The Master Plan

Next book: 'The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust', Heather Pringle, 2006

This book is primarily about the Ahnenerbe, A Nazi institute that researched the mythical Aryan race and other historical 'evidence' to support the Reich.

I found The Master Plan difficult to read, and so did not get much past the first chapter (by which stage I knew almost everything that was going to happen in the rest of the book). In my opinion, Pringle could have improved the readability of the book by having a more story-telling approach.

Of the parts I did read, I was intrigued (not enough to continue reading the book) by the crazy stuff that went on here! The research and its results was largely fabricated, but used by the Nazis to rewrite history. The institute held secret missions to far away countries, studying race, eugenics, archaeology, weird things like runic stuff and witches, and then used it to justify mass extermination of humans.

Fascinating stuff, but trying to read the book felt to me like ploughing through a muddy paddock - hard.