The Little Book of the End of the World (19 page)

The
Ahenenerbe
are the basis for many of the Nazi villains seen in films like the
Indiana Jones
series, but there is little evidence that they were anything more than a government department that sought to combine science, history and propaganda.

Ravenscroft and the Spear

The Holy Lance is the spear that supposedly pierced the side of Jesus Christ as he was crucified, and writer Trevor Ravenscroft wrote an account of the lance that intertwines the relic with the fate of Adolf Hitler. There are numerous relics that claim to be this spear, and Ravenscroft’s account references the Hofburg Lance, currently in Vienna and part of the Austrian Imperial Treasury.

After the German invasion of Austria in 1938, the belongings of the Imperial Treasury were brought to Nuremberg and remained in Nazi possession until the end of the war. Ravenscroft suggests that this spear is possessed by an evil force, which he calls the Antichrist, which exerted some influence on Hitler.

However, Howard Buechner, an American soldier who served during the Second World War, claims that he was contacted after the war by a former U-boat captain who told him that the spear had actually been brought to a secret Nazi base in Antarctica, and the Hofburg Lance is an intricate replica. The real spear was then returned to Europe in the 1970s where it remains in the possession of neo-Nazi forces and continues to have an influence over modern politics.

Hitler as the Antichrist

In contemporary Germany, Hitler was hailed as something of a Messiah, but to the rest of the world his actions were clearly the work of something far more sinister.

Hermann Rauschning wrote a 1939 biography of Hitler called
Hitler Speaks
. The book is largely a fabrication, but paints an interesting image of Hitler waking at night, haunted by demonic spirits and voices.

In her book,
The Externalisation of the Hierarchy
, Alice Bailey suggested that the Second World War was actually the earthly portion of a greater struggle between good and evil, with Hitler, Mussolini and others possessed by dark forces. In this sense, the Antichrist was not one person but multiple people, and with the victory of the Allied Forces, the universe was prepared for the Second Coming.

In a 2006 interview with Vatican Radio, Fr Gabriele Amorth, one of the Vatican’s exorcists, claimed that Hitler – as well as Stalin – were possessed by the Devil. He also suggested that Pope Pius XII had attempted to exorcise Hitler from a distance, and that the German leader had remained in his prayers throughout his time as pope. However, Amorth suggests that an exorcism such as this could only have been successful at a shorter distance. As of 2013, Amorth claims to have performed over 160,000 exorcisms – which would average five a day, every day, over ninety years – and has also spoken out about the Satanic dangers of
Harry Potter
and yoga.

THE THIRD REICH

The events of Second World War are well recorded, whether it’s the magnetic personality of Adolf Hitler, the nationalist fervour that spread across Europe in the form of fascism or the horrible atrocities committed against various ethnicities and beliefs. However, the Nazi regime does help us to better understand the End of the World.

The concept of the Third Reich was not a uniquely German concept, but had its origins in the religious writings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Gioacchino da Fiore divided human history into three eras:

  the First Age, or Age of the Father, corresponding with the Old Testament;

  the Second Age, or Age of the Son, corresponding to the New Testament and an era when God had sent his son to live amongst humanity;

  the Third Age, or Age of the Holy Spirit, which da Fiore considered was yet to come and would be an era of humanity living with God.

In 1923, Arthur Moeller Van Den Bruck published a book called
Das Dritte Reich
, coining the phrase that we commonly associate with Nazi Germany and turning this Third Age into the Third Reich. Moeller Van Den Bruck applied these three eras to German history, suggesting that the first era had taken place during the Middle Ages, in the form of the Holy Roman Empire; the Second Age had been under the Austro-Hungarian Empire that collapsed in 1918; and the Third Age was yet to come. In some ways, this interpretation was inspired by the five kingdoms discussed in the Book of Daniel.

This idea became twisted under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, who styled the Third Reich as a 1,000-year rule that would bring Germany out of the shadows of the Weimar Republic and restore the country to its earlier glory. In doing so, Hitler portrayed himself as a messianic hero to the German people, but curiously, neither he nor any of his followers made any public claims of divine right or prophecy.

After the Second World War came to a close, the Vatican was encouraged to release a statement condemning the actions of Hitler and his views of a 1,000-year reign. This officially stated that the Millennial reign as discussed in the Bible should be viewed in a spiritual sense, and doing otherwise would not be safe.

17

MUTUALLY-ASSURED DESTRUCTION

If there’s a recurring theme throughout the history of the twentieth century, it’s that mankind has been on a path to self-destruction. Rather than the End of the World coming from outside of society, or from part of the natural cycle of the planet, we are instead rushing to embrace a man-made Apocalypse. The century has seen two world wars, many smaller skirmishes and world-changing technological advancements.

NOW I AM BECOME DEATH

The mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion has become synonymous with the End of the World, and one of the men involved in the creation of the nuclear bomb was perfectly aware of the associations between his own work and the End of Days.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in 1904 in New York, and studied at Harvard University: he rose through advanced studies quickly, specialising in physics and chemistry and graduating with the highest honours. He continued his studies in Europe and in 1941 was appointed as head of the United States’ Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb that could be used to bring the Second World War to a close. Oppenheimer was given the title of ‘Coordinator of Rapid Rupture’.

Oppenheimer threw himself into his work, recruiting other physicists and scientists; his mixture of skills meant that he was well placed to provide cross-discipline training for those colleagues who needed to better understand the science behind the bomb, turning chemists into physicists and vice versa. The project made its home at the Los Alamos area of New Mexico, and by 1945 the project involved over 6,000 people.

On 16 July 1945, Oppenheimer oversaw the first man-made nuclear explosion and was struck by the beautiful tragedy of the situation.

While many involved in the Manhattan Project regretted that the project had not been completed in time to use against Nazi Germany, they considered its subsequent use in Japan the following month as an unnecessary show of force to bring to a close a war that they were already winning. Oppenheimer himself travelled to Washington the week after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to hand-deliver a letter to the White House, condemning the bombing and calling for nuclear weapons to be outlawed.

Like Newton and da Vinci before him, Oppenheimer’s interests went far beyond the world of natural and theoretical sciences, and he turned to Hindu scripture and Apocalyptic imagery to discuss his thoughts on the Manhattan Project, which he felt had hastened the End of the World. He famously stated in a 1965 television interview that he pictured himself in the role of the Hindu god Vishnu, the overseer, transforming into Shiva, the destroyer, at the end of time:

‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.

THE COLD WAR

Although the US Army was the first to design and use the atomic bomb, the middle of the twentieth century saw other parties, most notably the USSR, develop their own nuclear programmes, which led to the beginning of the Cold War. Both sides were willing to showcase their weapons in order to instil fear in their enemies, but neither was quite willing to use them, knowing that reprisal would mean certain destruction

The phrase ‘cold war’ was first coined by George Orwell to describe a struggle where two sides faced each other in the theatre of war, but never actually came into conflict: the outbreak of war would only lead to mutually-assured destruction.

The presence of nuclear weapons created an active threat and a passive deterrent for both the USA and the USSR, as well as many smaller nations that had allied themselves with one force or the other over the period. By the twenty-first century, most nations have condemned the use of nuclear weaponry, or have found less destructive alternatives, although this form of destruction still remains a viable threat.

THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK

Much to the disappointment of many a science fiction fan, the Doomsday Clock is not a real clock: it doesn’t even accurately portray time, but is simply a theoretical representation of how close we are to the End of the World.