Dark Conspiracies and Occult Supernatural Mysteries of the Third Reich

There are many mysteries and conspiracies surrounding the Third Reich, most of which are relatively well-known, such things as whether high-ranking Third Reich officials, perhaps even Adolf Hitler himself, escaped war-torn Europe to South America, where they lived under assumed identities, or claims that the regime were only days, maybe even hours away from launching the grimly anticipated “Wonder Weapon” that would obliterate London or New York and so turn the war in their favor. Perhaps lesser-known is the intense interest many high-ranking members of the Third Reich, including Hitler, had in the Occult and what an influence this interest had on multiple aspects of the regime, its missions, and its perceived destiny.

A good place to start with all of this would be with the Vril Society, established by Maria Orsic following her claims of receiving telepathic messages from extraterrestrials, and the influence it had on the Third Reich. The Vril Society was a secret network that was born out of the esoteric Thule Society, and according to Orsic, these alien communicators once resided in Sumer, with the word “Vri-Il” being a translation of the word, “God-Like!”

What is particularly interesting about the Vril Society, though, is what happened to at least some of its members as the Second World War came to an end. According to some suggestions, as Allied troops descended on Berlin from one direction and the Soviets marched on the city from the other, Orsic sent out a predetermined coded message to Vril members. They were, it is claimed, to meet at a specific (and unknown to us) location where visitors from another world would descend and take them away. Interestingly or not, Orsic and several high-ranking Vril members did seemingly disappear off the face of the planet sometime in the final days of the war in Europe. One such high-ranking Vril member who disappeared was also a high-ranking member of the Third Reich, Martin Borman. Had he fled Europe, perhaps to South America like several other members of the Third Reich following the conflict? Or was he taking elsewhere in the universe along with other Vril members?

It is also worth detailing that not all members of the Vril Society were members of the Third Reich, nor did they share similar political ideologies. However, many members of the Third Reich, particularly among the high-ranking members, had varying levels of interest in the Occult. Going further still, many of these high-ranking Third Reich members had a genuine and extensive interest, and even belief, in the “black arts” and their appropriate secret organizations. It is perhaps further interesting to note that such secret societies were illegal in Germany under Hitler’s Third Reich. Given that many high-ranking members of the Third Reich were involved in such secret societies, including Hitler himself, it would appear that we might question the true reasons for the regime making them illegal. Perhaps such moves were in order to keep any potential powers and influence from such societies and the knowledge they contained within their ranks alone.

Whatever the truth, that the Third Reich used occult methods and sought assistance from all manner of people from the Occult world is without doubt.  

Although we should treat them with caution (at least according to mainstream historians), the claims of Hermann Raushning are of interest to us here, not least that Hitler was very likely “possessed” by a dark and supernatural force, perhaps even the Devil himself. Moreover, at least according to Raushcning, Hitler himself was in a state of perpetual fear of this ominous, otherworldly entity. According to Rauschning’s book Hitler Speaks, Hitler was very likely a “medium” who was seemingly “possessed by forces outside of himself – demonical forces” evident in his powerful speeches during which he would take on “supernatural powers” before “falling back into mediocrity” immediately after. It was likely that Hitler, perhaps very much like the Third Reich in general, was a “vehicle” used by these dark entities to achieve their own unknown agenda.

Even more intriguing and, indeed, unsettling are the claims that Hitler suffered from recurring night terrors for years during his time leading the Third Reich, intense nightmares from which he would often awake screaming in sheer fright. One particular account of these night terrors, according to Rauschning, came from a close aid to the Fuhrer, who rushed into Hitler’s quarters one evening after hearing him wake screaming in terror. According to the aide, Hitler asked him, “What will the social order of the future be like? Comrade, I will tell you. There will be a class of overlords. After that, the rank and file of the party members in hierarchical order. And then the great mass of anonymous followers!” A distressed and unsettled Hitler then stated “…and over and above all these will reign a new and exalted nobility of whom I cannot speak. But of all these plans the militant members will know nothing. The ‘new man’ is living among us now. He is here. I have seen the new man. He is intrepid and cruel. I was afraid of him!”

Just what Hitler might have meant by this, if indeed the account is accurate and true, is very much open to debate by some. Some people, for example, have offered that this was simply a moment of candidness and even clarity on the state of society. Others, though, suggest Hitler was being much more literal and was speaking of some kind of dark, elite overlord working out of the shadows, one who quite possibly was something more than human. Perhaps this “new man” was the entity who some people, Raucshning included, believed took possession of Hitler at key moments in his climb to power, not least during his speeches where his masterful oratory skills were on show for all the world to see, even those who profoundly disagreed with the message and content of such speeches.  

