The Magpie Mason is an obscure journalist in the Craft who writes, with occasional flashes of superficial cleverness, about Freemasonry’s current events and history; literature and art; philosophy and pipe smoking. He is the Worshipful Master of The American Lodge of Research in New York City; is a Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786; and also is at labor in Virginia’s Civil War Lodge of Research 1865. He is a past president of the Masonic Society as well.
Sounds almost like a soccer match but, no, Nazis vs. Freemasons is a new film from Free Documentary on the subject of the Masonic archives looted by Nazi Germany during its conquest of Europe in World War Two; those records’ subsequent seizure by the Soviets; and the surprising return of 28,000 meticulously labeled files to their original owners, despite reluctance in the Duma, at the close of the last century.
Free Documentary is one of the many brands of Quintus Studios. Based in Germany, Quintus is an aggregator of documentaries it has uploaded to YouTube for more than ten years for our enjoyment free of charge.
Free Documentary
Nazis vs. Freemasons: Looting of the Lodges recounts the story of how and why Nazis, commanded by Alfred Rosenberg, plundered the Masonic buildings in Germany and the countries sacked by the German army, confiscating all kinds of archives, libraries, and possessions. The Masonic items later were shipped to Moscow, where they were lodged for more than fifty years.
On November 9, 1923, Rosenberg participated in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, which resulted in Hitler’s arrest. Tasked by Hitler as interim leader of the Nazi Party, Rosenberg struggled to prevent the Nazi movement’s disintegration. After Hitler’s release, Rosenberg returned to journalism and began his chief work, The Myth of the Twentieth Century, published in 1930…
Based on a selective reading of earlier works of philosophers, neo-pagan authors, and racial theorists, such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the volume embodied a dichotomist world view that positioned the “Aryan” and the Jewish “races” irreconcilably against one another. All the fruits of Western culture, Rosenberg posited, had evolved solely from the Germanic tribes; yet the Roman “priestly caste” which had arisen with Christianity had combined with Freemasons, Jesuits, and “international Jewry” to erode this culture and with it German spiritual values.
Free Documentary
From the Masonic perspective, the film highlights the explanation offered by Pierre Mollier, one of the Grand Orient of France’s best known scholars. We also hear from historian Patricia Grimsted, who brought the archives to light after the collapse of the Soviet government—and was denounced as a spy, among other experts.
Some takeaways from the film:
Free Documentary
◆ These archives are not mere inanimate objects and dry documents. They comprise nothing less than the fraternity’s lost “collective memory.” Facts unknown by anyone living, even about Lodge of Nine Sisters in Paris, have been exhumed to illumine our past.
◆ Nazi venom for Freemasonry wasn’t merely loathing of Enlightenment (and anti-fascist) thinking. Heinrich Himmler believed Freemasons “held mysterious esoteric powers.”
◆ The Soviets’ interest in Freemasonry was more practical. They wanted to know about Masonic political networking to learn if Masonry had members inside the Communist Party. Also, knowing that many Western politicians and generals were Masons, they sought to leverage Masonic knowledge to infiltrate that leadership.
There’s no sense in me writing at length about the documentary. Click the image at top and watch the 51-minute film, posted to YouTube about a week ago.
My thanks to Bro. Don for alerting me to the film’s arrival on YouTube.
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