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Rating: 
Summary: Should have been written by a real historian
Review: C. Hale's "Himmler's Crusade" continues the scholarly
and sometimes not-so-scholarly attempt to examine
Nazi esotericism. The Nazi expedition to Tibet is a subject
not often commented on, never by mainstream historians
and infrequently by writers on Nazi mysticism. Unfortunately,
Mr. Hale should have done more research and gotten his facts
correct. He refers to the symbol representing the SS as
a "double thunderbolt." They are not thunderbolts but
double sieg runes, representing the pagan Germanic letter
for victory. Mr. Hale refers to Heinrich Himmler as "by far the best educated of the Nazi leaders.." Himmler had a degree
in agriculture fom Munich Technical College. Paul Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, earned a doctorate in philology
from Heildelberg University. Goebbels had a background in many
bodies of knowledge. Himmler's intellectual background and experiences were quite pedesrtian compared to those of Goebbels.
On page 117, Mr. Hale writes " Himmler had rlvals for political power, but he also resented the cultural status of Alfred Rosenberg..." I hardly think this likely. Rosenberg was considered to be the outsider among the leading Nazis. He was a
subject of private jokes. His name seemed to identify him as Jewish. Himmler would not have been threatened by him.
In the sense that this book explores a previously unknown
chapter in Nazi history it is a welcome addition to the modern
historian. However, Hr. Hale should have done a more thorough
job in his research.
Rating:
Summary: What's in a name, what's in a title?
Review: First, let me congratulate Mr. Hale on such a worthy feat of scholarly research. He has really gone "out on a limb" to try and present something new which we can "all" learn from. In the context of we i am speaking about many of us who read about this period in history in the hope for a better understand of humanity and existence. Why is humanity sacrificed to such degrees in the name of science? Is this still happening again today? Are there other atrocities taking place in world whereby, social, economic or political beliefs are sacrificing humanity in the name of science, experimentation, etc. Would economics (capitalism, socialism, communism) and religion(Christianity, Islam, paganism) have anything to do with this? Mr. Hale, from the perspective of shedding any new academic thought, theory or light on these precious subjects has failed miserably. Much like the great propaganda machines of the later day third reich and Doctor Goebbels and the present day apparatus of the Blair-led British government combined with US social science experimentation(pre-emptive strikes, internet wire-tapping, falsifying of evidence, off-shore torture labratories, Guanamtomo, etc) it seems Mr. Hale could be trying to only lend support to the status quo. To pick-up on Hale's technique one only needs to draw attention to how he chooses to describe is main characters. Schafer, the main character is carefully described throughout the book in terms such as, "shameless", "raging", "developing fixations",etc. The average reader could actually be convinced that these German explorers are rabid racists and architects of the final solution that culminated in Auswitz. Perhaps it is all of this archealogical work they have been forced to do through forced occult ceremonies by Himmler that have somewhat hypnotised what were once normal and highly educated cultured University graduates and professionals of the world's scientific community. Hale even goes so far as Goebbels would in his scholorship by citing references from Nietzsche, "'we cannot fail to see the blond beast of prey..avidly prowling round for spoil and victory'...He has warned, 'The beast must come out again, and return to the wild.' By the beginning of 1939,the beast was loose." Perhaps, Hale should spend some more time researching Nietzsche instead of copying what other writers/propagandists have to say about Nietzsche and the third reich. I am certain the great Walter Kaufmann: Basic Writings of Nietzsche, would welcome Hale as a student in an attempt to further rid yet another propagandist on the true value/meaning of Nietzsche's works. If one is still in doubt of my somewhat lowly opinion of Hale who should be taken as a serious propagandist one only needs tp read the cleverly titled chapter at the end named Aftermath. Hale sums up his vast library of "original" research by implying that archeological expeditions sponsored in the name of lost civilisations will ultimately lead to a 'slippery slope descending into darkness.' the darkness he is referring to is what culminated in the nazis concentration camps. The path he is suggesting we stay clear of is today's renewed interest in lost civilisations and cultires vis-a-vi Hancock: Fingerprints of the Gods." Perhaps, hidden somewhere in Hale's research is an explanation for the construction of the pyramids, lost unaccounted Inca treasure, interpretation of the ruins in Tiwanaku, etc. Most likely, with a little more research and a grant from the mainstream British/American science community Hale could recycle traditional science's excellent many modern day theories on this subject: hard labour primitive tools, world was created a few hundred years before Christ in 7 days, etc. As for the 'dangerous slippery slope of darkness' I wonder if he would include British/American War adventurism as a descent into darkness based on economic trade alchemy and scientific technological warfare and torture in the same category. Hale is a propagandist who has highjacked the "holy grail" of WW2 subject matter - himmler and the occult - to once again hammer home the point of bad versus good. Bad in the world of Hale translates into the shameless practice of tracing our ancestorial origins, contrary to mainstream beliefs. Ultimately asking to many questions and searching to far will push us towards evil and darkness. Perhaps Hale and the conformist "matrixed" community of commerical hypothesis demanding members he represents should look in the mirror more often. If they look hard enough they might even have the will to smash it with an honest attempt to give history a new name.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book if your electricity is off
