The Secret Nazis
“The keynote of what lies in the German mind today was voiced in 1950. At that time, according to T.H. Teten’s book Germany Plots With the Kremlin, Dr. Konrad Adenauer, then chancellor of Germany, caused much embarrassment by leading a German crowd in singing ‘Deutschland über Alles’—‘Germany above all others’—in the presence of Allied representatives” (Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, lesson 3, 1955).
Quite a sentiment, because at that time the German nation lay in rubble. Prior to the D-Day landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944, many in the German high command knew that their defeat was only a matter of time. German destiny, however, would not be thwarted. A plan was already in place that out of defeat would rise a new nation.
Herbert W. Armstrong revealed that plan to the world—before Germany was destroyed—believe it or not!
Mr. Armstrong wrote, “Even before the end of this war, I revealed to you the Nazi plans for a Nazi underground movement, to go underground as a secret organization the very moment they lost the war—to lay low a few years during Allied and Russian military occupation, then to come forth when least expected, restore Germany to power, and go on to finally accomplish their aims in a World War III” (Plain Truth, Sept. 1948).
He also wrote, “… as certainly as we restore Western Europe to economic prosperity, and then to military power, a successor to Hitler will emerge, gain control of this power through a ‘United States of Europe,’ which we [the United States] also are encouraging, and we shall then wake up, too late, to realize we shall have restored our fascist enemy to power to destroy us!” (Plain Truth, Nov. 1948).
Notice, he made four specific statements, three of which were: Nazi Germany would go underground; Germany would emerge after Allied and Russian occupation; and they would rise again to military power. These events have now all happened—and in that order.
Did anyone else perceive what future events would bring? No, not even the Germans themselves. Notice a speech given by German General von Stuelpnagel in 1944: “No defeat is final. Defeats are simply lessons to be learned in preparation for the next and greater attack.” He went on to say, “In the next world war, which should take place within 25 years, the same mistake should not be made” (Correspondence Course, lesson 3).
“Within 25 years” would have put their hoped-for reappearance in the year 1969. According to him, the German underground was focused on the time period of 1969-1972. Why could that not happen? Because of Mr. Armstrong’s statement that this movement would “come forth when least expected” after Allied and Russian occupation had ended. When did that end? Not in 1969, or 1972, but in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the removal of Russian occupying forces!
Victim Pensions
By August of 1944, Nazi Party officials knew that the war was lost. At that time the provisional plan for the rebirth of Germany, conceived in the early days of the war, began to be put into action. That plan included the well-documented rush to secret destinations by surviving supporters of the Third Reich. The Nazis went underground, just as Mr. Armstrong said they would.
Following the surrender of Germany, attempts were made to locate escaped Nazis who had now been shuttled to other parts of the world. By the spring of 1946, only 85,000 of 200,000 industrial and Gestapo leaders had been arrested. Further, the search for Nazi looted gold—gold transferred through the Bank of International Settlements—began in earnest.
In his book Nazi Gold, Tom Bower writes, “In early January 1945, as new intercepts revealed that Swiss banks, especially Crédit Suisse, were regularly transferring German loot and gold to Argentina, new drafts of the Safehaven program outlined the crusaders’ intention to surround, intimidate and virtually invade neutral countries—especially Switzerland—to root out the [underground] Germans and their loot” (p. 67).
Where did the Nazis go? That secret is known. According to an amazing bit of legislation, many of them can be traced. We can trace them through their “victim” pensions. “Billions of [Deutsche] marks from German taxpayers [have been] paid to Nazi war criminals and are called ‘victim’ pensions. A spokesman for the German Ministry of Labor confirmed that additional assistance money is being spent on war criminals but claimed that nothing could be changed because of constitutional reasons” (The Panorama Report, ard German television network, Jan. 30, 1997).
The report continues, “The Nazi war criminals receive, in addition to their regular pensions, ‘victim’ pensions, according to the German ‘Social Compensation and Assistance to War Victims’ law (bvg). Last year alone, from Federal and Lander budgets, almost 13 billion marks were currently paid to over 1.1 million ‘victim’ pensioners. To qualify for the ‘victim’ pension, one must have been injured as a result of war service. Because no one is excluded from the bvg, each war criminal who applies is granted a ‘victim’ pension if they can simply prove a war injury.
“Panorama found out that worldwide, numerous Nazi war criminals today receive monthly payments
between 100 and several thousand marks from German taxpayers. The well-respected German military historian Gerhard Schreiber estimates the number of war criminals receiving these extra payments from the German government at 50,000.” News sources claim those 50,000 are former members of Hitler’s elite SS.
