Nazi Germany’s Top Secret Supernatural Mission In Remote Tibet | Myth Hunters | War Stories

[Music] [Music] in 1938 an amazing Expedition set out to explore a remote sacred land beyond the Himalayas Tibet the expedition was an extraordinary achievement those months they spent in that Strange Land opening it up the Explorers were a team of elite Nazi scientists led by a glamorous Adventurer he was the Indiana Jones of the Third Reich dispatched on a mission by the most feared man in Nazi Germany Hinrich himla his quest was as audacious as it was ambitious to find evidence that linked German arens to the ancient super race of a Lost Empire If Only

tiet Could yield up the land of the Snows could yield up its Secrets this is him's Quest to find the fabled lost people of [Music] Atlantis in 1936 one of Nazi Germany's Rising Stars 26-year-old zoologist an schaer was officially summoned to SS headquarters in Berlin he had an appointment with the most powerful and feared man in the the Third Reich not Adolf Hitler but Hinrich [Music] himler as reich's fura himler commanded an elite SS paramilitary force a quarter of a million strong a black clad Army dedicated to the supremacy of the German race he was

chief of all police throughout Germany including the secret police the brutal Gestapo himler organized the arrest and Detention of Jews as controller of a growing number of concentration camps the SS was a huge set of tentacles reach out into Germany and the SS tentacles and himler is chief of them now himas tentacles were reaching out to envelop the young scientist an chaer himler wanted him to solve a problem the Nazis claimed that the Germans were the master race destined to rule this ideology Justified the Germans domination of Europe and hatred of the Jews himler needed

German's superiority to be proved a fact for his proof he turned to an ancient myth The Lost World of Atlantis Atlantis was described as a vast continent in the Atlantic Ocean its people were Elite humans who conquered and dominated all other cultures and races The Empire of Atlantis reached into Europe Africa and South America but for himla Atlantis was wasn't a story but historical fact so Atlantis he came to believe himler had actually existed it wasn't a myth but it also scientifically based there had been an Atlantis getting evidence that the descendants of the atlanteans

were none other than the German people wasn't easy the island of Atlantis disappeared in a day and a night it was destroyed by earthquakes and volcanoes consumed by the ocean and lost beneath the waves forever far from the Atlantean civilization being lost in the cataclysm himler believed it lived on he held that Atlantis gave birth to every great civilization the Greeks the Romans the Mayans and Aztecs of South America even the ancient Egyptians that these inferior peoples had been Beed their culture by the Superior people of Atlantis from the very beginning it's all to do

with race racism impregnates the Atlantis myth it's about a superior race of beings who spread this knowledge around the world himler had a specific mission for schaer he was to lead an SS scientific Expedition and bring him proof that German Aryans were the descendants of this Superior race the lost people of Atlantis himler had chosen schaer in particular for this task not only for his scientific credentials but because he was already a famous explorer in 1930s Germany Dr an chaer cut a heroic figure he'd been a member of two American Le Expeditions into Tibet he

was a fastidious scientist and passionate Hunter who loved to study mammals and birds in the wild and after he'd shot them an ambitious self-publicist he wrote books about his exploits as a young Sharp Shooting Adventurer they made him a celebrity in Germany he becomes for Germans an embodiment of the ideal German in a way I think that's how himler regarded him a sort of heroic Brave physically resourceful the cliche would be Indiana Jones the Indiana Jones of the Third Reich an schaer was the ideal person to lead the SS scientific Expedition into Tibet himler pledged

him his personal support himler told schaer that in ancient times survivors of Atlantis had founded a great civilization in Asia one mysterious country least diluted by the centuries of History was remote Tibet for Heinrich himler Tibet had an extraordinary appeal the Supermen of the Aryan race had gone there and in the fastness of Tibet had reestablished their culture and their ways cut off remote from the outside world in the 1930s Tibet was one of the few scientifically unresearched areas of the world situated in the center of Asia but isolated by the Himalayan Mountains the Tibetan

