Julia’s Journey
Julia’s Journey
The Steam Ship, “Mary Magdalene” left the Polish port of Gdansk on the 15 of November 1946. The situation in Poland after the end of the war was still one of total chaos, there had been an initial feeling of joy and hope but quite soon it became clear that the Red army had no intention of leaving Poland to its own devices. The freedom of the Polish people was no longer seen as something important by the great nations of the World War winning alliance of 1945, USA, GB and USSR.
The few remaining Polish Jews that hadn’t been successfully dissolved by “Aktion Reinhard” were considered by the Poles to be closely allied with the Russian Communists and consequently despised and persecuted. During the first part of World War II the Swedish authorities had prohibited immigration of Jews to Sweden. In fact it was due to the request of the Swedes that a large red letter “J” was stamped clearly into the passport of Jews. When the full truth of the Nazis crimes became clear for the entire world to see, the Swedish authorities welcomed the survivors of the Holocaust with open arms and white buses. There had been some opening for Jews after 1943, but before that, the authorities of both nations were not really on opposite sides of tables.
The Steam Ship, “Mary Magdalene” was on its way to the modern Swedish socialist utopia, built a little bit on the ruins of other people’s history, but mostly built on the hard working backs of the Swedish people. On the passenger list of “The Mary Magdalene”, leaving the wastelands of Poland was a mother and her ten-month-old daughter well wrapped in the Red Cross blankets, Julia Vargen and Saga Vargen. One of the ironies of their travel documents was not only that they were forged and fabricated in Krakow, but also that the documents claimed that both mother and daughter to be Jewish, which was in fact not the case for either.
Otto Rahn (1904-1938), described as a gifted young author and historian, was one of this century's truly fascinating figures. Prior to his mysterious death, at age 35, he wrote two books about the Cathars of southern France: Kreuzzug gegen den Gral ("Crusade Against the Grail") and Luzifers Hofgesinf ("Lucifer's Court"). Legends continue to surround both his life and tragic death.
Because Sweden had remained so undeniably and clearly neutral during the war the Swedish society and infrastructure had remained in good shape and intact. In fact the railway from Kiruna (in neutral Sweden) to Narvik (in occupied Norway) had been considered by the Germans as one of the most strategically import transport routes throughout the entire empire of the Third Reich.
The Cathars, who guarded the Holy Grail in their castle at Montsegur, Otto Rahn believed, could be traced back to Druids who converted to Manichaeism. The Druids in Britain were forerunners of the Celtic Christian Church. He saw in the culture of the medieval Cathar stronghold of Languedoc strong resemblances to the Druids. Their apparent yearning and longing songs only seldom dedicated to a special woman, their feminine symbolism referred to the Cathar community, the Sophia, the Wisdom of the Gnostics.
Julia Vargen had been born in the city called Worms in Germany. Her father Richard Paul Vargen had been the history teacher at a catholic school and had married Maria Lucia Julia Garcia, the Spanish and German teacher at the same school. Julia had grown up in Krakow after her parents had moved there to teach at the Academy in 1909, that was four years after her birth in 1905. Julia had left Krakow to go to Berlin in 1926. She left for Berlin to study History of Language and Archeology at the Berlin University. During her studies in Berlin she had done some work on a small research program for Otto Rahn. At that time Otto Rahn was not a leading name in archeology.
After Julia had completed her studies she was briefly employed by Otto Rahn as a translator and expert on proto Indo-European cultures of Northern Europe. At the age of 31she accompanied Otto Rahn on his expedition to Iceland in 1936. The expedition was backed by the Ahnenerbe Forschungs und Lehrgemeinschaft, (Ancestral Heritage Research and Training Foundation) one of, if not the, most influential of all the Academic Nazi groups outside the Military Academic groups. Julia was extremely bright and considered a truly gifted linguist; she came highly recommended academically, despite her age or gender.
