All language subtitles for Secret.Nazi.Expeditions.S01E02.Walking.With.Witches.720p.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-squalor

- [Narrator] In the early
part of the 20th century,

the Nazis rose to power
on a dark platform.

Till this day, their
racist ideology

is overshadowed only by
their ambition for power.

But behind the battles lie
more secrets than we know.

Their most elite and
evil force, the SS,

plotted far beyond a conquest.

They mounted global expeditions,

hunting for ancient
relics of power

and long forgotten remnants
of ancient civilization,

hell-bent on proving
a mythical heritage.

Now secrets are revealed,

a new light is shed
on dark schemes

and desperate adventures.

[dramatic music]

Deep in the wooded wilderness
of Northern Europe,

far from prying eyes, a
sacred ritual is performed.

- The idea that you can
influence the world around you

by harnessing
unseen forces

is something that's quite
universal in human culture.

- An interest in
things like chants

is part of the ritual of it.

A lot of this is
very performative.

It's not just about reading
old books or finding symbols.

It's also about saying spells.

Could be a hex or they
could give good luck.

That's part of
a very long,

broad culture of
verbal folklore.

- [Narrator]
Witchcraft practices

are more than merely legend.

They are alive and well today.

But it was not always so.

There was a time when the
price for witchcraft was death.

And even more troubling,

dark forces in the
past have attempted

to wrest rumored powers for
their own evil purposes.

August 1935, young Finnish
nobleman Yrjö von Grnhagen

is traveling between
Paris and Helsinki on foot

for a practical
sociology project,

asking everyone he
encounters along the way

to record something
in his journal.

This sociological fieldwork
was all inspired by one book

that von Grönhagen had
read, the Kalevala.

- The Kalevala is a collection

of traditional Finnish
stories, songs, poems,

ancient folk practices
of healing magic,

and traditional rituals,

which were collected
by Elias Lönnrot,

who started going into the
eastern part of Finland

in the 1830s and 1840s
on collecting missions

to try to capture the
traditional folklore

and songs of the area.

- [Narrator] The nearly
forgotten Karelian region

lies in Northern Finland,

between the White Sea
and the Gulf of Finland.

The dense forests
and rough terrain

had left the land
largely untouched.

Von Grönhagen believed
the primeval Finnish

originated in a vast land,

from Scandinavia in the north
to the Black Sea in the south,

and that the Fins were blood
brothers to the Aryans,

a shared common ancestry.

And while he had never journeyed
to the Karelian region,

he took the customs
described in the Kalevala

to be direct representations
of his lost ancient ancestry.

Arriving in Germany,
von Grönhagen
instantly feels at home

among the Nazis
hatred of communism.

Von Grönhagen had seen Finland,

previously a duchy of Russia,

declare its independence as
part of a bloody civil war.

Von Grönhagen's brother
joined the White Army

that was killed
by the Bolsheviks,

thus fulminating a deep
hatred for communism.

He decides to abandon the final
leg of his trip to Helsinki

and stay in Germany.

He publishes an article

in the Frankfurter
Volksblatt newspaper.

- He writes an article

on how people in Karelia
still practiced ancient songs

and sorcery.

- [Narrator] von Grönhagen's
article catches the attention

of one high-ranking
senior Nazi official.

- Himmler reads this article
and it gets him really excited,

because he believes
that it has links

to the ancient Aryan
sorcery and powers

that could be linked
to the modern Germans.

- Himmler was always
searching for vestiges

of ancient or prehistorical
Aryan culture and religion,

but clearly witchcraft
was one vehicle for that.

- von Grönhagen would
join the Ahnenerbe,

a Nazi think tank dedicated
to all sorts of wild ideas.

Himmler, of course,
was a enthralled

with von Grönhagen's mad ideas.

- Himmler sponsored
a whole bunch

of archeological expeditions,

some cases more anthropological,

because they were looking
at contemporary culture,

to investigate,
supposedly scientifically,

the origins of the Aryan
race and culture and religion.

- [Narrator] Himmler
revered ancient history,

and had a vision of
returning Germany

to the mythical golden
age of the Aryan race.

- He is the quiet
one behind the scenes

and it is those quiet ones
you have to be concerned of,

because you don't know
what they're thinking.

And as we know from hindsight,

the levels the Nazis
went to were awful

and horrific
evil ventures.

- [Narrator] He interpreted
Nordic mythology

in a literal way,

believing certain abilities
their ancestors once possessed

were lost due to interbreeding.

