Both Hitler and his German Nazi Party were a group of extreme racist maniacs who vigorously advocated the "theory of Germanic racial superiority".

In order to implement the will of the Führer, and at the same time to build a Nazi elite, the head of the SS Hillem founded the "German Ancestral Heritage Research Society".

The group gathered a group of scientists to study mysterious topics such as the origin of the Aryans, the theory of the ice world, the legend of Atlantis, as well as German relics and Germanic history. The main purpose was to demonstrate the legitimacy of the Germanic spirit through the study of the natural sciences.

Under the brainwashing of Nazi racism, these experts and scholars gradually deviated from the essence of science and fabricated a big lie: the Aryans were originally the gods who ruled the earth, and had boundless magical power. When everything in the world was hit by a terrible flood, the Aryans came to the top of Tibet and escaped the catastrophe.

The Aryans later made a long journey to Europe, where they became Germanic peoples, whose blood was contaminated and their mana was lost. So Shiram pursued a notorious "Source of Life" program.

In order to purify the Germanic bloodline, Helem screened young men and women whose ancestors had been purebred Germanic for eight generations across the country, pooled them together, and bred blonde and blue-eyed warriors for Hitler like a breeding farm.

However, German tanks were conquering Europe at lightning speed, and this plan clearly could not keep up with Hitler's footsteps. At this time, Fisher, a German who had twice followed American scientists to the edge of Sichuan-Tibet, came into Hielem's sight.

Helem and his scientists were convinced that Tibet was the refuge of the original people of Atlantis and Aryans, where all their great secrets were kept. However, Fisher was not interested in this mysticism.

He believes that after the end of the Age of Geographical Discovery, mankind has explored the general appearance of the world, and only the blank spot of Tibet is still full of fog, and as a powerful German nation, it should be conquered from the map.

In 1938, with Hitler's approval, Himmler sent the "German SS Sèvres Expedition" to Tibet for an expedition, with the aim of finding the ancestors of the Germanic people, the Atlantean gods.

The expedition was led by the naturalist and anthropologist Ernst Sèvres, who was only 26 years old at the time. Also included were anthropologist Bruno Berger, botanist and entomologists photographer Ernst Krauser, geophysicist Carl Vennet, and expedition manager Edmund Gehr.

This group of people hid their true purpose in the name of scientific expeditions and was welcomed by the local Tibetans. The expedition team measured the size of the heads of many Tibetans and compared their hair with hair samples from other races; They also judged the racial purity of the subjects by the color of their eyeballs; To preserve the data, the Nazis used raw plaster cast to make plaster casts of the faces and hands of a dozen Tibetans, making plaster casts of their heads, faces, ears and hands.

In August 1939, the expedition returned to Germany and was warmly welcomed by Himmler. Himmler presented Sèvres with the "SS Sword of Honor".

In addition, the expedition team also reported to Himmler an "important information", and they learned from the local population that somewhere in Tibet, there is a hidden cave called Shambala, where it is said that the location of the poem "axis of the earth" contains infinite energy. Himmler was convinced of this fabulous news.

The second visit to Tibet

At the end of December 1941, the German army suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Moscow with heavy losses. Faced with the defeat of the Soviet Union on the Soviet battlefield, Himmler thought of the "axis of the earth". After getting Hitler's consent, Himmler sent another expedition team deep into Tibet to find the "axis of the earth" and create the so-called "undead army".

After a period of preparation, in January 1943, the expedition officially set off.

The leader of the expedition was Heinrich Haller, a professional mountaineer who led a five-man expedition to Tibet. This time, their expedition did not go well. In May 1943, Haller and others were arrested by British troops in India. But for some reason, Haller's group was able to escape from the prisoner of war camp. Thus entering Tibet from India.

In Europe, there is a legend about Atlantis that has long been circulated. Legend has it that the continent of Atlantis is incomparably wealthy, and the people there are gods with extraordinary abilities.

Textual descriptions of it first appeared in the writings of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. He wrote: "120,000 years ago, in the far Atlantic Ocean to the west of the Mediterranean, there was an amazing continent. It is adorned with countless amounts of gold and silver, producing a sparkling metal, oralcosa. It has well-equipped ports and ships, as well as objects capable of carrying people. "After a major earthquake, the continent sank to the bottom of the sea, and some Atlanteans fled by boat, eventually settling in Tibet and India.

It's a cave called Shambala, which contains the "Axis of the Earth", which can also control the changes of time and create a divine army. This was clearly a lie, but the Germans believed it. At the end of 1942, the Germans began to retreat on the Soviet-German battlefield, and the situation was extremely unfavorable for them. Himmler suddenly remembered the mysterious legend he had heard in Tibet last time, and had a secret conversation with Hitler. In 1943, another expedition set off.

