Sixty years after the defeat of the Third Reich, the complexities of Nazi ideology continue to be revealed. This highly influential book provides the first serious account of its ideological roots. The book demonstrates how Nazism was influenced by powerful occult and millenialist sects that flourished in Germany and Austria in the late 19th century. These sects (primarily the Ariosophists) promoted doctrines of popular nationalism, 'Aryan' racism, and occultism to support their advocacy for Germany's global domination. Their ideas and symbols permeated nationalist-racist groups connected to the nascent Nazi party and, over time, exerted a strong influence on Himmler's SS. Their fantasies played out with terrifying consequences in the Third Reich: Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka are the nightmarish museums of the Nazi apocalypse, the roots of which lie in the millenialist visions of occult sects. This strange and fascinating history contains lessons we cannot ignore.