It was not until many years after schooling that I first learned about Nazism’s fascination with the occult. This is not something I learned in history class but from a Gothic lifestyle magazine.
It is funny and odd how information reaches us and it may be because of circumstances such as mine that so many people are so very confused about Hitler and Nazism that they end up making claims about him being a Christian and perpetrating the Holocaust on a Christian premise. This has lead me to include a section on Adolf Hitler / Nazism / Communism
I noted two interesting instances of facts that also came about due to pop-culture-media.
The 2003 AD movie Bulletproof Monk which starred Chow Yun-Fat:
…opens in Tibet in the year 1943, wherein one of its protagonists, a Tibetan monk, is informed that he has fulfilled the prophecies made of him…He is then entrusted by his master with the protection of a Scroll which contains knowledge by which the reader becomes the most powerful of living things… The master, who has formerly been the guardian of this Scroll, is killed by German soldiers shortly after the transfer. His pupil, the now nameless Monk, escapes despite the Nazi commander’s expectations…
the Nazi commander who fought with the Nameless Monk (and had his predecessor murdered) 60 years ago in Tibet…desires to use the power of the Scroll as a means of world domination [from Wikipedia].
That the Nazis were interested in Buddhism and specifically Tibet is a fact. I my parsed essay From Zeitgeist to Poltergeist – Responding to Richard Dawkins on the Issue of Atheism, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Communism and Nazism I included a section titled Part 8: What Smith and Dawkins Did Not Bother Mentioning which elucidates this fact.
The comic book by Mike Mignola based movie Hellboy likewise opens with Nazis:
A demon whose true name is Anung Un Rama (the Beast of the Apocalypse), Hellboy was brought to Earth as an infant by Nazi occultists…he shows none of the malevolence thought to be intrinsic to demons…because of his upbringing under Professor Bruttenholm, who raised him as a normal boy.
Hellboy fights…against dark forces including Nazis…he is identified as the “World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator.” [from Wikipedia].
Also of interest is the movie starring Keanu Reeves, Constantine which I discussed in the essay Theology at the Movies, in Books and on Television, part 1 of 2
Therein, I note:
One interesting aspect of the movie is that it begins with the finding of the “Spear of Destiny” (aka the “Spear of Longinus”) wrapped in a Nazi flag which, although not pursued in the movie, hints at Nazism’s tendency towards the occult….The Spear of Destiny is supposed to be the spear that was thrust into Jesus as He hung on the cross. It is supposed that people such as Adolf Hilter sought it due to its supposed supernatural powers.
These are some of the hints and tidbits of very important information that you may miss even if you get yourself a fancy book learnin´ degree. Be as much in the lookout for these as you are with the utterly erroneous theology in most likewise movies.