Gold in the Furnace Read online

  The Savitri Devi Archive

  The Centennial Edition of Savitri Devi’s Works

  R. G. Fowler, General Editor

  Each volume will be released in a limited cloth edition of 200 numbered copies.

  Volume One:

  AND TIME ROLLS ON

  THE SAVITRI DEVI INTERVIEWS

  Volume Two:

  GOLD IN THE FURNACE

  EXPERIENCES IN POST-WAR GERMANY

  Volume Three:

  FOREVER AND EVER

  Volume Four:

  DEFIANCE

  THE PRISON MEMOIRS OF SAVITRI DEVI

  Volume Five:

  THE LIGHTNING AND THE SUN

  (complete and unabridged)

  Volume Six:

  PILGRIMAGE

  Future Volumes:

  MEMORIES AND REFLECTIONS OF AN ARYAN WOMAN

  THE LOTUS POND

  IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA

  LONG-WHISKERS AND THE TWO-LEGGED GODDESS

  OR, THE TRUE STORY OF A “MOST OBJECTIONABLE NAZI” AND . . .

  HALF-A-DOZEN CATS

  IMPEACHMENT OF MAN

  A SON OF GOD

  THE LIFE AND PHILOSOPHY OF AKHNATON, KING OF EGYPT

  (complete and unabridged)

  AKHNATON’S ETERNAL MESSAGE

  (and other writings on Akhnaton)

  A WARNING TO THE HINDUS

  (and THE NON-HINDU INDIANS AND INDIAN UNITY)

  NOT FOR NOTHING: LETTERS OF SAVITRI DEVI, VOLUME 1

  SAINT SAVITRI: LETTERS OF SAVITRI DEVI, VOLUME 2

  SAVITRI DEVI

  GOLD IN THE FURNACE

  EXPERIENCES IN POST-WAR GERMANY

  EDITED BY R. G. FOWLER

  A Savitri Devi Archive Book

  Counter-Currents Publishing Ltd.

  San Francisco

  Savitri Devi

  (née Maximine Portaz, a.k.a. Maximiani Portas)

  1905-1982

  Gold in the Furnace: Experiences in Post-War Germany

  Edited with Preface by R. G. Fowler

  Copyright © 2006

  The Savitri Devi Archive

  No animal products were used in the creation of this book.

  Dust jacket/cover by R.G. Fowler and Gabriella Anelauskaitė.

  Manufactured in the United States of America.

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-940933-01-6

  Third Edition

  First Edition: Gold in the Furnace. Calcutta: A.K. Mukherji, 1952.

  German Translation: Gold im Schmelztiegel: Erlebnisse im Nachkriegsdeutsch-land. Eine Huldigung an Deutschland. Trans. Lotte Asmus. Padua: Edizioni di Ar/Mohrkirch: Nordwind Verlag, 1982.

  Spanish Translation: Oro en el Crisol: Vivencia en la postguerra Alemania. Un homenage de Alemania. Trans. Ramiro R.B. (from the German translation by Lotte Asmus). Spain: Diffussion Eneese, 1995, rev. ed. 2001.

  Second Edition: Gold in the Furnace: Experiences in Post-War Germany. Ed. R.G. Fowler. Uckfield, Sussex, England: Historical Review Press, 2005.

  Dedicated

  to the Martyrs of Nuremberg.

  The Werl prison,

  in which so many Germans were—and still are, to this day—detained for having done their duty faithfully and thoroughly, as one should.

  “Muß eine militärische Niederlage zu einem so restlosen Niederbruch einer Nation und eines Staates führen? Seit wann ist dies das Ergebnis eines unglücklichen Krieges? Gehen denn überhaupt Völker an verlorenen Kriegen an und für sich zugrunde?

  “Die Antwort darauf kann sehr kurz sein: Immer dann, wenn Völker in ihrer militärischen Niederlage die Quittung für ihre innere Fäulnis, Feigheit, Charakterlosigkeit, kurz Unwürdigkeit erhalten. Ist es nicht so, dann wird die militärische Niederlage eher zum Antrieb eines kommenden größeren Aufstiegs als zum Leichenstein eines Völker-daseins.

  “Die Geschichte bietet unendlich viele Beispiele für die Richtigkeit dieser Behauptung.”

  —Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf 1

  Savitri’s military permit to enter French-occupied Germany, issued 31 August 1948.

