Savitri Devi Mukherji
Encyclopedia
Savitri Devi Mukherji was the pseudonym of the Greek
writer Maximiani Portas, who was a Nazi intelligence operative in India
during World War II
. She would go onto become a leading European intellectual who influenced the green and animal rights movements of the late 20th century, and a leading light of the Nazi underground during the 1960s.
A critic of the Abrahamic religions
, Savitri Devi was a pioneering animal-rights activist who authored the book The Impeachment of Man in 1959 and was a proponent of Hinduism
and Nazism
, synthesizing the two, proclaiming Adolf Hitler
to have been sent by Providence, much like an avatar
of the Hindu god Vishnu
. She believed Hitler was a sacrifice for humanity which would lead to the end of the Kali Yuga
induced by who she felt were the powers of evil, the Jews. Her writings have influenced neo-Nazism
and Nazi occultism. Among Savitri Devi's ideas was the classifications of "men above time", "men in time" and "men against time". Rejecting Judeo-Christianity, she believed in a form of pantheistic monism; a single cosmos of nature composed of divine energy-matter
.
She is credited with pioneering neo-Nazi interest in occultism, deep ecology
and the New Age
movement. She influenced the Chilean diplomat Miguel Serrano
. In 1982, Franco Freda
published a German
translation of her work Gold in the Furnace, and the fourth volume of his annual review, Risguardo] (1980-), was devoted to Savitri Devi as the "missionary of Aryan Paganism
".
Savitri was an associate in the post-war years of Françoise Dior
, Otto Skorzeny
, Johannes von Leers, and Hans-Ulrich Rudel
.
She was also one of the founding members of the World Union of National Socialists
.
Italian father and an English mother. She was born two and a half months premature
, weighing only 930 grams (2.05 lbs), and was not at first expected to live. She formed her political views early. From childhood and throughout her life, she was a passionate advocate for animal rights
, which was related to her views of Jews as the practitioners of kosher slaughter
. Her earliest political affiliations were with Greek
nationalism
. During World War I
, she was outraged by the Triple Entente
's invasion of neutral Greece.
Portas studied philosophy and chemistry, earning two Masters Degrees and a Ph.D.
in philosophy from the University of Lyon
. She next traveled to Greece, and surveyed the legendary ruins. Here, she became familiar with Heinrich Schliemann
's discovery of swastika
s in Anatolia
. Her conclusion was that Ancient Greeks were Aryan in origin, thus finding the reason for the influence of their culture upon later civilizations. Her first two books were her doctoral dissertations: Essai-critique sur Théophile Kaïris (Critical Essay on Theophilius Kaïris) (Lyon: Maximine Portas, 1935) and La simplicité mathématique (Mathematical Simplicity) (Lyon: Maximine Portas, 1935). Portas impressed her teachers with her vibrant, penetrating mind.
She was the tutor of the philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis
(1922–1997), as he revealed in a radio interview by Katherine von Bulow (France Culture - 20/4/96).
. Joining a pilgrimage
to Palestine
during Lent
in 1929, Portas decided that she was a National Socialist
. In 1932, she travelled to India
in search of a living pagan
Aryan culture. Formally adhering to Hinduism
, she took the name Savitri Devi ("Sun-rays Goddess" in Sanskrit
). She volunteered at the Hindu Mission as an advocate against Judeo-Christianity, and wrote A Warning to the Hindus
to offer her support for Hindu nationalism
and independence, and to rally resistance
to the spread of Christianity
and Islam
in India. In 1940 she married Asit Krishna Mukherji
, a Bengal
i Brahmin
with National Socialist views who edited the pro-German newspaper New Mercury.
During the 1930s she distributed pro-Axis propaganda and engaged in intelligence gathering on the British in India.
Savitri Devi always held radical views on veganism and supported the death penalty for those who didn't "respect nature or animals". She once broke into laboratories and took animals being held there, saving them from being used in experiments. She said that vivisection, circuses, slaughter and fur industries among others doesn't belong in any civilized society.
Savitri Devi was a pioneer in animal rights activism but has been criticized by some animal rights supporters today for her racialist views which she also mixed into her animal rights opinions.