While many people dismiss Rauschning’s claims as nothing but outlandish nonsense, the fact is that he is not alone in making such statements about the leader of the Third Reich. In his book Hitler, A Study in Tyranny, Alan Bullock stated that it was clear that Hitler had the “power to bewitch an audience”, controlling them with the same power of the “occult arts of the African Medicine-man or the Asiatic Shaman!” Similarly to Rauschning, Bullock stated that Hitler was more like a “medium” or a “hypnotist!”

Theosophist Alice Bailey made similar claims about Hitler, claiming that during the Second World War, he was in the possession of a “dark force!” In the years since her claims, her followers have seemingly progressed her ideas further, stating that not just Hitler but several other prominent leaders of the time were possessed by similar dark forces as part of an attack by evil entities against humanity.

In the book The Young Hitler I Knew – The Memoirs of Hitler’s Childhood Friend, August Kubizek recalled a conversation he had with Hitler when he was only 17 years old. During this conversation, Hitler begins speaking of his desire and determination to restore Germany to its once powerful position on the world stage. As he did so, Kubizek recalled how it appeared “as if another being spoke out of his body,” adding that it “moved him as much as it moved me!”

Without a doubt, one of the most unnerving of these claims about possible possession of Hitler and alleged dealings with supernatural entities are those made by the Fuher’s mentor as a young man, Dietrich Eckhart, who wrote of such things in a letter to a like-minded friend as far back as 1923. According to the letter, detailed in the book Occult Reich by James Herbert Brennan, Eckhart wrote, “Follow Hitler! He will dance, but it is I who have called the tune. We have given him the means of communication with Them!” Who, we might ask, were “Them”, and what kind of communication was Eckhart referring to?

Whatever the truth, it wasn’t merely the occult that these high-ranking members of the Third Reich were interested in, but esoterism and ancient relics – and not just interested, many were obsessed with such matters. In fact, these high-ranking Third Reich members were so obsessed with such ancient relics – including the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant – that they embarked on highly organized searches for them around the planet in the run-up to and during the Second World War. Moreover, it is safe to say that one of the main forces behind this search for ancient relics by the Third Reich was Heinrich Himmler.

Himmler was instrumental in organizing and founding the Ahnenerbe Institute, an educational organization set up to study, officially, at least, German ancestral heritage. However, it has become the conclusion of several researchers that the real reason for this was to search not only for relics from antiquity but to see if there were any connections to, or evidence of, an extraterrestrial race that quite possibly seeded humanity in the distant past. Even more remarkable, the legendary lost land of Atlantis was also said to be on Himmler and the Third Reich’s radar, as well as entrances to the Inner Earth. At least according to some researchers, not only did Himmler believe that Atlantis at one time existed, but that survivors from the lost world had ventured north into Europe, and eventually Germany, as opposed to Egypt as many other researchers have put forward, with Himmler also insisting that the original Germanic people were “of Atlantean heritage!” Needless to say, it doesn’t take long to see what Himmler was digging at, and being a master of propaganda, we might ask whether Himmler genuinely believed in Atlantean heritage or whether he was looking to manipulate (potential) history to suit his, and the Third Reich’s, dark ideology and desires.  

Whatever the truth, Himmler, with the backing of the Third Reich, of course, as well as with assistance from the Vril Society, embarked on archeological expeditions all over the world, including locations in France, Scotland, and the Caucasus Mountains (which we shall return to shortly), as well as places further afield in North Africa, Tibet, India, and multiple other locations in the Far East. In fact, there was a very specific reason for the Third Reich archaeological missions to India and the Far East – the search for ancient Sanskrit texts. And much like their seemingly twisted interpretations of Atlantis, it was the Third Reich’s belief – at least those of high-ranking stature – that these texts would reveal evidence of a “superior” race of extraterrestrials who ruled the country in antiquity and even set up “a caste system” to ensure obedience. We should note that while most reject Himmler’s interpretation of these Sanskrit texts, many do concede that parts of these ancient writings do appear to document some kind of battle between highly advanced powers in the Indus Valley region in the distant past.  