The Ahnenerbe (as it was known) had been financed by some of the National Socialist Party’ richest industrial backers, and the Ahnenerbe’s work was closely followed and strongly supported by SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler himself. The aim of the Ahnenerbe was to create a new Germanic myth that was to grow into a world religion of Germanic domination. Otto Rahn joined the Ahnenerbe in 1935. The Germanic Aryan super-race was to be proven to be the original driving force behind all culture, the Neolithic people from Germany were to become the mythical Atlantians that gave the world culture. The rest of the barbaric races that filled the world would be civilized according to this mythology of the Germanic supermen or be burnt to ashes and scattered on the winds. Himmler felt himself to be personally responsible for the spiritual well being of the German “Volk” (people). During the 1930’s Himmler packed off many German archeological expeditions to the ancient centers of civilization to find the objects of power that when returned to their rightful owners the Germans would once again bring glory to the world. In his fortress-temple and spiritual center at Wewelsburg Castle, Himmler planned to create a center for Germanic culture that would be bigger than Mecca or Jerusalem in the timeless Thousand Year Reich.
Julia’s journey to Iceland had left her with an overwhelming feeling of doubt as to the real interests of her employers. On returning to Germany she resigned from Otto Rahn’s team of archeologists and returned home to disappear back into Poland and away from the “all seeing eye” of the Nazi party in Germany. After the expedition to Iceland Rahn wrote the book Luzifers Hofgesind (Lucifer’s courtiers), he then became a full member of the SS and served as SS-Unterscarführer at the concentration camp in Dachau. He died somewhat abruptly in March 1939 in circumstances that raised more than a few eyebrows. Rumors in the Ahnenerbe circle was that Rahn had found something in Iceland. But other events of the day got more attention than Otto Rahn’s somewhat questionable death. The rumors about the find in Iceland had begun with Himmler’s obsessive search of for what had been called the Holy Grail.
There had been about 68,482 Jews living in and around Krakow in November of 1939, it had once been one of the largest Jewish communities in Poland. Most of the Krakow Jews lived in the Jewish district of Kazimierz, but many Jewish families had lived and had their own businesses throughout the entire city. From November 1939, all Jews aged 12 years or older were ordered to wear armbands, 53,828 armbands bearing the Golden (Yellow) Star of David were sold to the Jews of Krakow. The appointed members of the “Judenrat”, the Jewish ghetto police, were told to fulfill their Nazi lords orders with absolute obedience and accuracy or else die. One of the first SS orders was to remove all valuable and historical artifacts from Krakow's synagogues. Apart from the obvious desire for gold and silver, it is hard to imagine what the SS would want with documents written in Hebrew or other artifacts of a religion and faith they felt so deeply disgusted by.
When the Germans had invaded Poland they began organizing things there according to their own general plan of the world to come. Once Julia was found again at the university by her former employers the Nazi Party, they immediately employed her; She was employed as a civilian translator by the Ahnenerbe, a job offer you couldn’t refuse. By 1942 she was working on classified texts found in Krakow’s synagogues. Documents that turned out to be written in a odd mixture of Biblical Hebrew and Spanish, but a very archaic form of Spanish, that few people seemed to be able to translate. Julia’s rather specialized field of expertise made her the perfect choice for the job.
In 1943, Julia had found the document that was written in Spanish, on the back of a classified Hebrew document. The Hebrew document was translated by Dr. David Rosenstein, he did the Hebrew text into German, she did the other euro and indo-euro languages into German. Dr. David Rosenstein had worked as Head of Department at the same University as Julia had worked as Professor of Linguistics, before the German invasion. He was the Poland’s top language expert in the German and rather inclined toward the poetic aspects of the German language. He was not a practicing Jew in any way but could read and write biblical Hebrew, his natural interest and talent for languages made leaning languages for him a rather quick and easy process. His manner and clothing had always been modern German with a touch of true style. The rough Yellow star now sown onto his jacket did take some of the elegance away it.
Document Abh: ref SS 103783792/H-Krakow 1943.
The text is written in an archaic form of Spanish.
Key turns Lock
Lock touches Gate
Gate mirrors Garden.
All flows into endless eights.
Bound to be broken “tattooed” on my Mind.
“Tattooed”, in the original the word doesn’t really translate as “tattooed” but means to cut into, to scrape, to mark or to scrape. The verb would often be used as a description of cutting of symbols into rock, wood or skin.
This particular text was considered to be of vital importance to the staff of the Ahnenerbe and that went apparently all the way up to the very top. This was taken as some sign that somehow, they connected with Otto Rahn’s expedition to Iceland, which she, Julia Vargen, had been part of. She assured them that she had never seen this text before it had been removed from the synagogue in Krakow some time before they were burnt down, so early 1942 in Krakow’s case. It was written on original parchment and the Hebrew text, was proven without a doubt to have been produced in the early half of the 1500. That the Spanish text that was written on the scroll seemed “older” may have been due to some “user of an older version” of Spanish at that time during the early 15 hundreds. But the parchment and scroll was 15 hundreds no question, Dr. David Rosenstein knew this with total certainty.
Pagan warriors in the ancient Celtic and Germanic traditions would collect the heads of their enemy. They would mutilate the defeated warriors body that they had just killed in good honest battle by cutting off the head. The decapitated head (or heads) would then be kept as a trophy and due to the warriors minimalistic requirement for sanitation, the less than fresh head (or heads) would often be left to rot on some pole in close vicinity to the warriors home, for all the neighbors to see. The Celtic and Germanic warriors had this thing for fighting naked; it showed their true skin power. During the years of conflict with the Roman legions most of the Celts and Germans saw that running hot, naked and screaming at the enemy was indeed impressive but had little long-term effectiveness against the Roman legions. The well dressed and well trained Romans proved to have a major impact on the warrior fashion of northern Europe.
In autumn 1940, the next wave of “resettlement” occurred, more than 5,000 Krakow Jews were moved to the Lublin district in northern Poland. In Krakow on the 13 of March 1943, "Ghetto A" was exterminated; SS-Untersturmführer Amon Göth, the new commandant of Plaszow concentration camp, personally led the action. Prior to this, Amon Göth had worked in the headquarters of “Aktion Reinhard” as personal assistant in Globocnik's office (head of “Aktion Reinhard” in Lublin), until early 1943. Because of a personal conflict with Hermann Höfle and the accusations of corruption against Amon Göth, Globocnik transferred him to Krakow. How does one get accused of corruption by the offices of “Aktion Reinhard” how indeed? On the 14 of March 1943, the SS liquidated "Ghetto B". Many people were killed in courtyards or just in the streets. The last remaining Jews were deported in to the nearby death-camp just outside Wadowice, known as Auschwitz-Birkenau.
One of the lesser-known things about the removal of head-skin and its collection was that a warrior would mark his skin with exquisite symbols of power. This would ensure that the warriors’ skin would be carefully preserved and be kept in mint condition, and by this piece of magic the warrior would live forever as a warrior, waiting to return for the final battle of Ragnarök. The collections of skinned heads that were assembled at the Great of Halls of Viking world were considered to be the true wealth of the warrior society, a society that came to dominate the rest of Europe for a while, a thousand years ago. What was known was many of the great halls had sent their skinned heads to Iceland, during the wars with the Teutonic Knights.
Julia had worked with Dr. David Rosenstein at the Krakow University Linguistic department since 1937, when she had returned to her home in Krakow after the years she spent in Berlin and out in the field on various expeditions, including the two with Otto Rahn to France and Iceland. They had fallen in love with each other after some time; both were fairly reserved and used to being in the company of other single academics, where one doesn’t ruin ones reputation for stepping out with members of staff, especially superior members. They enjoyed each other’s company and would often be found in debate with each other about some point of translation contra poetic intention. It was more often a good excuse to talk to each other for as long as possible. The other staff thought they were both a bit stiff. It could have been nice to take a beer with them on a Friday, in the beer hall at the University, but Julia never went to the beer hall, as she found it intimidating. She had picked up German habits of Berlins academics within a certain circle of behavior and patterns.