Follow the Money
How the underground movement was funded is another story fresh in today’s news. It was funded primarily by the gold stolen during Nazi Germany’s conquests.
Following the surrender of Germany, according to author Charles Higham, “Senior Nazi Party officials…urged that the new strategy was to survive and win the peace. Large sums of money should be sent abroad in secret in the care of sympathetic bankers and industrialists. Among the named Swiss banks were the Basler Handelsbank and Credit Suisse. Eventually, according to the plan, that money would be used to finance the Nazi Party’s attempt to build a new empire….
“On a bright May morning in 1944, while young Americans were dying on the Italian beachheads, [the] president of the Nazi-controlled Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, arrived at his office to preside over the fourth annual meeting in time of war. This polished American gentleman sat down with his German, Japanese, Italian, British and American executive staff to discuss such important matters as the $378 million in gold which had been sent to the bank by the Nazi government after Pearl Harbor for use by its leaders after the war” (Trading With the Enemy; emphasis mine).
That gold had been looted from the national banks of Austria, Holland, Belgium and Czechoslovakia, or melted down from the Reichsbank holdings of the teeth fillings, spectacle frames, cigarette cases and lighters of murdered Jews.
What areas of the world constitute the “underground”? We only have to follow the money trail to answer that question. “Estimated numbers of former Nazis getting pensions are: 601 in Australia, 1115 in Austria, 128 in Argentina, 324 in Belgium, 196 in Brazil, 1882 in Canada, 1010 in Croatia, 459 in England, 810 in France, 152 in Italy, 1014 in Romania, 2,380 in Slovenia, 152 in South Africa, 3,377 in the U.S.” (The Panorama Report).
That’s just over a third of the estimated 50,000 war criminals receiving payments.
The fact is, a man under the inspiration of God saw those events coming decades ago, and told the world. How could Herbert W. Armstrong reveal events which would come to pass in the future? Did he possess Allied classified information? Was it merely an unusual “grasp” of world affairs? No, it was not. The military and political systems of the world did not possess this knowledge. The truth is, he simply believed that Almighty God meant what He said, that the Bible was His word. He understood that the prophecies in the Bible were for our peoples today, and that they would come to pass.
The Phoenix
In the opera Parsifal, Richard Wagner wrote, “By the power of that stone the phoenix burns to ashes, but the ashes give him life again. Thus does the phoenix molt and change its plumage, which afterward is bright and shining and as lovely as before.” Just as that mythological bird, the Germany once in ashes has reappeared and is heading the powerful consortium of nations called the European Union.
Now only the fourth statement Mr. Armstrong made is still waiting to happen. That statement was, “a successor to Hitler will emerge, [and] gain control of this power….” That man is probably somewhere on the political scene right now!
General Stuelpnagel stated, “In the next world war…the same mistake should not be made. The principal adversary will be the United States, and the entire effort must be concentrated against this country from the beginning…. Our defeat in the present war need not be considered except as an incident in the triumphal march of Germany toward conquest of the world”—Deutschland über alles! (Correspondence Course, lesson 3).
That march has begun. On May 26, 1998, German officer cadets took part in unprecedented training exercises with the Israeli army. Writing about this historic event, bbc Middle East correspondent Lyse Doucet said, “For the German soldiers these exercises are a valuable opportunity for a peace-time army to train with a force engaged in war.”
In the same bbc report, Christian Muth, of the German Army, was reported as saying, “The point of coming here is not to overcome the past, because you can’t overcome something that’s already happened. The point of coming here is to show that we are a new generation—that we are fully aware of the past and will prevent it from happening again.”
The German Army does not fully realize its future role in world affairs at this time. But we will soon learn that when its fighting forces say, “We are fully aware of the past and will prevent it from happening again,” it means they remember the defeat of past wars, and why. They will not be defeated next time!
Hitler revealed the carefully laid German military plan to rule the world in his thesis Mein Kampf. He said Germany must first defeat the West in order to have a free hand for the Drang nach Osten—the march toward the East.
As God revealed to Mr. Armstrong, after losing World War II the Nazis went underground. The fall of the Berlin Wall has allowed Germany to reappear even stronger than before. It will continue to grow into the most powerful economic and military
machine this world has ever seen—the last revival of the Holy Roman Empire. A successor to Hitler is about to appear. Then, linked with a future false prophet, this power, composed of ten nations—referred to in Scripture as “the beast”—will plunge this world into the most horrific global genocide ever witnessed by mankind.
Then the world will know that a prophet has been among them.
