Russia and Ukraine

[Thumpalumpacus]

I only ever look at Wikipedia for the source references, then go all primary, if possible.

Yep, when possible. Of course, many Wiki sources are themselves secondary based on primaries, or even further down the line. At a point it's like digging for truffles with a noseless pig.

That's not to say books are better. You can dig through the bibliography, and find that claim x sourced from book y is based on crap too.

[Ivan Denisovich]

The article largely focuses on the work of Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (an actual historian) who makes the compelling case that occultism in the Third Reich is largely a case of modern mythology and sensationalism. To wit:

Thanks, Brian. That's pretty much the consensus of the many sources, some primary, which I've read. Shirer refers to the rallies as "pagan-like", but that is not the same as "pagan" and a wordsmith like Shirer would be well aware of the distinction. He attended several rallies, including those at Nuremberg, as an accredited journalist, making him a primary source. He also interviewed Speer, the man charged with orchestrating the rallies and designing the accoutrements. Speer reported that Hitler wanted overawing pageantry, not paganism.

Instead of pagan I would call them religious or cult like designed to foster certain atmosphere. And of course there is Hitler religiously loaded language like below quote passage in Mein Kampf*:

Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jews, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.

Hitler was canny enough to use religious language seeing as most of the Germany was one or other flavor of christian. I never saw any reputable source claiming that he did not believe or one saying that he was really into mysticism. It's only ever mentioned in context of Himmler when it comes to serious literature, though of course one can consider nazism itself as something quasi religious with it's focus on blood&soil, which hardly fits into this supposedly "rational" ideology.

*https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230623989_5

[Thumpalumpacus]

Thanks, Brian. That's pretty much the consensus of the many sources, some primary, which I've read. Shirer refers to the rallies as "pagan-like", but that is not the same as "pagan" and a wordsmith like Shirer would be well aware of the distinction. He attended several rallies, including those at Nuremberg, as an accredited journalist, making him a primary source. He also interviewed Speer, the man charged with orchestrating the rallies and designing the accoutrements. Speer reported that Hitler wanted overawing pageantry, not paganism.

Instead of pagan I would call them religious or cult like designed to foster certain atmosphere. And of course there is Hitler religiously loaded language like below quote passage in Mein Kampf*:

Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jews, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.

Hitler was canny enough to use religious language seeing as most of the Germany was one or other flavor of christian. I never saw any reputable source claiming that he did not believe or one saying that he was really into mysticism. It's only ever mentioned in context of Himmler when it comes to serious literature, though of course one can consider nazism itself as something quasi religious with it's focus on blood&soil, which hardly fits into this supposedly "rational" ideology.

*https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230623989_5

Right. Hitler regularly referred to "Providence", which in the Western world is usually interpreted as "God". And yes, Naziism had its own religious overtones, but those were inbuilt and Volkisch rather than appealing to broader pagan stuff.

Hitler appealed much more to Christian tropes ("the Lord, mighty in battle" regarding Barbarossa, and so on) than paganism. The latter was, I think, just one more item the Allies could try to use as propaganda.