Plateau covers nearly a million square miles at an altitude of up to 15,000 ft could this natural Fortress have sheltered survivors of Atlantis if they did settle there then the isolation would have kept them racially pure they would be distant cousins of the German Master race if Tibet could be reopened and the evidence of the Supermen of the past be rediscovered here was the best proof possible of the validity of the argument that modern Germany and the Nazi movement had and the arens of Germany now were directly related to the Superman tith at this point

in time was so unexplored compared to other regions of the world that any expedition to Tibet would be a big coup to lead his own expedition into Tibet was a dream come true for the ambitious schaer but there was a sting in the tail doing science for the SS meant doing it the SS way in 1935 himler set up the anaa a research organization within the SS its job was to prove Nazi ideology the idea is to help a number of German scientists dig into the past of the German peoples and in a way to

endorse them as the superior people of Europe the Ana recruited corrupt scientists and Scholars prepared to ransack Germany's past and glorify it we would say that Arn and erber is an attempt to rewrite history himler claimed it was a rediscovery of the true German history and that why all aspects of archaeology philology semantics language you name any ology or anomy it had to be taken into AR and air because those elements could become means by which the truth of the great German past could be rediscovered what is remarkable is that the German state of the

time the Nazi State certainly according to the SS Chief hinr shimer needed to create its own mythologies the ancient swastika symbol was appropriated to represent Nazi power and signify their hatred of what they saw as inferior peoples the anba also undermined what it saw as anti-german science even the great Einstein because he was Jewish German nationalists resented the achievements of Jewish scientists and they came up with an absurd idea that their science was in some way Jewish and therefore not wanted in Germany and this did force them to validate science that was really very mediocre

if not absurd schaer's scientific Pride faced an even bigger challenge him's quasi historical account of Atlantis backed by the anba pseudo science was to him a fantasy without Foundation as a scientist he didn't believe a word of [Music] it shaer thought that he could ride the Nazi tiger and that this Expedition would ensure a glittering scientific career I think he was quite ambitious um in many ways um but also very much willing to manipulate people willing to manipulate institutions um so that he would get uh what he wanted desperate to return to Tibet schaer couldn't

resist hima's offer so schaer made a devil's pact with himler to realize his ambition he agreed to an impossible task and ultimately he would pay a heavy price dis cover the past with exclusive military history documentaries and adree podcasts presented by world-renowned historians all on History hit watch them on your smart TV or on the- go with your mobile device download the app now to watch everything from the gripping story of the Band of Brothers to operation Barbarosa and D-Day immerse yourself in the dramatic stories of this remarkable era by signing up via the link

in the description and schaer was a political animal always able to manipulate a situation to his advantage or so he thought in 1933 schaer had been studying for his Doctorate when Hitler was elected ores chancellor of Germany and the Nazis swept to power the Nazis racial policies caused many Jews to leave the country as did many scientific researchers [Music] but schaer embraced the New Order and signed up to him's increasingly powerful SS in Nazi Germany that's how ambitious young scientists got ahead it was actually very sensible of schaer to join the SS in 1933 he

was ambitious he had unusual Ambitions he didn't just want a university seat he wanted support for his work as a naturalist he rightly believed that the SS would back him he himself said that politics serves science and science serves politics now if he could make that illusion himself then it would justify and explain why he was so willing so ready to join a political movement because it it gave him the scientific freedom to pursue the researches that he believed was his mission but schaer found the realities of mixing politics and science impossible from the start

schaer's meticulous scientific methods would never chime with himmler's bizarre cut and paste theories so while schaer benefited from official SS support he also suffered from official SS interference the anona plied him with its preferred candidates to join the SS expedition to Tibet corrupt archaeologists self-styled Mystics and pseudo scientists now the ARB is very curious because there are some genuine scientists working for it they're probably rather embarrassed but there are some cranks as well you have a fellow called vilot or Vis Thor who is literally insane and yet himler regards him as a kind of Guru

as a wise man people like schaer they're appalled when they stumble on people like vilot you can imagine their reaction what am I doing here with people like this pseudo science was anathema to the rigorous and ambitious schaer risking hima's wroth schaer rejected the Ana's candidates schaer was able to resist some of the more overt pressure that himler um was putting on him schaer also was able to um keep his distance from the anona The ancestral heritage as such um and be semi-independent really of all of it schaer's Vision was very different and very clear

he wanted to conduct an objective scientific survey of Tibet a comprehensive study of its terrain and wildlife of its people and their Customs it was a holistic approach to science ahead of its time the great naturalist Charles Darwin had the galapagus: European naturalists believe that the Himalayas were a kind of Source Point for many different species if not all species in the world so to go to the Himalayas which is where Tibet is was a means of going back to the source of understanding how species developed and spread across the world there was a theory

