Date: Mon, October 28, 2013 5:30 pm (answered 12 November 2013) Hi Orange, I had a couple questions concerning your preferred program of recovery. Is that the only one that works because it works for you? Based on what I have read on your page, you will most likely be quick to deem me a `Stepper` (much, might I add, like McCarthy did with supposed communists), but I feel the question begs to be asked: what brings about your strong feelings of disdain for AA and step programs? Programs, that when worked properly, bring people into lives they may never have found had they not found a God? I understand your program to be one of willpower, but does it also teach to denounce other methods as wrong? Is anonymity an important issue, as I notice the handle `Orange` used in reply to letters as opposed to a name? I would love to keep the lines of communication open between us so that I may better understand. Thanks. Also, the definition of a cult on dictionary.comdoes not sound like the cults we think of today. However, I suppose that if you're against religion in any sense, organized or not, it would seem like a bad thing.
Hello William,
The answer to your question is very simple: I am strongly opposed to the 12-Step treatment
of alcohol abuse and addictions because it does not work, and they lie about that fact.
The failure rate of 12-Step treatment is well-known, and well-documented, and yet,
they still begin every meeting by lying to the newcomers:
By the way, that line uses
the propaganda technique
of lying with qualifiers:
"has thoroughly followed our path."
Likewise, you used the same qualifier in your letter:
When worked properly? Please define "worked properly".
You are also assuming that people find God through A.A., which is also a groundless assumption.
There is as much reason to believe that they find Santa Claus or
Satan as their helper. Pray, "Oh Higher Power, please gimme, gimme, gimme!"
About:
There really isn't any "my program". I do not push any particular program, although
I do recommend programs that teach self-control and rational thinking, like SMART,
SOS, WFS, and Lifering. My personal way of staying sober is to just not ever put another
drink in my mouth. (Or another cigarette. Or another hit of dope.)
That is the answer to all questions about drinking, or "just having one".
And yes, sometimes that does involve willpower, but more often it requires
clear, realistic thinking, like, "Once you open that door, all Hell will break loose."
I wrote more about "my methods", or my personal way, here:
How did you get to where you are?
I denounce those methods that are proven failures.
Especially when they lie to sick people about how well their suggested cure works.
That is really heartless treatment of sick people.
Anonymity used to be an issue, but it isn't any more. My birth name is Terrance Hodgins,
and I live in rural Oregon, west of Portland.
I continue to use the "Orange" pen name because I have used it
for so many years that many people don't know me by any other name.
If you want to understand the definition of a cult, we can do far better than the short dictionary
definition. Please read the Cult Test, both the questions and the answers:
But even the dictionary definitions of "cult" are applicable:
A.A. especially qualifies with definition 8, where A.A. claims to be the only way to treat alcoholism,
and Bill Wilson just somehow magically came up with all the answers that had eluded everybody
from Jesus Christ to contemporary doctors.
Again, A.A. matches several of those descriptions, and especially matches definition 5.
Yes, I'll be happy to have lines of communication open. We can talk again.
Have a good day now.
== Orange
Date: Tue, October 29, 2013 4:39 pm (answered 12 November 2013) http://www.theonion.com/video/aa-destroying-the-social-lives-of-thousands-of-onc,18349/
Hello James,
Thanks for the laugh. I like humor. Lord knows, we get so many grim unhappy tales of suffering and death,
we need a laugh now and then.
So have a good day.
== Orange
[ Link here =
http://www.orange-papers.info/orange-letters374.html#Pennywise ]
Date: Tue, October 29, 2013 5:04 pm (answered 12 November 2013) Hi Orange, I am not aware of that case. On any account, I am not aware of any criminal statues that this attorney may have violated. So far, all he has done is threaten to invoke lawful process, and he has not asked for any settlement money.
Hello again, Pennywise,
I haven't been able to find that case either. It was just a passing thought about
a lawyer being a co-conspirator in conspiring to deprive someone of his Constitutional rights.
That would be a long-shot, and would probably have to go to the Supreme Court.
But no matter. The anti-SLAPP thing is much better.
