Hitler’s Monsters

A Supernatural History of the Third Reich

By: Eric Kurlander

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is often dismissed as Himmler's personal obsession or wildly overstated for its novelty. Preposterous though it was, however, supernatural thinking was inextricable from the Nazi project. The regime enlisted astrology and the paranormal, paganism, Indo-Aryan mythology, witchcraft, miracle weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis in reimagining German politics and society and recasting German science and religion. In this eye-opening history, Eric Kurlander reveals how the Third Reich's relationship to the supernatural was far from straightforward. Even as popular occultism and superstition were intermittently rooted out, suppressed, and outlawed, the Nazis drew upon a wide variety of occult practices and esoteric sciences to gain power, shape propaganda and policy, and pursue their dreams of racial utopia and empire.

©2017 Eric Kurlander (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

An interesting book

On one hand, it worked to the allies advantage that the Nazis were distracted with some of these occult beliefs since it took away from focusing on fighting the war, and hindered their efforts. It also led to the NAZIs doing some of the most horrific things to people, and committing crimes against humanity. It was interesting to see how some of these stories were used in propaganda in the Reich to perpetuate their reign.

Nazi Uses of the Occult: Extremes of Twisted Faith

A cornucopia of research and knowledge about the Nazi manipulation of Germans before and during WWII. The use of twisted folk propaganda to justify the oppression and mass murder of ethnic groups in Europe and starting a world war. The book delves deep into occult thinking among Nazi leaders and their use of border science to achieve their ends. A. excellent read and eye opener on Nazi world views. Also a warning to the present and future on how easily humans are bent by masters of deception.

Great scholarship, poor reader

If you could sum up Hitler’s Monsters in three words, what would they be?

Scholarly, balanced, well-researched

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Grover Gardner?

I wish that the production company had chosen *any* reader who is capable of pronouncing German words correctly. Ignorance of foreign languages is a widespread problem in audiobooks. Since I study German literature, I am always pleased to find audiobooks relating to my interests, but I have rarely, if ever, found a reader who actually knows how to pronounce German words in a way that doesn't make me cringe. If the book is about German subject matter, and uses a large number of German words and names, pick a reader who knows at least the basic rules of German pronunciation!

Any additional comments?

Excellent scholarly treatment of the issues surrounding the supernatural and border science in the Third Reich. I am a professor of German literature, and have done some research on occultism, parapsychology, and related phenomena, so I was eager to read this book, and pleased to find it in audiobook format (despite my dissatisfaction with the reader). Kurlander offers a well-researched account of the topic that draws deeply on primary sources, as well as addressing theoretical and historical work on related topics by other leading scholars. I would love to see more audiobooks of scholarly works like this, as opposed to the popular histories that are more common in audio format.

Revelatory

One would have thought that there was no more to be known about the mind set that brought us Hitler and the Nazis.

One would be wrong.

This is a good book

This is a good book. It develops a side to Nazi history. It isn't that he is presenting previously unknown information. He's not. But he is developing it in an interesting way that gives me new thoughts about the subject.