, she travelled to Europe in late 1945 under the name Savitri Devi Mukherji as the wife of an Indian national using a British passport
. She stopped briefly in England, then visited her mother in France, and then travelled on to Iceland where she witnessed the eruption of Mount Hekla
. She then returned to England, before traveling to Sweden where she met with Sven Hedin
.
On June 15, 1948, she took the Nord-Expreß from Denmark to Germany, where she distributed many thousands of copies of handwritten leaflets encouraging the “Men and women of Germany” to “hold fast to our glorious National Socialist faith, and resist!” She recounted her experience in Gold in the Furnace (which has been reedited in honour of her 100th birthday under the title Gold in the Furnace: Experiences in Post-War Germany)
Arrested for posting bills, she was tried in Düsseldorf on April 5, 1949, for the promotion of Nazi ideas on German territory subject to the Allied Control Council
, and sentenced to two years imprisonment. She served eight months in Werl prison
, where she befriended her fellow Nazi and SS prisoners, (recounted in Defiance
), before being released and expelled from Germany. She then went to stay in Lyon, France.
, as she called it, of Nazi "holy" sites. She flew from Athens to Rome then travelled by rail over the Brenner Pass
into "Greater Germany", which she regarded as "the spiritual home of all racially conscious modern Aryans
". She travelled to a number of sites significant in the life of Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP (German Nazi Party), as well as German nationalist and heathen monuments, as recounted in her 1958 book Pilgrimage
.
, and completed her manuscript of The Lightning and the Sun
at his home in March 1956. Through his introductions she was able to meet a number of Nazi émigrés in Spain and the Middle East. In 1957 she stayed with Johannes von Leers in Egypt as she traveled across the Middle East when returning home to New Delhi, including stops in Beirut, Damascus
, Baghdad
, Tehran
, and Zahedan
. In 1961 she stayed with Otto Skorzeny
in Madrid.
Savitri Devi took employment teaching in France during the 1960s, spending her summer holidays with friends at Berchtesgaden
. In the spring of 1961, while on her Easter holiday in London she learned of the original British National Party. This group emerged after the Second World War when a handful of former members of the British Union of Fascists
took on the name. (The original BNP was absorbed quite quickly into the Union Movement - it is not directly connected with the present BNP
.) She met with the British National Party president Andrew Fountaine
. Beginning a correspondence with Colin Jordan
, she became a devoted supporter of the National Socialist Movement
.
In August 1962, Savitri Devi attended the international Nazi conference in Gloucestershire
and was a founder-signatory of the Cotswold Agreement that established the World Union of National Socialists
(WUNS). At this conference she met, and was greatly impressed with George Lincoln Rockwell
. When Rockwell became leader of WUNS, he appointed William Luther Pierce
editor of its new magazine: National Socialist World (1966–68). Along with articles by Jordan and Rockwell, Pierce devoted nearly eighty pages of the first issue to a condensed edition of The Lightning and the Sun. Because of the enthusiastic response, Pierce included chapters from Gold in the Furnace and Defiance in subsequent issues.
After retiring from teaching in 1970, Savitri Devi spent nine months at the Normandy home of close friend Françoise Dior
while working on her memoirs. Concluding that her pension would go much further in India, she flew from Paris to Bombay on 23 June 1971. In August she moved to New Delhi, where she lived alone, with a number of cats and at least one cobra.
Savitri Devi continued correspondence with Nazi enthusiasts in Europe and the Americas, particularly with Colin Jordan
, John Tyndall
, Matt Koehl
, Miguel Serrano
and Ernst Zündel
. She was the first to claim to Zündel that the Nazi genocide of the Jews was untrue
; he proposed a series of taped interviews (conducted in November 1978) and published a new illustrated edition of The Lightning and the Sun in 1979.
She eventually died in 1982 in Sible Hedingham
, Essex, England at her friend Muriel Gantry's house. The cause of death was recorded as myocardial infarction
and coronary thrombosis
. She was en route to lecture in America
at the invitation of Matt Koehl
at the time. Today Savitri Devi's ashes are enshrined next to those of George Lincoln Rockwell
in the memorial room of New Order
headquarters in New Berlin, Wisconsin
.