- At this point, they're
looking at anything

that will give them strength.

Witchcraft, in a sense,
has the ability to do that.

- Himmler wants to believe
that they can, too,

harness these
supernatural powers

to create an Aryan race.

- In between the
1890s and 1930s,

there are lots of Germans
and other Europeans

in Britain and France,
who weren't that enamored

of traditional
Christianity anymore,

weren't really going to
invest in material as science.

They wanted an
alternative.

This was, for them, their
mythology, their creation myth,

and the Nazis embraced
that alternative.

- [Narrator] But
Himmler wanted to take

these occult rituals
one step further,

in order to build a super army.

Could witchcraft help
Himmler achieve this sinister
aim?

Much of the sorcery and
chants commonly practiced

by rural European villagers
in the Middle Ages

had disappeared during the
Protestant Reformation.

When new denominations
of Christianity

fought for popularity,

religious institutions

deemed these ancient
practices witchcraft.

- Throughout history and
in virtually every society,

people have been simultaneously
morbidly attracted to

and frightened of witchcraft.

- [Narrator] This
fear manifested in
the form of a book,

Malleus Maleficarum,
The Hammer of Witches.

Written in 1487 by a
German Catholic inquisitor,

it would wreak
unspeakable horrors
across Europe and abroad.

- The Hammer of Witches,

this manual for how
to identify witches,

then becomes an important tool

at the hands of people
in the Roman Church,

but then beyond that, as this
attempt to cleanse the land

of people that don't fit.

- In theory, it was the
dummy's guide to witch killing

and this book
became the sole use

of a misogynistic expedition
against women, against witches.

And then for over 200 years,

the book sold more than any
other book, except the Bible.

- [Narrator] By the 1500s,
it was a standard practice

to burn accused
witches at the stake.

- The Nazis see
witchcraft as proof

that the Aryan
race was persecuted

and actually victims
of a genocide.

- For Himmler, this is
more than just a theory.

He believes this to be truth.

- [Narrator] The Nazis
were against Christianity

of any kind,

because they rejected the idea

of a deity being above nature.

- A lot of senior Nazis
hated the Catholic

and Protestant Churches so much,

saw them as political
and economic rivals

and would've loved
to dispose of them.

- The Nazis didn't
want any competition

that could come against
their Thousand Year Reich.

They wanted to make sure

that they were bringing
forward the racially pure
people.

- All the Nazis were most
skeptical of Christianity,

it wasn't just about
living with it,

it was about trying to
repress or replace it.

- [Narrator] On October 1, 1935,

Himmler meets with von Grönhagen

and is very impressed by
his ideas and observations

of ancient religious
practices described in the
Kalevala.

If von Grönhagen can
document these rituals,

Himmler can implement them

into the new Nazi
ceremonies being developed,

the Solstice Celebrations.

This new ceremony would bring
German communities together

around an amphitheater,
where they

would celebrate pre-Christian
Germanic traditions.

It's here attendees
would be encouraged

to reject Christianity in
favor of pagan rituals.

Could these Karelian
witchcraft practices

be the key in removing
Christianity from Germany,

once and for all?

- The idea of magic is really
rooted in notions of power,

to make things happen
that you can't affect

through normal means
of cause and effect.

- [Narrator] In order to
determine the providence

of the ancient
practices described

in von Grönhagen's
article,

Himmler sends him to meet
with Karl Maria Wiligut,

his right-hand mystic.

- So, Wiligut fights
in the first World War.

He has a hard time of it.

In the 1920s, he's
committed to an asylum

for madness
and alcoholism.

He's released and he rises
in the ranks with Himmler,

as kind of his personal mystic.

- He used hallucinogenic
drugs to, he claimed,

communicate telepathically

with his ancient
Aryan ancestors.

- Wiligut was able
to convince Himmler

and people around him that
he was the real thing.

Now, how was he able to do that?

I think it's a combination
of Wiligut's convictions

and his charisma.

- Wiligut is one of the
only Nazis we can say,

without a doubt,
was an occultist.

Not just that he dabbled in it,

not that he thought the
ideas were interesting,

but he's one of the
only Nazis who seemed

to buy all of this stuff
hook, line and sinker.

Himmler decided he was
going to consult this guy

on all sorts of stuff,

to the point where Wiligut
was being asked, you know,

what runes should
we put on this ring?

- He also gives weight
to Himmler's more
eccentric beliefs.