While alleged searches for the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail are intriguing enough, without a doubt, one of the most thought-provoking expeditions of the Third Reich is their apparent search for the Biblical Noah’s Ark. In the book Keep Out: Top Secret Places Governments Don’t Want You To Know About, researcher and author, Nick Redfern, using information contained in the files of an MI6 document from 1948, tells of an apparent search for, and perhaps, at least according to apparent rumors of the time, even the discovery of the ancient vessel by the Third Reich. According to the files, “German military personnel were engaged in flying a spy balloon over Mount Ararat” in the final months of the war. Of course, legend states (although not everyone agrees) that if Noah’s Ark did exist, it came to rest on Mount Ararat. While it is not known whether the military unit was indeed successful in recovering the vessel, the intelligence files confirm their instructions were to do so if they did indeed locate it.

It is worth mentioning here, if only briefly, another of Redfern’s accounts concerning Noah’s Ark, this one concerning the United States military, which is relayed in Redfern’s book The Pyramids and the Pentagon: The Government’s Secret Pursuit of Mystical Relics, Ancient Astronauts, and Lost Civilizations. Not only did the search take place only several years after the mission of the German military, it took place in the same region. According to the account, in June 1949, the United States Air Force carried out a mission to photograph an apparent build-up of Soviet troops close to American military facilities. Part of the route of this apparent reconnaissance mission took them exactly over the same flight path of the German balloon mission over Mount Ararat. And this time, unlike the documentation of the German mission, it is clear that the United States Air Force personnel saw something quite profound.

According to the files on the encounter, as the crew looked down on Mount Ararat, they could all clearly see what appeared to be an “intelligently designed craft of some sort.” To begin with, the crew thought they were looking at the wing of a downed airplane. However, after flying over the location several times, they began to see that the dimensions were almost identical to those given for Noah’s Ark. Of even more interest, in the book Strange Secrets: Real Government Files on the Unknown, Redfern offers that not only had the United States military located the Ark, but the remains were “spirited away to classified military and governmental installations and institutions in the USA!”

Whatever the truth might be, we should perhaps ask if the Americans’ interest in the region and the fact the mission occurred only months after the MI6 document was issued was just a coincidence. Or could it be possible that some kind of information sharing took place? Perhaps the Americans learned of the alleged location of Noah’s Ark following Operation Paperclip, which saw many German and Third Reich scientists and engineers discreetly transported to the United States to bring their expertise to the Americans. Whatever the truth, the suggestions are more than intriguing.

While it might be easy to dismiss these searches as misguided, and certainly not ones that bore any fruit, we should note that the Third Reich plundered much of Europe during the Second World War, looting thousands of paintings, sculptures, and other items of value and transporting them back to Germany. While a great many of these were recovered following the end of the conflict, many remain missing. Might we consider, while perhaps unlikely, that such items as the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, unknown Sanskrit texts, or even ancient relics from other worlds may have indeed been recovered by the Third Reich and sit somewhere in unknown locations, hidden away with other priceless pieces of art?

While the claims should be treated with extreme caution, a pair of discoveries in the Caucasus Mountains that stretch between Europe and Asia from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea came to light in 2016 and could be of interest to us here. It appears the first discovery of a bizarre misshapen “horned” skull (some sources indicate two skulls were discovered) was made in the summer of 2014 by a team of researchers led by Russian ethnographer Vladimir Melikov in a cave near Mount Bolshoi Thach in Russia in the Adygea region of the mountain range. Not only did the skull have a horned appearance, which led some who witnessed it to describe it as demonic-looking, but tests on it suggested it belonged to a “bipedal species unknown to science!”

Melikov, who is also an experienced cryptozoologist, offered that he believed the skull belonged to “an alien species that visited Earth in the past!” He further stated that the positioning of a “round hole at the bottom of the head” suggested heavily that the creature “moved on two legs!” Moreover, they noted that there was a strange “absence of cranial vault and jaws” and that the eyes appeared “unusually large” with markings above each eye that suggested the presence of horns. Were these really the remains of an ancient alien entity?

Then, around two years later, things turned even stranger.

In the summer of 2016, Melikov was approached by a local hermit who resided in the woodland around Mount Bolshoi Thach. This mysterious local handed Melikov a briefcase covered with Third Reich symbols and containing a map of the entire Adygea region from 1941. The hermit claimed that he had found the briefcase purposely hidden away only a short distance from where Melikov had discovered the strange misshapen skulls.