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
writer Maximiani Portas, who was a Nazi intelligence operative in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She would go onto become a leading European intellectual who influenced the green and animal rights movements of the late 20th century, and a leading light of the Nazi underground during the 1960s.
A critic of the Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic religions are the monotheistic faiths emphasizing and tracing their common origin to Abraham or recognizing a spiritual tradition identified with him...
, Savitri Devi was a pioneering animal-rights activist who authored the book The Impeachment of Man in 1959 and was a proponent of Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, synthesizing the two, proclaiming Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
to have been sent by Providence, much like an avatar
Avatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....
of the Hindu god Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
. She believed Hitler was a sacrifice for humanity which would lead to the end of the Kali Yuga
Kali Yuga
Kali Yuga is the last of the four stages that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas described in the Indian scriptures. The other ages are Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga...
induced by who she felt were the powers of evil, the Jews. Her writings have influenced neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
and Nazi occultism. Among Savitri Devi's ideas was the classifications of "men above time", "men in time" and "men against time". Rejecting Judeo-Christianity, she believed in a form of pantheistic monism; a single cosmos of nature composed of divine energy-matter
Higgs boson
The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics. Its existence is postulated as a means of resolving inconsistencies in the Standard Model...
.
She is credited with pioneering neo-Nazi interest in occultism, deep ecology
Deep ecology
Deep ecology is a contemporary ecological philosophy that recognizes an inherent worth of all living beings, regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs. The philosophy emphasizes the interdependence of organisms within ecosystems and that of ecosystems with each other within the...
and the New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
movement. She influenced the Chilean diplomat Miguel Serrano
Miguel Serrano
Miguel Serrano was a Chilean diplomat, explorer and author of poetry, books on spiritual questing and Esoteric Nazism...
. In 1982, Franco Freda
Franco Freda
Franco "Giorgio" Freda is one of the leading intellectuals of the post-war Italian far right. He has been accused of having personally contributed to the Piazza Fontana bombing.-Biography:...
published a German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
translation of her work Gold in the Furnace, and the fourth volume of his annual review, Risguardo] (1980-), was devoted to Savitri Devi as the "missionary of Aryan Paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
".
Savitri was an associate in the post-war years of Françoise Dior
Françoise Dior
Marie Françoise Suzanne Dior, also known as Françoise de Caumont La Force, Françoise Dior-Jordan, and Françoise Dior-de Mirleau , was a French socialite and post-war Nazi underground financier...
, Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny was an SS-Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he was chosen as the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity...
, Johannes von Leers, and Hans-Ulrich Rudel
Hans-Ulrich Rudel
Hans-Ulrich Rudel was a Stuka dive-bomber pilot during World War II and a member of the Nazi party. The most highly decorated German serviceman of the war, Rudel was one of only 27 military men to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, and the only...
.
She was also one of the founding members of the World Union of National Socialists
World Union of National Socialists
The World Union of National Socialists is an organisation founded in 1962 as an umbrella group for neo-Nazi organisations across the globe.-Formation:...
.
Early years
Born as Maximine Julia Portas in 1905, Savitri Devi was the daughter of a Greek/LombardLombards
The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...
Italian father and an English mother. She was born two and a half months premature
Premature birth
In humans preterm birth refers to the birth of a baby of less than 37 weeks gestational age. The cause for preterm birth is in many situations elusive and unknown; many factors appear to be associated with the development of preterm birth, making the reduction of preterm birth a challenging...
, weighing only 930 grams (2.05 lbs), and was not at first expected to live. She formed her political views early. From childhood and throughout her life, she was a passionate advocate for animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
, which was related to her views of Jews as the practitioners of kosher slaughter
Animal slaughter
Slaughter is the term used to describe the killing and butchering of animals, usually for food. Commonly it refers to killing and butchering of domestic livestock ....
. Her earliest political affiliations were with Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, she was outraged by the Triple Entente
Triple Entente
The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....
's invasion of neutral Greece.
Portas studied philosophy and chemistry, earning two Masters Degrees and a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in philosophy from the University of Lyon
University of Lyon
The University of Lyon , located in Lyon and Saint Etienne, France, is a center for higher education and research comprising 16 institutions of higher education...
