Hitler’s Holy Relics chronicles the Allied effort to locate and repatriate historical artefacts looted by the Nazis in the final days of World War II. In particular, the book follows Lt Walter Horn, a German expatriate art historian who served in the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of US military intelligence. Horn died in 1995, and Kirkpatrick has reconstructed his experiences from unpublished memoirs, archival material, and interviews with friends, family and colleagues.
A chance piece of intelligence gleaned from a prisoner interrogation led to the discovery of an underground vault in Nuremburg that contained treasures and artefacts including the so-called ‘Holy Lance’, staple of so many occult and conspiracy stories. This discovery raised further questions, as several of the items it was supposed to contain, part of the imperial regalia of the Holy Roman Empire, were missing. In addition to the imperial crown, the orb, sceptre and two swords were lost. Horn was assigned to find the missing treasures. Early in the investigation, he was told that an SS officer had been responsible for removing the items, and so began a journey into the world of Nazi mysticism and the manipulation of history and archæology.
Horn interviewed museum curators, members of the city government, other MFAA officers, and prisoners of war, seeking the identity of the thieves and the location of the treasures. Each chapter focuses on a new phase of the investigation and a new aspect of the backstory, from Horn’s biography to the development of the Ahnenerbe, the history of the Holy Lance, and Himmler’s plans for his castle at Wewelsburg. Horn’s story provides an interesting perspective on the challenges facing the occupation authorities and on the work of the ‘Monuments Men’ whose task was to restore Germany’s cultural heritage and repatriate treasures looted from other nations. In the chaos of postwar Germany, where food and medicine were still short in many areas, the Allies were already thinking about the need to restore German culture without the taint of Nazism.
The American and British agenda in some ways mirrored the Nazi goal of presenting a selective picture of German history and culture through the use of art and architecture, and Kirkpatrick illustrates this with the case of the crown jewels, powerful images of authority and continuity which could have been used to legitimise Nazi rule. These artefacts drew on a tradition of German national pride and suggested long-term stability. Kirkpatrick assumes that some future Nazi leader would have been crowned Holy Roman Emperor, which seems unlikely. Even without an actual coronation, the crown jewels would have been potent symbols connecting the Third Reich to its precursors.
Kirkpatrick has wonderful examples of the complexities of Nazi and Allied heritage policy, but sometimes this doesn’t seem enough for him. He posits the existence of a secret order of modern Teutonic Knights tasked with protecting the crown jewels, despite the fact that there is essentially no evidence at all for this claim. The crown jewels were moved from their vault to another nearby shelter by city officials, presumably to prevent them being repatriated by the Allies – which is precisely what happened once they were found. Do we need to imagine a secret order of chivalry, for which no evidence exists, or does it seem more likely that the city council stashed a few easily-concealed items in hopes that they could be ‘rediscovered’ once the Americans were gone? In fact, Horn’s trips to Wewelsburg and the Externsteine, however illustrative of Nazi heritage policy, were a wild goose chase, and the story of SS involvement in the theft of the jewels was a cover story concocted to shift the blame. It’s certainly true that the SS were connected with the crown jewels, but the story Horn revealed is – as Kirkpatrick points out – much more interestingly typical of Nazi Germany: a complex internal squabble over control of the symbols of authority rather than a monolithic conspiracy.
Despite its occasional bursts of sensationalism, Hitler’s Holy Relics is a valuable look at the challenges of dealing with art and archæology in Nazi and post-Nazi Germany, as well as at the ways in which governments manipulate the past to spread their messages. Horn’s story is compelling, and told in a clear and readable, if sometimes a little pedestrian, narrative.
For forteans, it’s also nice to see a book that mentions the Holy Lance without giving it undue primacy. After all, given the opportunity to hide some objects from the Imperial regalia, the Nazis chose to leave the so-called Spear of Destiny behind.
MORE REVIEWS
Bookmark this post with: