WEBVTT - Part Two: Savitri Devi: The Woman Who Turned Nazism into a Religion 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:07.480 M. Welcome back to Behind the Bastards, the podcast where 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:11.559 every week we read about a terrible person, and this 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:14.160 one is part two of the story of Savitri Debby 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:18.000 and most importantly, today is the episode recorded on the 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.720 tail end of my recorder's batteries. So we are fucking 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:27.880 dare devils right now. Wow? Okay, I like Robert, you're edging. Yeah, 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:32.720 this is the podcast edging. Yes, this is edging. This 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.200 is what it means. This has never been totally clied 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:37.159 what edging is, but I think that this I am 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.120 the first person to edge more than a hundred thousand 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.720 people at the same time. Wow. Okay, that was a 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:48.800 flex on many levels, and I'm just going to through it. Okay. 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:54.240 So that's what edging is, just plowing through it. Wow. 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.800 Edging is when you're like, I'm not going when you 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.160 bring someone to Yeah, you go to the edge of orgasm, 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.440 but you keep you keep you keep stopping, and then 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:08.520 that's the joke. Okay, Okay, Well I've brought up the 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:11.120 joke originally, and now I'm explaining why I was corrected, 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:16.679 which is what all great comedians do. So in October 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:21.200 of nineteen, Hitler's death still fresh on her mind. Savitri 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.120 Devi took part in the Festival of Kali at the 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:28.279 Kalighat Temple in Calcutta. Now. Kali is the Hindu deity 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.720 of destruction, a blueskinned goddess, and in traditional depictions, she 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.720 wears a necklace of severed heads, a skirt made from 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:38.360 severed arms, and wields just about every conceivable manner of 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.720 ancient weapon in her many arms. You see a lot 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:43.840 of times. Yeah, it's really cool. Like some of the 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.559 statues of her like fucking twenty feet tall. It's metal 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:51.760 as hell. Um. Yeah. So, as the goddess of destruction, 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.200 Kali tends to inspire some pretty powerful feelings. As Tri 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:57.520 stared up at the image of her goddess covered in 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.480 gore and armed with massive swords the size of small ours, 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.440 she blgged Cali for her blessing, a blessing of violence 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.440 and destruction against the Allied powers who had destroyed her 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.320 beloved Nazi Germany. She left the ceremony convinced that it 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:12.400 was now her duty to do what she'd failed to 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.440 do back in nineteen thirty nine. She had to finally 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:17.960 travel to Germany and take part in the resistance to 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:21.680 the Allies by any means necessary. She left her twenty 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:23.840 cats in the care of a friend and left her 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:30.560 Oh my god, and the cats. Yeah, it's pretty wild 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:37.600 cats behind. This is a person who leaves her twenty 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:39.920 cats behind and the care of a friend to go 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.160 be a Nazi, like a month or two after Hitler died, 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.600 Like months after Hitler do you get that texts just 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:49.600 like hey, um so, like I have to go do 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:54.359 a thing. Could you look after my cats? Indefinitely? Right? No? No? 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:57.240 Could you look after my cats? And definitely will I 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:02.320 go to try to resurrect Nazism in nineteen forties Germany 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:07.200 parentheses there's twenty of the cats, by the way, just because, 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:16.120 oh my god, it's good stuff. All the cruel and 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.720 horrible things that this woman has done. I don't even 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.000 know all of them. Yet this has to be like 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:25.400 top ten. This is bad. It's pretty bad. She's a 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:29.960 bad Yeah, she's not a great friend or person, but 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.160 she does finally reach the birthplace of Hitlerism, the center 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:37.560 of the ideology she'd adopted for herself in nineteen She 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.680 later wrote in her book Golden the Furnace that the 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.200 gods had ordained that I should have a glimpse of ruins, 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:47.119 bitter irony of fate. Germany at that point was still 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.800 largely destroyed and chopped up into four pieces by its 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.320 victorious enemies. So Very Tree's writing about this time shows 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.680 a wild ignorance about the extent of actual Nazi crimes, 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.720 because she's so horrified and how bad things are in Germany. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.240 She writes, quote one remembers, I say that episode of 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.440 the Second War is one beholds the ruins of all 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:07.280 the German cities, the plight of men and women in 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:09.400 the overcredit areas still fit to live in, and all 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.720 the misery, all the bitterness consequent of that devilish bombing. 