  CONTENTS

  EDITOR’S PREFACE

  FOREWORD

  INTRODUCTION

  1. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SWASTIKA

  2. BRIEF DAYS OF GLORY

  3. NOW, THE TRIAL

  4. THE UNFORGETTABLE NIGHT

  5. DE-NAZIFICATION

  6. CHAMBERS OF HELL

  7. PLUNDER, LIES, AND SHALLOWNESS

  8. A PEEP INTO THE ENEMY’S CAMP

  9. THE ÉLITE OF THE WORLD

  10. DIVINE VENGEANCE

  11. THE CONSTRUCTIVE SIDE

  12. THE HOLY FOREST

  13. ECHOES FROM THE RUSSIAN ZONE

  14. AGAINST TIME

  ABOUT THE AUTHORESS

  Savitri’s permit to pass through British-occupied Germany, on 15 June 1948. (See Chapter 4.)

  EDITOR’S PREFACE

  Savitri Devi (1905-1982) was an ardent National Socialist. She regarded Hitler’s Germany as a Holy Land for all Aryans. But Savitri never saw National Socialist Germany in its days of glory.2 She saw it only in ruins. Gold in the Furnace is the record of her experiences.

  My purpose in this Preface is not to provide a summary, analysis, or critique of Gold, but to tell the story of its creation based primarily on Defiance, Savitri’s gripping and powerful account of her arrest, trial, and imprisonment in 1949 for distributing National Socialist propaganda in occupied Germany. Defiance is something of a companion volume to Gold since it tells the story of its creation.3

  Savitri first entered Germany on the night of 15-16 June 1948. She was working as a dresser in the dance company of Ram Gopal.4 The company was returning to London after a Scandinavian tour on the Nord Express, which entered Germany from Denmark at Flensburg, passed through Hamburg, Düsseldorf, and Cologne, and crossed the Belgian frontier near Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). In solidarity with the German people, many of whom were starving, Savitri neither ate nor drank. Nor did she sleep. She spent the night throwing packets of food and cigarettes and hand-lettered National Socialist leaflets from the windows of the train. She describes her experiences in Chapter 4 of Gold, “The Unforgettable Night.”

  Savitri returned to Germany on 7 or 11 September 19485 with eleven thousand posters and leaflets printed for her in London by Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk, a pro-German poet, printer, and pretender to the throne of Poland whom Savitri had met in London in 1945 or 1946.6 In addition to stealthily distributing National Socialist propaganda, Savitri had three other goals: to contact die-hard National Socialists, to take part in any possible resistance activities, and to record her experiences in a book.

  Savitri probably began writing Gold in the Furnace shortly after her return to Germany. The Introduction to Gold is dated 3 October 1948 and was completed in Alfeld an der Leine, about 60 kilometres south of Hanover. Savitri remained in Germany until 6 December 1948, when she returned to London to spend the Christmas holidays with friends.7 We know that the first two chapters of Gold, “The Philosophy of the Swastika” and “Brief Days of Glory,” were completed before or during her holiday, as Savitri prepared a typescript of them while in London. She then wrote out the beginning of Chapter 3, “Now, the Trial,” by hand and appended it to the typescript.8

  Savitri returned to Germany sometime after Christmas of 1948 and resumed her activities. On 12 February 1949, she completed Chapter 3 of Gold in a café in Bonn.9 She began writing Chapter 4 in a café in Hanover the day before she departed for Cologne,10 where she was arrested on the night of 20-21 February 1949.11 The remaining chapters of Gold—the end of Chapter 4 and ten other chapters—were written in captivity, at great speed, in a blaze of inspiration: “I wrote feverishly every day. I felt inspired. And the days were long.”12


  Savitri was transferred to the Werl prison on 21 or 22 February 1949. Although her manuscripts had been confiscated by the police, she was given pen and paper upon her arrival so she could write letters.13 Fearing the manuscript of Gold lost, she promptly tried to rewrite the Introduction, Chapters 1-3, and the beginning of Chapter 4.14 By 14 March, when her manuscripts were returned to her, she had completed Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, “‘De-Nazification.’” By 5 April, the day of her trial, she had completed Chapter 6, “Chambers of Hell,” and had begun Chapter 7, “Plunder, Lies, and Shallowness.” Thus she wrote or re-wrote six chapters and part of a seventh in about six weeks—up to page 118 in this edition.15

  On 5 April 1949, Savitri was convicted of disseminating Nazi propaganda by a British military tribunal in Düsseldorf and sentenced to three years imprisonment. She was returned to Werl to serve out her sentence. A few days later she completed Chapter 7 and began work on Chapter 8, “A Peep into the Enemy’s Camp.”16 By 13 May, or soon thereafter, Savitri had completed Chapter 8, had gone on to write three other chapters (Chapter 9, “The Élite of the World,” Chapter 10, “Divine Vengance,” and Chapter 11, “The Constructive Side”—up to page 222 in this edition) and to begin work on a fourth (Chapter 12, “The Holy Forest”)—all in about five weeks.17 Savitri was still working on Chapter 12 when on 30 May her cell was searched and her manuscripts confiscated. On 17 June, however, her manuscripts were returned to her. Although she was expressly forbidden to continue writing Gold, she completed the book on the sly, finishing Chapter 12 and going on to write Chapter 13, “Echoes from the Russian Zone,” and Chapter 14, “Against Time.” She recorded that the final chapter was “Finished in cell no. 49 of the Werl prison, on the 16th of July, 1949.”18