Melikov recognized the insignia on the briefcase as not only belonging to the Third Reich but more specifically to the Ahnenerbe organization we highlighted earlier. As we have already mentioned, some researchers believe that one of the unofficial missions of the group was to seek entrances to the Inner Earth said to be inhabited by an ancient extraterrestrial race. Was this discovery, combined with the alleged alien skull, proof of this? The contents of the briefcase brought further revelations - a very precise and accurate map of the region and a ring that confirmed the briefcase likely belonged to a high-ranking member of the Third Reich.

Only a short time before Melikov came into possession of the briefcase, another almost identical briefcase was discovered in the region, this time on Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe. The briefcase also contained documents, as well as several Third Reich uniforms, and the ring indicated a high-ranking member. Whether these discoveries are genuine items or part of some kind of elaborate hoax remains a point of debate for some. There are, though, other reasons to believe that the Third Reich, at least some of their high-ranking members, were genuinely looking to make contact with some kind of extraterrestrial or supernatural force, perhaps one that resided deep inside the Earth.

Ivan Bormotov, a Professor of Economics at Maikop State Technical University, claims that the Third Reich was sending active “surveillance expeditions” into the Caucasus Mountain region, with a specific focus on the Adygea region. Perhaps as a caveat of sorts, though, Bormotov also offered that he believed that the regime very likely didn’t quite know what they were searching for. Others, though, believe they were more than certain.

Here, it is worth briefly highlighting the Lake Ritsa Project, a project that was set in motion several years before the start of the Second World War in 1936 when the Third Reich and the Soviet regime were on friendly terms. In an effort to demonstrate these friendly terms the two nations were on, the Third Regime began a tunneling project that would connect the coast of the Black Sea to Lake Ritsa in what is modern-day Georgia in the Caucasus region. Once complete, the Ritsa Nature Reserve would be established with infrastructure in place to draw water from the reserve. Rather than merely looking to demonstrate the friendly terms of their relationship, though, some researchers have put forward that it was the water itself that the Third Reich was interested in.

According to some, the water in this region was made from a “special composition” that was perfect to make “synthetic blood plasma!” According to those who buy into these suggestions, this mysterious liquid was labeled “living water” by the Third Reich members of the project, and gallons of it were systematically siphoned into “silver containers” before being moved – by submarine, boat, and plane – to an undisclosed location in Germany. Further, according to the conspiracy, Third Reich scientists would use periston as a substitute blood liquid, “an oxidation production of adrenaline” which allowed them to manufacture this synthetic blood plasma on an “industrial scale!” As an ominous afterward to this conspiracy, it is claimed that the high-ranking specialist engineers who oversaw the project all died when their vehicle “plunged into a ravine” shortly after the tunnel’s completion. Make of that what you will. 

While the notion of the Third Reich genuinely seeking entrances to the Inner Earth – to establish contact with a supposed ancient alien race, no less – is outlandish and even preposterous to some, there are other claims of Third Reich missions to achieve exactly that. Perhaps one of the most intriguing occurred in the immediate aftermath of the invasion of Poland that, essentially, sparked the Second World War. The events were related in the book The Jordanow Mystery by Robert K. Lesniakiewicz.

According to the account, the main regions around the Beskidy Mountains in Poland – Jordanow and Zakopane – came under the control of the Third Reich around September 6th, 1939, only days after the start of the Second World War. However, instead of simply leaving a German military unit in charge of the region as they had elsewhere, an SS unit took direct control of the area. Moreover, they remained in charge right up until January 1945, when the region was liberated by advancing Soviet troops. This should alert us to the fact that the region was considered important to the regime, something that has not been lost on researchers since the end of the war.

In the early 1990s, Lesniakiewicz spoke to several surviving soldiers from the Polish Homeland Army, units who had evaded capture and resisted German occupation. And these soldiers offered some remarkable information to the author. They claimed that members of the local population were immediately rounded up – especially many of the local peasants – and put to work building specialized bunkers and other facilities in the Beskidy Mountains region. This slave labor force was placed in labor camps when not working and was guarded by SS personnel. Even more remarkable, according to these Polish resistance soldiers, Heinrich Himmler regularly visited the region throughout the war years.

Perhaps part of the reason for the operations in the region was valuable materials, as of April 1940, the first of several uranium oxide mines opened in Jordanow – mines that remained operational until at least November 1944. Furthermore, there were claims that SS troops would test “wonder weapons” in the region, as well as top-secret aircraft, including the V-3 Rocket and an alleged “super-cannon” that fired projectiles called Tausendfussier that were 10 feet long and had a target range of 30 miles. What is also interesting to note is that just to the south of the Beskidy Mountains is Der Riese, the alleged site of Die Glocke, another alleged advanced Third Reich device (that we will explore shortly). Of course, whether any uranium was ever mined in the region – even if it was ever present at all – is open to debate. According to some researchers, the uranium mines were nothing but a cover story, and the real reason was something altogether more remarkable.