On the eve of World War II, Nazi Germany conducted a secret expedition to Tibet, China. Unlike military personnel who embark on expeditions out of political delusions, the scholars in this team have dreams of exploring the unknown and have gained a lot. The academic achievements of this remarkable journey were inevitably overshadowed by their association with the Nazi regime.

The Natural History Museum in Berlin is known for its rich collections. Even more famous than the dinosaur skeleton in the hall is a row of more than 3,000 taxidermy animals from China's Tibetan region 80 years ago. How did these precious specimens cross the ocean in those days? The story behind it is endowed with a strong sense of mystery.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, German biologist Ernst Schaefer and a group of SS members traveled to Tibet. During the day, the expedition members were busy studying the local customs, birds and animals, and at night they locked themselves in tents woven from yak hair and drank gin from East Prussia.

One of the most controversial expeditions in the history of modern science was fruitful. Schaefer and his colleagues received not only tens of thousands of specimens, but also exotic artefacts, which are still preserved in the small town of Gartschleben in central Germany. Equally important is the 17,500-meter-long film, plus a letter from a Tibetan local leader to "His Excellency Hitler."

As to why the letter, which is now in the Bavarian State Library, was never delivered to Hitler, the answer is as vague as the real purpose of the operation. Rumor has it that SS leader Himmler ordered Schaefer and others to search for the "Aryans" with blonde curls, and the German military also asked the expedition to find horses suitable for use in cold regions.

The British, who coveted Tibet, looked at the group of uninvited guests with wary eyes. As some later historians have argued, Nazi Germany wanted to explore the Asian hinterland in advance, perhaps because it felt that German and Japanese spheres of influence might collide here.

Now, German scholar Peter Meyer-Husin's new book, The Nazis in Tibet, gives a relatively balanced view. Through an analysis of the original archives, he concluded that the journey to the snow-covered Himalayas had two attributes: covert operations orchestrated by the SS and scholarly quests for the unknown.

Young scientists face dangerous temptations

As the protagonist of this adventure, Ernst Schaefer made his mark in the natural sciences at a young age. His father was a successful businessman, but Schaefer hated the intrigues of the business and often went hunting in the mountains when he was in middle school. Soon after he began to study biology systematically, the top student became friends with American millionaire Brooke Dolan II. The latter intended to go to the isolated southwestern region of China and needed a competent partner.

In 1931, the two entered the primeval forest of China's Sichuan-Tibet border for the first time. According to Dolan's recollections, Schaeffer showed himself to be good hunters, and soon their luggage was stuffed with animal pelts, including not only Himalayan impalas, serows, and horned antelopes, but also giant pandas.

The Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences in the United States recognized Schaefer's talent and recruited him as an invited researcher. After returning home, Schaefer earned a manuscript fee for the words he recorded during his travels. In 1933, when Germany entered the era of Nazi rule, the scholar was still obsessed with the call of the wilderness, and spent almost two more years at the source of the Yangtze River with the "Yankee" Dolan.

When the academic star celebrated his 26th birthday at Dolan's posh ranch, he was greeted not only by Americans, but also by the propaganda arm of the Nazi regime and even the military, who, at the behest of Hitler and Himmler, sought to give the Third Reich's Tibetan expedition a veneer of scholarship.

At that time, Tibet in the imagination of Europeans and Americans hid infinite secrets. Although Britain opened the gates of Tibet by force in the early 20th century, it remained closed for more than 30 years, and foreigners were not allowed to visit.

The closure of Tibet further stimulated Nazi Germany's interest in it. In the spring of 1936, Himmler sent a transatlantic telegram to Schaefer: "Please return to Germany and have important matters to discuss." The latter agreed.

After the war, Schaefer had regretted that his alliance with Himmler, who would later become the architect of the Holocaust, was "the most regrettable mistake of my life," but Meyer-Husin's new book notes that Schaefer's actions were entirely utilitarian.

Schaefer realized that what was going on between himself and the SS was a "Faustian deal." The so-called "Aryan prehistory theory" was popular among Himmler and his cronies, who claimed that the Aryan ancestors founded the modern state early on, which was later destroyed by natural disasters. By the 20th century, only the Himalayas had remnants of this "super-race" remaining.

For decades, public opinion has been clinging to the political implications of Nazi Germany's exploration of Tibet. Schaeffer, who was involved in the event as a scientist, is also portrayed as a disciple of Hitler in search of the Holy Grail, both in the writings of writers and on the Internet.

This view came to a head with the revelation of a "Buddha statue from space". This Buddha statue is said to have been part of the spoils obtained by Schaefer and others during their expeditions. Material analysis shows that the material used for the Buddha statue comes from a meteorite that fell between Siberia and Mongolia 10,000 years ago.