- [Narrator] Karl
Maria Wiligut believed

he possessed a pure
Aryan bloodline

and could therefore channel
the spirits of his ancestors

through his psychic connection
and become their oracle.

Himmler fueled his
transcendence into a
supernatural being,

by providing him copious
amounts of drugs and alcohol.

1936, Wiligut
decides von Grönhagen

is worthy of leading an
Ahnenerbe mission to Karelia

to collect and record
ancient myths and magical
chants.

They may provide clues
about Aryan wisdom

and their ancient
religious practices,

the key to replacing
Christianity

and restoring Aryan pagan
rituals in the Reich.

- Karelia was chosen
because witch trials

were relatively sparse there,

so that meant that a lot
of evidence still exists

of the ancient
sorcery and chants

of the supernatural
Germanic past,

and they really
wanted to instate it

into the Third Reich.

- The reason
Finland worked

is it was still
part of Scandinavia,

which they just took
as a matter of faith

as the origin of the
most pure practitioners

of Aryan or Indo-Aryan
culture, religion, the Nordic
race.

- If there's no one around
to connect you to the past,

there's nothing to
stop other people

from saying 'you're
making that up'.

The problem is, of course,

if you're employed by
someone like Himmler is,

you don't deliver,
you don't last long.

- [Narrator] In early 1936,
von Grönhagen was sent

to do research

at the Finnish Literature
Society folklore archives

in Helsinki, in advance
of the expedition.

He needs to find some
Nordic Karelian witchcraft

for his team to document
that will echo the Kalevala.

- Himmler knows that he
needs this information,

because he believes

it can really boost the SS
Summer Solstice ceremonies.

By gathering more
information on rituals

and pagan ways of being,

he believes that he
can transfer this

into the rituals
of the current SS.

- And the Nazis
were onto something,

in terms of bringing
the community together

to eat and to drink,
to dance, to have fun,

to reinvent that kind
of communal festivity

into the religions that
they were trying to develop.

- [Narrator] Then
in June of 1936,

musicologist Fritz Bose
arrives in Helsinki

to accompany von Grönhagen
on the Karelia expedition.

- His job is to record the
shamans and their music

so they can take it back,

and he, as a musicologist,

is able to work through
the notes, the keys.

He's trying to build a
visual with the music

and create a narrative from this

that's going to tie right back

into the uber race of Germans.

- [Narrator] Given the wide
reach of the witch persecutions,

much of the pagan
traditions were lost.

However, Karelia was different.

- But it would be wrong to
think that Christianity,

the moment that it's adopted,

just eradicates everything else.

- You don't even have
to go that far back.

Even in the 1930s, we
still have people living

in those areas that are
practicing the old ways.

That far north in
the area of Finland

and Siberia and Russia,

the witch hunts really didn't
make their way into that area.

It's very rugged.

It's a very difficult
landscape to get around today,
even,

so even in the early
persecutions of witches,

very few people
traveled that far north.

So they were actually
spared the indignation

and the torture and the
murder that went on,

so they were able to continue.

They weren't really
affected by Christianity.

- [Narrator] And so an
expedition is sent to Karelia

to document sorcery and songs

that might still be
lying in secret places.

- Their idea is to travel there

and to be able to document this,

directly shows that these
people had never been affected

by the influence of
Christianity or Judaism

or any of the newer religions.

They were still practicing,
in the purest form,

their original beliefs.

- [Narrator] But what might
an expedition uncover?

Could they tap into the
ancient Karelian wisdom?

They drive to Lake
Ladoga in Karelia

and venture deep into the woods,

beyond the village of Suistamo
to visit Timo Lipitsä,

a well-known traditional
folklorist rune singer.

- For them, literally
this person is the center

of everything that they've
been trying to accomplish

with their research.

He has never left the
village, he is illiterate,

but yet he knows the
stories and the songs,

and he's able to
recant them perfectly.

In the purest form,
his inability to read

actually gives them
the basis to say

that he gets this knowledge
directly through oral tradition.

It matches the Kalevala,

therefore there must be a
real truth in those writings.

- [Narrator] At that
time, most residents

of the Karelian woods rarely
ventured outside the borders.

The only way the
Kalevala existed

was because its
author, Elias Lönnrot,

visited the remote
Karelian villages,

where sorcery was
known to be practiced.

The rituals were
recorded and compiled

into the Finnish epic.

These songs may contain
secrets about Aryan origins

and practices passed down
from primeval ancestors.