According to the former Polish soldiers, as well as reports from some locals at the time, during the SS’s control of the region during the war, Himmler himself often led missions into the mountainous regions around Jordanow. And what’s more, many of the locals believed that the reason for Himmler’s interest was some of the local legends of the region, specifically, that an entrance to the Inner Earth existed on the southwestern slope of Mount Babia Gora, which resides on the border with Slovakia. The entrance to this underground world was called Agharta, and it appeared that many SS missions concentrated on the caves of the area in an attempt to locate it. Whether or not Himmler and the SS managed to find an entrance into the Inner Earth in the Beskidy Mountains remains debatable. His interest in them, however, as speculative as it might be, could stretch back to when he was a young child.

In 1913, Heinrich Himmler was 13 years old and was “on a tour” of Austria-Hungary with his family following a prestigious appointment of his father, Dr. Gebhard Himmler. During this trip, he and his family visited the Zakopane region, and they were there at the same time as Dr. Friedrich Wichtl, an expert in Occult and Masonic practices. Wichtl, at least officially, was in the region to attend a writer’s and artist’s colony near Jordanow; however, his interest in the region was likely due to the legends of an Inner World populated by a “super race” of extraterrestrial beings. And given the same social circles that Dr. Himmler (Heinrich’s father) and Dr. Wichtl likely shared, combined with general social interest in “secret societies” in Germany at the time, it is also likely that the pair would have discussed such matters.

What is also interesting is that five years later, in 1918, Dr. Wichtl wrote a book titled World Freemasonry, World Revolution, World Republic. Heinrich Himmler, now 18 years old, became fascinated with this book, reading it with relish while recovering from a serious illness while training as a military cadet. It is very likely, although not certain, admittedly, that the book had a major influence on Himmler’s world outlook and, perhaps, stimulated an interest in the Beskidy Mountains region and the possibilities of an entrance to the Inner Earth.

The fact is, if the conspiracies are to be believed, the mountains of Poland were far from the only location the Third Reich was looking for entrances into the Inner Earth. Without a doubt, one of the most mysterious and interesting of these are the apparent secret missions in Antarctica, of which an entire volume could be written in their own right, and something we will undoubtedly explore in a future article here at Mysterious Universe. We will just say, though, that the Third Reich had a very real presence in Antarctica before the Second World War even started, a presence some say they maintained until several years after the end of the conflict. The official reasons for such a presence were largely scientific, but numerous conspiracies have surfaced since suggesting that not only were they searching for an entrance to the Inner Earth, but they found one, as well as finding the otherworldly race that resided there. According to some, it is from this race of the Inner Earth that the Third Reich gained much of their technical know-how and advancement.

Before we explore some of the alleged advanced devices and technology Third Reich scientists and engineers were said, at least by some, to have been working on during the years of the Second World War, it is worth turning our attention to an article in the October 1946 edition of Harper’s Magazine which laid bare over “50 tons” of recovered Third Reich documents concerning scientific projects of the regime, as well as what had been learned through Operation Paperclip following the transplantation of Third Reich engineers and scientists to the United States at the war’s end.

The article made for fascinating reading, to say the least. The scale of scientific, technological, and industrial advancement was widespread and connected multiple aspects of Third Reich society and its war machine. Highly efficient ways to freeze and preserve food had been achieved, for example, which not only maintained food supplies for the population but allowed submarines to undertake especially long missions without surfacing. They had also developed infra-red technology, which allowed vehicles to travel at full speed at night, seeing objects “as clear as day up to 200 meters ahead,” as well as giving them the ability to “spot targets two miles away” and allowing German snipers to “pick off a man in total darkness!”

We might ask if this technology was the result of genuine human ingenuity on the part of the scientists and engineers of the Third Reich or if such knowledge came from an intelligence elsewhere. If there is any truth to communication with extraterrestrial races – ones from afar or from the alleged Inner Earth – as well as the recovery and possible utilization of ancient relics and wisdom, we might question just how the Third Reich might have used such technology and knowledge, if indeed they ever did.