The markings on, or rather in, the skin were made by a kind of “tattoo technique” that involved cutting patterns into the flesh and then rubbing in red ochre into the wound, when finally the cuts had healed the technique would leave a unique engraving on the skin of the warrior. Red ochre was considered very potent medicinally; it was even used as a cure for death, that’s why they painted it on dead bodies and bones. After his initiation into the warrior class, the successful warrior would gain the means to get a lot of body art done, which gave him both status and protection. The warrior became an object of great value in the northern hinterlands; he was worth fighting for and worth dying for. The skin artists of the day were kept busy by the Warrior class’s desire for more.
Otto Rahn fell into disgrace with the Nazi hierarchy in 1937 and for disciplinary reasons was assigned a tour of duty at the SS run Dachau concentration camp. In the winter of 1938/39 he wrote to the SS Reichsfuhrer requesting immediate dismissal from the SS. Rumors abound concerning Otto Rahn's departure from the Nazi SS. Some claim that he was a homosexual or of Jewish descent, but evidence is lacking. A few months later he was dead.
Just before Dr. David Rosenstein was shot by Hermann Höfle, in one of the last of Höfle’s own last personal actions to clear any trail of “Aktion Reinhard” or any other activity back to him. Rosenstein had been told by his “secret lover” Julia Vargen that she was pregnant with his child. He knew that the only chance for either of them to live was if they left Poland and went to the West. He knew a man that was said to be able to paint a postage stamp onto an envelope so well, with a brush and paint, that the German postal services couldn’t see the difference. Through his contacts he knew where this man could be found and true to his word was able to create the correct document for travel. Luckily enough David had given Julia the information as to where to contact this secretive man. By the time Julia could leave the only safe ticket out of Poland was being in fact being Jewish, the Swedish white buses were the only transport that could be trusted. This meant she needed to change her new documents after David had been murdered. She found the man and he quickly changed all her papers to show she was a Jew and her child was a Jew. Once in Sweden they were free.
By the time Captain Fernando Iñiguez and his pilot Anton de Alaminos turned up with the Córdoba expedition in 1517, the Aztecs had, more or less, taken over the rule of the entire region. Ironically the mighty and savage Aztec nation that had overrun Central America were waiting for the return of their great god, Quetzalcoatl. Aztec legend had it that Quetzalcoatl, would return with the New Sun from the East, not in his normal “Feather-winged Serpent” look, but this time white-skinned and bearded. Conquistador Hernanado Cortez (1485–1547) and his Christian task force (five hundred and fifty Spaniards, nearly three hundred Indians, a few Negroes, thirteen horses and ten brass cannon, in ten ships), landed on the shore of Tabasco, on the 4th of March 1519, in order to conquer the heart and soul of this New World. These European immigrants looked very much like the “White God with a beard ” and were happy to play the part of mythical returning god. Initially they were seen as Gods but the Spanish decided to spread their own “good news” as well as the pox and some other rather unpleasant STD’s (sexually transmitted diseases). A few of the European “travelers” returned from the New World. The came back to Spain and Portugal but some of them left the civilized world of Western Europe to disappear forever in dark Eastern Europe. Jews that had converted to Christianity t get jobs and survive were never trusted by the Spanish or Portuguese, sometimes it was better to disappear. Maybe it was one of these invisible men that had written that Spanish text on the back of a scroll, maybe it was of some importance. Documents of the Ahnenerbe: ref SS 103783792/H-Krakow 1943, filed way in an archive.
Julia finally retired from her position as professor of linguistics at the Swedish Academy in 1976 to write a little book about some journey she had made in 1936 to Iceland and some strange story about tattooed heads and Central American culture.