However, "The Nazis in Tibet" makes another view: the material did come from space, but the Buddha statues themselves were made by modern people. Attempts have been made up to invent legends about the object's provenance, just to double its value.

From the very beginning, the expedition produced a "confusing split," Meyer-Husin says in his book. He believes that Himmler and others' fanatical pursuit of the origin of Aryan civilization did not have a real impact on Ernst Schaefer, as the honorary captain, on the contrary, the Nazi top brass and Schaefer did not agree with each other, and the two sides broke up many times. Eventually, Himmler decided to take over the plan in its entirety, and with a stroke of his pen, all members of the team were transformed into SS officers.

The swastika on the helmets of the expedition members alarmed the British. When the team set out on their journey in April 1938, Schaefer discovered that they were denied permission to enter British India because the colonial authorities believed they were suspected of spies.

Fortunately, this scholar from high society knows how to use personal charisma. When the party arrived in Kolkata, he took a 36-hour train ride alone through numerous princely states to meet Lord Linlithgow, then Viceroy of India. A memo from the colonial authorities showed that Mr. Schaeffer had behaved as "proficient in flattery" that prevented the host from inviting him to dinner.

In London, operations on and off the diplomatic arena are also intensifying. Entrusted by relatives and friends in Germany, many British right-wingers vied with the then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Eventually, out of appeasement, Chamberlain gave Schaeffer and others the green light.

By the time the Germans were back on the road, the calendar had flipped to summer. These uninvited guests, driven by ox carts and horses, panted over one mountain pass after another at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters, and gradually approached the richest area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

In November 1937, before the expedition began, Ernst Schaefer's wife died unexpectedly, leaving him depressed. Every night, when he couldn't talk to the professional soldiers around him, he would go into the tent and recite Goethe's Faust. The dance music on the radio wasn't enough to boost his spirits, let alone the unchanging food, "Noodles except noodles."

The trouble doesn't end there. Unable to enter Tibet "legally", the expedition spent several months on the border doing nothing before waiting for the opportunity to "go through the back door". One day, an administrative member of the Tibetan authorities came across the border, and Schaeffer flattered him, serving tea and pouring wine, and pretending to be generous in giving the former a large pile of food and daily necessities.

His bribery tactics worked. A few weeks later, the Tibetan authorities allowed the group of "foreign guests" to visit heavily guarded Lhasa, on the condition that they not bring technical equipment. The permit also states that they are not allowed to "kill poultry or mammals."

On December 22, 1938, the group dressed in SS uniforms finally officially entered the heart of Tibet, which had previously been considered a "forbidden zone". During their hike through the snow-covered grasslands in temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius, they did not forget to decorate a Christmas tree with homemade gold leaf. When they arrived in Lhasa, the elite, on whom Hitler had high hopes, looked like a bunch of vagabonds—"blonde and blue-eyed, with unshaven beards," and they always attracted large crowds of locals everywhere they went.

At the end of the 30s of the 20th century, the city of Lhasa had about 25,000 inhabitants, and tens of thousands of monks lived in the surrounding area. According to the book "The Nazis in Tibet", when visiting places such as the Potala Palace, the Germans were always dressed casually and relaxed, unlike the British diplomats who were full of style and unsmiling. For many days on end, they invited local dignitaries to a banquet, and European-style music was played on the gramophone. The amount of alcohol they drink has also become the talk of the town.

Nominally on the orders of the "Führer" to search for "forgotten Aryan clansmen," Meyer-Husin writes that the SS members seemed more than willing to see the operation as a publicly-funded tour. In fact, exotic expeditions that are supposed to be secretive and full of unknowns in the imagination of the outside world are spent most of the time in a mixture of staggered and lustful dogs and horses.

Academic achievement is dragged down by "politics".

Scholars led by Ernst Schaefer did not pass up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In defiance of the ban, they slaughtered birds and animals, completed geomagnetic surveys, conducted anthropological research, and filmed "celestial burials" by religious figures. On several occasions, these Germans with cameras were so active at religious ceremonies that they were almost lynched by the populace.

In the memo, British officials who followed the expedition accused the Germans of being rude and portrayed Schaefer as a "fascist preacher," but there was also a hint of jealousy in their rhetoric. As Meyer-Homsin's "social master", Schaefer even persuaded the authorities to extend the expedition's stay by six months. A document from the end of 1939 shows that Schaefer and others attempted to send arms into Tibet, but the purpose of this move remains a mystery to this day.

Three weeks before the outbreak of World War II, this bizarre mix of "espionage, drunken, and resource looting" came to an end. In addition to more than 3,000 taxidermy, the expedition brought back mineral samples, topographic maps, and tens of thousands of photographs.