That said, it appears he is threatening to file what is known as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). A SLAPP suit is basically a meritless lawsuit designed to deter people from exercising their First Amendment right to free speech. Fortunately, many states (such as Oregon and California) have enacted laws to quickly dispose of these types of actions. Specifically, in those jurisdictions, once the lawsuit is filed, a defendant can file a special motion to strike pursuant to that state's anti-SLAPP statute. In CA, for example, the defendant would first have the burden of showing that the lawsuit was brought as a result of his engaging in constitutionally protected speech. Then, the burden would shift to the plaintiff to show that he has a reasonable probability of prevailing in the case. If the plaintiff fails to show a reasonable probability of success, the motion to strike will be granted, and the defendant can recoup costs and attorney's fees.
Here, I think it would be hard for the plaintiff to demonstrate a
probability of success because 1) you did not publish any defamatory
statements, and 2) even if the statements were defamatory, you have
immunity under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act (47 USC § 230) Yes, very good point. I hadn't even gotten around to harping on the fact that I did not actually write or post the article. But I also believe in protecting my posters, so I'll fight it. At this point, I imagine the court would grant your motion to strike. Then, at least in CA, you would file a SLAPPback motion, which would require the court to award you costs and reasonable attorney's fees. Ah yes. It would be too bad if I won, and didn't have a lot of lawyer's fees to collect on. But don't you charge a million dollars an hour for consultations? :-)
Anyway, as I said, I am not a licensed attorney in California or Oregon,
and this is meant only as a friendly overview. Please contact a lawyer in
your jurisdiction if you are served process. Also, you might find this
page very insightful: Love your work, Penny
Thanks for all of that, Penny.
You have a good day too.
== Orange
Date: Wed, October 30, 2013 3:44 am (answered 12 November 2013) Even though I think I will be the only person I know (at my job) who was ever "sentenced" to AA. Your papers speak the truth. I lost my job, believing the dogma... I was powerless, according to Kaiser (AA). Such BS. I wish Kaiser, and my union, would have actually spent MY MONEY on a scientific (medical), research based "program". Fuck Kaiser, fuck my union, and fuck AA. Thanks Orange. I get it now. Sorry to be like that but... I had to. You and all your peeps know the AA thumps will never get it.
Hello John,
Thanks for the letter. Sorry to hear about your troubles. Yes, the way that so many
people are forced into programs of quack medicine is a national tragedy.
Good luck in your future.
And have a good day now (I hope).
== Orange
Date: Mon, October 28, 2013 11:44 am (answered 11 November 2013)
Hi there,
I have been reading many of your recent letters. I find them informative and beneficial. A recent one mentioned "12 Steps to Destruction: Codependency Recovery Heresies" and you said you might try to find it at a library. It is available as a free e-book at the Bobgan's website:
http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/mainpage.html
Just click on the link there for their free e-books and it will take you to the page where you can download it. I hope you have your own laptop and can get it without depending upon a library computer. I read most of this e-book way back in the fall of 2006, right after I had to move out of my home and watch a thirty year marriage blow up in my face. I had been diagnosed as a sex addict though I never once cheated on my wife. So, wife and I were seeing a psychotherapist supposedly all up on how to "treat" a sex addict husband and his "codependent" wife. It's basically a canned program. These psychotherapists who sign onto "SASH", Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health" basically just follow the plan developed by Patrick Carnes (a true 12 stepper) and it's one size fits all. Lord help you if you are not receptive to attending a 12 step group like SA or SAA. Not being a total idiot, I started investigating everything with a rather critical eye and this was one source of information which flew in the face of the nonsense being pushed on me by this SASH psychotherapist. Just based upon reading this e-book, I was astonished that this supposed "Christian Psychotherapist" could push a 12 step program on anyone. It gave me a completely cynical view toward about 90% of the entire mental health community, for sure any member dealing with supposed addictions.
Patrick Carnes is one of the master snake oil salesmen. The entire concept of sex addiction is flawed. If you follow the money, it's really all about how to get wealthy off gullible people who will believe the nonsense and must turn to Carnes and his minions to obtain "treatment" and put their addiction on hold, this having to be done through a 12 step process. Codependency is a flawed construct as well. What it provides is an excuse for the therapist to "treat" two people instead of just one and the dollars flow in. They misappropriate counseling away from clergy and take it upon themselves. But, they can't call viewing porn as sin, it has to be an addiction and the person has a chronic disease.
