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Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail
PBS ^ | 11/30/01 | PBS

Posted on 11/30/2001 7:55:36 AM PST by Aquinasfan

Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail

When Steven Spielberg made a movie about an intrepid archaeologist’s fight to keep a precious and powerful artifact — the Holy Grail — out of the hands of the Nazis, it was not widely known that the tale was based on truth. There really was a Nazi archaeological unit and it did send teams across the world to try to find the Grail.

History meets Indiana Jones in HITLER’S SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL, a one-hour documentary airing on PBS Monday, November 27, 2000, 10:00 p.m. ET (check local listings). Host Michael Wood (IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT) explores how history was used as a political tool and how the theories of the Nazi historical department provided the ideology used by the SS (Schutzstaffel – "protection squadron") to justify genocide.

The program outlines how the racialist theories of the SS were drawn from archaeology, myth and legend, as well as selected history. Nazi ideas about "Aryans" and the "master race" came out of historical and ethnic fantasies in which legends such as the Holy Grail and the lost city of Atlantis — supposed to be a home of the Aryan race — played their part.

HITLER’S SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL contains rare and previously unseen footage, including

* color film of the Nazi expedition to Antarctica;
* film of the Nazi expeditions across the world, from the Baltic to Venezuela;
* footage of the 1938 expedition to Tibet, with the measuring of skulls of Tibetans;
* documentary evidence for expeditions to Peru, Iceland and Iran, and footage of SS chief Heinrich Himmler at archaeological sites.

The film conjures the eerie world that permeated the thoughts of key members of the Nazi leadership, especially Himmler, and shows how top scholars, some of them still alive, collaborated in this project.

HITLER’S SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL includes interviews with a former member of Himmler’s personal staff and the wife of a top SS commander, who give unique and unrepentant insight into the mentality of the Nazi inner circle. The program also includes a dramatic recording of the Nuremburg trial of Wolfram Sievers, the head of the SS Ahnenerbe ("Ancestral Heritage Society"), Himmler’s archaeological and historical unit. The Ahnenerbe’s task, according to Himmler, was "to restore the German people to the everlasting godly cycle of ancestors, the living and the descendants."

Himmler was a member of the Thule Society, an extreme nationalist group named after one of the mythical homes of the German people. It was the society’s almost mystical belief in the greatness of the German past — to which Himmler subscribed with fanatical devotion — that was to provide the intellectual ballast to Nazi belief in race and destiny.

The chief administrator of the Ahnenerbe, Dr. Wolfram Sievers, had been heavily involved in the criminal medical experiments that were carried out on Jews in concentration camps, all to prove racial differences and the superiority of the Aryan race. After Germany’s defeat in 1945, Sievers was brought before a war crimes tribunal, found guilty and sentenced to death. He was executed on June 2, 1948. The archaeological world of the Ahnenerbe died with Hitler, Himmler and Sievers; the Ahnenerbe, too, melted away. Many of its top archaeologists, however, returned, unpunished, to university life, only to re-emerge as leading academics in postwar Germany.

Day & time: check with your local station

Underwriters: Public Television Viewers and PBS. Producer: Maya Vision. Producer: Rebecca Dobbs. Director: Kevin Sim. Format: CC STEREO   TV Calendar PBS Previews PBS Picks Telstar/C-band Schedule Primestar, Dish Network & DirecTV Schedule PBS KIDS Channel PBS YOU Schedule    


TOPICS: Announcements; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; heresy; hitler; holygrail; pbs; wwii
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To: lexcorp
"Truth" is being referenced in the form of religious truth. Under which, "God is Love," "we will all be re-incarnated" and "Satan is your buddy" are all Truth... to somebody. None of them are established Fact. 1+1=2 is a Fact. "God=love" is a hypothesis.

Because you are unfamiliar with the proofs for the existence of God does not mean that the proofs are fallacious or non-existent. It simply means that you're ignorant.

181 posted on 12/04/2001 6:58:23 AM PST by Aquinasfan
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Comment #182 Removed by Moderator

Comment #183 Removed by Moderator

To: lexcorp
"I don't know" is the greatest answer in the world, for it leads to understanding. "God is the answer" is a cheap dodge.

For a guy who thinks, "'I don't know' is the greatest answer in the world," you sure have a lot of answers. Like "'God is the answer' is a cheap dodge."

I see clearly now that you are the model of reason that we all should follow.

184 posted on 12/04/2001 7:12:27 AM PST by Aquinasfan
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To: lexcorp; Aquinasfan
Truth is simply decided upon.

Who decided the truth of this?

Is this absolutely true? What if others decide otherwise?


185 posted on 12/04/2001 7:17:25 AM PST by Sabertooth
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To: Heyworth
One of my friends at work "loaned" me the ILLUMINATI TRILOGY a couple years ago. I never got around to reading it yet though.
186 posted on 12/04/2001 7:21:18 AM PST by Bill Rice
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To: Aquinasfan
If you can find it , there is a book that covers this in detail. It's called "The Spear of Destiny" by Ravenscroft. He details all of Hitlers envolvement in the occult. It may be out of print. I got my copy in the 70's. I found it interesting that Patton was the only one that understood the significance of the Spear (that pierced Christ side) when they opened the underground vault full of stolen items. It includes the letter from Ike ordering it's return to the Hapsburg Regalia in Hungury. Very interesting stuff.
187 posted on 12/04/2001 7:24:13 AM PST by marty60
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To: lexcorp; Aquinasfan
are all Truth... to somebody

rather which are posited as Truth. The propositon is still either true or not true in actuality. It cannot be both. It can not be true for some people and not true for other people.