Review: Gripping this book is most definitely not, neither is particularly exciting or chilling or compelling. It is however, very well researched and detailed, and reads much like a very dull travelogue. The narrative is primarily step by step accounts of which cable was sent to who, which native the team offended on what day, etc... but it leaves out a great deal of backstory about the Nazi occult fetish, which would have made this book a great deal more interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing Drivel
Review: Hale's book is not unlike a public school cafeteria stew -- poorly thought out, poorly executed, unsatisfying, full of extraneous fillers, and not at all nourishing. Of course, one can poke about and find the odd palatable bit.... but is it really worth the effort? Regarding his "scholarship" one need only note that Hale cites Walther Schellenberg's memoirs as if they are a reliable source. Much of Hale's book is an indiscriminate cobbling together of secondary sources without any learned discrimination. Worse yet, neither he nor his editors could be bothered with consistency in their presentation (e.g., was it 50 or 52 divisions that the Germans invaded Poland with in 1939?; was the SS modeled after the Jesuits or a Tibetan fighting group?). Topping it all off is Hale's juvenile tone throughout much of the book -- a sort of pseudo-pornographic attraction to the darkside of Nazism all rolled together with fervent protestations of condemnation. To paraphrase the author himself, getting this sludge-heap published must have been a real "triumph of the will" on his part. It is now almost 60 years since the end of WWII... can we please have some serious, thoughtful books that don't read like a pastiche of bad Frank Capra war-time propaganda?
Rating: 
Summary: a compelling book
Review: I found this account of the Himmler sponsored expedition to find the mythical origins of the Aryan race utterly absorbing, not only because it sheds light on one of the odd, yet central strands of the Nazi cosmology but also because of the ways in which it was observed by the British. I had little idea that Tibet formed the locus of Western spiritual projections over so many decades.
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Account of History
Review: This is a brilliant and incredibly well researched book analyzing a little known, but powerfully important, part of Nazi history. I picked the book to read because it received such a stellar review by Michael Burleigh, the most renowned international authority on the Third Reich. Immediately, I was entranced by every aspect of Hale's account of an SS-sponsored expedition to Tibet in 1938-39. Hale goes way beyond doing a comprehensive book study of the subject. He actually conducted his own expedition to Tibet, retracing the steps that the SS-sponsored expedition leaders took and interviewing individuals who were either part of the expedition or who were associated with it. For example, throughout the book Hale provides astonishing information from his interviews with Bruno Beger, an anthropologist and SS member who would later be brought to trial and imprisoned for selecting over 100 inmates for "study" at Auschwitz (all of whom were gassed). I would recommend Hale's book for anyone interested in the origins and perpetuation of Nazism. Himmler's Crusade is already a classic in the field.
Rating:
Summary: A Chilling and Compelling Account of a Nazi Obsession
Review: This is a gripping historical account of a little known chapter of Nazi history. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was indeed based on truth stranger than fiction. Hale details the Nazi quest for the origins of the "Aryan master race" in a German led expedition to Tibet in 1938 supported by nut-bar extraordinaire, mass murderer and head of the S.S., Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler himself. Hale brilliantly documents from a wide range of sources a strange brew of bizarre Nazi race theories, poisonous ambition and swashbuckling adventures in China and Tibet ending in the horrors of Auschwitz. In a time of when the shameless Madame Blavatsky is still taken seriously and the outer fringes of New Age ideas verge on the lunatic- David Ick et al- this book is a powerful reminder of the requirement for clear-headed rational scientific thinking. Bravo to Christopher Hale for writing a story that needed to be told!
Rating:
Summary: Underlying forces in the Third Reich
Review: This is an excellent book. It describes the mostly unknown drive of the Nazis to discover the roots of their people and their influences around the world for many thousands of years before the Third Reich. It doesn't get any more interesting than this. The title is somewhat of a misnomer, however. The Nazis never questioned where the Aryan race originated, they were only trying to discover their history and influences around the world. Modern archaeology shows us that caucasian peoples were in North America over 11,000 years ago. The northern European caucasian mummies found in the arid lands of northeastern China show the unrelenting wanderlust of the curious peoples from the north. These exoduses of the European peoples are what the Nazis sought to discover. These are the real "diaspora peoples" whose languages have been confused and who have been spread around the world. That is what drove them in Indiana-Jones-like fashion to try to find these things. Still, it is an excellent book full of great information to those who have never thought or read about these things. Most books parrot the tired old terms about Hitler: "Monster", "Murderer", etc. It is nice to see a book which shows a glimmer of the kinds of underlying motivations which could so fanatically compel an extremely advanced and intelligent population to do the things they did. This book serves to help raise that curtain.
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