Regarding codependency, that same fall of 2006 there was a Dr. Westermeyer who used to have his own website, but which has since folded. Part of an article he wrote is still available at http://www.addictioninfo.org but it is incomplete. Now, this is a psychologist with a PhD. finally showing some sanity instead of adopting the position of the majority treating addictions. I saved the entire article and have attached it for your perusal. From a Christian point of view as well, the Bible never condemns self-sacrifice. But the people who push the condependency nonsense sure do. It's an opportunity to throw the switch and devote oneself to the focus of self and with the approval of all the misguided therapists.
After doing loads and loads of my own research, I wasn't buying any of the 12 step nonsense. I found your website way back then too! So, my balking at submitting to the 12 step nonsense made me appear to be totally rebellious and wife opted to file for divorce by March of 2007. We had a total of three joint sessions with the idiot therapist. I had been required to move out at the end of October of 2006 and we were to have no contact with each other. I thought at the time this was the most asinine therapeutic regimen I had ever heard of and still do seven years later. Funny how so many therapists assume there is a "one size fits all" therapeutic program.
Well, I am doing ok. My kids and my grandkids love me. I continue working and making my own way, sharing a house with another single guy. I just wish there was a way that these misguided psychotherapists would get stopped from pushing the same old garbage onto people and calling it "treatment".
I hope the link and the article provide even more insight for you into the contrived diagnosis of "codependency". I found many, many articles and a book which question the entire notion of sex addiction. Here is just one example:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21646830/
and another:
http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/San-Diego-Magazine/March-2010/Sex-Addiction-Not-So-Fast/
I have a number of different links to articles all disputing the idea of sex addiction but they are in my home computer. There is certainly NO NEED for a 12 step program for a nonexistent addiction.
Your work is brilliant. I just wish you received more credit than you receive. Obviously, your research and writings don't sit well with a great majority of addictions counselors. It can take a long time for a paradigm to change, unfortunately.
One last set of links: this is for one of the best articles I have read which disputes the idea of alcoholism or addiction being a disease:
http://www.baldwinresearch.com/alcoholism.cfm
http://www.baldwinresearch.com/treatmentdoesnt2004.cfm
I hope you enjoy the reading.
My best regards,
Mike
PS. I can't help it. I thought of one more article you might enjoy. This is a critique of Celebrate Recovery, the "Christianized" but misguided adoption of doing twelve steps. Funny that God would wait 1900 years before providing a method for turning away from destructive drinking and in this tardy fashion provide to the necromancer, Bill Wilson, the "right" method and be 2000 years tardy for the "Christianized" version to arrive. Dream on.
http://www.thebereancall.org/content/way-which-seemeth-right
Attachments:
Hello Mike,
Thank you for the letter. That says so much. I'm sorry to hear about your suffering.
I trust that you are doing okay. And thanks for the compliments.
I quite agree about what a racket "codependency" is. It's pure fraud.
There is no scientific or medical basis to it. Neither the American Medical Association,
nor the FDA, nor the American Psychiatric Association even recognize the existence
of such a disease.
Andrew Meacham, in his great book
Selling Serenity: Life Among the Recovery Stars,
described "Codependency" as "invent a non-existent disease, and then
charge a fortune to treat it."
Then, the idea that they are going to "treat" this
"disease" with an old cult religion from the nineteen-thirties
is really over the top. And for it to be an old pro-Nazi cult religion
that resembles Satan-worship
more than it resembles Christianity
is almost unbelievable. And yet it's true. You wouldn't think that an
anti-Christian religion could possibly become popular in America, would
you? Alas, a lot of people don't pay close attention to the details.
They just hear someone mumble the word "God" a few times, and
they think that A.A. must be a great organization, and very spiritual too.
And the bottom line, the fact that several of your references stress, is the fact
that 12-Step treatment does not work. That has been proven many times.
So why isn't there a law against it? Because the FDA regulates medications, but not treatments for
addictions. Or pseudo-addictions like codependency.
Yes, there is lots of room for gray areas in the debate about sexual addiction. It's an undeniable
fact that Nature has given us strong sex drives to keep the species going. Someone who
wants sex on a regular basis is normal and healthy, not diseased or addicted.
Show me a species without any sex drive and I'll show you an extinct species.
You are also quite right about the conflict between Christian teachings
and the "codependency treatment" teachings.
Christianity teaches that people should be more caring and loving and giving.
The "codependency counselors" teach that caring about and loving an addict
or an alcoholic is a disease from which you must be cured.
What amazes me is how few people notice such glaring contradictions.