that tet was essentially like a sort of waterfall of of species and that there was something interesting happening there genetic ially schaer wrote a Manifesto describing the kind of men he wanted to take with him an ideologically homogeneous healthy team comradeship according to soldierly principles in which each member possesses in addition to his sound knowledge of his subject of which he is a master also as much versatility as possible schaer wanted true scientists but he was still playing a a political game himler wanted each scientist to have one vital qualification membership of the SS there

were plenty of academics in this period who were not members of the SS uh so I think schaer took a lot of ss members partly because uh that brought Prestige partly that made sure that himler would not necessarily withdraw his patronage to achieve his vision of pure scientific research schaer himself would go as zoologist ornithologist botanist and of course team [Music] leader as team geologist he chose 24-year-old Carl vener and as entomologist 38-year-old an krower there was one member of the expedition was interested in tibetan insects butterflies and so on another member of the expedition

was meticulous ously taking geomagnetic readings at different points across the Himalayas I don't think you can really say there is a Nazi kind of butterfly collector or that there is anything political about geomagnetism but schaer couldn't ignore himmler's quest to find evidence of an ancient Nordic invasion of Tibet so he did accept one anaa candidate onto his team 26-year-old Anthropologist Bruno beger when you come to Bruno beger the Expedition Anthropologist I think you are looking at a political scientific research project which is to investigate the connections between the peoples of the Himalayas and Europeans deciphering

a person's racial Heritage was bega's speciality he'd been trained to do this by measuring people skull shape and facial features were thought by racial anthropologists to be particularly important they separated what they saw as the superior Aryan race from the inferior races Bruno bego had done some research on racial theories and racial mixing in particular he had worked with um Hunter um was a very famous uh Big Shot amongst racial scientists in the in the Third Reich schaer realized racial anthropology was essential to the success of his expedition he needed beger he was the only

person who might find the evidence himler had asked him to provide biger and schaer at this point both really believe in a lot of the ideas that are around in in National Socialist Germany they do primarily see themselves as scientists in their future careers really the problem with that however of course is that science and politics are very very closely linked in Nazi Germany um you can't have science without the politics himler believe they would produce enough evidence to justify the Expedition itself and it would add to his dream of recreating a German culture linked

very directly to the Aryan past schaer had his team in place after a year of preparation he was ready to lead his expedition into Tibet but his timing couldn't have been [Music] worse by the spring of 1938 Europe was in political turmoil the German war machine was gearing up the Nazis had reoccupied the Rin land taken from Germany at the end of the the first world war and now marched into Germans speaking Austria the first steps to a greater Germany the international situation didn't stop schaer's Expedition setting out from Berlin on April the 19th 1938

but it could stop him getting two tobet war in Asia left chaer only one possible route to Tibet through India and this brought him into direct conflict with the British Empire Tibet was a nominally independent country ruled in the absence of the young Dalai Lama by a regent and a council of ministers the British ensured they were the only Europeans allowed to advise the Tibetan government the British had at this point in time weren't really that Keen on allowing shaer into Tibet however that wasn't necessarily completely uncharacteristic the British had never been particularly keen on

allowing foreign Expeditions into Tibet uh the Tibetan government itself was also never particularly keen on allowing anyone other than the British into Tibet schaer nevertheless sailed via the sewers Canal for India in this sensitive situation he played down the SS support for his expedition to avoid antagonizing the British but a Nazi newspaper ran a glowing article celebrating the expedition's Glorious SS connections before schaer even arrived British and Indian newspapers burst into print with headlines screaming gestapo agent in India they were accused of being German spies it was a disaster for schaer the British authorities didn't

give the German Expedition permission even to enter India the precious Expedition schaer had prepared for all his life was over before it had even started again him's personal support was crucial he wrote a bitter letter of complaint to Britain read by the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain you know yourself that up to now my attitude towards every Englishman who has come to Germany has been entirely friendly for that reason I am the more astonished that the English should treat one of my men in a bruque wounding and unfriendly way I cannot imagine the authorities are

