Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur
HAMBURG, GERMANY, September 19, 2002: Adolf Hitler was fascinated with Buddhism and Hinduism, and many of his henchmen viewed him as a Krishna-like divine warrior who would cleanse the Earth of “vermin” in a baptism of fire, according to a headline-making new book. The book “Hitler-Buddha-Krishna” is by a controversial Austrian husband-and-wife team of authors who have generated publicity in Europe with a number of books exploring what they call the “violence- prone” side of Buddhism and Hinduism. It was this side of those Eastern philosophies – the image of the vengeful demigod annihilating enemies without mercy to create a new earthly order – which fascinated Hitler as a young man and which continues to fascinate impressionable young neo-Nazis, say the authors. In fact, there is little new in the book by Herbert and Mariana Roettgen, according to this article in the German press, who write under the pseudonym Victor and Victoria Trimondi. Beyond linking the swastika with Hindu symbolism, the authors fail to prove that Hitler himself actually had more than a brief flirtation with Eastern philosophy in pre-World War I Vienna. But this latest book has nonetheless drawn press attention in Austria and Germany, with more- or-less serious interviews appearing under invariably sensationalist photos of Hitler superimposed over the Buddha. “Hitler was a Buddhist” screamed a typical headline in Bild, Europe’s biggest tabloid.