Knights of the Hell

In those days in June of 1944 the whole of Paris saluted the liberators – General Leclerc’s division and Anglo-American troops. Intelligence officers and sappers of the allies were the only who didn’t participate in the general exultation. They were searching buildings one after another for storehouses of weapons, mines and Nazis escaping from retribution.

The English came across something extraordinary in a disable peoples shelter. They saw an old fantastically shaped bowl in the center of a large round table. There were chairs with high Gothic backs standing around the table. Knight’s armor, helmets, mantles embroidered with crosses, arm-bands with swastikas on them and black SS service caps were scattered everywhere.

An aged colonel from intelligence department immediately came to the building and slowly inspected the hall. A young lieutenant asked him what had happened in the room and supposed: “It looks like a performance, sir.” And the aged colonel introduced himself: “Sir Arthur”. Then the man carefully drew the bowl up and smelt the contents. He said: “Well, lieutenant. This is not a performance, but a mystery. There was a session of the Teutonic order knights. There is blood mixed with wine in the bowl, the Saint Grail.”
 
Since very beginning, philosophy of the Nazi Reich’s top was based upon a magically irrational, occult basis. And the sign of swastika was a symbol that Nazis borrowed from the old cultures and further re-interpreted with “the great aspirations” of the Third Reich. In the Ancient Egypt and in Babylon the image known as Nazi swastika embodied solar energy; it was connected with the female generating principle. In the Ancient India it was an emblem of the Hinduism gods of Vishnu, Ganesha, Shiva, Brahma, Agni, Surya; in Greece – the emblem of the gods of Zeus, Helios, Hera and Artemis; in Scandinavia – of the high god of Thor; and in the early Christian catacomb church – the emblem of Jesus Christ. Thousands of years ago the sign could be seen everywhere, but never before Hitler it was interpreted as a division of mankind into Aryans and all the rest who mustn’t live on the Earth.

Everything was more or less clear to experienced intelligence officer Sir Arthur. Everything with one exception: how the knife with a bronze dragon-shaped handle appeared in the center of Paris. That was a Japanese knife meant for hara-kiri.  

And Sir Arthur recollected an old story. At the end of the 1930s, right before beginning of WWII, he was working in the British Embassy in Tokyo and during some official reception he met some Hausshofer, a colleague from the German Embassy. Relations between Britain and Germany were already rather tense at that period, however, this very fact made for particular interest of the intelligence officers to each other. 

As it turned out, Hausshofer wonderfully spoke Japanese, was an expert in history and traditions of Japan; besides, it was rather strange but the man was a member of the Green Dragon society. This secret and strictly conspiratorial organization consisted of influential Japanese politicians, those who were extremely inimical to the West.  Why did they admit a European? Probably, the English intelligence officer understood it was because the ideology of Samurai traditions have something in common with Hitler’s occult ideas. 
 
Sir Arthur immediately inquired London for a complete dossier on the German colleague. In the years of WWI Karl Hausshofer was the youngest general in the Kaiser army and was famous for his foresight talent. It was said that he mentioned exactly not only the moment of a forthcoming attack, but even the place where a shell was to fall. After the war, the general became a scientist, professor of  the Munich University specializing in the Far East problems.  Then Hausshofer suddenly abandoned the chair, took a great interest in magic, occultism, and was one of the two founders of the Thule society. Dietrich Eckart, one more admirer of occultism, was the second founder of the society; the man was an unknown playwright and poet, Hausshofer’s brother-officer in the Western front. The legend about Thule was in the origins of German and Scandinavian legends saying that the island, like Atlantis, used to be the center of a magician civilization. Members of the Thule society (by the way it was not less caste than the Green Dragon society) believed that a strong medium could establish connection with the lost civilization. In the early 1920s, some Adolph Hitler was picked out as a candidate to the role of the medium. Probably, aristocratic members of the society were attracted by the readiness of this hysterical plebeian to earn popularity practically on everything, and his psychical unbalance and excitability were just a reverse side of a medium talent. It is significant that members of the society appointed the first meeting with the future Fuhrer in the house of their idol Richard Wagner. The medium was initiated within three years. Eckart, who died in 1923, told the brothers-in-arms: “Follow Hitler. I composed the music, but he will conduct the dance.”
 
Interests of Sir Arthur and Hausshofer turned out to be mutual. Very soon, “quite accidentally” they met in a hotel in Kyoto. The city was smothered with the white and rose sakura haze. And Hausshofer dressed in a black with green dragons kimono, with his hair in a bun and looked an essential part of the scenery.

The German man suggested that Sir Arthur could ask him questions. The latter asked: “How you, clever and educated man treat Hitler?”
 
The blue-eyed Samurai laughed: “I knew you would ask the question. My opinion is that the Fuhrer is a wild, semi-literate nonentity. But he is a genius medium for us, and this is the most important fact.”

Hausshofer was sure that Sir Arthur had already made inquiries about him. Sir Arthur said: “We know quite a lot. It was you who offered Hitler to make swastika the emblem of his movement, and you also contributed into his Mein Kampf. By the way, the book is primitive and contains much lies.”

Hausshofer agreed that it was so. “But the book mustn’t be different as it completely corresponds intellectual capabilities of the author and awakes the darkest instincts of the mass conscience. It is through Hitler’s medium genius that we managed to imbue masses with a very strong occult energy. And the energy was so strong that the whole nation accepted swastika unconditionally. Look, the Aryan archetype is determining the collective unconscious of the whole nation.”

Sir Arthur objected it was nonsense. “Not at all”, was response of Karl Hausshofer. “Swastika will join and alloy Kami, the old Japanese gods, and Germany’s ancient gods called Ases. As a result of it, a new, incredible archetype will arise.”

The Samurai added: “I agree that we will lose the war. However, it is not that awful in fact. WWIII will break out. During WWI Russians were together with British and French; in WWII, no matter how fanatic it may sound for you, they will be once again with you (the British) and Americans. But WWIII will be quite different. A transformed Germany will also join the general coalition. And we, the hell and the darkness, will resist all of you. And your armies, with the super-strong weapons will be helpless all the same. This is because nobody of you will know from where our next attack will be, from where a kamikadze will come.”

The prophecy could be considered ravings of a madman. But it is well known that no madmen are adopted into intelligence, especially on top positions. Besides, much of what was said in Kyoto in the second part of the 1930s, seems to be realized in the very beginning of the 21st century.

Daniil Norin, St.Petersburg