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.279 Streams of fire, tons of phosphorus relentlessly poured over his 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.520 people for five years. These were England's thanks to Adolf 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:21.960 Hitler for having shown mercy to her soldiers in his 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.600 hour of victory. These were the thanks of the United 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.200 States of America for his older's orders not to shoot. 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.040 The parachute is captured on German soil, which is like 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:35.880 so she's she's framing the the British evacuations uh from 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.200 the coast of France as like German mercy rather than 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.400 incompetence on Hitler's behalf, which they actually were just rank 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.919 and competence on Hitler's behalf. He's also talking about the 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:51.800 mercy of Germany and not killing captured Allied UH paratroopers, 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:55.640 which was illegal. And in doing this she's ignoring, for 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.480 one example, the Malmedy massacre, in which a WAFF and 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:02.159 s S troop massacred eight four American POWs with machine guns. 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.320 She's also ignoring the estimated three point three million Russian 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.200 POWs who died in German custody. But if I wind 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:10.880 up actually arguing actual history with a dead Nazi will 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:12.360 be here all day. So we're just going to move 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:16.080 forward from that. But fair she whitewashes things a bit, 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:22.040 is the point? Just a bit, just a scooch Just 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.440 obviously it's gonna be horrible seeing Germany after World War Two, 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.560 because like the bombing campaign over Germany was one of 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:33.120 the greatest crimes in history. That said, they kind of 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:43.400 had it coming tonight. I mean, fun man, if anyone 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:48.520 has ever deserved that, it's fucking Nazi Germany. They do 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:54.680 present themselves as a pretty clear target. Good, yeah, you 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.440 can you can say the Allies. Maybe the Allies went 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.160 overboard in some areas, will also being like, but what 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.320 were they supposed to do? I think a bit of 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:10.160 an overreaction may have been Historically you're like, okay, okay, yeah, 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.440 you gotta do something. Yeah, you know, I it's it's 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:18.200 something to not be happy about. But of the list 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.440 of historical crimes I'm going to be outraged at, it's 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:31.040 lower than, for example, the ones committed by Nazi Germany. Yeah, sure, sure, yeah. Um. Now, 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.479 before visiting Germany, Savitri had hung out in Sweden, where 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.240 a number of Nazis had fled after the war. There 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.920 she met spinn Head and a Nazi supporting explorer and author, 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.279 and a number of former members of the Nazi Party 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.120 who were hiding out there because you know, it was 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.280 a crime to be a Nazi. Now, she told them 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.560 her mission was to deliver a message of hope to 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.880 the German people. Now, since Nazism was a bit unpopular 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.400 after the Second World War, she wasn't able to find 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:00.400 any printers in Sweden to actually print out this message 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:03.360 of hope, so instead, Savitri Devi had to write out 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:07.039 five hundred leaflets by hand. Each featured a swastika, and 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.960 these words quote men and women of Germany, in the 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.800 midst of unspeakable riggers and suffering, hold fast to our 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.520 glorious national socialist faith and resist, Defy the people, Defy 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.360 the powers which work to denazify the German nation and 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.440 the whole world. Nothing can destroy what is built on truth. 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.120 We are pure gold which can be tested in the furnace. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.080 The furnace may glow and crackle, nothing can destroy us. 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.559 One day we will rebel and triumph again. Hope and wait, 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:37.640 Heil Hitler. So she writes five of these by hand 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:42.080 and wearing a sorry and swastika earrings. Savitri Devi takes 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.600 a train across Germany and tosses out hundred of leaflets 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.120 um over the course about fifteen hours. Attached to each 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:51.840 was a gift, a small amount of coffee, sugar, butter, 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.320 sardines or cigarettes. She considered this journey to be an 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.840 act of religious devotion, describing the leaflets as written and 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.160 throne by the gauze through me. As her train crossed 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.000 from Germany into Belgium, She's sang a Hindu him to Shiva. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:11.480 So a lot of commitment, a lot of commitment is 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.200 going into this yes, yes, and that is all you 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:19.640 can say. Yeah, that is yeah. Now. So she gets 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:21.800 inspired by the success of her first visit and she 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.560 plans two more trips through Germany. She spent a little 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:26.880 bit of time resting in London and meeting up with 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.920 fascists in London. Uh and because of all the fascists 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.040 that are in London, she's able to actually find a 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.920 printer to print up six thousand additional leaflets to take 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:38.000 to Germany. Using a connection to an old friend in France, 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.560 she secured a military permit to visit Germany for a 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:44.199 longer period of time, claiming not falsely that she intended 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.400 to write a book about the nation's post war trials. 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.200 Her second tripped into Germany lasted three months and she 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:53.679 successfully handed out all six thousand leaflets. She also met 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:55.720 with a number of old Nazis, none of the none 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:57.560 of them were very high ranking. These were like third 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:02.960 rate Nazis, former po w's, and some of these POWs 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.439 did have legitimate stories of Allied brutality that they faced 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.440 in captivity, because like you know, it was a war. Um. 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:14.360 She interviewed numerous German citizens, introducing herself at the start 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.520 as a committed Nazi. To gain their trust, Savitri would 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:19.720 then talk about her belief that Adolph Hitler was still 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:22.080 alive somewhere in the world, and a shure these defeated 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.240 Nazis that surely there were only two or three years 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.160 away from a revival of Nazism in Germany. Imagine that 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.600 Hitler was your tupac, Like that is such a wild 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:36.079 That's like Hitler's like, No, he's on an island somewhere. 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:41.160 You don't understand He's going to drop amazing album. Yeah, 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:46.640 he's got an album. Really, Yeah, you don't be the 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:51.439 holograms a decoy? Yeah that sleek. I mean, I think 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.360 we can. I mean that said, we both agreed that 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.520 the hologram is a deco. Oh no, the hologram is 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:02.720 absolutely decoy. Okay. Now, one of of these conversations um 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.440 that Savitri had with a former Wehrmacht soldier is worth 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:07.520 me reading out here. And I'm gonna quote again from 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.320 the book Hitler's priestess quote, continuing his narrative to post 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.360 war conditions and occupied Germany. The old fighter's face darkened. 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:18.080 Nice people to talk about freedom and justice. These damned democrats, 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.400 they have tied us hand and foot, so we cannot move. 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.600 They have muzzled us, so we can offer no resistance 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:25.320 while they plunder our country left and right, dismantle and 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:28.360 carry off our factories piece by piece, cut down our forests, 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:30.800 take our oil, our iron or steel, all that we have, 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:33.320 and into the bargain, make people believe that we were 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.720 to blame for the war, These confounded liars. He lusted 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.120 for revenge. He longed for the day when the last 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:42.040 Allies ran for their lives to escape Germany, when Paris 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.920 would lay in ruins at its next German occupation, next 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.680 time he would show neither mercy nor good humor. Savitri 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.080 Devi felt a sense of mounting excitement as his mood 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.600 became ever uglier, and he began to describe in a 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.280 raised voice, how he would kill his enemies. This was 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.040 the spirit she sought, the rolling eyes of a wounded animal, 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.640 a war god of the Stone age, thirst for blood, 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.360 barbaric magnificence. It was a perfect meeting of minds, the violent, 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:07.440 resentful German and the Aryan prophetess of revenge. The day 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:12.760 of reckoning seemed already nearer. Oh okay uh, she's a 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:16.319 fun trip to Germany. I mean, you know, she had 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.280 me at the beginning with the you know, feeling plundered 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:23.319 and betrayed by the Democratic Party. Sure, yes, that's a 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.079 strong start talking about the Democratic Party. Though I know, 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:32.120 I know, I just there, Rob Robber, I was away 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:33.839 from the mic at that point. What else can I do? 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.040 I can confirm you were not away from the mic, 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:43.920 as I think everyone you're right upon. This is revisionist, 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:48.199 This is absurd, This is Savitri DEVII levels of revisionists. 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:53.679 You are the Savitri Devi of this party. That's so mean. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.800 At least make me the Elizabeth Holmes of this podcast. Jeez, 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.160 you have not earned that yet, James, Make me a 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:05.760 fun one, Make me a fun bastard. Come on, make 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:10.240 me a fun tragic one with a pony tail at least. Yeah, 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:15.040 there's nothing tragic about Savitri um So. She returned to 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.439 France at December of ninety eight and immediately began to 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.280 write a book, Gold in the Furnace, about her experiences 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.959 and her growing conception of Hitlerism is something beyond what 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:27.079 the old National Socialists had really believed. In February of 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.360 nineteen nine, three chapters into her book, Savitri Devi was 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:34.000 arrested by French authorities. She spent a total of six months. Yeah, 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.400 because you know it's illegal to be a Nazi for 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.160 good reason. I'm like, wait, hold on, unpacked that, yes, 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:44.440 I understand. Yeah. She spent a total of six months 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:47.600 in pre trial attention and then prison after her conviction 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.760 for spreading Nazi propaganda. The time behind bars was good 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.679 for Savitri, as it historically often is for Nazis who 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:57.160 fancy themselves writers like her Idol Adolf Hitler. She used 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.720 her prison time as an excuse to finish her first book. 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.400 Just uses it as like a sabbatical, as one would 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:07.400 is sabbatical. Yeah, it's an old Nazi story. She also 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.959 took the opportunity to meet even more old Nazis. A 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.640 lot of National Socialists were still imprisoned by the British 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.720 occupation forces, and these old fighters were all too happy 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.520 to talk with Savitri Devi. Her dearest friend in the 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.120 prison was a former war dress from the bergen Belson 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:26.480 concentration camp, a quote beautiful looking woman, a blonde of 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.280 about my age. In Devie's words, she claimed that this 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.440 war criminal had the classical beauty of a chieftain's wife 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.040 in ancient Germany. And again this was a woman who 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:40.760 worked at a concentration camp voluntarily the languages. So yeah yeah, 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.199 and writes about like how cruel this woman's imprisonment was 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:47.959 and how nice the concentration camps was. Like she's trash, 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.360 She's she's trashed, She's she's absolute trash. I'm not gonna 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.640 like spend a lot of time debunking her ship, like 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.800 she's garbage. Yeah, and it's crazy. I mean it's like 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:00.880 she is the one that that is like providing all 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.120 of this information to She is the source. Yeah, she 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:06.600 is the source. And again I can't say it enough. 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.760 She never had the kutzpah to actually go to Nazi 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:15.079 Germany while it existed. I think because number one, she 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.280 would have been disappointed because like none of this this 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:19.920 weird religious ship she attached to it was an actual 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:24.760 part of Nazism in Nazi Germany. Um, Like she would 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.160 have like she would have been like a just like 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.040 she might have gotten knocked up by some Nazi, like 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:33.880 at the orders of Heinrich Heimbler, but she wouldn't have Um, 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:36.760 she wouldn't have been anything special in Nazi Germany. The 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:38.840 odds are good. Like maybe they would have tried to 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.960 use her to like propagandize because she knew a bunch 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:43.760 of languages. I don't know. They might have liked had 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:45.440 to try to reach out to India. But probably she 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:47.480 would have just been another person. I don't know. I 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.040 think that's an interesting aspect of it that isn't emphasized enough. 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:52.520 She just wasn't willing to actually go to Nazi Germany 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:59.560 in this place, she claimed, ruled Yeah, cool, so well. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.240 In late nineteen nine, Savitri Devi was again a free woman, 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.080 and she published her first book to widespread acclaim from 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:09.480 the international Nazi community. From this point on, Devy became 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.320 a prolific author, writing up every significant event in her 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:15.240 life through a mixture of supposedly nonfiction works as well 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.680 as fanciful tales. For example, she retold the story of 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.320 her first trip back to Europe and the children's fable 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.320 Long Whiskers and the Two Legged Goddess, whose heroine is 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:29.360 a cat loving Nazi named Helio Dora. No, that can't 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:37.160 be real. Yeah, that sounds like random words selected from Uh, well, 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.600 it all makes sense, like the Heliodora's really a self 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:46.520 insert charactered cats Helio Savitri Devii's obsessed with sun, gods 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:52.840 and goddesses a good how embarrassing for her. What's embarrassing 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.320 is that Savitri writes that her self insert fantasy character 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.760 has quote no human feelings in the ordinary sense of 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.760 the word. She had been from her very childhood much 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.920 too profoundly shocked at the behavior of man towards animals 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.800 to have any sympathy for people suffering an account of 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:14.320 their being Jews. Okay, the Holocaust is it bad? Have 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.440 you seen what happened to cats when I was a kid. 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:23.040 But here's the take that is a wild take to 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:27.400 be like, you know how we resolve, uh, like violence 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:32.840 towards cats also cause violence towards people. Yeah, surely the 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:37.160 Holocaust is cool because cats have been mistreated? Is Vitri? 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:40.920 She just goes to a whole other place. She's like, 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.360 did you know, like when you're having like when you're 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:45.240 having an argument with someone who doesn't want to have 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.360 a good faith argument with you, and you're just like, 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.000 well what about this? And they're like, well what about 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:51.840 cats in France? What about that? Huh? And You're like, 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:57.800 I don't I've been stunned like a pokemon. I don't know. 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:02.560 And over the next few years, Savitri wrote and conversed 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.040 with increasingly aged Nazis and gradually refined her theories about 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:09.000 the world, until in nineteen fifty eight she published what 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.119 would prove to be her magnum opus, The Lightning in 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.399 the Sun. In this work, the ideas Savitri had been 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:19.000 rattling around in her head all finally came together. Hitler, 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:22.919 she concluded, was a man against time, fighting to uphold 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.240 Aryan virtues and blood against the corruption of modernity. She 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.920 placed him at the center of her own trinity, one 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:31.879 that replaced the decadent Christian one she'd grown up despising, 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.640 and her trinity. I dare you to make less sense 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:39.280 than the trinity? She picks, Yeah, you think, who do 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:43.600 you think? Who do you think's first? Hitler? Well, Hitler 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:45.679 is the most important, but he's not the first, oh, 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.480 the first. No, it goes in order of it goes 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:51.040 in order of, like time period. So these are all 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:57.119 historical figures. First one is definitely uh someone ancient Greek, no, 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:02.040 ancient Egyptian at the first atheist. He's generally called he 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.560 was like this, this pharaoh who declared himself the sun God, 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.080 and like tried to institute monotheism and then he died 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:10.119 and everything he did was burned by the people who 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:12.600 came after him because they thought he was an asshole. Um. 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.080 And it's weird because she like hates monotheism so much, 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:18.080 but he's like one of the people she loves. I 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:20.399 think just because he's the sun god and she's got 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.880 a weird she'll make an exception. She'll give any sun 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:28.320 god a pass. Basically, it's it's fucking weird. Um. Second 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:37.040 in her holy trinity is gang Scott, does she And 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:42.160 here's why? Why? Um? It would it wouldn't make sense. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.360 I mean, basically history's greatest conqueror. He's a great conqueror 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:51.560 and he's not Christian or Jewish or anything. You know. Yeah, 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.399 So act In is the Sun and the con is 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.520 the lightning and Hitler, she believes, combines the best attributes 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:03.760 of both the Pharaoh's wisdom with the strategic mind of Genguscott. 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:09.680 Genghis Khan succeeded in invading Russia during the winter. So 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:15.439 I don't know where you're coming from. This woman is okay, 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.760 one of these two knew how to invade Russia, and 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:23.560 it was not Hitler and then Hitler or is there, Yeah, 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.080 the third is hit because he combines the best parts 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:30.879 of Acinat just like a terrible cartoon. She would not 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:35.960 watch this cartoon wild. Yeah, it's so dumb. Um. Yeah. 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:38.840 So there's probably a couple of reasons for her obsession 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.959 with Acant And for one thing, Akinat was deeply revered 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.760 by the Theosophical Society, which you will remember from our 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:50.120 our episodes on anthroposophy. Um, and the Theosophical Society held 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:52.240 a lot of ties also to the Tulist Society and 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.160 all the other weird little occult groups who supported the Nazis. 