Timo Lipitsä offers
to sing for the team.

He and his sons sang together,

joining hands so that the
power becomes much stronger,

rocking back and forth
in front of the hearth.

As they rocked, they sang
about the creation of the world,

which closely resembled what
was published in the Kalevala.

The song about the Kalevala
creation of the world

describes a duck laying an egg.

It breaks and thus
the world is created.

- What they're looking for
here is any kind of indication

that there is a
Atlantean or Aryan origin

and that these songs and stories

would actually give them a clue

as to where was the
epicenter of the beginnings

of the Atlanteans
or their location,

and then hence the Aryan race

being a progenitor
of the Atlanteans.

They are trying to rewrite
their own religious background.

- [Narrator] Deep in
the Karelian woods,

Timo Lipitsä allows
the expedition team

to record one of his
ancestral chants.

Fritz Bose readies to
record Lipitsä's songs,

fussing with dials to get
the maximum quality sound.

These recordings were key to
creating a new Nazi religion

steeped in ancient
Aryan witchcraft.

While these recordings
have since been lost,

Bose had taken great effort
to capture these rituals

using a magnetophon,

which is a prototype of a
modern day tape recorder.

These state of the
art tools were crucial

in transporting these traditions

to Nazi Solstice ceremonies.

- The Nazis were
on the cutting edge

of science and technology.

German engineers built some
of the world's largest labs,

underground factories.

They erected massive
concrete bunkers

and fortifications across Europe

and their fantastical
weapons systems

were beyond anything
the allies possessed.

Yet, at the same time, Himmler
and some other Nazi leaders

were fascinated with the
occult and mysticism.

They utterly ignored
reality and facts

in order to embrace
the supernatural

in hopes that it would
help them win the war.

- [Narrator] von
Grönhagen's team finishes up

in Suistamo with Timo Lipitsä.

They're now seeking a
sorcerer to conjure spirits

from the golden age
of the ancient Aryans.

von Grönhagen's team trek
to the village of Tolvajärvi.

Here they meet prominent
Karelian musician,

Hannes Vornanen, a
master of the kantele,

an instrument commonly played

at pagan festivals
around the fire.

Vornanen plays some
Karelian folk songs

documented in
the Kalevala,

while the team records
and photographs him.

Bose examines the
kantele's tonal system

and determines it is
entirely of Finnish origin,

therefore surmises
an Aryan instrument.

The Kalevala describes
the origin of the kantele

as a pike's jaw
bone that is shaped

by the god Väinmöinen,

the perfect musical
accompaniment

for an SS Solstice ceremony.

It's here the expedition
team learns of rumors

surrounding an elderly
soothsayer, Miron-Aku,

who performs sorcery rituals.

If the team can find
and document Miron-Aku,

her customs and rituals
could become crucial components

to the neo-pagan religion
the Nazis wanted to create.

But the expedition team is
cautioned not to go find her.

- Shamans have a great power

and they have the ability
to connect to the beyond

and they also have the
ability to channel that power

for their own purpose,

and I think that they
warned them to not go there,

because she would
see through them.

She would see
who they were

and perhaps she may
even curse them.

So, that warning probably
should have been heeded.

- [Narrator] But von
Grönhagen is adamant

and the team moves on
to the woods of Salmi,

where she is rumored to live.

When the expedition team
finally tracks down Miron-Aku,

she tells them she has predicted

their arrival
three days earlier.

- The shamans had the
ability to see the future,

see the past, to
commune with nature,

and they have the ability
to connect to the beyond

and they also have the
ability to channel that power

for their own purpose.

- The Nazis believed they
were descendants of the Aryans

who had psychic and
telepathic abilities.

Miron-Aku was a living
relic of the primeval German age

that Himmler wanted
to reconstruct.

- They like to think
they found a sorcerer.

They found a shaman
and that shaman

is practicing
their beliefs

and they're thinking they've
hit the jackpot here,

because this person is
a living, breathing,

existing sorcerer in their eyes,

and that they can learn
everything from this person

and take it
back with them.

- [Narrator] But witches
won't perform for just anyone.

- If you really believe
these people are powerful,

you don't want to
dilute their power

by having so many people
go out and use them.

You, again, want
to control that.

- [Narrator] von Grönhagen
spent quite some time

trying to convince Miron-Aku
to perform a ritual for them,

knowing how valuable
it would be to Himmler.

He visited her each
day to wear her down.