The document that you sent,
When_Caring_Becomes_a_Disease.pdf,
says:
Yes indeed. See the file
Twelve-Step Snake Oil
for much more about that. Everything and anything is a "symptom of
codependency", even caring too much and caring too little.
And the idea that you are "enabling" someone by being nice to
him is downright evil. It reminds me of the Nazi philosophy more than
anything else.
"Treat the Untermenschen very harshly. It will improve their
character. Besides, they deserve it."
The idea that the cure for caring about an addict is to do the practices
of Dr. Frank Buchman's religion for the rest of your life is insane.
Yes, I have to agree with most all of it. There are just a few glaring errors that I have to
comment on:
Last item first, Bill Wilson did not have a "mystical experience",
he had a drug experience. In 1933 and 1934, Bill Wilson was detoxed in
Charlie Towns' Hospital — four times in a little over a year —
where he was given the quack
"Belladonna Cure",
which featured large doses of belladonna, which is a poisonous atropine
alkaloid in the same family as Deadly Nightshade. How it works is: it
basically poisons you until you have one foot in the grave, and you
hallucinate your brains out. Belladonna is even more powerful than LSD
for making people hallucinate. Belladonna had the handy side effect of
completely immobilizing the patients. They were too busy talking to their
ancestors or flying through the sky with weird animals to even think
about leaving the hospital. After two or three days of being dosed
with belladonna, Bill Wilson saw a white light which he interpreted as
"the God of the preachers". (More details and descriptions of that are
here.)
There are some big problems with even that story (as there are with most
of Bill Wilson's history of himself and A.A.).
Bill Wilson bragged that he had a great spiritual experience where he felt like he was
on a mountaintop, with a wind of spirit blowing through him.
Wilson's biographer Robert Thomsen repeated Bill's story this way:
First off, Bill Wilson summoned up God the way that a sourcerer summons
up a demon, and Bill Wilson did not even bother to say "please".
Bill commanded God to appear, and God had no choice but to obey Bill Wilson
and make an appearance. And "show me a sign" is Pharisiacal,
which Jesus condemned in the Bible.
And drug hallucinations are not necessarily mystical experiences, or
spiritual experiences. Now some may be, I don't want to be too
narrow-minded, I think spiritual experiences are wonderful no matter
how you get them, but what really defines such a spiritual experience
is what effect it has on your life in the following years. Someone who
went from a "spiritual experience" to lying, thieving, sexual
predation and philandering, and practicing necromancy and "spooking"
does not inspire confidence in the validity of his "mystical experience".
Then, the entire story seems to be stolen from Bill Wilson's own grandfather.
In the biography of Bill that was written by Lois Wilson's personal
secretary, Francis Hartigan, we learn that Bill's paternal grandfather,
who was also named William Wilson, also had a bad drinking problem.
In desperation, he climbed a mountain one Sunday morning and had a
religious experience of a wind of Spirit blowing through him, and he
never drank again:
What are the odds that both Bill's grandfather and Bill would
have exactly the same dramatic religious experience,
almost word-for-word identical,
Or did Bill Wilson just appropriate his grandfather's story to
embellish his own detox experience?
That is almost right, but wrong. It is true that
Bill Wilson conducted
séances and played with a Ouija Board and spirit rapping and
channelling spirits,
and Bill Wilson claimed that he got help with his second book,
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
from the spirit of Boniface the Christian missionary. But Bill Wilson
got the 12 Steps straight from Dr. Frank Buchman's "Oxford Group"
cult religion, and he said so.
The 12 Steps
are merely a rewrite of Frank Buchman's cult recruiting and indoctrination
practices:
Bill Wilson was of course being deceptive there. Bill Wilson gave the
credit to Rev. Sam Shoemaker, who was the number two man in the Oxford Group,
and Frank Buchman's right-hand man.
Wilson was reluctant to mention the name of Frank Buchman then because
Buchman was so hated by the American and British people for
his support of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
So the material for the 12 Steps did not come from the Bible, or from talking to spirits.
It came from the practices of the pro-Nazi Oxford Group cult religion.
The 12 Steps are not spiritual practices or "spiritual principles",
they are brainwashing practices.
Dr. Robert Jay Lifton was one of the pioneering doctors who studied the American soldiers
who came back from the Korean War brainwashed, and Dr. Lifton summarized the essential
elements of an effective brainwashing program as eight characteristics
(summarized here).
The 12 Steps of A.A. contain all eight of them.
