Ahnenerbe
The Society for Research and Teaching on German Ancestral Heritage (in German, "Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte‚ Deutsches Ahnenerbe e.V."), known as Ahnenerbe (in Spanish: Herencia Ancestral) or also SS-Ahnenerbe, was a German pseudoscientific entity formally established in 1935 by leaders and ideologists of the National Socialist German Workers Party to conduct and disseminate research for educational purposes in support of Nazi ideology and, in particular, its theories related to the Aryan race, in parallel with its research on the German race.
In 1940, during the Second World War, the Ahnenerbe was integrated into the structure of the SS, the fundamental organization of the State apparatus of the Third Reich, and directed, under the presidency of Heinrich Himmler, by Walther Wüst and Wolfram von Sievers. He oriented his activity towards archaeological, ethnological and anthropological expeditions in South American countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and also in the Himalayan region. At the end of the war it was dissolved and its activities investigated at the Nuremberg trials. It was declared a criminal organization in 1946 along with the SS. Sievers was tried and sentenced to death as a war criminal. By its nature, the Ahnenerbe and its history are one of the topics addressed by controversial theories about Nazi occultism.
Origins: 1935–1939
The Ahnenerbe is registered as a foundation based on contributions on July 1, 1935, inspired by Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Wirth and the theorist Walter Darré, with the following purpose, as established in the indictment of the Nuremberg trial called & #34;from doctors':
...to carry out research on the North's indogermic race and disseminate its results in an interesting way to the public.Ahnennerbe. NUERNBERG MILITARY TRIBUNAL Volume II · Pages III, IV & V
Later, in 1940, it was integrated into the SS as the ethnological coordinating section, Ahnenerbe-Stiftung, of the Military Scientific Research Institute, Institut für Wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung. In its organizational chart, it was chaired by Himmler and directed by the rector of the University of Munich, Professor Sturmbannführer-SS Walther Wuest. Its administration in numerous departments was placed under the responsibility of Colonel Standartenführer-SS Wolfram Sievers.
Its activities were initially focused on the fields of anthropology and archeology with the aim of demonstrating the theories of racial superiority, defended since the 1910s by the extremists of the Thule Society, later adopted by the political doctrine of Adolf Hitler.
Tibet Expedition
In 1938, the Ahnenerbe sponsored the sending of an expedition to Tibet, the only one known outside of Germany despite its secret nature, under the direction of biologist Ernst Schäfer, despite his misgivings about Himmler's obsession with occultism..
He left in April 1938, and arrived in Tibet the following January. The team included Bruno Beger, who studied the skulls of about 400 people to try to prove that Tibet was the birthplace of a Nordic race. His first conclusions were that the Tibetans were somewhere between the Mongols and the European races. Other members of the team were Edmont Geer and Karl Vinert. It is speculated that Schäfer may have personally attempted to prove that the Yeti was a species of bear, and although he did not find this specimen, he did send over 50 animals to Germany for further study, as well as 5,000 various types of grain. The team also acquired 108 pages of the sacred text Kangschur.
The expedition formally ended in May 1939, but Schäfer would not publish his results until 1950, with the title: Festival of the White Gauze Scarves: A research expedition through Tibet to Lhasa, the holy city of the god realm .
Activities in the Caucasus
The Ahnenerbe carried out various activities in the Caucasus, mainly in the area of Mount Elbrus and the areas of nearby lithic remains, as well as ancient settlements of the Alans. It is speculated that the Ahnenerbe was looking for a connection between the Aryans and/or Goths with the prehistoric constructions in the area.
Remains of Ahnenerbe's work have been found in the area: in the summer of 2015, a briefcase with Ahnenerbe's emblems was found with a strange non-human skull, a ring and a Nazi uniform and about 200 bodies were found. of German soldiers who had been buried by an avalanche. A detailed map of the Adygea area was also found and there are details of the so-called "operation Edelweiss" of the Wehrmacht who climbed Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe. This expedition was carried out by the 49th Mountain Corps of the Wehrmacht, which camped in Maikop; between the Psheja and Pshish rivers the Germania and Nordland tank regiments were established. In the fall of 1942, the 3rd Squadron of the 14th Reconnaissance Group was established at Maikop Airport, which had highly equipped twin-engine Fw-189 aircraft for reconnaissance.
Before beginning the hostilities of the Second World War, the German army offered collaboration to the USSR to build a mountain road between Pitsunda, Black Sea coast, to Ritsa, a nature reserve where Lake Ritsa is located. The collaboration was due, as it later became known, to Germany's interest in using the waters of a spring in a cave located under Lake Ritsa for the manufacture of human blood plasma, since the Ahnenerbe had established that its composition was ideal for this purpose. end.
1939-1945
Starting in 1939 and during World War II, the Ahnenerbe, operationally directed by Wolfram Sievers, organized, according to Himmler's guidelines, the trafficking of human beings destined for the experiments of associated SS scientists and researchers and their supply in materials and equipment, although he did not supervise the technical relevance of the work.
Crimes at the Strasbourg Anatomical Institute
The prisoners who suffered these experiments, later considered a crime against humanity, came mainly from the Natzweiler and Dachau camp, whose facilities and equipment were at the express disposal of the Ahnenenrbe for the investigations directed especially actively by Prof. Hauptsturmfuehrer-SS August Hirt and Dr. Sigmund Rascher, from the Anatomical Institute of the Reichsuniversität in Strasbourg.
1946: conviction
The evidence provided from Professor Hirt's collection and the Dachau and Struthof experiments led to the military court room I of the Nuremberg trial, known as the "Doctors' trial", condemning him to the sentence on October 26, 1946. hanging Colonel Wolfram Sievers for the murders, brutalities, torture and other inhuman acts in which this organization participated. The sentence was carried out on June 2, 1948, and he was the only known member of the Ahnenerbe to be executed.
Experiments
It was considered that the Ahnenerbe procured the resources for various experiments to be carried out with criminals convicted and executed in the Dachau and Struthof-Natzweiler concentration camps, as established in the document or sentence of the doctors' trial.
- Attitude resistance: inside depressurization chambers in Dachau, many prisoners suffered death;
- Malaria strain injections and mosquito gland extracts;
- Frost resistance: on August 15, 1942, Rascher undertook freezing studies at low temperatures to prisoners in Dachau for the benefit of Luftwaffe.
- Infection of wounds with mustard gas;
- Potabilization of marine water: prisoners were deprived of food and the only drink supplied were different variants of chemically treated marine water;
- Inoculation of jaundice;
- Inoculation of typhus.
Expeditions canceled
Bolivia
After winning twenty thousand Reichsmarks in a writing contest, Edmund Kiss traveled to Bolivia in 1928 to study temple ruins in the Andes. He claimed that their apparent similarity to ancient European structures indicated that they had been designed by Nordic migrants millions of years earlier. He also claimed that his findings supported the world ice theory, which claimed that the universe originated from a cataclysmic collision between giant balls of ice and shiny dough. Arthur Posnansky had been studying a local site called Tiwanaku, which he also believed supported the theory.
After contacting Posnansky, Kiss approached Wüst for help planning an expedition to excavate Tiwanaku and a nearby site, Siminake. The team would consist of twenty scientists, who would excavate for a year and also explore Lake Titicaca, and take aerial photographs of ancient Inca roads that they believed had Norse roots. At the end of August 1939, the expedition was about to embark, but the German invasion of Poland caused the expedition to be postponed indefinitely.