A little off-subject, but there’ve been several references in this thread to the influence on the Nazis of belief systems even screwier than Christianity…
There are several books available on the supposed occult background of National Socialism. Many are entertainingly loopy, and I hesitate to recommend them in GQ, because they may not be entirely accurate.
Oh, what the hell. Try Trevor Ravenscroft’s THE SPEAR OF DESTINY, about Hitler’s belief in the magical power of the weapon that supposedly pierced Jesus’s side. Ravenscroft is pretty thoroughly debunked in Anderson’s HITLER AND THE OCCULT. Somewhere in the middle is Jean Michel Angebert’s THE OCCULT AND THE THIRD REICH: THE MYSTICAL ORIGINS OF NAZISM AND THE SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL.
If you read these books on public transportation, be sure to wear your aluminum-foil hat to ward off negative telepathic vibrations.