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THE RISE OF THE FOURTH REICH
both the Cathars and the Templars apparently intrigued Himmler, as Rahn was inducted into the SS as a lieutenant in 1936. Himmler and his cronies must have been entranced with Rahn, who had drawn connections between the Cathar fortress of Montségur and a fabulous cave housing the Holy Grail called Montsavat, mentioned in Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach in the thirteenth century. Rahn believed he had discovered the final resting place of a great treasure of antiquity, which included the Tables of Testimony, the Grail Cup known as Emerald Cup, and perhaps even the long-lost Ark of the Covenant. And by March 1944, the Nazis were free to move troops into Languedoc in search of this ancient wealth, known as King Solomon’s treasure. It was much too late for Rahn. By 1939, Rahn had become disenchanted with his Nazi superiors, writing, “There is much sorrow in my country. [It is] impossible for a tolerant, liberal man like me to live in the nation that my native country has become.” He resigned his commission in the SS in February 1939 and, barely a month later, reportedly died of exposure after having been caught in a snowstorm during a hiking expedition. Rumors circulated that he had been killed in a concentration camp. The National Socialist ideologue Alfred Rosenberg recorded that Rahn committed suicide by taking cyanide “for politico-mystical reasons as well as for personal ones.” However he died, Rahn’s knowledge was retained by Himmler.
THE FA BLED TR EA SU R E of King Solomon is the greatest cache of riches known to humankind. Its fascinating history serves as a timeline for the evolution of Western civilization as it can be traced from ancient Mesopotamia up to World War II. Gold, silver, and precious gems—such as diamonds, pearls, emeralds, amber, amethyst, topaz, sapphires, rubies, turquoise, and others— comprised this priceless hoard of riches. But Solomon’s treasure also contained riches of quite a different sort. It included ancient scrolls, texts, and tablets upon which was inscribed some of the world’s most esoteric and occult knowledge. This knowledge had been handed down for thousands of years from the time of the world’s first recorded civilization in ancient Sumer—present-day Iraq.