. She next traveled to Greece, and surveyed the legendary ruins. Here, she became familiar with Heinrich Schliemann
Heinrich Schliemann
Heinrich Schliemann was a German businessman and amateur archaeologist, and an advocate of the historical reality of places mentioned in the works of Homer. Schliemann was an archaeological excavator of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns...
's discovery of swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
s in Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
. Her conclusion was that Ancient Greeks were Aryan in origin, thus finding the reason for the influence of their culture upon later civilizations. Her first two books were her doctoral dissertations: Essai-critique sur Théophile Kaïris (Critical Essay on Theophilius Kaïris) (Lyon: Maximine Portas, 1935) and La simplicité mathématique (Mathematical Simplicity) (Lyon: Maximine Portas, 1935). Portas impressed her teachers with her vibrant, penetrating mind.
She was the tutor of the philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis
Cornelius Castoriadis
Cornelius Castoriadis was a Greek philosopher, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group.-Early life in Athens:...
(1922–1997), as he revealed in a radio interview by Katherine von Bulow (France Culture - 20/4/96).
National Socialism
In early 1928, she renounced French citizenship and acquired Greek nationalityGreek nationality law
right|200pxNationality law of Greece is based on the principle of jus sanguinis. Greek citizenship may be acquired by descent or through naturalization. Greek law permits Dual citizenship...
. Joining a pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
during Lent
Lent
In the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...
in 1929, Portas decided that she was a National Socialist
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. In 1932, she travelled to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in search of a living pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
Aryan culture. Formally adhering to Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, she took the name Savitri Devi ("Sun-rays Goddess" in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
). She volunteered at the Hindu Mission as an advocate against Judeo-Christianity, and wrote A Warning to the Hindus
A Warning to the Hindus
A Warning to the Hindus is a 1939 booklet by the pro-Nazi intellectual and mystic Savitri Devi. It was written in an attempt to "...make both those Hindus who are not nationalists and those Indian nationalists who do not care to call themselves Hindus into Hindu nationalists." The author projected...
to offer her support for Hindu nationalism
Hindu nationalism
Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expressions of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of historical India...
and independence, and to rally resistance
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
to the spread of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
in India. In 1940 she married Asit Krishna Mukherji
Asit Krishna Mukherji
Asit Krishna Mukherji was a Bengali Brahmin with National Socialist convictions who published pro-Axis journals. In order to protect her from deportation or internment, he married esoteric Hitlerist Savitri Devi in 1940....
, a Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
i Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
with National Socialist views who edited the pro-German newspaper New Mercury.
During the 1930s she distributed pro-Axis propaganda and engaged in intelligence gathering on the British in India.
Animal rights activism
Savitri Devi was a vegetarian since young age and held ecologist views in her works. She wrote The Impeachment of Man in 1959 in India in which she declared her views on animals rights and nature. According to her, human beings does not stand above the animals; but in her ecologist views, humans are rather part of the ecosystem and should respect all life, including animals and the whole of nature.Savitri Devi always held radical views on veganism and supported the death penalty for those who didn't "respect nature or animals". She once broke into laboratories and took animals being held there, saving them from being used in experiments. She said that vivisection, circuses, slaughter and fur industries among others doesn't belong in any civilized society.
Savitri Devi was a pioneer in animal rights activism but has been criticized by some animal rights supporters today for her racialist views which she also mixed into her animal rights opinions.
Post-war National Socialist activism
After World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, she travelled to Europe in late 1945 under the name Savitri Devi Mukherji as the wife of an Indian national using a British passport
British passport
British passports may be issued to people holding any of the various forms of British nationality, and are used as evidence of the bearer's nationality and immigration status within the United Kingdom or the issuing state/territory.-Issuing:...
. She stopped briefly in England, then visited her mother in France, and then travelled on to Iceland where she witnessed the eruption of Mount Hekla
Hekla
Hekla is a stratovolcano located in the south of Iceland with a height of . Hekla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes; over 20 eruptions have occurred in and around the volcano since 874. During the Middle Ages, Icelanders called the volcano the "Gateway to Hell."Hekla is part of a volcanic...