As detailed in the book The Occult Connection: Unidentified Flying Objects, Ken Hudnall relays details of an apparent UFO crash in Germany’s Black Forest in 1936 – three years before the start of the Second World War. According to the account, the otherworldly craft came down somewhere in the Black Forest near Frieberg and was quickly recovered by SS troops before being transferred to Wewelsburg Castle, the main headquarters of the Third Reich. The craft was examined by multiple German scientists and engineers before attempts to reverse engineer it were undertaken to use the technology to gain a quick advantage in what the Third Reich knew was the upcoming war in Europe.

While there is considerable doubt as to the authenticity of the account, if there is any truth to it might it explain as to why the Third Reich was so far advanced than almost every military in the world as the Second World War began, and indeed, right up until the fall of Berlin. The claims of the Black Forest UFO crash took a further twist in 2013 when an article appeared online from an anonymous author who claimed that he had come into possession of a pair of field glasses worn by one of the SS officers who was part of the recovery unit on the night of the crash. Using these glasses, the author had managed to channel to the night in question and see the events for himself. He claimed that not only were there survivors from the crash (all of whom were seemingly “shot on sight”), rather than being extraterrestrials from another world, they were human beings from another time – specifically, the future.

Whether some kind of advanced object did crash to Earth in the Black Forest at some time in 1936 remains open to debate. The fact is, though, advancement – across multiple fields – was nothing short of astronomical in the run-up to and during the opening years of the Second World War. Perhaps a good demonstration of this rapid advancement would be to highlight the fact that the German navy had a total of 57 submarines in the late 1930s. During the Second World War, however, that number shot up to 1,163 submarines. Moreover, these subaquatic vessels were the world’s most technologically advanced.

Undoubtedly, some of the most interesting readings regarding the advanced technologies and development of the Third Reich can be found in the separate intelligence files of both the United Kingdom and the United States. What makes the files so interesting is that despite being compiled without the knowledge of the other, both state surprisingly similar details. Both document accounts of people witnessing “flying apparatus resembling British military helmets” during bombing missions over Europe. Both also mention opening fire on these strange aerial vehicles with the barrage seemingly causing no damage whatsoever. One specific encounter can be found in the British intelligence files and features a report from Major R. Holmes. He stated that during a bombing mission on October 14th, 1943, he witnessed several “big bright discs” while flying over Schweinfurt. He also reported opening fire on one of the discs, although his guns failed to inflict any damage. Were these craft genuine vehicles from another world, or might they have been reverse-engineered Third Reich vehicles?

Interestingly or not, one of the top-secret programs of the Third Reich was the Haunebu Disc, a disc-shaped aerial vehicle whose design is almost identical to the many “flying saucers” that were witnessed over the United States and around the world from the late 1940s and early fifties. According to recovered records, the project unfolded in the town of Hauneburg (hence the vehicle’s name), with the aircraft being 25 feet across and seating up to eight pilots. It was said to use electromagnetic fields – essentially “free energy” – as a means of propulsion, as well as early anti-gravity technology, and could reach incredible speeds, it is claimed, of around 3000 miles per hour (although these speeds were said to increase to a blistering 10,000 miles per hour by the early to mid-forties). The vehicle could, however, only operate at very low altitudes, at least initially.

Could it be that the technology and design of this disc-shaped aerial vehicle were based on the alleged recovered craft from the Black Forest several years earlier? Perhaps of equal importance, was the project continued in the United States following many of the scientists and engineers being transported to America as part of Operation Paperclip after the war so they could continue their work for The West in return for, essentially, a new life and identity? If this were the case, we might consider that at least some of the sightings of flying saucers during the early years of the Modern UFO Era were military aircraft based on reverse-engineered technology and constructed, at least in part, by former Third Reich engineers.

It is also worth recalling Maria Orsic and the Vril Society we examined earlier. Of all the intriguing claims she made, one of the most thought-provoking was that she had received telepathic communication from the extraterrestrial race she was in contact with, which contained instructions on how to design and build a spacecraft. Moreover, Orsic claimed that, given their scientific and engineering prowess, she had passed these detailed instructions to members of the Third Reich so such a vehicle could be developed. Could it be that the Haunebu disc was based on those cosmic blueprints? It is certainly worth considering, if only momentarily, especially as records show that the start of the Haunebu project began in 1935, one year before the apparent UFO crash in the Black Forest.

Disc-shaped aerial vehicles, however, were far from the only remarkable project the Third Reich was involved in, at least according to some researchers.