So do the practices of Frank Buchman's Oxford Group and "Moral Re-Armament",
which is what Buchman later renamed the Oxford Group to.
Here is the interesting kicker:
During the Korean War, a member of Moral Re-Armament was in the U.S. Army in Korea, and he
got captured and was a prisoner of war who was subjected to the Red Chinese brainwashing program.
The MRA member marvelled that Chinese brainwashing was just like an MRA meeting.
Was that just a coincidence? No. Dr. Frank Buchman was a missionary to China in the late nineteen-tens
and early nineteen-twenties, and he taught the Chinese his strange
mind-damaging methods of religious conversion. The Chinese Communists merely recycled Frank
Buchman's conversion techniques.
That is sort of right, but also very wrong. Bill Wilson's Steps were not based on
his alcohol abuse or recovery, or study of foreign religions.
Again, this is a misunderstanding based on the Berean author's lack of knowledge about
the Oxford Group roots of Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12 Steps:
That was not a Biblical teaching at all. Jesus never said that the ideal
religious life was being a mindless "surrendered" slave of God
(Step 3) who got his work orders through séances (Step 11).
In both Buchmanism and A.A., the ideal believer could be a radio-controlled toy robot
bought at Radio Shack. It just always immediately follows orders and mindlessly
obeys commands from above. Dr. Frank Buchman even claimed that his follows were
controlled by
"powerful spiritual radiograms".
So the Buchmanites marched around like so many little robots who were
"guided by God".
And they were always listening for what "God" told them to do next.
And then they did whatever the voices in their heads told them to do.
And yes, sometimes they also listened to "other spirits" for entertainment.
(Look here.)
Bill Wilson learned all of that while he was a member of the Oxford Group. And so did
the other co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith and Clarence Snyder.
All three of them were true believers in Frank Buchman's cult religion, and they continued
to believe in it and teach it even after they left the group.
And Alcoholics Anonymous is still teaching the same perverse religion today.
The rest of the Berean Research page is pretty correct. Rick Warren is making a huge
mistake when he tries to adapt the 12-Step program and make it into a Christian program.
He might as well adopt a Satan-worshipping church and try to make it compatible with Christianity.
Have a good day now.
== Orange
I was at the semi-annual used book sale at the Forest Grove Library yesterday, when I saw a
book about Nazi history:
"the SS, alibi of a nation, 1922-1945", by Gerald Reitlinger (1957, Viking Press).
I looked at the index to see if there was any mention of Frank Buchman or the Oxford Group,
like I always do with any history book from that period. I can't begin to estimate how
many books I have searched for any mention of Buchmanism. There is almost never one.
Frank Buchman's cult was apparently just too small and unimportant to
make it into many histories. The indices alway
list things like, "Buch, Walter; Bucharest; Buchenwald; Budapest..." but no Buchman.
But this time I got lucky: "Buchmanites; 21n".
I had to look carefully to find the reference in the last footnote on page 21, where it
was describing the character of Heinrich Himmler:
[Footnote]
Holy shit!
Heinrich Himmler joined Dr. Frank Buchman's cult religion?
Heinrich Himmler was a Buchmanite?
Was "the author of the holocaust" actually a follower of Dr. Frank Buchman, who was also
indirectly the founder (or grandfather) of Alcoholics Anonymous?
Was the guy who exterminated 6 million Jews in the concentration camps, and
also another 4 million gays, Gypsies, Poles, political dissidents, Leftists, Communists,
intellectuals, and Catholic priests and Protestant ministers who opposed Naziism,
actually a member of the Oxford Group?
How could almost all of the historians have missed such an important detail?
Historically, this is significant.
And "from 1935 onwards" would mean that Bill Wilson, Dr. Robert Smith,
Clarence Snyder, and Heinrich Himmler were all members of the Oxford Group at the same time.
Then
British Prime Minister Nevil Chamberlain
joined too.
What a big happy family it was.
Previously,
we knew that Heinrich Himmler
was friends with some Oxford Group members:
But neither Byron nor Padfield said that Heinrich Himmler actually joined the Oxford Group cult religion,
or was a convert.
I shall have to study this further. Maybe interlibrary loans (ILL) can get me the source book,
which is in French. Alas, I don't speak much French. Maybe Bablefish or Google translator can help there.
By the way, I bought the SS book. $2. Special thanks to the guy who donated $25 the day before yesterday.
The money is already being put to good use. (Who would have thought?)