. She then returned to England, before traveling to Sweden where she met with Sven Hedin
Sven Hedin
Sven Anders Hedin KNO1kl RVO was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, and travel writer, as well as an illustrator of his own works...
.
On June 15, 1948, she took the Nord-Expreß from Denmark to Germany, where she distributed many thousands of copies of handwritten leaflets encouraging the “Men and women of Germany” to “hold fast to our glorious National Socialist faith, and resist!” She recounted her experience in Gold in the Furnace (which has been reedited in honour of her 100th birthday under the title Gold in the Furnace: Experiences in Post-War Germany)
Arrested for posting bills, she was tried in Düsseldorf on April 5, 1949, for the promotion of Nazi ideas on German territory subject to the Allied Control Council
Allied Control Council
The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority, known in the German language as the Alliierter Kontrollrat and also referred to as the Four Powers , was a military occupation governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany after the end of World War II in Europe...
, and sentenced to two years imprisonment. She served eight months in Werl prison
Werl Prison
Werl Prison has about 900 inmates, and is one of the largest prisons in Germany. It is located in the town of Werl in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, east of Dortmund.After World War II, several high-ranking Nazi officials were imprisoned there....
, where she befriended her fellow Nazi and SS prisoners, (recounted in Defiance
Defiance (book)
Defiance is a book, first published 1951 in Calcutta, by Savitri Devi. It is a memoir of her arrest, trial, and imprisonment on the charge of distributing National Socialist propaganda in Germany in 1949....
), before being released and expelled from Germany. She then went to stay in Lyon, France.
Pilgrimage
In April 1953, she obtained a Greek passport in her maiden name in order to re-enter Germany, and she began a pilgrimagePilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
, as she called it, of Nazi "holy" sites. She flew from Athens to Rome then travelled by rail over the Brenner Pass
Brenner Pass
- Roadways :The motorway E45 leading from Innsbruck via Bolzano to Verona and Modena uses this pass, and is one of the most important north-south connections in Europe...
into "Greater Germany", which she regarded as "the spiritual home of all racially conscious modern Aryans
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
". She travelled to a number of sites significant in the life of Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP (German Nazi Party), as well as German nationalist and heathen monuments, as recounted in her 1958 book Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage (book)
Pilgrimage is a book by Savitri Devi. It is a personal account of her pilgrimage to various National Socialist "holy sites" in 1953.It was published in Calcutta in 1958....
.
Nazi underground
Savitri Devi became friends with Hans-Ulrich RudelHans-Ulrich Rudel
Hans-Ulrich Rudel was a Stuka dive-bomber pilot during World War II and a member of the Nazi party. The most highly decorated German serviceman of the war, Rudel was one of only 27 military men to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, and the only...
, and completed her manuscript of The Lightning and the Sun
The Lightning and the Sun
The Lightning and the Sun is a book by Savitri Devi Mukherji which outlines her philosophy of history along with her critique of the modern world.-Brief summation:...
at his home in March 1956. Through his introductions she was able to meet a number of Nazi émigrés in Spain and the Middle East. In 1957 she stayed with Johannes von Leers in Egypt as she traveled across the Middle East when returning home to New Delhi, including stops in Beirut, Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
, and Zahedan
Zahedan
Zahedan is a city in and the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 552,706, in 109,488 families.-Geography:...
. In 1961 she stayed with Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny was an SS-Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he was chosen as the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity...
in Madrid.
Savitri Devi took employment teaching in France during the 1960s, spending her summer holidays with friends at Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden is a municipality in the German Bavarian Alps. It is located in the south district of Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria, near the border with Austria, some 30 km south of Salzburg and 180 km southeast of Munich...
. In the spring of 1961, while on her Easter holiday in London she learned of the original British National Party. This group emerged after the Second World War when a handful of former members of the British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
took on the name. (The original BNP was absorbed quite quickly into the Union Movement - it is not directly connected with the present BNP
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
.) She met with the British National Party president Andrew Fountaine
Andrew Fountaine
Andrew Fountaine was a veteran of the far right scene in British politics.Born into a land-owning Norfolk family, Fountaine was educated at the Army College in Aldershot and was the son of Vice Admiral Charles Fountaine who had been naval ADC to King George V...
