Watching: Hitler’s Treasure Hunters

Overview

Indiana Jones, the swashbuckling lead character in the Hollywood movie franchise, thwarted the Nazis from stealing treasures and religious relics including the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant. The movies created a cultural phenomenon – but few of the millions who’ve watched his fictional adventures would realise the shadowy Nazi characters were based on fact. Heinrich Himmler’s special branch of the SS – Das Ahnenerbe – were tasked with finding treasures, artefacts, and religious relics of power like the Holy Grail, that might secure them victory in the war and prove Aryan supremacy beyond any doubt.