Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust [Hardcover]

Heather Pringle
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 25.41
Price: CDN$ 20.47 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details
You Save: CDN$ 4.94 (19%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Usually ships within 1 to 3 months.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover CDN $20.47  
Paperback CDN $17.26  

Book Description

Sep 1 2004
A groundbreaking history of the Nazi research institute whose work helped lead to the extermination of millions

In 1935, Heinrich Himmler established a Nazi research institute called The Ahnenerbe, whose mission was to send teams of scholars around the world to search for proof of Ancient Aryan conquests. But history was not their most important focus. Rather, the Ahnenerbe was an essential part of Himmler's master plan for the Final Solution. The findings of the institute were used to convince armies of SS men that they were entitled to slaughter Jews and other groups. And Himmler also hoped to use the research as a blueprint for the breeding of a new Europe in a racially purer mold.

The Master Plan is a groundbreaking expos of the work of German scientists and scholars who allowed their research to be warped to justify extermination, and who directly participated in the slaughter -- many of whom resumed their academic positions at war's end. It is based on Heather Pringle's extensive original research, including previously ignored archival material and unpublished photographs, and interviews with living members of the institute and their survivors. A sweeping history told with the drama of fiction, The Master Plan is at once horrifying, transfixing, and monumentally important to our comprehension of how something as unimaginable as the Holocaust could have progressed from fantasy to reality.


Product Details


Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Considering the thousands of volumes covering every aspect of the Nazis, it's becoming increasingly difficult to say anything new about their dreadful era. Nevertheless, Pringle (The Mummy Congress), a contributing editor to Discover magazine, gamely steps up to the plate—and has produced a fascinating volume detailing the Nazis' crackpot theories about prehistory and the Indiana Jones–style lengths they went to prove them. Employing a team of researchers, Pringle investigates Heinrich Himmler's private think tank, the Ahnenerbe, which dispatched scholars to the most inhospitable and distant parts of the world to discover evidence of ancient Aryan conquests and the Germans' racial superiority. Some believed their own bizarre garbage; others perverted the facts for personal advancement or prostituted their reputations for the greater glory of Hitler. While it would be otherwise easy to laugh off the Ahnenerbe's ludicrous theories, Pringle argues that the institute provided the "academic" justification for the Holocaust and assembles a powerful body of evidence to that effect. Though one may wonder just how central the Ahnenerbe actually was to Hitler's thinking, when Pringle meets one of the most sinister of Himmler's scholars, his pride about the institute's "research" is distinctly disquieting. This is first-rate popular history—supported by an immense amount of scholarly apparatus in a range of languages. (Feb. 15)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

As Pringle relates, in 1935 Heinrich Himmler and a small group of associates founded an elite Nazi research institute, the Ahnenerbe. Its purpose was to unearth evidence of the accomplishments of Germany's ancestors as far back as the Stone Age and to convey these findings to the German public through magazine articles, books, museum shows, and scientific conferences. In reality, Pringle points out, the organization "was in the business of myth-making," distorting the truth and churning out carefully tailored evidence to support the ideas of Adolf Hitler. Himmler, head of the Gestapo and the SS, housed the institute in one of Berlin's grand villas and equipped it with laboratories, libraries, and workshops. Pringle examined the microfilm collection of captured German documents at the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland, the original Ahnenerbe files in Berlin, and 27 other German archives, as well as archives in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Poland, and Britain, and library collections in Iceland and Russia. The result of this copious research is another almost unbelievable chapter in the sordid history of the Holocaust. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Reviews