. Beginning a correspondence with Colin Jordan
Colin Jordan
John Colin Campbell Jordan was a leading figure in postwar Neo-Nazism in Britain. In the far-right nationalist circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly 'Nazi' inclination in his open use of the styles and symbols of the Third Reich.Through organisations such as the National...
, she became a devoted supporter of the National Socialist Movement
National Socialist Movement (1960s)
The National Socialist Movement was a British Neo-Nazi group formed on 20 April 1962, Adolf Hitler's birthday, by Colin Jordan, with John Tyndall as his deputy as a splinter group from the original British National Party of the 1960s.-Formation:...
.
In August 1962, Savitri Devi attended the international Nazi conference in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
and was a founder-signatory of the Cotswold Agreement that established the World Union of National Socialists
World Union of National Socialists
The World Union of National Socialists is an organisation founded in 1962 as an umbrella group for neo-Nazi organisations across the globe.-Formation:...
(WUNS). At this conference she met, and was greatly impressed with George Lincoln Rockwell
George Lincoln Rockwell
George Lincoln Rockwell was the founder of the American Nazi Party. Rockwell was a major figure in the neo-Nazi movement in the United States, and his beliefs and writings have continued to be influential among white nationalists and neo-Nazis.-Early life:Rockwell was born in Bloomington,...
. When Rockwell became leader of WUNS, he appointed William Luther Pierce
William Luther Pierce
William Luther Pierce III was the leader of the white separatist National Alliance organization, and one of the most important ideologists of the white nationalist movement. Pierce originally worked as an assistant professor of physics at Oregon State University, before he became involved in...
editor of its new magazine: National Socialist World (1966–68). Along with articles by Jordan and Rockwell, Pierce devoted nearly eighty pages of the first issue to a condensed edition of The Lightning and the Sun. Because of the enthusiastic response, Pierce included chapters from Gold in the Furnace and Defiance in subsequent issues.
After retiring from teaching in 1970, Savitri Devi spent nine months at the Normandy home of close friend Françoise Dior
Françoise Dior
Marie Françoise Suzanne Dior, also known as Françoise de Caumont La Force, Françoise Dior-Jordan, and Françoise Dior-de Mirleau , was a French socialite and post-war Nazi underground financier...
while working on her memoirs. Concluding that her pension would go much further in India, she flew from Paris to Bombay on 23 June 1971. In August she moved to New Delhi, where she lived alone, with a number of cats and at least one cobra.
Savitri Devi continued correspondence with Nazi enthusiasts in Europe and the Americas, particularly with Colin Jordan
Colin Jordan
John Colin Campbell Jordan was a leading figure in postwar Neo-Nazism in Britain. In the far-right nationalist circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly 'Nazi' inclination in his open use of the styles and symbols of the Third Reich.Through organisations such as the National...
, John Tyndall
John Tyndall (politician)
John Hutchyns Tyndall was a British politician who was prominently associated with several fascist/neo-Nazi sects. However, he is best known for leading the National Front in the 1970s and founding the contemporary British National Party in 1982.The most prominent figure in British nationalism...
, Matt Koehl
Matt Koehl
Matt Koehl is the leader of a self-defined religious organization called the New Order. As deputy commander, in August 1967 Koehl succeeded the assassinated George Lincoln Rockwell as 'Commander' of the National Socialist White People's Party...
, Miguel Serrano
Miguel Serrano
Miguel Serrano was a Chilean diplomat, explorer and author of poetry, books on spiritual questing and Esoteric Nazism...
and Ernst Zündel
Ernst Zündel
Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel is a German Holocaust denier and pamphleteer who was jailed several times in Canada for publishing literature which "is likely to incite hatred against an identifiable group" and for being a threat to national security, in the United States for overstaying his visa,...
. She was the first to claim to Zündel that the Nazi genocide of the Jews was untrue
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
; he proposed a series of taped interviews (conducted in November 1978) and published a new illustrated edition of The Lightning and the Sun in 1979.
Death
By the late 1970s she had developed cataracts and her eyesight was rapidly deteriorating. A clerk from the French Embassy in India named Myriam Hirn looked after her, making regular house visits. She decided to leave India, returning to Germany to live in Bavaria in 1981 before removing to France in 1982.She eventually died in 1982 in Sible Hedingham
Sible Hedingham
Sible Hedingham is a large village and civil parish in the Colne Valley in Braintree District of Essex, in England. It has a population of 3,665....