A proposition can be true (metaphysically) without being (yet)proven to be true. Suppose there is revealed Truth from God Himself. Suppose it cannot be otherwise proved or disproved. Then a person can logically accept that revealed truth as being true on the basis of revelation supported by reason. If you accept the source of the revelation, and/or the paths of your own human reason, no reason not to . . .(since it is not provably not true) . . . What if you choose not to accept the source of the revelation? If the proposition is true, it is still true, for you and everyone else . . . Its acceptance does not make it true. Its nonacceptance does not make it not true.

There is no need for derision over the fact that human knowledge and understanding of the Universe have developed over time. Expanding scientific knowledge of the material Universe will not ultimately answer the question of whether or not the immaterial exits, since science deals with questions of the material world. That is the realm of Metaphysics, which is likewise approachable by reason.

Bwah? Special or general?

Thought experiments involving the space twins, e.g. if caught in a massive gravitational field, time compared to the other twin on earth would be such that a whole life-time for the earth twin appears to the distant twin as the same "moment" in time, as all the light from all those events reach the trapped twin at the "same" time. If this analogy helps a person conceptualize "eternity", what is wrong with that? BTW, there is so much out there on space twin thought experiments. Much as I enjoy these discussions, lexcorp, I really cannot get into debating relativity and evolution and etc. with you. I just don't have the "time" . . .

Using the gift of rational thought does not lead an outsider to become a Catholic, or any other religion

It has for some and conversion biographies are out there. I'll leave it at that for now . . .

188 posted on 12/04/2001 8:04:24 AM PST by AMDG&BVMH
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To: "Bare Ruined Choirs"; Aquinasfan
The Democratic Party platform is weirder than Magna Carta

I like that one . . .

189 posted on 12/04/2001 8:20:42 AM PST by AMDG&BVMH
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Comment #190 Removed by Moderator

To: lexcorp
Sure it can. "Chocolate tastes good." "Chocolate tastes like crap." Both are True at the same time, just to different people.

That's not "truth" that's subjective perception. Truth is not dependent on perception. Truth is chocolate tastes like chocolate. You may perceive it as tasty and I may perceive it as nasty but our perceptions have no baring on the truth. When you substitute subjective opinion for truth you ability to look at anything objectively is severely limited.

191 posted on 12/04/2001 10:31:54 AM PST by conservonator
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To: lexcorp
Pardon me for breaking into your oh so deep discussion on the nature of religious experience, but the topic of this thread is occult influences on Nazi Germany.

Whether you believe in God or the devil is irrelevant because clearly the leaders of Nazi Germany believed in both. Furthermore, its clear that this belief influenced their actions.

I'm not trying to demean the quality of your polemics, but they are a distraction to the tread's topic, and frankly are the garden variety insinuations that crop up on all threads dealing w/ a metaphysical subject. Aquinas was a "silly" philosopher? Puhleeeeze.

If you have something to add germane to the subject I would be interested in reading it; if your intent is to try and convince us Christians that we're all a bunch of morons just step off. You're convincing no one and just chewing up bandwidth.

192 posted on 12/04/2001 11:35:56 AM PST by Pietro
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To: Cicero
Wrong Movie. Jones did indeed do battle with the Nazis who were after the Holy Grail in "Indiana Jones - The Last Crusade." Great flick with Sean Connery.
193 posted on 12/04/2001 11:42:17 AM PST by Attillathehon
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To: Aquinasfan
Paul Vitz also makes a strong case in Faith of the Fatherless that atheism is prevalent among those who had poor relationships with their fathers, since earthly fathers are the image of our true Father in heaven.

Heh! That has to be one of the most absurd assertions to pop up on these types of (entertaining) threads to date. Geez, talk about an argument with numerous ungrounded assumptions...

194 posted on 12/04/2001 11:52:46 AM PST by tortoise
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To: Aquinasfan
Because you are unfamiliar with the proofs for the existence of God does not mean that the proofs are fallacious or non-existent. It simply means that you're ignorant.

You have got to be kidding me. The "proofs" of Aquinas are badly flawed and would only pass muster with someone who hasn't been schooled in the basics of reason and logic. Using those particular arguments as "proof" is hardly the badge of someone who has critically studied the matter. I'm not trying to be adversarial here, but Aquinas should have stuck with the stuff he was better at. It is kind of like Isaac Newton, who spent his whole life trying to be a great theologian (being deeply religious). His works on theology are absolute crap; his side hobby of mathematics and physics (much of which he tried to frame in a theological sense) was a much better use of his time even if he didn't recognize it as such.

195 posted on 12/04/2001 12:03:41 PM PST by tortoise
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To: Aquinasfan
Damn it, I would have wanted to see this too!
196 posted on 12/04/2001 12:06:00 PM PST by StoneColdGOP
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Comment #197 Removed by Moderator

Comment #198 Removed by Moderator

To: lexcorp
You are confusing "Truth" and "Fact" again. The fact is, chocolate tastes like chocolate; the truth is, chocolate tastes good. Or bad. Depending.

My dictionary defines truth as "an established or verified fact". The problem is you are confusing truth with subjective opinion. Chocolate tastes like chocolate. How it tastes to the individual has no bearing on what it actually tastes like; subjective opinion is not truth OR fact.

199 posted on 12/04/2001 12:34:26 PM PST by conservonator
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To: tortoise
Please explain to me how Thomas' proofs are in error.
200 posted on 12/04/2001 1:00:31 PM PST by Aquinasfan
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