4 star
0
3 star
0
2 star
0
1 star
0
5.0 out of 5 stars
5.0 out of 5 stars
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Hardly a Star-Studded Master Plan! Nov 21 2007
By Ian Gordon Malcomson HALL OF FAME TOP 10 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Pringle's probe into the behind-the-scene's operations of Nazidom proves one thing: the assylum was definitely being run by crackpots who were more obsessed with fantasy than influenced by reality. Nowhere in this account did the so-called blueprint for establishing an Aryan nation ever make sense. Himmler's ludicrous attempts to form the Abnerebe agency to establish the historical roots of Germanic superiority as proof of world dominance utterly failed. The cast of scientists and anthropologists working for him were either as deluded as he was or outright charlatans bent on exploiting the Reich to further their own careers. Pringle does a very effective job in profiling many of these dubious characters like Altheim, Sievers, Wirth, and Beger who pursued all kinds of theories as to the proof of Germanic descendancy. Some of their ill-fated searches took them into surrounding countries looking for archaeological evidence of a Master Race lying dormant in some hidden corner of the globe. The story takes a real sinister twist, when Himmler commissions, through the Abnerebe organization, biological experiments on Jews from the Auschwitz camp. Overall, a very informative and intelligent study on some of the creepier aspects of Nazism.
Was this review helpful to you?
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Master Plan has awesome research. Buy it ! Mar 18 2006
Format:Hardcover
The book "The Master Plan : Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust" by Heather Pringle contains some rare and scholarly research.

Considering the tons of paper covering every aspect of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, it should be increasingly difficult to say anything new about their horrid era, but the author shows much. There are also some gaping holes about new discoveries.

For example, Master Plan front cover shows instruction regarding the swastika symbol, yet the book's interior seems unaware of recent discoveries regarding the swastika.

Originally, the swastika could point left or right and was usually flat on one side as if drawn within a square. Eventually, new uses tended to point the swastika to the right and also turned it 45 degrees to the horizontal, to highlight the swastika' "S" shapes. Although the swastika was an ancient symbol, Professor Curry discovered that it was also used sometimes by German National Socialists to represent "S" letters for their "socialism." Curry changed the way that people view the symbol of the horrid National Socialist German Workers' Party. The leader of the German National Socialists altered his own signature to use the same stylized "S" letter for "socialist" and similar alphabetic symbolism still shows on Volkswagens. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html There may be a reason for such oversights.

One reason for such oversights is that many authors make the mistake of overuse of the common shorthand term for the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The overuse is so bad that it causes them to overlook more mundane explanations for the behavior of German socialists.

Dr. Curry also showed that many modern myths about swastikas use the false belief that German socialists called their symbol a "swastika." German National Socialists did not call their symbol a "swastika."

Nevertheless, Pringle has produced an awesome book detailing the lunatic theories among German socialists about prehistory and the Indiana Jones-style searches. Pringle examines Heinrich Himmler's think tank, the Ahnenerbe, which sent scholars worldwide uncover evidence of ancient Aryan conquests and the Germans' racial superiority. Some believed their own propaganda. Pringle argues that the institute provided the scholarly justification for the Holocaust.

To be more accurate, socialism provided the so-called scholarly justification for mass slaughter. It is a reminder of the socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): 21 million dead under the National Socialist German Workers' Party; 65 million dead under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 35 million dead under the Peoples' Republic of China. It is a reminder that the Wholecaust and the Holocaust killed many people of various races and classes.

It was a dogma that endangered the USA too. Government in the United States imposed the results of socialism's racial inequality and hatred of individual differences in the USA. Francis Bellamy, the author of the Pledge of Allegiance, was a self-proclaimed National Socialist who wanted the government to take over all schools, and he wrote the Pledge to promote that goal. When the government granted his wish of socialism for education, the government schools imposed segregation by law and taught racism as official government policy. The author seems to be unaware of those facts. That behavior of socialists in the USA served as a bad example to German Socialists for decades and even outlasted the German Socialists by decades, even into the 1960s.

The author seems unaware of the fact that before, during and after Owens competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the Pledge of Allegiance to the US flag used the straight-arm salute and was the origin of the salute of the German National Socialists.

German National Socialists were officially known as the National Socialist German Workers' Party (National Sozialistische of which Nazi is shorthand). The Party was originally called the German Workers' Party, but the words "National" and "Socialist" were added to gain more members and support from other socialists including the Social Democrats, who were known as "Sozi." Even today, the Viennese refer to the "Sozi Party." The "Triumph of the Will" at http://rexcurry.net/filmrev-triumph-of-the-will.html gives other insights to terminology.