- And you certainly don't want
to give that knowledge away

to somebody from
outside your culture,

partly because you
don't know what use

that stranger is
going to make of it.

- [Narrator] During
these visits,

she brewed him a drink
made of plant roots

and spoke of an old god that
the people of her region

worshiped before Christianity.

- You're drinking
something

that you have no
idea could kill you.

It could give you
hallucinations at the least

and you're in front of this
person who has these abilities.

It's that fine line between
curiosity and terror.

- [Narrator] After days
and days of pandering to her,

von Grönhagen finally
persuades Miron-Aku

to perform the ritual.

She summons the spirit
of her ancestors

and divines future events.

The team records and photographs

the ritual while it is going on.

- For them to get her

to actually perform her
shamanic rituals for them,

for the camera,

is going to verify
the trip itself.

The importance here was to
show what she was able to do.

- [Narrator] This
Karelian ritual

would become the
pinnacle element

of future SS
Solstice ceremonies.

- It was part of
creating, I think,

a sense of mind control,

because when you
ritualize something

and people follow that ritual,

it becomes a doctrine

and it becomes
indoctrinated in their mind

and then you sort of have
control over them at that point.

- [Narrator] Bose plays the
recording of the ritual back

and Miron-Aku
expresses deep regret.

She believes she has
committed a sacrilege

by performing just to
satisfy their curiosity

and that she will never be
able to practice magic again.

- She's probably never heard a
recording of her voice before

and now, all of a sudden,

they've captured something
of her spirit, in her mind,

onto this machine.

That's magic.

- For Miron-Aku, she really
did give away all her secrets

and I can see how she
would feel remorseful

and perhaps never be able
to be a shaman again,

because she exposed the
mystical side of things

to the public.

- [Narrator] The
team leaves Miron-Aku

stewing in her misery and shame.

- They take the parts they want,

but the lessons about
moderation and virtue

and guarding the
divine element in you,

they turned a
complete blind eye to.

- [Narrator] von
Grönhagen and Bose return

from Karelia to Germany.

Von Grönhagen writes an article

about Karelian magic
chants for Germanian,

an anti-Catholic
monthly magazine,

partly owned by the Ahnenerbe.

The chants are interpreted
as ancient witchcraft rituals

passed down by
Germanic ancestors,

a bond to their mystical past.

- They do make that connection

by saying that these old chants

come from the old
ancient Germanic people

and so therefore the real root

of the original people
are the Germans.

They're really
showing the public

how important they
truly are in the world.

- Himmler's fixation
on the occult

goes even further as he
establishes the Hexenkartothek,

also known as Special
Assignment H in October of 1936.

- There were
many divisions

already within
the SS before 1936

and what's interesting
about the Sonderkommando,

the Hexenkartothek, this
research on witches,

is you would think

that this would fall under
the research branch of the SS,

the Ahnenerbe, which was
directly under Himmler.

It was a research institute,

where all these border
scientific and occult

and mythological and
religious activities were going
on.

In the case of the
Hexenkartothek,

he charged the intelligence
service to do this research.

- Now, what he wants to do here,

is to create an organization

that look into the witches
who have been persecuted

during the witch trials.

The benefit of this for Himmler

were that he could bring
the ancient sorcery

and the ancient powers of these
witches to the Third Reich.

- They create a scientific
group of people,

who are sent out to
literally comb the libraries

around Europe and
into even the UK,

looking for these stories of
the persecution of witches.

- [Narrator] To lead
this important project,

Himmler selects a
devoted member of the SS,

Reinhard Heydrich.

Trusting him to bring Germany
back to its Aryan roots.

- Now, Heydrich had
joined the SS in 1931.

He was a fiercely loyal
member to the Nazi party.

He created the SS
Security Service,

and he was definitely
the architect

behind the Final Solution.

And it can't be argued

that he was certainly a
favorite for Hitler, too.

And this was very
significant for Special
Assignment H.

It was a statement
that Himmler had made,

showing that this was
a very serious business

by having one of the full
front Nazi party members

at the helm of this mission.

- That's odd, because Heydrich

was one of the least
interested in the occult

of any SS person.

For him, it was
all sectarianism.

They're just different sects
that don't want to be Nazis.

Why are we researching them?

So to charge Heydrich with
researching witchcraft,

at first seems
completely bizarre.

And all these other people
love the occult, like Wiligut.

Why is he asking
Heydrich to do it?

And that has to do with
opposition research.