At this point, it is worth turning our attention to one of the most captivating conspiracies of the Third Reich – those of Die Glocke or The Bell. Accounts of Die Glocke first entered the wider public arena in 2000 with the release of the book The Truth About The Wonder Weapon by author and researcher Igor Witkowski, who claimed he had been given access to the documents of SS officer, Jakob Sporrenberg through an anonymous source in the Polish intelligence agencies. However, the one caveat to this arrangement was that while Witkowski was free to read and translate the documents, he wasn’t permitted to make copies of them.

According to the documents, the Die Glocke program took place in Der Riese in Poland near the Czech border, with Witkowski’s research suggesting that The Bell device itself was mostly housed in an underground facility. However, during live experiments, the roof of this underground facility was opened, and the Bell would “float” upwards, having to be prevented from taking off by several thick chains that connected to a concrete structure referred to as The Henge. Interestingly, this concrete structure remained in place at the facility at the time of the book’s release, however, most mainstream researchers and historians suggest that it was merely the remains of some kind of cooling tower as opposed to anything more exotic.

Witkowski’s research further indicated that The Bell was around 15 feet high and nine feet across at its base (its widest point) where Egyptian-style hieroglyphic symbols were present. The exterior of the Bell was made of some kind of hard “heavy” metal. The alleged contents and workings of the interior, however, were a little more remarkable, with the device utilizing anti-gravity propulsion technology. According to the documents translated by Witkowski, inside the device, two cylinders would counter-rotate, while at the same time, a violet substance similar to mercury named Xerum-525 filled the cylinders. This substance was said to be extremely volatile and, as such, was stored in lead-encased thermos flasks a meter high.

It was, though, when the Bell was active when things became most interesting – and deadly. According to the documents, when active, anything – or anyone – within 200 meters of the device would suffer horrific injuries and possibly even death, with five of the original seven scientists who worked on the project losing their lives during these live experiments. It was claimed that any living being within this radius would suffer crystals forming in the tissues of their bodies as well as their blood gelling and separating. Even plant life would be reduced to a dark, brown, greasy substance. Perhaps strangest of all, though, was the “mirror-like” material that lined the inside of the Bell. When active, it was claimed that “visions of the past or future” could be seen in this mirror-like surface. More fascinating still, the device also had the ability to bend space and time. It was – essentially – a time machine. The device disappeared at the end of the war. Some researchers suggest it was somehow transported to South America, possibly Argentina. Others, however, suggest it went forward, to another time.

With Die Glocke in mind, it is also worth our time briefly turning our attention to an alleged similar device housed in the Vatican – the Chronovisor – not least as it has similar workings and is said to have involved the influence and technical knowhow of one the Third Reich’s finest scientific minds and Operation Paperclip transplant, Werhner von Braun. News of this device first appeared in the wider public arena several years after Die Glocke in the 2002 book Le Nouveau Mystere du Vatican (The Vatican’s New Mystery) by Father Francois Brune. Rather amazingly, though, and certainly adding a little to its credibility, an account of The Chronovisor can be found in a 1972 Italian newspaper article titled A Machine That Photographs The Past Has Finally Been Invented! However, it appears the origins of The Chronovisor go back decades, not too long after the alleged disappearance of Die Glocke.

According to the article, an Italian physicist who went on to become a priest in later life, Father Pellegrino Ernetti, began working on The Chronovisor in the early 1950s under the watch of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi, who would advise Ernetti on “important information” and technical matters. Of particular interest to us here, however, is that Von Braun was also said to have closely advised Ernetti in a similar capacity. Is it possible that The Chronovisor was a second attempt at Die Glocke, perhaps one that was much more stable and that could only photograph the past instead of (if we believe the claims to be accurate) physically traveling elsewhere in time? Given the established communication between the Vatican and certain Third Reich members (if only forced through Mussolini’s regime), it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Vatican and Italian scientists would have had access to Third Reich records during the war, and quite possibly access to the Paperclip scientists after it.

The device itself was relatively small and “composed entirely of precious alloys” that used a screen that was connected to tubes and tuning dials. In a similar way to Die Glocke, The Chronovisor allowed those who utilized it to see visions of the past, as well as the “very near” future. Moreover, rather than merely viewing these events as some kind of magical live stream, the device had the capability to capture images of them. There were also some similarities to Die Glocke in the mechanics of the alleged device.  

It was claimed that The Chronovisor used “residual electromagnetic radiation left over by numerous processes” which allowed the device to “detect” frequencies and energies of spacetime and then present them “like a film” to those watching the screen. However, perhaps understandably, Ernetti was frustratingly frugal with details as to the finer workings of the device and refused to disclose its location. He claimed that should a person with malevolent intentions come into possession of The Chronovisor, it would result in the “scariest dictatorship the world has ever seen!” Although speculative, we might ask if this is some kind of vague reference to the technology being rooted in the secret work of the Third Reich scientists and engineers.

