Hitler: The Not-fully-explained Rise of Evil The CBS Disinformation Event of the Year by Servando Gonzalez "A sure thing necessary for evil to flourish is for Wall Street bankers to help" -- S.G. I stopped watching TV more than five years ago. Even with my slight addiction -- I have never been a heavy TV watcher -- it took me some time and effort to quit, but, finally, I got rid of the vice. The only TV set at home is confined to a small exercise room, and it is actually a 13" TV-VCR combo, which I use only for watching films in videocassette. One of the few times I have used it as a TV set was to watch the incredible events of September 11th, 2001. But, after half an hour of constant non-news, with the screen showing a hypnotic loop of the plane crashing against the towers again and again, I turned it off. Two weeks ago, however, on May 18th and 20th, 2003, I made an exception and turned it on again to watch the CBS miniseries "Hitler: The Rise of Evil," which claimed to be "The television event of the year." As a long-time student of the phenomenon of evil -- my book The Secret Fidel Castro: Deconstructing the Symbol (http://www.intelibooks.com/) is actually a study on evil -- the figure of Adolf Hitler has always attracted my attention. I think that most people agree that, if on one extreme we have good, and on the other evil, Hitler stands a step beyond the evil extreme. Suspicious timing The timing for the release of the miniseries is suspicious, to say the least. There is no great commemoration of any particular date justifying it. There are some clues, though. Some people on the left of the political spectrum, particularly the ones who see all the bad things happening in America as the result of a conspiracy of the Republicans and the Right -- which they equate with evil -- have been consistently calling the attention to the growing parallel between George W. Bush and the Nazi leader. Doctored photos of president Bush dressed in Nazi military dress, and sporting a Hitler-like moustache, are proliferating on the Web. By the way, they are not too far off the truth. The parallel between the two characters seems to grow by the day. The images of the Reichstag fire I saw in the small screen, and Hitler's use of it as a pretext to abolish the constitution, his creation of the Enabling Law and its implementation to establish a totalitarian dictatorship in Germany, are too similar for comfort to the events currently happening in America since September 11th, 2001. Seemingly, history repeats itself. Unfortunately, however, "Hitler: The Rise of Evil," falls so short of its target that I cannot blame it on ignorance or stupidity, but on a conscious effort to mislead the American public. I am not a film critic, so I am not going to expand in the artistic aspects of the film. Enough is to say that Robert Carlyle's characterization of Hitler is excellent -- he avoided most of the stereotypes I have seen in previous films about Hitler -- and that the supporting cast, almost without exception, helped to make an interesting film. The atmosphere, and some of the mass scenes depicting the birth of the Nazi movement, are among the best of the genre. The problem with the film, however, is that though it accurately shows Hitler's evil, the explanation of its cause is superficial. Moreover, it does not points to the ones who nurtured the evil monster. The True Cause of Hitler's Evil: The Occult In one key scene, the film depicts Hitler's selection of the swastika sign as a symbol of his Nazi movement as a result either of artistic inspiration or marketing strategy. Nothing further from the truth. Though the events are still blurred under controversy -- in my Web site The Swastika and the Nazis I study 15 different theories, none of them conclusive -- the available facts indicate that Hitler's selection of the swastika was most likely related to his involvement in black magic and occultism. The Thule Society (Thule Gesellschaft), the real inspiration of Nazism, was founded in August, 1919, in Munich, as an off-shoot of the Germanen Order, another secret society, founded under the initiative of a strange character named Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorf. Among its most important members were also Max Amann, Anton Drexler, Dietrich Eckart, Hans Frank, Rudolf Hess, Alfred Rosenberg, Gottfried Feder, and others who later became Nazi leaders. Adolf Hitler belonged to the Society as an "associate" or "visiting brother." The emblem of the Thule Society depicted a German dagger over a sinistroverse swastika (the one whose virtual rotation is counterclockwise) with its curved legs pointing to the right. The Thule Gesellschaft was a front for a whole web of secret societies which had similar racist and anti-Semitic occultist roots. Among the members of these groups were influential people, like the political theorist Gottfried Feder, whose Hammer Union furnished cadres to the future Nazi Party. In this circle of initiates was also Hans Frank, a lawyer member of the Nazi party and future governor-general of Poland. The initiative for the creation of the Thule Society came from Baron von Sebottendorf, head of the Bavarian branch of the Germanen Order. In the name of the Thule Society, Sebottendorf bought the newspaper Voelkischer Beobachter -- which later became the official Nazi Party journal. Dietrich Eckart, for many years Hitler's mentor, provided the money for the purchase. An occultist as well as a rabid nationalist, Eckart and a group of the Society's inner circle had been waiting for the appearance of a German messiah who would fuse politics and religion into an unholy crusade against the ideals of the Christian world. It is believed that it was Eckart who introduced Hitler to the secret world of black magic and occultism. Eckart final words, "Follow Hitler! He will dance, but it is I who have called the tune!" ... "Do not mourn for me: I have influenced history more than any other German," seem to indicated this. Though the film devotes some time to describe Hitler's stay at Landsberg Fortress prison after his failed Munich putsch in 1923., and his work with his aid Rudolf Hess in the writing of Mein Kampf, it totally ignores an almost daily visitor: Professor Karl Haushoffer. Among Haushoffer's students at Munich university was a young, bright army officer: Rudolf Hess. Soon Hess became Haushoffer favorite student. Later