He really thought that

if we study the ways
they marginalized,

persecuted, and
murdered witches,

we can better understand
how our enemies

are going to come
at us this time.

- He was highly
intelligent, but also insanely
violent.

This is a guy who is
snapping up agencies left and
right

to make himself the heir
apparent to Hitler's throne.

So much so, that Himmler
came to fear him.

- [Narrator] They begin
gathering witch trial documents

that describe the activities
of the accused witches.

- So that they can create
a catalog, essentially,

of all of the
persecutions.

And somehow Himmler is going

to creatively tie all this
into the Germanic people,

because, of course,
the Germanics

come from the Atlanteans
and from the Aryans.

And so, therefore,
that persecution

is aimed directly at
the German people.

- [Narrator] Deeply paranoid,

the Nazis wanted to
destroy any perceived
competition

and set their sights on
none other than the Freemasons.

- Nazis hated anyone that
was doing something in secret

that they
couldn't control.

And the Freemasons
have a history

of keeping their rituals,
their practices, secret.

So that, all of a sudden,
put them on the radar.

- It's not hard to understand

why the Nazis superficially
hated Freemasonry.

Like the Jews, and
like the socialists,

and like the liberals,

it was another organization
that was global,

that was involved
in some conspiracy

to destroy hierarchical,
noble, pure Aryan civilization.

- And so certainly
that was enough

for the Nazis to
view it as a rival

and as something that
needed to be destroyed.

- [Narrator] In 1934,
Himmler and Heydrich

forced Masonic lodges
to close in Germany

and all their assets
were confiscated,

including libraries
and archives.

Because of the popularity of
mysticism in the 19th century,

Himmler knew the
Freemason libraries

possessed occult literature.

In fact, some Nazis

would have actually been
part of the Freemasons,

before the lodges were banned.

- As they would do whenever
they cracked down on anyone,

they took their
offices and buildings.

They appropriated them.

- The Nazis move in
Special Assignment H.

Now, the Nazis are equipped
with an abundance of archive.

We're talking publications,
documents, pamphlets

that can really hone
in on what happened

during the witch trials.

- [Narrator] With the
ancient wisdom uncovered

in the von Gronhagen
expedition to Karelia

and Assignment H's research,

the Nazis are finally ready for
their own Solstice ceremony.

- In June of 1935,
thousands of Germans

attended a massive Summer
Solstice celebration

in the city of Heidelberg,

organized by Himmler
and Joseph Goebbels.

Meanwhile, Himmler's SS officers

incorporated pagan rituals
into their training.

- [Narrator] Robed speaking
choirs presented songs

and chants to the spectators.

The amphitheater was built in
the Heidelberg Holy Mountain,

a place revered by
cult followers of the
Volkisch movement,

banks of stone seats
surrounded a central stage

flanked by towers and
stands for burning pyres.

The design was meant to
resemble a human torso,

a metaphor for the central
gathering place of humans.

The Nazis had planned to
build 400 Thingstatte locations

for these performances,
but only 45 were completed.

Nazi fascination with
sorcery and spells ran deep.

The Nazi witch trial database,
Special Assignment H,

had over 33,000 index cards
with 57 fields to fill out.

This meticulous
cataloging system

was aiming to provide as
many details as possible

about the accused witches.

- Levin's cataloging system
was actually quite significant,

because, later on in the 1960s,

historians picked it up
and use it themselves

when researching information.

- [Narrator] Desperate
for information,

Himmler requests a report
from Special Assignment H,

which he receives
in August, 1937.

In the report,

Special Assignment H
finds a roundabout way

of telling Himmler
what he wants to hear,

despite the lack of evidence.

They focus on the idea
that the accused witches

held up heroically to
the torture they endured,

evidence of their
racial superiority.

- No longer are they just
being shackled and starved.

They're being whipped and beaten

and tortured with implements
and stripped naked.

And their skin is scraped
from their bodies.

Then we get to the pyres,

where they publicly burned them
to make an example of them.

This just spread like a
disease throughout Europe

and throughout parts of
North America at the time.

- [Narrator] As Assignment
H continues their research,

they uncover the horrific extent

of witch burnings in Germany.

- Between 35,000
and 40,000 witches

are burnt at stake
in Germany alone.

- [Narrator] But as more
and more research arms

of the SS are popping up,

Assignment H is under pressure

to uncover something
spectacular.