Ernetti did, though, reveal some of the times in history he had viewed with the device. He claimed, for example, to have witnessed the founding of Rome in 753 BC, as well as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (as per the Biblical account). Perhaps his most controversial claim, though, was that he had witnessed the “crucifixion of Christ,” during which he had captured a photograph of the face of Jesus while on the cross. The picture was reproduced in the article, and while it is obviously a fake (something Ernetti later admitted, although he insisted his claims of the device were true), there are more reasons to suspect at least some partial truths in The Chronovisor claims.   

Here we have to turn our attention to the brutal death of the controversial publisher, Douglas K. DeVorss, who, on September 24th, 1953, was shot at point-blank range in his Los Angeles office by a man claiming he had had an affair with his wife. The shooter was eventually jailed for second-degree murder, with the woman in question strongly denying she had ever been involved with DeVross in any way. At the time of his death, DeVross was preparing to publish the life’s work of Baird T. Spalding, Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East. Spalding himself had passed away only several months earlier at the age of 95 and was an equally controversial character. Spalding had claimed that he had toured India, China, Tibet, and Persia (now modern-day Iran) – all places the Third Reich had an interest in decades later, incidentally – with a “party of 12” between 1894 and 1897 as they learned the wisdom of the “elder brothers” in the Himalayan region. Indeed, it was this tour of the Far East that formed the backbone of Spalding’s work.

However, it also came to light that not only was Spalding penniless at the time of his death but there were no records of him ever having any type of wealth or indeed substantial income, certainly not enough to have traveled so far and so extensively as he claimed. He was soon labeled a fraud and a hoaxer by much of the public, perhaps understandably so. The claims he made in his work, however, were remarkably accurate to the teachings of the elders of the Far East. When we learn of the work he became involved with after his travels, we might find an explanation for this.

Spalding claimed that upon returning to the United States, he formed a partnership with engineer, Charles Steinmetz. The pair embarked on a project to create a device that would be a “Camera of Past Events” – something that could “peer back into time!” Could it be that rather than physically travel to the Far East, he viewed – and learned – such wisdom using this alleged device? Or were his claims of travels to the Far East truthful and accurate, and did he use whatever wisdom and knowledge he learned there to create the “Camera of Past Events?” And, perhaps more importantly to us here, did his work provide the blueprints for The Chronovisor, blueprints that would have seemingly fallen into DeVross’s hands and whose death came suspiciously around the same time work began on the Vatican’s alleged secret device? And perhaps above all else, were former high-ranking Third Reich members involved, albeit indirectly, in obtaining such blueprints and having them developed in Europe in (now) “safe” Italy?

If we quickly return our attention back to Father Ernetti for a moment, he claimed that he wished to provide the world with proof of The Chronovisor’s existence. The Vatican, however, wouldn’t allow such a move, with Ernetti elaborating that “Pope Pius XII forbade us to disclose any details about this device because the machine was very dangerous!” Perhaps one final thing of interest to note is a decree issued by the Vatican in the wake of the claims, stating that “anyone using an instrument of such characteristics (as The Chronovisor) would be excommunicated!” Was this decree issued because of potential ties to Third Reich research and engineering?

As we can see, there are more conspiracies surrounding the Third Reich that stretch in multiple directions, including into the realms of the supernatural, than many of us might think. And while we should stress again that many of these conspiracies should be treated with a cautionary pinch of salt, they are thought-provoking and intriguing nonetheless.

Were high-ranking members of the Third Reich really involved in the paranormal and Occult world more than most people might suspect they were, with many of the underlying drives for their archaeological missions and scientific projects coming from this belief and perhaps even actual contact with otherworldly entities? If that is true, then it changes not only what we know about the mechanisms behind the worst conflict in the last hundred years but also how we must view both our collective history and reality. Ultimately, such claims will likely remain a mystery, barring some kind of sudden release of previously locked away and unknown documents.

Perhaps one final thing to contemplate, we might ask, just how much of the research that was carried out under the Third Reich regime continues today, perhaps in a developed and evolved way, in the United States and other countries of The West? Research, remember, that was grounded in various ways in the Occult, the supernatural, and the Dark Arts. Indeed, are the Dark Arts still dictating the progress of humanity today without us even realizing it?