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.159 Early on had been a utopian thinker who tried and 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.720 failed to a stay a perfect city. Good Rich Clark, 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:06.200 Sametri's biographer, writes that she saw his son worshipping cult 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:09.959 as quote rejection of all politics that promotes man's interest 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.240 at a cost to the beauty and abundance of nature, 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:16.040 which is just invented by her. Like, yeah, I feel 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.840 like maybe she's she's like me and Jack Skellington. She's 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:21.320 just kind of there for the aesthetic and maybe doesn't 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:30.879 fully understand she is okay, Jack Skellington. Yeah, that is okay, Okay, 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.720 Now I'm now, I'm like, I understand this mindset. If 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.159 this holy Trinity doesn't work for you, consider embracing the 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:42.960 holy Trinity of the products and services that support this show. Products, services, 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:46.359 and god, what's the third one? Each is one and 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:48.760 a half of the trinity. That's how good both products 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:53.920 and services are. Wow. Yeah they add up to three products. 0:20:54.720 --> 0:21:05.520 M h, we're back. So um God, there's so much 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.160 to get through with this. This woman's fucking stupid, stupid, 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:13.080 fucking beliefs, but they're very important. They're they're stupid, and 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:16.600 they're also kind of they're so dumb and complicated. They're 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:22.399 so and comicated a lot of phases. They all make sense. 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:26.000 I'll say that they don't make sense of the fact 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.240 that they're true, but like, based on her history and 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:30.840 like the things that she imbibes, they all makes I 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:33.480 can see why why she came to these conclusions. But 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:37.240 they're super dumb. So the core of her Nazism is 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:39.240 a love of nature, which was a big part of 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.720 actual original Nazism too. They were very into like like 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:47.200 natural life and ship and like taking care of the 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.640 land and animal welfare UM, and some of her early 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:54.160 books that she wrote when the Nazis were in power, 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:57.240 but before she was explicitly a Nazi, like The Impeachment 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:00.920 of Man UM, don't explicitly reference in Nazism. And these 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.000 books like The Impeachment of Man is still kind of 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.560 popular among chunks of the New Age and environmentalist movements today. 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:10.280 Savitri Devi's passionate writing on animal rights is actually one 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:12.760 of the many little roads that exist between the green 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.520 movement and the neo Nazi movement. UM, and it's really 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:20.560 fucked up. UM. Devi herself famously railed against the Allied 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:24.480 forces purging Germany of its fascist organizations, saying that quote, 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:28.879 you cannot denazifying nature. Um. She believed that nature was 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:34.520 fundamentally nationalist, national socialist. UM. And yeah, that's a that's 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:38.800 a take. I'm gonna read a quote from the Man now, 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:41.479 and I want to remind you there are people who 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:45.119 are like environmentalists, who are not Nazis, who read this 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:49.879 book today and don't really realize what's going on a 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:53.879 civilization that makes such a ridiculous fuss about alleged war crimes, 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:56.480 acts of violence against the actual or potential enemies of 0:22:56.560 --> 0:23:00.320 one's cause, and tolerate slaughter houses and vivisection laboratories and 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:03.359 circuses in the fur industry, infliction and pain upon creatures 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:06.040 that can never before or against any cause, does not 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:08.879 deserve to live out with it, bless the day it 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:11.600 will destroy itself. So that a healthy, hard, frank, and brave, 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:14.440 nature loving and truth loving elite of superman with a 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:18.119 life centered faith, a natural human aristocracy is beautiful on 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:20.399 its own higher level, as the four legged kings of 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:23.800 the jungle might again rise and rule upon its remains forever. 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:28.600 So again you see how because of the kind of 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:31.160 stuff she's written, she's there's this, there's these bridges. She's 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.000 a big part of why there's bridges between the eco 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:36.560 movement and the Nazi movement. And there very much are 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:39.000 on like the hard edge of the of the of 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:42.239 the eco movement, of the anticlimate change movement, there are 0:23:42.359 --> 0:23:45.920 Nazis and left wing activists who kind of increasingly seem 0:23:46.040 --> 0:23:48.240 like Nazis in a lot of cases. Is not to 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:52.240 say that, like even supporting radical environmental action makes you 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:55.040 a Nazi. It's to say that, like part of the 0:23:55.400 --> 0:24:00.520