The End
The Steam Ship, “Mary Magdalene” left the Polish port of Gdansk on the 15 of November 1946. The situation in Poland after the end of the war was still one of total chaos, there had been an initial feeling of joy and hope but quite soon it became clear that the Red army had no intention of leaving Poland to its own devices. The freedom of the Polish people was no longer seen as something important by the great nations of the World War winning alliance of 1945, USA, GB and USSR.
The few remaining Polish Jews that hadn’t been successfully dissolved by “Aktion Reinhard” were considered by the Poles to be closely allied with the Russian Communists and consequently despised and persecuted. During the first part of World War II the Swedish authorities had prohibited immigration of Jews to Sweden. In fact it was due to the request of the Swedes that a large red letter “J” was stamped clearly into the passport of Jews. When the full truth of the Nazis crimes became clear for the entire world to see, the Swedish authorities welcomed the survivors of the Holocaust with open arms and white buses. There had been some opening for Jews after 1943, but before that, the authorities of both nations were not really on opposite sides of tables.
The Steam Ship, “Mary Magdalene” was on its way to the modern Swedish socialist utopia, built a little bit on the ruins of other people’s history, but mostly built on the hard working backs of the Swedish people. On the passenger list of “The Mary Magdalene”, leaving the wastelands of Poland was a mother and her ten-month-old daughter well wrapped in the Red Cross blankets, Julia Vargen and Saga Vargen. One of the ironies of their travel documents was not only that they were forged and fabricated in Krakow, but also that the documents claimed that both mother and daughter to be Jewish, which was in fact not the case for either.
Otto Rahn (1904-1938), described as a gifted young author and historian, was one of this century's truly fascinating figures. Prior to his mysterious death, at age 35, he wrote two books about the Cathars of southern France: Kreuzzug gegen den Gral ("Crusade Against the Grail") and Luzifers Hofgesinf ("Lucifer's Court"). Legends continue to surround both his life and tragic death.
Because Sweden had remained so undeniably and clearly neutral during the war the Swedish society and infrastructure had remained in good shape and intact. In fact the railway from Kiruna (in neutral Sweden) to Narvik (in occupied Norway) had been considered by the Germans as one of the most strategically import transport routes throughout the entire empire of the Third Reich.
The Cathars, who guarded the Holy Grail in their castle at Montsegur, Otto Rahn believed, could be traced back to Druids who converted to Manichaeism. The Druids in Britain were forerunners of the Celtic Christian Church. He saw in the culture of the medieval Cathar stronghold of Languedoc strong resemblances to the Druids. Their apparent yearning and longing songs only seldom dedicated to a special woman, their feminine symbolism referred to the Cathar community, the Sophia, the Wisdom of the Gnostics.
Julia Vargen had been born in the city called Worms in Germany. Her father Richard Paul Vargen had been the history teacher at a catholic school and had married Maria Lucia Julia Garcia, the Spanish and German teacher at the same school. Julia had grown up in Krakow after her parents had moved there to teach at the Academy in 1909, that was four years after her birth in 1905. Julia had left Krakow to go to Berlin in 1926. She left for Berlin to study History of Language and Archeology at the Berlin University. During her studies in Berlin she had done some work on a small research program for Otto Rahn. At that time Otto Rahn was not a leading name in archeology.
After Julia had completed her studies she was briefly employed by Otto Rahn as a translator and expert on proto Indo-European cultures of Northern Europe. At the age of 31she accompanied Otto Rahn on his expedition to Iceland in 1936. The expedition was backed by the Ahnenerbe Forschungs und Lehrgemeinschaft, (Ancestral Heritage Research and Training Foundation) one of, if not the, most influential of all the Academic Nazi groups outside the Military Academic groups. Julia was extremely bright and considered a truly gifted linguist; she came highly recommended academically, despite her age or gender.
The Ahnenerbe (as it was known) had been financed by some of the National Socialist Party’ richest industrial backers, and the Ahnenerbe’s work was closely followed and strongly supported by SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler himself. The aim of the Ahnenerbe was to create a new Germanic myth that was to grow into a world religion of Germanic domination. Otto Rahn joined the Ahnenerbe in 1935. The Germanic Aryan super-race was to be proven to be the original driving force behind all culture, the Neolithic people from Germany were to become the mythical Atlantians that gave the world culture. The rest of the barbaric races that filled the world would be civilized according to this mythology of the Germanic supermen or be burnt to ashes and scattered on the winds. Himmler felt himself to be personally responsible for the spiritual well being of the German “Volk” (people). During the 1930’s Himmler packed off many German archeological expeditions to the ancient centers of civilization to find the objects of power that when returned to their rightful owners the Germans would once again bring glory to the world. In his fortress-temple and spiritual center at Wewelsburg Castle, Himmler planned to create a center for Germanic culture that would be bigger than Mecca or Jerusalem in the timeless Thousand Year Reich.
Julia’s journey to Iceland had left her with an overwhelming feeling of doubt as to the real interests of her employers. On returning to Germany she resigned from Otto Rahn’s team of archeologists and returned home to disappear back into Poland and away from the “all seeing eye” of the Nazi party in Germany. After the expedition to Iceland Rahn wrote the book Luzifers Hofgesind (Lucifer’s courtiers), he then became a full member of the SS and served as SS-Unterscarführer at the concentration camp in Dachau. He died somewhat abruptly in March 1939 in circumstances that raised more than a few eyebrows. Rumors in the Ahnenerbe circle was that Rahn had found something in Iceland. But other events of the day got more attention than Otto Rahn’s somewhat questionable death. The rumors about the find in Iceland had begun with Himmler’s obsessive search of for what had been called the Holy Grail.
There had been about 68,482 Jews living in and around Krakow in November of 1939, it had once been one of the largest Jewish communities in Poland. Most of the Krakow Jews lived in the Jewish district of Kazimierz, but many Jewish families had lived and had their own businesses throughout the entire city. From November 1939, all Jews aged 12 years or older were ordered to wear armbands, 53,828 armbands bearing the Golden (Yellow) Star of David were sold to the Jews of Krakow. The appointed members of the “Judenrat”, the Jewish ghetto police, were told to fulfill their Nazi lords orders with absolute obedience and accuracy or else die. One of the first SS orders was to remove all valuable and historical artifacts from Krakow's synagogues. Apart from the obvious desire for gold and silver, it is hard to imagine what the SS would want with documents written in Hebrew or other artifacts of a religion and faith they felt so deeply disgusted by.
When the Germans had invaded Poland they began organizing things there according to their own general plan of the world to come. Once Julia was found again at the university by her former employers the Nazi Party, they immediately employed her; She was employed as a civilian translator by the Ahnenerbe, a job offer you couldn’t refuse. By 1942 she was working on classified texts found in Krakow’s synagogues. Documents that turned out to be written in a odd mixture of Biblical Hebrew and Spanish, but a very archaic form of Spanish, that few people seemed to be able to translate. Julia’s rather specialized field of expertise made her the perfect choice for the job.
In 1943, Julia had found the document that was written in Spanish, on the back of a classified Hebrew document. The Hebrew document was translated by Dr. David Rosenstein, he did the Hebrew text into German, she did the other euro and indo-euro languages into German. Dr. David Rosenstein had worked as Head of Department at the same University as Julia had worked as Professor of Linguistics, before the German invasion. He was the Poland’s top language expert in the German and rather inclined toward the poetic aspects of the German language. He was not a practicing Jew in any way but could read and write biblical Hebrew, his natural interest and talent for languages made leaning languages for him a rather quick and easy process. His manner and clothing had always been modern German with a touch of true style. The rough Yellow star now sown onto his jacket did take some of the elegance away it.
Document Abh: ref SS 103783792/H-Krakow 1943.