so stupid as to see in the scientist Dr schaer officially dispatched by me a spy despite the Gathering pace of Nazi Germany's War Machine Britain was still trying to appease Hitler so after him's intervention the British backed down appeasement is the big word of the time that Britain has accepted avoidance of War is the prime consideration and therefore wants amicable relations as far as they can be achieved with Germany the British eventually gave schaer permission to go into Northern India to explore the remote province of seim but he was expressly forbidden to enter Tibet without

official leave schaer was not a man to take no for an answer but he had to take what he could get for the time being once in seim schaer expanded his operation hiring Porters and pack horses buying food and Equipment despite being forbidden to enter Tibet schaer also hired Tibetan speakers as close as possible to the Tibet border schaer set his team to work on their varied scientific research collecting data for his scientific survey and also for hima's Quest for European traits he believed would racially link the German people to the Atlantean super race seim

became a place of great interest to Baker there are many people in Northern India who are descended from from Tibetans so bega had a lot to start with for an anthropologist and ethnologist like beger the races of this remote area were fascinating as schaer noted nearly all these fragment tribes have preserved their own cultures and their own languages and are distinguished by well-marked racial characteristics beger made meticulous measurements compared eye color to a chart and compared hair color to graded samples no detail was too small or obscure for his specialist equipment to measure he'd brought

a vast array of scientific instruments which could all be ordered from scientific male cataloges in the third life really um one particularly outlandish instrument that he brought was an instrument designed to measure the curvature of fingernails for instance racial anthropologists measured racial identity and status in the shape of the skeleton and in particular the skull the seic index was the ratio between the breadth and depth of the head a long narrow tonic head indicated North European ancestry uh he would measure the ratio between your forehead and your nose the distance between your eyebrows and all

sorts of very intricate measurements and although it seems rather crude now he is in a way measuring your genetic inheritance if they could prove by physical measurement measurement of the head and the face and so on uh that indeed the Tibetans were a direct link physically with modern Germans then the link between the Superman notion settled in the Shangri of Tibet and modern Germany would be made Beggar's expert measurements of the short darkskinned blackhaired peoples of seim would struggle to find evidence for him's fantasy of the Superhuman blond blue-eyed conquerors of Tibet himler wanted evidence

of a dominant strain of people in his mind these would naturally form the upper class the Tibetan ruling Elite he's particularly interested in to Aristocrats in Lassa and he wants to find a connection between these Tibetan the Tibetan Elite and Nordic people but the British had condemned schaer to fester in seek him as weeks turned into months he realized his expedition was doomed to fail if they couldn't get over the Tibetan border he wrote in his diary we are at tibet's Frontier it is the realm of our most powerful yearning up there not far away

at all is the Border [Music] pass the Border haunted schaer's imagination there was nothing physically to stop him there are neither guards nor Sentinels neither barrier nor gates at that lonely altitude there is only an OBO a heap of Stones wrapped in prayer Flags schaer in desperation was even considering sneaking over the Border if he did he risked more damaging anti-nazi headlines and an international incident but if he didn't he'd face him's Fury no one on the Expedition wants to go go back to Germany having not got to Tibet so for schaer this is a

crisis moment he' put up a massive Expedition put a lot of personal effort and investment into to all of this somehow he has to cross the Himalayas otherwise he's going to lose face in Germany he doesn't want to be humiliated schaer was torn he felt on a bound to resist the Temptation I have promised the visero not to cross the Tibetan border without official leave and as a German I'm not willing to break a promise but what does official leave mean schaer was looking for a way to wriggle out of his promise to the British

and he was in luck one day beger noticed a rather well-dressed Tibetan riding past the camp he recorded the event in his diary suddenly a Tibetan appeared my next thought is to measure him then our native translator Whispers to us that this is a high official here was an important advisor to a man of influence tering Raja a Tibetan prince who ruled the province just over the Forbidden border schaer seized the opportunity to ingratiate himself with the Tibetan ruling class the charm offensive might be his first step on the road to Lassa the team got

off to a good start observing Tibetan protocols as they sered tea schaer they made out was a great and powerful leader schaer in his turn and spoke of his love of Tibet and how he yearned to see Lassa and they showered their honored guest with gifts schaer gave him a begging letter in tibetan to take to his master tering Raja he hoped the prince might intercede with the ruling Council to let him enter Tibet it was a slim hope and all schaer could do was wait as the summer of 1938 slipped into Autumn schaer remained