On September 2nd, 1938,

Himmler speaks at
the annual conference

of the Organization of
Germans Abroad in Stuttgart,

where he claims that
the number of witches

burned at the stake
is half a million.

He blames the Catholic
church assisted by the Jews,

believing it
was an attempt

to stifle true Aryan religious
practices of ancient Germany.

1938.

After reading thousands of
books, articles, and pamphlets,

Assignment H gets
their lucky break.

- They discovered that Himmler
has a 17th century ancestor,

Marguerite Himmler, who was
executed for witchcraft.

- [Narrator] Realizing this
was Assignment H's big break,

Heydrich wrote to
Himmler informing him

of his direct blood connection
to the witch trials.

- Himmler thinks that it was
the Christian-judeo society

out to rid the world
of the German strength,

that they want to literally
run rickshaw over them.

- It would have confirmed
for him his theories

about the purity of his
own Aryan background,

and his ties to
generations of Aryan pagans

who were persecuted by
the Catholic church.

Right, you're looking for
evidence to prove your theory.

Well, now it's personal for him.

- [Narrator] April, 1940, the
Nazis invade neutral Norway.

They dissolve the Norwegian
Masonic order in September.

- They close all the lodges
and confiscate their books.

These books get added

to Himmler's ever-growing
witch library.

- [Narrator] These
esoteric books were stored

in a castle connected
to the supernatural.

- In the 13th century, there
is a castle built in Prague,

atop of a hill.

- It's one of those
mystical places

where we don't really know
the origins of it per se,

and so it has its own magic.

- [Narrator] Surrounded by
swamps and thick forests,

it remains unoccupied for years.

Rumors of its mysterious
history reach the Nazis.

And then in 1939,

the Nazis occupy Prague
and seize Houska Castle.

- For the Nazis, the castle
actually had no strategic value

when they occupied it,

but they still set up a Reich
main security office there.

Something else must
have been going on,

that surely they knew
was a bit more important

for their overall plans.

- [Narrator] The
castle itself was said

to be built atop
a gateway to Hell,

to stop demons escaping
from an open portal.

This portal is a
giant limestone crack

that goes unimaginably deep.

- Dating far back as
the ninth century,

it is rumored that demons
would come up from this crack

and they would terrorize
the local people.

- [Narrator] During
its construction,

the defensive walls were
built entirely facing inwards,

which can only mean one thing,

to keep something from escaping.

It was even rumored

that all of the villages
prisoners who were on death row

were offered pardons if
they agreed to be lowered down

by rope and harness into
this gateway of Hell.

The first volunteer was
a man who was tied up

and slowly lowered
down into the pit,

but he began screaming
and thrashing with terror

and begged to be pulled back up.

When he was
out of the pit,

it was said he had aged 30 years

in the few seconds
he'd been down there.

He was so disturbed
by what he saw

that he was carted off
to an insane asylum

and died only two days later.

The castle's chapel
was said to be built

over this very fissure
where demons were lurking,

so that they would be unable
to cross the sacred grounds.

In the 14th century,
the chapel walls

were painted with frescoes
depicting demonic activity.

It was widely speculated
that the SS officers

performed dark
rituals in the chapel,

in hopes of harnessing evil
secrets and immortality

from the gateway to Hell.

- This seems to be
the perfect place

for some of these
stories to emanate from.

- [Narrator] But the evidence
and details remain a mystery.

- Houska Castle did
end up actually serving

some significance for the Nazis.

I think when they really
honed in on the fact

that this could have a
spiritual connection.

- It's terrifying to think

that they were
hunting these archives

and looking for the methods
of which these witches

were persecuted and tortured.

And they took those methods
and they applied them

to victims in the concentration
camps, which is horrifying.

- [Narrator] In 1941,

despite finding records
about Himmler's witch ancestor,

Assignment H realizes
their research

is becoming increasingly
less critical,

as Himmler's focus is elsewhere.

The Nazis are going to full war.

- In 1939, the
Nazis invade Poland.

This marks the start of
the second World War.

They do so by introducing the
Blitzkrieg, the lightning war.

This an army made of men,
tanks, air force together.

They are launching an
unprecedented speed

and surprise attack
on the enemy.

- [Narrator] If
witchcraft wouldn't

produce Himmler's super army,

he'd need to look elsewhere.

And so he turned to drugs.

Before and during
the Blitzkrieg,

the Nazis popped Pervitin,
a methamphetamine,

which allowed them
to go 36 to 50 hours

without feeling fatigue,

turning them from
monsters to machines.

But not even Pervitin
can save the Nazis,

as the Luftwaffe loses
control of the sky

and everything changes.

August, 1940,

the first Allied air
raid hits Berlin.

Desperate to protect
his witch library,

Himmler secretly relocates
millions of books to Prague.

- It must be so significant,
that in the midst of a war,

they decide to up and move it.

Why would they go to such
efforts for its protection?

- [Narrator] Himmler wants

to ensure any documentation
of Aryan witchcraft rituals

was preserved.

- The Nazis were so obsessed
with obtaining occult secrets

that they had obtained
nearly 3 million books.

To hide these,

they had secret libraries
scattered throughout Russia,

Greece, the Baltic states.

And even today, those books
are still being repatriated.

- We don't know what
anthropological plans they had,

or archeological or
border scientific
ideas they had in mind

for these libraries
after the war,

but clearly they attached
some intrinsic value

to the so-called
research or doctrines

or whatever was contained
in these libraries.

- [Narrator] Why, in
the midst of the war,

would they go to this effort?

- The protection of
the witch library

and the collection and the
ongoing work that it does,

speaks to Himmler's
personal fascination.

He also saw it as useful

for his own personal
aggrandizement,

the aggrandizement
of his agents.

- He was fanatical
about the occult.

- [Narrator] In January
of 1942 at Wannsee,

the Final Solution conference
occurs chaired by Heydrich.

It outlined plans for the
systematic, deliberate,

physical annihilation
of European Jews.

Genocide.

But one of the key
members of Project H

was about to be taken
out of the picture.

It was May 27th, 1942,

when Heydrich was assassinated
in Czechoslovakia,

the target of
Operation Anthropoid.

- He ends up being the
highest ranking official

in World War II to
be assassinated.

- [Narrator] With the death
of this critical SS officer,

the demise of Special
Assignment H and the Third Reich

draws nearer and the Nazis
act out in desperation.

1942.

The Nazis erroneously link
Heydrich's assassination

to the Czech villages
of Lidice and Lezaky.

Both villages are razed.

As the war continues,

Special Assignment H is
officially suspended by the SS

in February of 1943.

- All the researchers
on the project

are now assigned to other
projects within the SS.

- [Narrator] Desperate

to salvage Assignment H's
eight years of research,

their witch trial findings

are presented as a habilitation
thesis at Munich University.

However, it was outright
rejected as it proved nothing.

A lot of what the Nazis
tried to demonstrate

with their pseudoscience
was simply impossible to do.

- Even when these books
don't align with these ideas,

they find a way to
twist the information

to their own benefit.

- This is re-inventing
your people's past,

fabricating it in order to
beat other people with it.

- [Narrator] Clinging to
their fantastical ideas

is why they were fated
to lose their mission

and ultimately the war.

- We just have to remember
at the end of the day,

the Nazis were not a
rational group of people.

- [Narrator] When their
defeat was imminent,

the Nazis abandoned
Houska Castle,

burning their written documents

and leaving their
library behind.

- The SS has an
obsession with secrecy.

A lot of documents
were purposefully

destroyed along the way.

- [Narrator] They
also left the bodies

of three Nazi soldiers who had
been killed execution style.

The Nazis interest in
Solstice ceremonies

at the Heidelberg
Thingstatte stopped in 1939,

overshadowed by the ongoing war.

It was just as well.

Only 1% of the German
population had embraced the idea

that Aryan paganism was
their rightful religion.

After World War II, the 45
Thingstattes became venues

for outdoor concerts and events.

Today, the Heidelberg
Thingstatte

is a protected heritage building

and used as a public park.

As for the witch trials,

it wasn't until 1736

that England put an end
to the persecutions,

but Bavaria and Germany

continued condemning
so-called witches to death,

up until 1749.

- We still have churches today

trying to apologize
for their past,

in terms of how many people
they persecuted as witches.

- [Narrator] In 2015,

a warehouse outside Prague
revealed a shocking find.

The warehouse contained
hundreds of thousands of books,

untouched for over six decades,

including the lost
Himmler's witch library.

Among its contents
are 6,000 books

stolen directly from the
Norwegian Freemasons.

Artifacts from witch
trials around the world

are being uncovered and
displayed to this day,

such as the Salem witch trials
in the Peabody Essex Museum

in October of 2020.

Still, who knows what other
nefarious things the SS teams

intended to use witchcraft for,
had they gotten any further.