, Essex, England at her friend Muriel Gantry's house. The cause of death was recorded as myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
and coronary thrombosis
Coronary thrombosis
Coronary thrombosis is a form of thrombosis affecting the coronary circulation. It is associated with stenosis subsequent to clotting. The condition is considered as a type of ischaemic heart disease.It can lead to a myocardial infarction...
. She was en route to lecture in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
at the invitation of Matt Koehl
Matt Koehl
Matt Koehl is the leader of a self-defined religious organization called the New Order. As deputy commander, in August 1967 Koehl succeeded the assassinated George Lincoln Rockwell as 'Commander' of the National Socialist White People's Party...
at the time. Today Savitri Devi's ashes are enshrined next to those of George Lincoln Rockwell
George Lincoln Rockwell
George Lincoln Rockwell was the founder of the American Nazi Party. Rockwell was a major figure in the neo-Nazi movement in the United States, and his beliefs and writings have continued to be influential among white nationalists and neo-Nazis.-Early life:Rockwell was born in Bloomington,...
in the memorial room of New Order
New Order (National Socialist)
New Order, a successor organization to the original American Nazi Party, is now a self-styled National Socialist religious group which promotes Esoteric Nazism as an alternative faith for "Aryans" ....
headquarters in New Berlin, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
Works
| Year | Title | ISBN | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | Essai critique sur Theophile Kaïris | First doctoral thesis Thesis A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings... , on the life and thought of the Greek educator and philosopher Theophile Kaïris Theophilos Kairis Theophilos Kairis was a Greek priest and revolutionary. He was born in Andros, Cyclades, Ottoman Greece, as a son of a distinguished family.... . |
|
| 1935 | La simplicité mathématique | A 500-page thesis on the nature of simplicity in mathematics. It included a discussion of Léon Brunschvicq Léon Brunschvicq Léon Brunschvicg was a French Idealist philosopher. He co-founded the Revue de métaphysique et de morale with Xavier Leon and Élie Halévy in 1893.-Life:... , and drew upon the work of George Boole George Boole George Boole was an English mathematician and philosopher.As the inventor of Boolean logic—the basis of modern digital computer logic—Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of computer science. Boole said,... , Gottlob Frege Gottlob Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege was a German mathematician, logician and philosopher. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern logic, and made major contributions to the foundations of mathematics. He is generally considered to be the father of analytic philosophy, for his writings on... , Bertrand Russell Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things... , Henri Poincaré Henri Poincaré Jules Henri Poincaré was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and a philosopher of science... , and Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education... . |
|
| 1940 (written 1935-6) | L'Etang aux lotus (The Lotus Pond) | Impressions of India. A combination of travelogue and philosophical, cultural, and political reflections. | |
| 1936 | A Warning to the Hindus A Warning to the Hindus A Warning to the Hindus is a 1939 booklet by the pro-Nazi intellectual and mystic Savitri Devi. It was written in an attempt to "...make both those Hindus who are not nationalists and those Indian nationalists who do not care to call themselves Hindus into Hindu nationalists." The author projected... |
ISBN 978-81-85002-40-8 | Written to rally support for Hindu nationalism Hindu nationalism Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expressions of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of historical India... and independence, and to rally resistance Resistance movement A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force... to the spread of Christianity Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings... and Islam Islam Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~... in India. |
| 1940 | The Non-Hindu Indians and Indian Unity | Promotes the idea that India must put aside social prejudice and communal hatred to create the political unity to achieve independence Indian independence movement The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia... . |
|
| 1946 | A Son of God: The Life and Philosophy of Akhnaton, King of Egypt | ISBN 0-912057-95-5 and ISBN 0-912057-17-3 | |