Hess also became one of the closest associates of Hitler. It is a well known fact that it was Rudolf Hess who introduced Haushoffer to Adolf Hitler. Haushoffer was a member of several secret organizations, and was heavily involved in occultism. Most people ignore that Hitler's true motive for the annexation of Austria was not politics, but occultism. In his book The Spear of Destiny, Trevor Ravenscroft mentions an occult legend which stated that the "Spear of Destiny", also known as the "Spear of Longinus", was the actual spear with which a Roman soldier pierced Jesus' side at his crucifixion. Like some occultists, Hitler believed that whoever possessed this spear and understood the powers it served, held the destiny of the world in his hands for good or evil. The "Spear of Destiny" belonged to the Hapsburg Family in Austria, and was housed in the Hapsburg Treasure House Museum in Vienna. Hitler made many visits to see the Spear when he was young; and spent long hours admiring it. After he assumed absolute dictatorial powers over both Germany and Austria, the first thing he did was travel to Austria, and steal the Spear from the Museum. From that moment, Hitler believed he controlled the power of the occult, and was invincible in war. It is useful to remember that modern Iraq is located in the center of Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization on planet earth. The history of ancient Mesopotamian culture begins in 5000 B.C., with the Sumerians, then the Babylonians and Assyrians. Some occultists believe that, in earlier times, planet earth was visited by intelligent beings from outer space. Most of them landed and colonized the area now known as Iraq. Some archeological pieces in museums of the area are believed to be artifacts, or depictions of artifacts, brought by extraterrestrials. Some occultists are convinced that at least some of the visitors came from Planet Mars. This year will be the closest that Mars has come to our planet in nearly 60,000 years. It is an important year for occultists all around the planet. When I listened to the news of the strange circumstances surrounding the looting of the museum in Baghdad, I felt a strange sensation in the pit of my stomach. Just the thought that the true causes of this weird, unexplainable war, conceived by a President who is a member of a secret society, may have been not oil and greed, as many believe, but something more dark and sinister, gives me the creeps. The True Cause of Hitler's Evil: Wall Street Bankers If one is to believe the film, Hitler came to power in Germany with the financial help of some German capitalists. As depicted in the film, it was the enigmatic "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, a German- American, the one who promoted Hitler among the wealthy in Germany. At the end of the film it is mentioned, without further explanation, that eventually Hanfstaengl became disenchanted with the Nazis and moved back to the US, where he became a counselor on Nazi things for president Roosevelt. What is missing in the picture is that Hanfstaengl, a shady figure who had a strange role in the Reichstag fire --the event which most helped Hitler in his grab for power-- was not only a friend and protegé of Roosevelt, but had strong connections among Wall Street bankers. The best study of the role of Wall Street bankers in financing Hitler's Nazi party is Antony Sutton's Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, and I am going to borrow most of the information for this section from his book. I suggest readers interested in the subject to buy a copy of professor Sutton's book and read it carefully. In his book, Sutton provides ample information proving that some American companies associated with Wall Street bankers, mainly the Morgan-Rockefeller investment bankers, were closely linked to the growth of Nazi industry in the late thirties. The main companies participating in this exchange were Ford, General Electric, General Motors, and Dupont, all of them, with the exception of Ford, controlled by Wall Street bankers. Among U.S. millionaires helping the Nazis were the Rockefellers, William Randolph Hearst Sr., Andrew Mellon, Irenee du Pont, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan, just to name a few of the most conspicuous ones. It is know that Hitler, who at the end of WWI was living in precarious economic conditions, by the early 1920s suddenly began living like a wealthy man, with plush apartments, mansions, expensive suits, luxury cars, servants and body guards. It is known that some American Wall Street bankers, and the companies they controlled had been pouring money into Hitler's big pockets. Instrumental in making the connections between American bankers and Nazi leaders were Allen and John Foster Dulles, then corporate lawyers at Sullivan and Cromwell. Another important firm who heavily collaborated with the Nazis was W.A. Harriman & Company. In 1931 Harriman & Company merged with another company and became Brown Brothers, Harriman. One of the senior partners of the new company was Prescott Bush, president W. Bush's grandfather. In 1942 the U.S. government charged Prescott Bush with running Nazi fronts in the U.S. During the investigation, it was found that Prescott Bush's companies had been covertly working for Nazi Germany. The collaboration of Wall Street and the Nazis did not end when Hitler, like Frankenstein's monster, turned against the ones who had created him. After the U.S. declared war on Germany, the ubiquitous Allen Dulles, now acting as an Office of Strategic Services' senior intelligence officer in Bern, began dealing under the table with the Nazis. Dulles was instrumental in helping to escape and bringing to America many defeated Nazi leaders. The Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana wrote that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The problem with Santayana's dictum is that, before remembering the past, one must ask oneself: Which past? Which History? Distorting the past the way this CBS miniseries has done is an effort to guarantee that the mistakes of the past will be repeated again and again. ----------- Servando González is a Cuban-born American author. Among his books are Historia herética de la revolución Fidelista, The Secret Fidel Castro: Deconstructing the Symbol, and The Nuclear deception: Nikita Khrushchev and the Cuban Missile Crisis.