Upwards and onwards. Have a good day now.
LATER: 2013.11.16:
I finally found the referenced book in Worldcat (the library's world catalog).
Apparently, Gerald Reitlinger got the name of the book slightly wrong. It isn't
Croix gammée ou caducée, it is
Croix gammée contre caducée, by Francois Bayle.
The first name translates to "the Swastika or the Caduceus",
and the second one is "the Swastika against the Caduceus",
or "the Swastika versus the Caduceus".
The full name of the book is: Croix gammée contre caducée
— Les Experiences Humaines En Allemagne Pendant La Deuxieme Guerre
Mondiale, by Francois Bayle. That is,
"The Swastika versus the Caduceus — The Human Experiments In
Germany During The Second World War".
Published by Centre De L'Imprimerie Nationale a Neustadt (Palatinat), 1950.
8 volumes, 1521 pages.
Apparently, this book is an eight-volume chronicle of the Nuremberg War Crimes trials of
Nazi doctors who tortured Jews and other prisoners with medical tests and experiments.
So apparently, Karl Gebhardt testified in a trial that it was widely reported
around 1935 that Heinrich Himmler had joined Dr. Frank Buchman's religious movement.
And Heinrich Himmler's wife was a Buchmanite who managed to recruit him into the Oxford Group.
I put in an ILL request on it.
I hope I don't have to go through all eight volumes to learn what I seek.
I have the feeling that I may learn more French than I really wanted to.
We know that Frank Buchman and Heinrich Himmler met
at the 1934 Nuremberg Nazi Party Day rally.
The German aristocratic lady Moni von Cramon was a leading Buchmanite who worked
for Heinrich Himmler as his secretary. (In the sanitized and white-washed
MRA history, they claim that Himmler blackmailed her into working for him,
and that she used her position to warn people who were about to be liquidated.)
Moni invited Frank Buchman to the Nuremberg rally. There, Frank Buchman and Heinrich Himmler had lunch
together where they discussed religion and politics. Then, in 1935, Buchman was again the
personal guest of Himmler, and again they had lunch together and discussed religion and politics.
Then in 1936, Frank Buchman was the personal guest of Heinrich Himmler at the Berlin Olympics.
But to hear that Heinrich Himmler
"surrendered to God"
and was "changed" by the Buchmanites is something new.
And to hear that Heinrich Himmler's wife was a believer in Buchmanism who converted Heinrich Himmler
is significant too.
So, after Heinrich Himmler was "changed by God", he went and murdered
about 10 or 20 million innocent people? That isn't how religious conversion is usually
supposed to work.
(You know you are dealing with mass murder when you just round off the death toll to the nearest million.)
Wow. With "servants of God" like that, who needs a Devil?
What I wonder about is, do you suppose Heinrich Himmler imagined that
he was hearing the Voice of God during his morning "Quiet Times"
as he "listened for Guidance"?
Do you suppose Heinrich Himmler believed that he was carrying out the Will of God?
Quite possibly so. Hitler believed it:
Did Himmler imagine that he was getting secret messages from Higher Powers?
Quite possibly.
Heinrich Himmler was crazy superstitious, and
a real nut about "spiritual" matters.
Peter Padfield notes that from late 1923 to early 1924,
Heinrich Himmler's reading included books on spiritualism, second sight,
astrology, telepathy, and the like.
Heinrich Himmler fancied himself the reincarnation of
an ancient Bavarian king, King Heinrich, returned to life to
fulfill a grand destiny.
The focal point of the castle was a huge round oak table with seating
for twelve of his senior Gruppenführers:
Beneath this room was a crypt containing pedestals where should one of
the "knights" die an urn containing his ashes [Graber] or his coat
of arms [Padfield] would be burnt. Vents in the ceiling would allow those
in the main hall to see the smoke rise or "the spirit ascend into a
type of Valhalla". [Graber]
Himmler declared that the S.S. was a holy order, who, like Teutonic Knights
of Old, were on a Holy Mission to ennoble humanity by making the Aryan
race pure and supreme everywhere.
Both Hitler and Himmler even had portraits of themselves painted,
showing them as knights dressed in shining suits of armor.
They bandied about words like
"honor", "nobility", "spirituality",
and "purity", which may strike us as unbelievably hypocritical
today, but they believed them at the time.
The transcripts of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials should be very interesting.
Last updated 17 October 2014. |