| 1951 | Defiance Defiance (book) Defiance is a book, first published 1951 in Calcutta, by Savitri Devi. It is a memoir of her arrest, trial, and imprisonment on the charge of distributing National Socialist propaganda in Germany in 1949.... |
ISBN 0-9746264-6-5 | Autobiographical account of her propaganda mission, arrest, trial, and imprisonment in occupied Germany in 1949. |
| 1952 (written 1948-9), reedited 2005 | Gold in the Furnace | ISBN 978-0-906879-52-8 and ISBN 978-0-9746264-4-4 | Conditions in postwar Germany. |
| 1958 (written 1953-9) | Pilgrimage Pilgrimage (book) Pilgrimage is a book by Savitri Devi. It is a personal account of her pilgrimage to various National Socialist "holy sites" in 1953.It was published in Calcutta in 1958.... |
Account of her pilgrimage Pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith... to various National Socialist Nazism Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany... holy sites. |
|
| 1958 (written 1948-56) | The Lightning and the Sun The Lightning and the Sun The Lightning and the Sun is a book by Savitri Devi Mukherji which outlines her philosophy of history along with her critique of the modern world.-Brief summation:... |
ISBN 978-0-937944-14-1 (abridged) | A work synthesizing the Hindu philosophy of cyclical history with National Socialism. Contains biographies of Genghis Khan Genghis Khan Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death.... , Akhnaton, and Adolf Hitler. Famous for the claim that Hitler was an avatar of the God Vishnu. |
| 1959 (written in 1945) | Impeachment of Man Impeachment of Man Impeachment of Man is a book by Savitri Devi. It recounts a history of the general indifference toward the suffering of non-human life. It puts forth a pro-vegetarian, anti-vivisectionist, biocentric, and misanthropic conservationist point of view... |
ISBN 978-0-939482-33-7 | Animal rights Animal rights Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings... and ecology Ecology Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems... . |
| 1965 (written 1957-60) | Long-Whiskers and the Two-Legged Goddess, or The True Story of a "Most Objectionable Nazi" and... half-a-dozen Cats | A fictionalized autobiography and memoir of her favorite cats. | |
| 1976 (written 1968-71) | Souvenirs et reflexions d’une aryenne (Memories and Reflections of an Aryan Woman) | A series of philosophical essays rather than a memoir Memoir A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below... , this is the most comprehensive statement of her philosophy. |
|
| 2005 | And Time Rolls on: The Savitri Devi Interviews | ISBN 978-0-9746264-3-7 | 1978 autobiographical interviews originally recorded in Calcutta. |
See also
- Nazi occultism
- Nazis: The Occult ConspiracyNazis: The Occult ConspiracyNazis: The Occult Conspiracy, directed by Tracy Atkinson and Joan Baran, narrated by Malcolm McDowell, is an English language 1998 Discovery Channel documentary regarding Nazi occultism.-Soundtrack:...
- ExternsteineExternsteineThe Externsteine are a distinctive rock formation located in Ostwestfalen-Lippe of northwestern Germany, not far from the city of Detmold at Horn-Bad Meinberg. The formation is a tor consisting of several tall, narrow columns of rock which rise abruptly from the surrounding wooded hills...
- Miguel SerranoMiguel SerranoMiguel Serrano was a Chilean diplomat, explorer and author of poetry, books on spiritual questing and Esoteric Nazism...
- Matt KoehlMatt KoehlMatt Koehl is the leader of a self-defined religious organization called the New Order. As deputy commander, in August 1967 Koehl succeeded the assassinated George Lincoln Rockwell as 'Commander' of the National Socialist White People's Party...
- Franco FredaFranco FredaFranco "Giorgio" Freda is one of the leading intellectuals of the post-war Italian far right. He has been accused of having personally contributed to the Piazza Fontana bombing.-Biography:...
- Kerry BoltonKerry BoltonKerry Raymond Bolton is a far-right , conservative and social credit writer in New Zealand who has been active in several organisations...
- Subhas Chandra BoseSubhash Chandra BoseSubhas Chandra Bose known by name Netaji was an Indian revolutionary who led an Indian national political and military force against Britain and the Western powers during World War II. Bose was one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement and is a legendary figure in...
- Corneliu Zelea CodreanuCorneliu Zelea CodreanuCorneliu Zelea Codreanu was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael , an ultra-nationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period...
- Bal Gangadhar TilakBal Gangadhar TilakLokmanya Tilak –, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called the great leader "Father of the Indian unrest"...