Pringle points out that the organization "was in the business of myth-making," distorting the truth and churning out carefully tailored evidence to support the ideas of German socialism. Pringle examined the microfilm collection of captured German documents at the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland, the original Ahnenerbe files in Berlin, and 27 other German archives, as well as archives in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Poland, and Britain, and library collections in Iceland and Russia.

Professor Curry showed that many modern myths use a false belief that German socialists called themselves "Nazi." The myths cause widespread ignorance of the etymology of the word "Nazi." Party members called themselves "National Socialists," not "Nazi."

The myth is still repeated in efforts to hide the socialism of the Party as well as its connections to other socialists and anti capitalists within the USA.

The notorious straight-arm salute of German National Socialists came from the USA's early Pledge of Allegiance (to the flag), as shown by Professor Rex Curry. It was not an ancient Roman salute, and that the "ancient Roman salute" is a myth. http://rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html The myth is still repeated in modern efforts to cover-up Dr. Curry's discoveries about the Pledge's poisonous pedigree.

The original Pledge began with a military salute that then stretched out toward the flag. Historic photographs are at http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html and at http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html In actual use, the second part of the gesture was performed with a straight arm and palm down by children casually performing the forced ritual chanting by merely extending the military salute. Professor Curry showed that, due to the way that both gestures were used sequentially in the pledge, the military salute led to the salute. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html The salute is an extended military salute.

Francis Bellamy (author of the "Pledge of Allegiance") and Edward Bellamy (author of the novel "Looking Backward") and Charles Bellamy (author of "A Moment of Madness") and Frederick Bellamy (who introduced Edward to socialistic "Fourierism") were socialists. Edward, Charles and Frederick were brothers, and Francis was their cousin. Francis and Edward were both self-proclaimed National Socialists and they supported the "Nationalism" movement in the USA, the "Nationalist" magazine, the "Nationalist Educational Association," and their dogma of "military socialism" and the "industrial army," and Edward inspired the "Nationalist Party" (in the USA) and their dogma influenced socialists worldwide (including Germany) via "Nationalist Clubs." http://rexcurry.net/bellamy-edward-german-con nections.html It is terrifying information.

The book is full of copious research and is well-written. It was worth the time to review.

Was this review helpful to you?
2 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Master Plan has awesome research. Buy it ! Mar 18 2006
Format:Hardcover
The book "The Master Plan : Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust" by Heather Pringle contains some rare and scholarly research.

Considering the tons of paper covering every aspect of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, it should be increasingly difficult to say anything new about their horrid era, but the author shows much. There are also some gaping holes about new discoveries.

For example, Master Plan front cover shows instruction regarding the swastika symbol, yet the book's interior seems unaware of recent discoveries regarding the swastika.

Originally, the swastika could point left or right and was usually flat on one side as if drawn within a square. Eventually, new uses tended to point the swastika to the right and also turned it 45 degrees to the horizontal, to highlight the swastika' "S" shapes. Although the swastika was an ancient symbol, Professor Curry discovered that it was also used sometimes by German National Socialists to represent "S" letters for their "socialism." Curry changed the way that people view the symbol of the horrid National Socialist German Workers' Party. The leader of the German National Socialists altered his own signature to use the same stylized "S" letter for "socialist" and similar alphabetic symbolism still shows on Volkswagens. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html There may be a reason for such oversights.

One reason for such oversights is that many authors make the mistake of overuse of the common shorthand term for the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The overuse is so bad that it causes them to overlook more mundane explanations for the behavior of German socialists.

Dr. Curry also showed that many modern myths about swastikas use the false belief that German socialists called their symbol a "swastika." German National Socialists did not call their symbol a "swastika."

Nevertheless, Pringle has produced an awesome book detailing the lunatic theories among German socialists about prehistory and the Indiana Jones-style searches. Pringle examines Heinrich Himmler's think tank, the Ahnenerbe, which sent scholars worldwide uncover evidence of ancient Aryan conquests and the Germans' racial superiority. Some believed their own propaganda. Pringle argues that the institute provided the scholarly justification for the Holocaust.

To be more accurate, socialism provided the so-called scholarly justification for mass slaughter. It is a reminder of the socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): 21 million dead under the National Socialist German Workers' Party; 65 million dead under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 35 million dead under the Peoples' Republic of China. It is a reminder that the Wholecaust and the Holocaust killed many people of various races and classes.

It was a dogma that endangered the USA too. Government in the United States imposed the results of socialism's racial inequality and hatred of individual differences in the USA. Francis Bellamy, the author of the Pledge of Allegiance, was a self-proclaimed National Socialist who wanted the government to take over all schools, and he wrote the Pledge to promote that goal. When the government granted his wish of socialism for education, the government schools imposed segregation by law and taught racism as official government policy. The author seems to be unaware of those facts. That behavior of socialists in the USA served as a bad example to German Socialists for decades and even outlasted the German Socialists by decades, even into the 1960s.

The author seems unaware of the fact that before, during and after Owens competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the Pledge of Allegiance to the US flag used the straight-arm salute and was the origin of the salute of the German National Socialists.

German National Socialists were officially known as the National Socialist German Workers' Party (National Sozialistische of which Nazi is shorthand). The Party was originally called the German Workers' Party, but the words "National" and "Socialist" were added to gain more members and support from other socialists including the Social Democrats, who were known as "Sozi." Even today, the Viennese refer to the "Sozi Party." The "Triumph of the Will" at http://rexcurry.net/filmrev-triumph-of-the-will.html gives other insights to terminology.

Pringle points out that the organization "was in the business of myth-making," distorting the truth and churning out carefully tailored evidence to support the ideas of German socialism. Pringle examined the microfilm collection of captured German documents at the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland, the original Ahnenerbe files in Berlin, and 27 other German archives, as well as archives in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Poland, and Britain, and library collections in Iceland and Russia.

Professor Curry showed that many modern myths use a false belief that German socialists called themselves "Nazi." The myths cause widespread ignorance of the etymology of the word "Nazi." Party members called themselves "National Socialists," not "Nazi."

The myth is still repeated in efforts to hide the socialism of the Party as well as its connections to other socialists and anti capitalists within the USA.

The notorious straight-arm salute of German National Socialists came from the USA's early Pledge of Allegiance (to the flag), as shown by Professor Rex Curry. It was not an ancient Roman salute, and that the "ancient Roman salute" is a myth. http://rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html The myth is still repeated in modern efforts to cover-up Dr. Curry's discoveries about the Pledge's poisonous pedigree.

The original Pledge began with a military salute that then stretched out toward the flag. Historic photographs are at http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html and at http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html In actual use, the second part of the gesture was performed with a straight arm and palm down by children casually performing the forced ritual chanting by merely extending the military salute. Professor Curry showed that, due to the way that both gestures were used sequentially in the pledge, the military salute led to the salute. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html The salute is an extended military salute.

Francis Bellamy (author of the "Pledge of Allegiance") and Edward Bellamy (author of the novel "Looking Backward") and Charles Bellamy (author of "A Moment of Madness") and Frederick Bellamy (who introduced Edward to socialistic "Fourierism") were socialists. Edward, Charles and Frederick were brothers, and Francis was their cousin. Francis and Edward were both self-proclaimed National Socialists and they supported the "Nationalism" movement in the USA, the "Nationalist" magazine, the "Nationalist Educational Association," and their dogma of "military socialism" and the "industrial army," and Edward inspired the "Nationalist Party" (in the USA) and their dogma influenced socialists worldwide (including Germany) via "Nationalist Clubs." http://rexcurry.net/bellamy-edward-german-con nections.html It is terrifying information.

The book is full of copious research and is well-written. It was worth the time to review.

Was this review helpful to you?
Want to see more reviews on this item?

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges