The Hexenkartothek (known as the "H-special order" project[1]) was an investigation into witch trials led by SS-Untersturmführer Rudolf Levin under the orders of Heinrich Himmler.[2][3]

Himmler organised a team of SS researchers to collect historical records of witch trials with the goal of proving that the Catholic Church had used the trials to eliminate the German heritage.[4][5] This prompted William Monter to dub the Nazi regime "Europe's first 'pro-witch' government."[6] One pamphlet, 1935's The Christian Witch-Craze,[7] claimed that the witch-hunts were an attempt to exterminate "Aryan womanhood".[8]

According to Himmler the information gathered during the nine-year investigation was to be assembled into a propaganda book. No book was produced and Levin's habilitation thesis was rejected by the Munich University in 1944.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Kloth, Hans Michael (10 January 2000). "ZEITGESCHICHTE : Wo die Raben kreisen - DER SPIEGEL 2/2000". www.spiegel.de. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  2. ↑ Harrington, Joel (September 2019). "Himmler's Witch Hunt". History Today. 69 (9).
  3. ↑ Himmlers Hexenkartothek : das Interesse des Nationalsozialismus an der Hexenverfolgung (2. Aufl ed.). Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte. 2000. ISBN 9783895343131.
  4. ↑ Badger, William; Purkiss, Diane (2017). "English Witches and SS Academics: Evaluating Sources for the English Witch Trials in Himmler's Hexenkartothek" (PDF). Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural. 6 (1): 125–153. doi:10.5325/preternature.6.1.0125. S2CID 157526828.
  5. ↑ Hans Sebald, "Nazi ideology redefining deviants: Witches, Himmler's witch-trial survey, and the case of the bishopric of Bamberg" in: Levack (ed.), New Perspectives on Witchcraft, Magic, and Demonology (2001), pp. 113ff.
  6. ↑ Monter, William (2002). "Witch Trials in Continental Europe, 1560-1660". In Ankarloo, Bengst; Clark, Stuart (eds.). Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Vol. 4: The Period of the Witch Trials. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 14.
  7. ↑ Friederike Müller-Reimerdes. Der christliche Hexenwahn. Gedanken zum religiösen Freiheitskampf der deutschen Frau.
  8. ↑ Magic and Superstition in Europe, Michael David Bailey, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2006, pp. 236-238
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