ZODIAC AND SWASTIKA

by Wilhelm Wulff ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 30, 1973

Though there's no need to swallow the incredible, unsupported claims of Ravenscroft (p. 548), historians have long known that many high ranking Nazi officials dabbled in the occult arts. Now Himmler's personal astrologer steps forward to tell how his horoscope might have saved Germany from disaster. Wulff depicts himself as a serious scientist ensnared much against his will into astrological consultations with the upper echelons of the Party. Repeatedly, he claims, he urged Himmler to use the SS to depose Hitler, open the concentration camps, and enter into peace negotiations with the Allies. But Himmler it turns out was a weak and vacillating bureaucrat at heart; he repeatedly disregarded the ""extremely unfavorable"" and ""disastrous"" planetary conjunctions and in the end suffered the consequences. Wulff and Walter Laqueur, who supplies a preface, both point out that although the Nazis officially banned astrology (both because it was a ""universalist doctrine"" and for fear of predictions unfavorable to the regime) it was retained as a ""privilegium singulorum"" for the top brass. If we are to believe Wulff, and there's good reason why we shouldn't, a distraught Himmler on the eve of the Gotterdammerung pleaded with him, ""tell me, tell me what am I supposed to do!"" Has a certain macabre interest.

Pub Date: July 30, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION