BULL STREET – The art of the Con

Creating History

Nazi Germany had a division of the government known as the “Race and Resettlement Bureau.” One of its mandates was to search the world for references and evidence of an Aryan civilization.  Archeologists were sent hither and yon in search of the mythical beginnings of a true Aryan culture. Germanic history had created the cultural mythology of an existence of the culture and it was one of Goebels’, the fanatical head of Nazi Propaganda, missions in life to prove the authenticity of these statements.

Goebels began the project with great fanfare and announced to the German People that there would soon be hard evidence of exactly where their ancestors had come from and what had indeed made them so special. Moreover, Goebels was so tetched on the subject that he actually seemed to believe it himself, at least at the beginning. He assigned the top archeologists in the country to the project and was so certain that he would find evidence of this insanity that he sent film crews along with the scientists to record their achievements when they uncovered whatever it was that he had them searching for.

Naturally, this “Alice in Wonderland” approach never got anywhere and even Hitler started tiring of Goebels incessant ravings. However, by this time the Propaganda minister had already gotten in to deep and had to find an honorable why out of his morass. He did the only thing that a Minister of Propaganda knows how to do when trapped. He lied like a rug. Goebels started to pepper his digs with objects that could satisfy his mindless thesis and then he would have one of his planted experts direct the archeologists and film crew to the proper spots. The fakes were so childlike that the scientists immediately refuted them as plants. This further embarresed the German hierarchy all the way up the Fuerher and you certainly didn’t want him mad at you in Nazi Germany. 

Hitler who by this time saw that the government was getting egg all over its face told Goebels in no uncertain terms to stop the entire project and if he didn’t he may find himself as an artifact of another civilization. Outwardly, Goebels complied with Hitler’s request but all the while, he was still sending the best of Germany’s scientific minds into the field looking for the unattainable. This dislocation of valuable resources along with other vanity projects pursued by other of Goebels associates detracted markedly from Germany’s war effort and was quite helpful to the allies in their effort to destroy Nazi Germany. Between Goebels search for the non-existent, Goerings purchases of forged art and Mengele’s extraordinary medical experiments, this must have seemed a mad house even to the inmates themselves.

Back