isolated on the India Tibet border it seemed that the British had won he was trapped then after 5 months of waiting a letter from Lassa to the German hair Dr schaer master of a 100 Sciences first the ruling Council declared that Tibet is forever prohibited to foreigners but then the letter took on a more friendly tone it nevertheless appears from your letter that you intend only friendship and to see the holy land and its religious institutions then at last the translator read the news they thought would never come we Grant you permission to enter Lassa

and stay there for 14 [Music] days the Elation was Indescribable all five German scientists were invited by the Tibetan ruling Council to visit Lassa for 2 weeks schaer had wriggled out out of his promise to the British here was the longed for official leave it was pretty spectacular getting these German scientists into [Music] Lassa getting into Lassa was a big propaganda coup really for Nazi Germany um particularly so since the Nazis did at this point in time make a lot out of the fact that Germans could supposedly deal with non-european peoples better than the [Music]

British with news of the historic invitation himler promoted the whole team schaer to the rank of hom fura a captain in the SS on January the 19th 1939 schaer saw the Dalai Lama's vast patala Palace towering over [Music] Lassa it was an historic occasion they were the first Germans ever to enter the holy city the Tibetan government had officially invited schaer so he expected a grand welcome but just a single official greeted them a British representative in Lassa had intervened and changed the ruling council's Minds schaer's great coup would soon turn to abject failure if

the Nobles of Lassa ignored his expedition now schaer the politician got to work showing due difference he lavished the finest gifts on the ministers and nobility of Lassa what schaer did in Lassa there was definitely a fair bit of politics schaer was trying to build up friendly relations with the Tibetan government up until that point in time the Tibetan government had only really dealt with the British [Music] government schaer paid particular attention to the Regent rating rimpa the ruler of Tibet schaer found he had a unique advantage over the British in getting close to the

Tibetans Germany and Tibet he told them shared a common Bond the swastika for centuries Tibetans had regarded the ancient symbol as a sign of good fortune and permanence schaer made Gifts of Nazi emblems explaining to his hosts how revered the symbol was in Germany the Tibetans were delighted not knowing that in Europe at that very moment the swastika was a symbol of Oppression and violence with this deception schaer scored another great political coup the Regent later on sent a letter back home to to Hitler addressing him as the German King and asked for more contact

between Germany and Tibet and friendly relations to his majesty Adolf Hitler I have pleasure to let your majesty know that Dr schaer and his party who are the first Germans to visit Tibet have been allowed without any objection and every necessary assistance is rendered on their arrival thanks to schaer's access the ruling Council gave the Germans unprecedented freedom to film Lassa its monasteries and medieval setting schaer and his team docu dou umented the Exotic streets and markets with their Rich variety of food and cloth and jewelry but schaer's personal research was suffering the wonderful letter

from Lassa had also imposed a terrible condition that struck at the heart of why schaer was in Tibet at all hunting it was a bit of blow schaer had traveled Halfway Around The World Only to be banned from collecting Wildlife for his own research well not quite schaer did manage to hunt but quietly mainly with a catapult and only the occasional bullet when no one was about schaer of course did really circumvent some of the conditions um although not in a very ostentatious manner bega's work also suffered a severe setback during the colorful New Year

Festival a schaer and the team filmed the Magnificent dances and parades they got too close with their cameras and were stoned and injured by Angry monks after that bega's work measuring people was considered by the team to be provocative and fool Hardy a frustrated begar saw an extraordinary variety of people slip through his fingers shaven-headed monks in dark red robes Burly Yak herders dressed in heavy sheep skin delicate officials in shimmering tubers and what he described as many beautiful and tall people with even features he couldn't gather any hard physiological data that might fulfill him's

Quest yet while the science expedition was stalled the Germans remained great friends of the Regent he extended the expedition's stay from 2 weeks to two months schaer had sidelined the British much to their annoyance well the British were worried partly that schaer would be able to stoke up anti-british sentiment in Tibet um in fact this becomes more and more of an issue um throughout 1939 as appeasement in Europe started to fail in September 1938 in a spirit of appeasement the British had broken the Munich agreement and let Nazi Germany occupy the largely germane speaking Sudan

land then part of Czechoslovakia but 2 months later came Cristal KN one night of Violence by brown shirts and civilians that left 91 Jews dead and 30,000 in concentration camps the true nature of Nazism had been revealed the time for appeasement was [Music] over the Germans still enjoyed official approval his team were allowed to leave Lassa to explore the holiest places in Tibet ban even to the British but as they explored the sacred yalong Valley east of Lassa they began to receive messages urging them to return home to Germany shaer was Keen to stay and

explore areas that hadn't been explored by by many other people just to make his expedition special just to really um enable him to use what he was doing to um obtain Fame really back in back in Germany a European War seemed increasingly likely even inevitable if they waited much longer they risked being intered by the British as enemy aliens the expedition was running out of time by March 1939 Nazi Germany had expanded East again to occupy Bohemia and Moravia but Britain had a mutual assistance Packa with Poland and any further German Advance into Poland could

not be so easily ignored Europe was on the brink of War [Applause] even the Abul and schaer was becoming increasingly anxious about British intentions and began to fear arrest and detention in India beger reported that in the summer of 1939 schaer received a letter from his father and was so deeply affected by it that he disappeared for an hour his father pointed out there's a war coming and he said to the son if I were you I would make the best of what you've had and return if schaer wanted a chance of actually getting all

his samples and specimens and data back to Germany and make something out of them and make a name for himself he really needed to leave before war broke out beger wrote that he and the others were also being warned they were in danger we sat around the fireplace and discussed it suddenly we realized a letter and transmission from Berlin had the same message my wife had been hinting too the war they were told would start after the summer that was only weeks away it was time to go home to Germany despite the rising political tension

and schaer's fears of capture and detention the team were allowed safe Passage through India by the British the five SS officers were even able to fly out of Kolkata with British Indian Airways but what would himler have to say about schaer's lack of evidence for his quest for the people of Atlantis and what might he do even worse when the team touched down in Munich hinr himler himself would be there waiting now would come the Reckoning but himla welcomed schaer and his team as Heroes he a fine young men great scientists you could call them

or young Germans at their best it show them opening up the world of restoring the evidence looking for the evidence uh being adventurous giving Germany that sense of uh encompassing some of the best virtues and values of a modern civilization linked to the Aran past that they didn't make the link in physical hard terms in a sense didn't matter the expedition in itself was its own justification himler was elated by schaer's achievements in Tibet he had trounced the British and proven German dominant in the region the propaganda value of the expedition was definitely greater than

the scientific value of the Expedition himo certainly was delighted by the outcome shaking the the Expedition members hands at the airport just 27 Days Later Nazi Germany fatally committed to its policy of territorial and racial domination invaded Poland the Second World War Began schaer was not yet 30 when he returned to Germany a national hero but what had his extraordinary expedition to Tibet actually achieved schaer's personal scientific Vision came to nothing most of the huge amount of data his handpicked team of scientists gathered lay unexamined and then lost in the tumult of War what of

the proof of the super race of Atlantis it seems himler had asked the wrong guys he'd certainly asked the wrong question even racial Anthropologist Bruno beger had found the Atlantis Nordic idea hard to [Music] swallow bega was trying to find out out what kind of racial mixture there was in Tibet I don't think Beggar's research was as Grand as believing Nordic race the Nordic race had changed all of Asian history Bruno beger said that when they were gathered around the campfire in Northern India or Tibet they would reminisce about some of him's stranger views and

laugh about them but these men as SS scientists were supporting Nazi ideology working with a man whose crimes were Beyond [Music] imagining hinish himler let's not forget he was a super efficient bureaucrat who created a state within a state that carried out the worst genocide in human history so we shouldn't reduce him to to an eccentric or a [Music] crank himler to avoid trial for his crimes and death by hanging committed suicide after the war in February 1943 bega was sent to aitz to make facial masks of prisoners soon afterwards 109 Jews he had worked

on were gassed for an Infamous Nazi project the Jewish skull [Music] collection in 1971 beger was tried and convicted as an accomplice to murder he received a three-year suspended sentence after the war schaer's glittering career evaporated he took a job creating a wildlife park in Venezuela one of the sanctuaries for Nazis in South [Music] America schaer's life was cursed by his membership of the SS and close association with the evil Heinrich [Music] himler [Music] [Music]