jew was really an ancient supernatural contest between gods and beasts.

Going beyond an analysis of the evolution of German Nazism, Ms. Sklar warns us about the threat of contemporary fanaticism. She sees in movements like Sun-Myung Moon’s Unification Church, L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology, and Werner Erhard’s est many of the same elements which linked Germany’s occult societies and the Nazi party: unquestioning obedience to a messianic leader, secrecy, loyalty to the group above all else, a belief in the “special” powers of members, and ritualistic initiation ceremonies. The Nazis and the Occult provides a ground-breaking perspective on a fearful historical phenomenon in the light of today’s problems. It shows the attraction to occultism in a time of alienation and impotence and warns of the dangers inherent in movements which replace individual conscience with obedience to a leader.