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In the infernal heart of the Third Reich, where hatred, madness, and lust for power merged into a terrifying maelstrom, there was an organisation that embodied the darkest nightmare of humanity: the Ahnenerbe (German for “Ancestral Heritage”). Founded in 1935 under the ominous leadership of Heinrich Himmler, it pretended to be a “scientific society” that researched German history. However, behind the facade was a world of occult rituals, bloody experiments, and ruthless cultural plunder that left bloody scars in Ukraine and in the memory of the Jewish people. Anenerbe is not just a historical fact, but a hellish warning about how ideology can turn people into demons.
The birth of darkness
The Anenerbe grew out of the morbid fantasy of Himmler, who dreamed of reviving the mythical “Aryan super-race”. Obsessed with the idea that the Germans were the descendants of a godlike civilisation, he created an organisation to “prove” this fiction. Anenerbe combined archaeological excavations, the study of Germanic runes, sagas and folklore with racist theories that justified genocide. Jews, Slavs, Roma – anyone who did not conform to the Nazi ideal – were declared “subhuman” and doomed to extermination. This pseudo-science became the foundation for the “final solution” – a plan to exterminate entire peoples.
For Ukraine, where the Nazi occupation left millions of graves – from Babyn Yar to the mass shootings in Kharkiv and Donbas – and for Israel, which was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust, Anenerbe is part of a painful memory. Her activities were not just a fraud, but a key element of a mechanism that crushed millions of lives.
Expeditions into the abyss
Anenerbe sent her agents to the darkest corners of the world, looking for traces of the fictional “Aryan civilisation”. In 1938-1939, an expedition to Tibet led by Ernst Schaefer wandered through Himalayan monasteries, where the Nazis measured Tibetans’ skulls, photographed their faces, and stole sacred relics, including ancient manuscripts. They believed that they would find a connection between Tibetan symbols and the swastika, but their actions only sowed fear and chaos. They excavated Incan temples in South America and Viking graves in Scandinavia, destroying priceless artefacts and leaving devastated lands behind.
In Ukraine, Anenerbe drew attention to the richest archaeological heritage – Scythian mounds, Trypillian settlements and the unique Stone Tomb in Zaporizhzhia region. This shrine, which is 20-24 thousand years old, is one of the oldest cultural complexes in Europe, covered with thousands of petroglyphs – mysterious images of animals, people and symbols. The Nazis saw them as “messages from the Aryan ancestors”, claiming that these signs were connected to Germanic runes or even the mythical Atlantis. During the occupation of 1941-1943, Anenerbe’s “scientists”, armed with the support of the SS, began large-scale excavations of the Stone Tomb. They used the forced labour of local residents and prisoners, forcing them to manually dismantle stone blocks at gunpoint. Some of the petroglyphs were damaged by explosions, and valuable artefacts such as ceramics, stone slabs and jewellery were taken to Germany for the “SS Museum” in Wewelsburg. Some sources claim that the Nazis planned to dismantle the Stone Tomb and transport it to the Reich as a “shrine to the Aryan race”. Local residents who tried to protect the site were subjected to brutal repression: they were tortured, sent to concentration camps, or shot on the spot. This outrage not only disfigured the Stone Monument, but also became part of the Nazi policy of erasing Ukrainian identity.
The bloody altar of pseudoscience
The most horrific pages of Anenerbe’s work were written in the concentration camps of Dachau, Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, and Mauthausen. Under the guise of “medical research,” Nazi doctors conducted experiments that surpassed the worst nightmares. Sigmund Rascher, one of the main “researchers” at Anenerbe, froze prisoners in vats of ice water, recording how many minutes they could withstand before dying. Some victims were “resuscitated” by throwing them into boiling water or forcing them into physical contact with other prisoners, which only prolonged their agony. Rascher also experimented with decompression chambers, simulating conditions at high altitude: people died of burst lungs, and their screams were recorded for “scientific reports”.
Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death” of Auschwitz, collaborated with Anenerbe in conducting experiments on Jewish children, especially twins. He injected them with chemicals to change the colour of their eyes, amputated limbs without anaesthesia, and stitched their bodies together in an attempt to create “Siamese twins”. Some children were injected with phenol directly into the heart to “study” the speed of death. Anenerbe also assembled “collections” of human remains: skulls, skeletons, and even the skin of victims were used to make “anatomical specimens” or souvenirs for the SS elite. In Ravensbrück, women were infected with gangrene to test new antibiotics, and in Mauthausen, operations were performed without anaesthesia to “investigate the pain threshold”. These atrocities, which Anenerbe hid behind “scientific necessity,” left thousands of mutilated bodies and forever broken souls.
The occult abyss
Anenerbe was steeped in the occult, teetering on the edge of madness. Himmler, who believed himself to be the reincarnation of King Henry I, turned Wewelsburg Castle into a satanic temple of the SS. In its underground crypt, known as the Black Sun, rituals were held where SS officers, surrounded by torches and runic symbols, swore blood oaths to serve the “Aryan gods”. Anenerbe funded the search for the Holy Grail, the Longinus Spear and the legendary Hammer of Thor, believing that these artefacts would give the Nazis supernatural power. Some members of the organisation, such as the occultist Karl Willigut, conducted sessions of “communication” with the spirits of Germanic warriors using ancient artefacts and spells.
This mystical fanaticism had real consequences. Anenerbe’s occult ideas fuelled propaganda that portrayed Jews as the “demonic enemies” of the Aryan world, justifying the Holocaust. In her reports, Anenerbe argued that the destruction of “non-Aryan” peoples was a “cosmic necessity” to restore the “Aryan order”. For Israel, which knows the cost of this hatred, these ideas are a painful reminder of the roots of the tragedy.
The legacy of a nightmare
After the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945, the Anenerbe was disbanded, and its leaders, from Wolfram Sievers to Sigmund Rascher, were tried at the Nuremberg Tribunal. Many were sentenced to death, but a large part of the organisation’s documents were destroyed, leaving secrets that still give rise to conspiracy theories. Despite the Nazi devastation, Kamianna Mohyla has survived as a symbol of the Ukrainian soul, but its mutilated petroglyphs and lost artefacts bear witness to the atrocities of the Anenerbe. Some of the stolen relics have never returned to Ukraine, and some of them are rumoured to be kept in private collections or secret archives.
For Ukraine, which has experienced occupation, and for Israel, which has grown out of the memory of six million victims, Anenerbe is the embodiment of absolute evil. Its actions – from the looting of the Stone Grave to the experiments in concentration camps – remind us how pseudo-science and fanaticism can become weapons of mass destruction. Today, as the world once again faces radicalism, disinformation and hatred, Anenerbe’s lessons sound like a cry from hell: do not be silent, do not forget, do not repeat.
Anenerbe is not just an organisation, but a portal to the darkest depths of human nature, where pseudo-science, the occult, and cruelty merged into a bloody cult. Its desecration of the Stone Tomb, its experiments that broke human bodies and souls, its rituals that smelled of death are scars on the body of history. For Ukraine, which survived the Nazi boot, and for Israel, which was born out of the pain of the Holocaust, Anenerbe is a call to never forget. We must remember, fight, and guard against the darkness, so that it never returns.
Author : Marianna Nyzhnia