The text is written in an archaic form of Spanish.
Key turns Lock
Lock touches Gate
Gate mirrors Garden.
All flows into endless eights.
Bound to be broken “tattooed” on my Mind.
“Tattooed”, in the original the word doesn’t really translate as “tattooed” but means to cut into, to scrape, to mark or to scrape. The verb would often be used as a description of cutting of symbols into rock, wood or skin.
This particular text was considered to be of vital importance to the staff of the Ahnenerbe and that went apparently all the way up to the very top. This was taken as some sign that somehow, they connected with Otto Rahn’s expedition to Iceland, which she, Julia Vargen, had been part of. She assured them that she had never seen this text before it had been removed from the synagogue in Krakow some time before they were burnt down, so early 1942 in Krakow’s case. It was written on original parchment and the Hebrew text, was proven without a doubt to have been produced in the early half of the 1500. That the Spanish text that was written on the scroll seemed “older” may have been due to some “user of an older version” of Spanish at that time during the early 15 hundreds. But the parchment and scroll was 15 hundreds no question, Dr. David Rosenstein knew this with total certainty.
Pagan warriors in the ancient Celtic and Germanic traditions would collect the heads of their enemy. They would mutilate the defeated warriors body that they had just killed in good honest battle by cutting off the head. The decapitated head (or heads) would then be kept as a trophy and due to the warriors minimalistic requirement for sanitation, the less than fresh head (or heads) would often be left to rot on some pole in close vicinity to the warriors home, for all the neighbors to see. The Celtic and Germanic warriors had this thing for fighting naked; it showed their true skin power. During the years of conflict with the Roman legions most of the Celts and Germans saw that running hot, naked and screaming at the enemy was indeed impressive but had little long-term effectiveness against the Roman legions. The well dressed and well trained Romans proved to have a major impact on the warrior fashion of northern Europe.
In autumn 1940, the next wave of “resettlement” occurred, more than 5,000 Krakow Jews were moved to the Lublin district in northern Poland. In Krakow on the 13 of March 1943, "Ghetto A" was exterminated; SS-Untersturmführer Amon Göth, the new commandant of Plaszow concentration camp, personally led the action. Prior to this, Amon Göth had worked in the headquarters of “Aktion Reinhard” as personal assistant in Globocnik's office (head of “Aktion Reinhard” in Lublin), until early 1943. Because of a personal conflict with Hermann Höfle and the accusations of corruption against Amon Göth, Globocnik transferred him to Krakow. How does one get accused of corruption by the offices of “Aktion Reinhard” how indeed? On the 14 of March 1943, the SS liquidated "Ghetto B". Many people were killed in courtyards or just in the streets. The last remaining Jews were deported in to the nearby death-camp just outside Wadowice, known as Auschwitz-Birkenau.
One of the lesser-known things about the removal of head-skin and its collection was that a warrior would mark his skin with exquisite symbols of power. This would ensure that the warriors’ skin would be carefully preserved and be kept in mint condition, and by this piece of magic the warrior would live forever as a warrior, waiting to return for the final battle of Ragnarök. The collections of skinned heads that were assembled at the Great of Halls of Viking world were considered to be the true wealth of the warrior society, a society that came to dominate the rest of Europe for a while, a thousand years ago. What was known was many of the great halls had sent their skinned heads to Iceland, during the wars with the Teutonic Knights.
Julia had worked with Dr. David Rosenstein at the Krakow University Linguistic department since 1937, when she had returned to her home in Krakow after the years she spent in Berlin and out in the field on various expeditions, including the two with Otto Rahn to France and Iceland. They had fallen in love with each other after some time; both were fairly reserved and used to being in the company of other single academics, where one doesn’t ruin ones reputation for stepping out with members of staff, especially superior members. They enjoyed each other’s company and would often be found in debate with each other about some point of translation contra poetic intention. It was more often a good excuse to talk to each other for as long as possible. The other staff thought they were both a bit stiff. It could have been nice to take a beer with them on a Friday, in the beer hall at the University, but Julia never went to the beer hall, as she found it intimidating. She had picked up German habits of Berlins academics within a certain circle of behavior and patterns.
The markings on, or rather in, the skin were made by a kind of “tattoo technique” that involved cutting patterns into the flesh and then rubbing in red ochre into the wound, when finally the cuts had healed the technique would leave a unique engraving on the skin of the warrior. Red ochre was considered very potent medicinally; it was even used as a cure for death, that’s why they painted it on dead bodies and bones. After his initiation into the warrior class, the successful warrior would gain the means to get a lot of body art done, which gave him both status and protection. The warrior became an object of great value in the northern hinterlands; he was worth fighting for and worth dying for. The skin artists of the day were kept busy by the Warrior class’s desire for more.
Otto Rahn fell into disgrace with the Nazi hierarchy in 1937 and for disciplinary reasons was assigned a tour of duty at the SS run Dachau concentration camp. In the winter of 1938/39 he wrote to the SS Reichsfuhrer requesting immediate dismissal from the SS. Rumors abound concerning Otto Rahn's departure from the Nazi SS. Some claim that he was a homosexual or of Jewish descent, but evidence is lacking. A few months later he was dead.
Just before Dr. David Rosenstein was shot by Hermann Höfle, in one of the last of Höfle’s own last personal actions to clear any trail of “Aktion Reinhard” or any other activity back to him. Rosenstein had been told by his “secret lover” Julia Vargen that she was pregnant with his child. He knew that the only chance for either of them to live was if they left Poland and went to the West. He knew a man that was said to be able to paint a postage stamp onto an envelope so well, with a brush and paint, that the German postal services couldn’t see the difference. Through his contacts he knew where this man could be found and true to his word was able to create the correct document for travel. Luckily enough David had given Julia the information as to where to contact this secretive man. By the time Julia could leave the only safe ticket out of Poland was being in fact being Jewish, the Swedish white buses were the only transport that could be trusted. This meant she needed to change her new documents after David had been murdered. She found the man and he quickly changed all her papers to show she was a Jew and her child was a Jew. Once in Sweden they were free.
By the time Captain Fernando Iñiguez and his pilot Anton de Alaminos turned up with the Córdoba expedition in 1517, the Aztecs had, more or less, taken over the rule of the entire region. Ironically the mighty and savage Aztec nation that had overrun Central America were waiting for the return of their great god, Quetzalcoatl. Aztec legend had it that Quetzalcoatl, would return with the New Sun from the East, not in his normal “Feather-winged Serpent” look, but this time white-skinned and bearded. Conquistador Hernanado Cortez (1485–1547) and his Christian task force (five hundred and fifty Spaniards, nearly three hundred Indians, a few Negroes, thirteen horses and ten brass cannon, in ten ships), landed on the shore of Tabasco, on the 4th of March 1519, in order to conquer the heart and soul of this New World. These European immigrants looked very much like the “White God with a beard ” and were happy to play the part of mythical returning god. Initially they were seen as Gods but the Spanish decided to spread their own “good news” as well as the pox and some other rather unpleasant STD’s (sexually transmitted diseases). A few of the European “travelers” returned from the New World. The came back to Spain and Portugal but some of them left the civilized world of Western Europe to disappear forever in dark Eastern Europe. Jews that had converted to Christianity t get jobs and survive were never trusted by the Spanish or Portuguese, sometimes it was better to disappear. Maybe it was one of these invisible men that had written that Spanish text on the back of a scroll, maybe it was of some importance. Documents of the Ahnenerbe: ref SS 103783792/H-Krakow 1943, filed way in an archive.
Julia finally retired from her position as professor of linguistics at the Swedish Academy in 1976 to write a little book about some journey she had made in 1936 to Iceland and some strange story about tattooed heads and Central American culture.
The End
posted by rob at 12:04 PM
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