Ahnenerbe Greece

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Das Ahnenerbe in Greece//ethniko.net

The Ahnenerbe Forschungs und Lehrgemeinschaft(Ancestral Heritage Research and Teaching Society),was founded in July 1935 by Heinrich Himmler,Hermann Wirth and Richard Walter Darré. Thesociety was originally devoted to scientific andpseudo-scientific researches concerning theanthropological and cultural history of the Germanethnic group, and to identify the wellsprings of theAryan race.

Before and during World War II, expeditions weresent to a number of countries in most continents,from South America to the Tibet. In Europe,archaeological expeditions were sent to Bulgaria,Croatia, Iceland, Greece, France, Cyprus, Finland,Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Norway andScandinavia among others.

One of the countries where the Ahnenerbe wasmore interested in was Greece, where it organizedseveral investigations. Apparently, the Nazis believedthat ancient Greeks were of Nordic stock and werethus the forefathers of modern Germans. Toinvestigate this link, the Ahnenerbe developedseveral expeditions and excavations in Greece.Ahnenerbe investigators were in Athens, Thebes,

Delphi, Eretria, Rhamnus, Thorikon, Aegina, Korinth,Epidavros, Nafplio, Argos, Sparta, Megalopolis,Olympia and Herakleion in Crete. In these endeavors,the Germans counted on the collaboration of Greekauthorities as well as the German Institute ofArcheology in Athens.

The Delphi treasure

The Ahnenerbe was also investigating the Delphioracle, but no one seems to know what exactly.Some accounts claim that the Ahnenerbe waslooking for the Delphi fabled treasure. According toancient sources, the Delphi temple held a marveloustreasure which consisted of the gold, silver andprecious stones offers that believers gave the priestsso that the Oracle would be generous with them.

In 279 BCE, the Celtic chief Brennus led 200,000soldiers into Greece to raid the Delphi treasure. Onthe point of victory at Parnassus, the Celts suffereda series of natural calamities: lightning storms, fallingrocks, hail stones and heavy snow assailed theBrennus' troops causing mass slayings of thebeseigers. The Oracle told the townsfolk of Delphithat Apollo would not let allow them to suffer distress.


Das Ahnenerbe in Greece

Map of the Ahnenerbe expeditions in Greece

Because of the nature of its procurement the bootywas henceforth considered cursed and no onedared to steal it anymore.

The Nazis thus believed that the Delphi treasuremay still have been somewhere around the oracle,and tried to find it.

The Gates of Hades

One of the most curious expeditions of theAhnenerbe in Greece was related to the so-called"Gates of Hades". During the German occupationof Greece (1941-1944), SS-Reichsführer andAhnenerbe chief Heinrich Himmler heard that therewere caves in the Southern Peloponnesus thatlinked with other caveways and stretched all theway to Berlin. Himmler believed that these cavescould have been the pathway through which ancientGermanic peoples had reached Greece escapinga natural catastrophe.

Himmler's hypothesis was related to Hans Hörbiger'sGlazial-Kosmogony (Glacial Cosmogony) theory, atheory that had been embraced by the Ahnenerbe

that claimed that ancient Greeks were actuallyGermans who had survived a cataclysm in theNorth and had migrated to the Mediterranean,where they evolved a highly developed culture.

The Ahnenerbe dispatched immediately secretagents to the Gates of Hades (as the Greeks calledthe caves) to explore this possibility. Heading theexpediton was archaologist Hans Reinerth, a high-ranking official in the Rosenberg Office. The ancientsite of the Gates of Hades was located at the smallvillage of Tainaro, in one of the Southernmost pointsof Continental Europe.

The ancient Greeks believed that Hades lay far tothe west, beyond the horizon where the riverOceanus, which encircled the earth, began. Later,some stories contained descriptions of dark cavernsand long, gloomy passages which led down to theUnderworld from districts on the mainland of Greecesuch as Thesprotia in the west or from across theAegean Sea in Asia Minor or somewhere inPeloponnessos, near Sparta. Thus, the Gates werethought to lead in the Kingdom of the Dead, theHades, hence the name.



Entrance to the “Gates of Hades”

Near the Gates of Hades, which is a hole nowcovered with concrete slabs, is the Psychomantiumof Poseidon, the Oracle of the Souls. A psychomantium is an ancient form of mirror gazingwhich is used to contact spirits of departed lovedones. Near the Poseidon's oracle there is yet anotherenigmatic spot. In the middle of a land surfacelittered by thousands of rocks in various sizes thereis a bare circular area cleared by any rock or pebblewhatsoever. Not far from the Tainaro Cape, in theplace called Phrearton Inousson, there is where thegreatest abyssal zones of the Mediterranean arehidden, about 4850 meters deep.

The Research Report of the Reichsbund for GermanPrehistory, July to December 1941, reported thenine-week Reinerth expedition, claiming to havediscovered major new evidence of Indogermanicmigration to Greece during Neolithic times.

Many years later, the famous French underseaexplorer Jacques Cousteau knew all about thislegend and requested permission from the GreekGovernment to conduct scientific oceanic researchin the area. The permission was initially granted;but a few days before the French diving was to get

underway, the Greek Government reneged on thedeal and denied the request, the reason being thatthis was a "sensitive military area" and off-limits tosuch exploration. One can only speculate aboutthe true motives behind the Greek government'schange-of-mind.

The Ahnenerbe in Kafiristan

The Ahnenerbe conducted similar operations inmany other parts of Greece and Europe. Farther,also in the occupied part of Russia, as well as Lybia,Egypt and Iraq. They were also very active in theFar East, mostly in Tibet, but the Ahnenerbe didalso send an expedition to Kafiristan, a province inthe Hindukush region of Afghanistan.

Kafiristan takes its name from the inhabitants, theKafirs Kalash, a fiercely independent people withdistinctive culture, language and religion which isbelieved to have descended from the Greeks,specifically from the armies of Alexander the Great.

They are an ethnic phenomenon that attracted theNazis, especially Walter Wüst, the second presidentof the Ahnenerbe, who was extremely interested in



The Psychomantum of Poseidon

Kafiristan. To the Ahnenerbe, the Kalash were veryinteresting because they spoke a tongue which isclose to ancient Greek, because they had a paganreligion very similar to the Greek Dodekatheon, andbecause they were much more advanced andrefined than their Muslim neighbors around.



A mysterious spot near the “Gates of Hades”

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Ahnenerbe Greece