The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust

by Heather Pringle

Book Overview

A groundbreaking history of the Nazi research institute whose work helped lead to the extermination of millions In 1935, Heinrich Himmler established a Nazi research institute called The Ahnenerbe,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786868864
• ISBN13: 9780786868865
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.8" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Whoever Controls the Past, Controls the Future...

Heather Pringle's "The Master Plan" gives an excellent history of the Ahnenerbe, the special branch of the Nazi SS made up of some of Germany's leading scientists and scholars whose purpose it was to document the history and prehistory of Germany and the Aryan race. These scientists, often hand-picked by Heinrich Himmler himself, were intended to provide the historical and scientific justification for the Nazi's ideology and conquests. Much of this story has remained largely unknown and Pringle's work is the first book that provides a comprehensive account of this fascinating subject. Himmler was obsessed with the idea that he could validate the superiority of the Aryan peoples and the supremacy of the German "volk" by providing clear scientific evidence supporting these claims. Where such evidence was lacking, it could be invented. Thus was born the SS Ahnenerbe, a organization that operated under the guise of unbiased scientific inquiry by some of the leading German scholars of the day. The findings of the Ahnenerbe were used to justify the Final Solution and the sinister deeds of the Nazis as the German war machine steamrolled across the world. Pringle's book explores the lives of the many scientists who served the Ahnenerbe and the various expeditions that were undertaken in the service of the Reich. It was these very archaeological undertakings that partly served as the inspiration for the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Pringle's book also makes clear Himmler's agenda to alter the very fabric of German society, especially religion. Himmler was a passionate anti-Christian who believed that Germany should be returned to the pagan religion of their ancestors. To that end, he used the SS as a prototype for a future society that would embrace the beliefs and practices of their Aryan forbearers. Himmler understood that if you can control what people know and understand about their past and their ancestors then you can control the future of that society. History is written, or often RE-written, by the victors for a reason. The Ahnenerbe was created for this very purpose. It is an important piece in the complex puzzle of understanding the motivations of the Nazis and why they did the things they did. Pringle's book is an excellent addition to that understanding.

Read this one

There are two recent books that touch on this subject. Ms. Pringle's and Christpher Hale's "Himmler's Crusade". Hale's book is about the expedition to Tibet, which also occupies a large part of this book. Even so, go with this one. Ms. Pringle is an excellent researcher and writes very well. She avoids veering off and making mistakes about military affairs, a major weakness in Hale's book. In addition, this book goes beyond the Tibet expedition (a fascinating subject) and takes up additional matters regarding the group set up by the SS to examine racial-biological-political issues. If you have an interest in Himmler or the SS, you won't be sorry you read this book.

Outstanding!

In the bright daylight of modern day it's with some difficulty that one attempts to comprehend the horrendously monstrous things that the Nazi regime perpetrated against some of their fellow human beings. Everyone has read books or stories about the Nazi atrocities committed against the Jewish people, but Ms. Pringle's highly researched book really delves deeper into the "Final Solution" of the Third Reich and details the acts of the upper echelon of scientists and scholars involved in it. All through this book I was wondering what could motivate seemingly "normal" people to devise and even participate in these terrible events? This even seems to be the author's final question about her own research. Probably the most striking thing about these events and the people involved in them is the fact that so many got away cleanly and continued to live normal everyday lives, some even going on to great accomplishments in academia. For anyone interested in the WWII era or interested in the true underlying framework behind the Holocaust, I cannot more strongly recommend Ms. Pringle's book. Even for those like myself who have researched this area of history extensively, one can still be shocked by the almost unbelievably heinous motivations and actions of those who actually carried out the "Final Solution".

A fascinating and new glimpse of the face of evil

It is just possible that Heinrich Himmler was even worse than Adolf Hitler. This well-researched and equally well-written book tells the previously almost unknown story of Himmler's subversion of scholars, scholarship, and academic integrity in the pursuit of a justification for genocide. The author brings to light the story of the research activities sponsored by the SS in the attempt to create the mythology and folklore of the Aryan race. Archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnologists, and academics all put their own rise in Nazi Germany over truth and ethics. The remarkable expeditions taken all over the world, as far as Tibet, in pursuit of relics that were perverted to represent the purity and superiority of the Aryans, are described in thrilling detail. Of course, the outcome of all this research and pseudoscholarship was an intellectual rationalization for the genocide of Jews, and other so-called inferior races. The book is chilling as it makes us realize how far educated men and women will go to advance their own interests. It also shows that Himmler was planning to create an entire religion of Aryanism, that would eventually replace all other faiths in the Thousand Year Reich. Just when you think you have read everything worth reading about the Third Reich, a book like this comes along. A great read and worth every sobering moment