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“At about this point, the occult enters the Wewelsburg scenario. Irminenschaft—Irminism—starts to raise its ugly head—”

“What the hell is that?” Cronley asked.

“A pre-Christian German religion,” Hessinger furnished.

“Correct. Another gold star for you, Friedrich,” Cohen said. “Tacitus, the great historian, wrote about it. Irminenschaft comes into the picture via a very interesting character named Karl Maria Wiligut, an Austrian occultist.

“Karl Wolff, chief adjutant of the SS, introduced him to Himmler. Himmler liked what Wiligut had written about the Roman Catholic Church, the Jews, and the Freemasons being responsible for both the defeat of Germany in the First World War and the downfall of the Habsburg Empire.

“Himmler also became fascinated with Wiligut’s views on ancient German history, most important that Irminism was the pre-Christian German ancestral religion.

“Himmler took Wiligut into the SS in September 1933, in the rank—colonel—Wiligut had earned by distinguished service in World War One. They quickly became close friends, which resulted in Wiligut’s promotion to SS-Brigadeführer three years later.

“Wiligut designed the runic symbols used on black SS uniforms and flags, and designed and supervised the manufacture of the gold SS Totenkopfrings, which were passed out to SS officers who had distinguished themselves in some way.”

“He’s the guy who came up with that skull and crossbones hat insignia?” Ziegler asked.

“I presume you mean the Totenkopf,” Cohen replied. “No. That goes back at least to the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War, when Frederick the Great formed a regiment of Hussar cavalry in the Prussian Army. They wore black uniforms and tall headgear—mirlitons—with a silver skull and crossbones insignia pinned to them.”

“Colonel, how the hell do you know all this stuff?” Ziegler asked.

“Some intelligence officers, such as myself, and I suspect Mr. Hessinger and Captain Dunwiddie, find it useful to read military history rather than comic books or novels with strong sexual content. You might want to keep that in mind.”

“You have just been cut off at the knees, Augie,” Cronley said, laughing. “Throw away all those Superman comic books.”

“Let him who is without sin cast the first stone, Cronley,” Cohen said. “And, if I may now continue?”

“In the Civil War, the 41st New York Volunteer Infantry, made up of mostly Germans who had emigrated from Prussia, wore a skull and bones insignia,” Hessinger said.

“One more gold star, Friedrich, for that historical footnote and for proving my point about the value to intelligence officers of reading military history. I hope you and Ziegler were listening, Super Spook?”

“Augie and I are all ears to just about anything you have to say. Pray continue, Colonel, sir.”

“Wiligut had some other noteworthy ideas about history and religion,” Cohen said. “He believed, for example, that Germany was settled by people from the lost continent of Atlantis about two hundred and twenty-eight thousand years before Christ, their first settlement being in what is now Goslar.

“He also believed that the events chronicled in the New Testament had occurred in Germany, rather than Palestine. And that Krist—with a K—who had founded the Irminist religion about 12,500 B.C., was the man we now think of as Jesus Christ. He claimed the Wiligut family was directly descended from Irminist wise men whom rival sorcerers had driven into northern Europe, then a wilderness, now Germany, about 1200 B.C.”

“This guy sounds like a real candidate for the funny farm,” Ziegler said. “And he was pals with Himmler?”

“Wiligut was indeed pals with Himmler. What I haven’t been able to find out is whether Himmler knew that Wiligut had been committed at the request of his wife to the Salzburg mental asylum in November of 1924 as a paranoid schizophrenic liable to cause harm to himself and others. He was released from the asylum in 1927, on condition that he leave Austria. He then moved to Munich.

“What I have learned is that ‘under the guidance’—which means with the support of—SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff, Himmler’s chief adjutant, Wiligut developed the plans to turn Wewelsburg Castle into something like an SS holy place.”

“Holy place?” Janice asked.

“Holy place,” Cohen confirmed. “This is the point of the lecture, so pay attention. Starting in 1934, the plaster on the exterior walls of Wewelsburg was removed to make the building look more castle-like. They opened a blacksmith operation to make wrought-iron interior decorations. The blacksmiths, and the plaster removers, were concentration camp inmates, mostly Russian POWs, but ab

solutely no Jews, as Jews would obviously contaminate the place.

“The first official Irministic ceremony at Wewelsburg was a baptism rite for Obergruppenführer Wolff’s son, Thorisman—rough translation, Man of Thor, or Thor’s son.”

“Who is Thor?” Ziegler asked.

“The Nordic warrior god of power, strength, lightning, et cetera,” Hessinger said. “That’s where we get Thursday—Thor’s Day.”

“I never knew that,” Ziegler said.

“Present at the baptism,” Cohen said, “were SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich and Professor Karl Diebitsch, an artist and, to be fair, soldier—he was an Oberführer in the Waffen-SS—who had designed the all-black SS uniform, and was sort of Himmler’s artist-in-residence.