The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust - a Book Review

Science writer Heather Pringle’s new book, The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust, describes the role archaeologists—and the study of archaeology—played in the ideas and the execution of the Third Reich’s Final Solution.

Heinrich Himmler, a member of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle and the man for whom the term ‘murderous bastard’ isn’t nearly strong enough, was an archaeology fan. It was Himmler’s research institute, Das Ahnenerbe ('something inherited from the forefathers') that researched, planned and executed some of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust. The Ahnenerbe employed 137 scholars, including archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnologists, and classicists, as well as medical doctors, geologists, and botanists; and 82 support workers, including librarians, filmmakers, photographers, artists, lab technicians and secretaries. Their goal was to find evidence of the glorious deeds of Germany’s ancestors—the fictional Aryan—using scientific methods, and to communicate that information to the public, by means of magazine articles, books, museum shows and scientific conferences.

The Master Plan highlights one truly unspeakable evil of the Third Reich—not the lunatics running the asylum, but the scholars and artists who supported and worked for its success. The book is extremely well-researched, with over 130 pages of notes, bibliographic references and index.

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