  Savitri’s speed in writing Gold seems all the more remarkable in light of the fact that she was writing her magnum opus, The Lightning and the Sun, at the same time. She wrote the first chapter of Lightning on 9 April 1948 in Edinburgh while on tour with Ram Gopal.19 She recorded that Chapter 3 of Lightning was completed in the railway station of Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg on 6 December 1948, the day she left Germany to spend the Christmas holidays in London.20 Savitri mentions that on 8 April 1949 she decided to return to working on Chapter 4 of Lightning.21 By the time her cell was searched and her manuscripts were seized on 30 May, Savitri had started writing Chapter 5 of Lightning. Although Savitri was forbidden to work on Gold after her manuscripts were returned to her on 17 June, that very day she was given a writing pad, pen, and ink to continue writing about Genghis Khan in Lightning; on 22 June she was given a copy book.22 Amazingly, none of the British authorities who examined the early chapters of Lightning thought it sufficiently National Socialist in orientation or political in implication to consider the book dangerous.23 After Savitri completed Gold on 16 July, she continued to work on Chapter 5 of Lightning until her release from prison on 18 August. At the end of Chapter 5, she records that it was “Written in Werl (Westphalia) in July and August, 1949.”24

  The manuscript of Gold, along with the manuscripts of Lightning and Impeachment of Man, narrowly escaped destruction after being confiscated during the aforementioned search of Savitri’s cell on 30 May 1949. Although the authorities may have heard rumours that Savitri was continuing to write Gold, it is not among the stated reasons for the search. Instead, her cell was searched because Savitri had received forbidden visits from female prisoners convicted of war crimes; furthermore, as the holder of a British passport, Savitri was entitled to better food than the German prisoners, and she had shared her rations with the war criminals; moreover, once Savitri was locked up for National Socialist propaganda, she simply continued her efforts among the prisoners, talking to them and sharing the texts of her leaflets; Savitri also wore Indian earrings adorned with the swastika and showed them to fellow prisoners; she even kept a picture of Hitler in her cell.

  On 3 June, Savitri had an interview with the Governor of Werl, Colonel Edward Vickers, who complained of three things: that she had a picture of Hitler in her cell, that she had a copy of Das neue Soldaten-Liederbuch (The New Soldiers’ Songbook), vol. 3, the first song of which was “Wir fahren gegen Engelland” (“We are going [to War] against England”), and that she received visits from war criminals. It was Savitri who raised the topic of her manuscripts. Vickers told her they were in the hands of experts and that they would be destroyed if deemed subversive.25 Vickers repeated the threat on 10 June, when he told Savitri, to her lasting joy and pride, that she was “the most objectionable type of Nazi” he had ever met.26

  After three agonizing weeks of fear for her manuscripts, Savitri was stunned to learn on 17 June27 that all her seized property had been returned to her: her manuscripts, her National Socialist songbook, her personal copies of her propaganda leaflets, even her picture of Hitler.28 Savitri never learned the reasons behind this decision. Perhaps the British authorities simply could not have been bothered to read her manuscripts. Perhaps they followed the recommendation of the prison doctor who examined Savitri and found that her ordeal was taking a toll on her health.29 Whatever the proximate causes, Savitri believed she spied the hand of Providence at work behind them and gave thanks to the gods.

  Savitri also made the best of her dark night of the soul. It wrung from her some of her deepest reflections and most inspired prose, namely Chapter 12 of Defiance, “The Way of Absolute Detachment.” Here Savitri tries to reconcile herself to the possible destruction of her manuscripts and to justify going to any lengths to save them. To accomplish this, she appeals to the Bhagavad-Gita’s doctrine of “karma yoga,” which teaches that one who does the right thing, one’s duty—detaching himself from all concern with positive or negative consequences and leaving all such concerns to the gods who look after the welfare of the world—can rest in consciousness of complete moral rectitude.

  Aside from the temporary seizure of her manuscripts, Werl turned out to be an almost ideal place for Savitri to write. She had ample free time and few distractions. The women imprisoned for war crimes whom she met provided her with useful information. Above all, she enjoyed working and sleeping in peace and quiet, far removed from the maddening twenty-four hour din of Calcutta.30 Having been arrested and convicted for Nazi propaganda, Savitri was, of course, forbidden to write it in jail. But most of the German members of the prison staff took a liking to her and either tolerated or actively assisted her writing. Furthermore, Savitri was not forbidden to write entirely. She could, for instance, write letters. So even if she were observed writing by someone unsympathetic to her, that alone would not raise suspicion. The authorities would have had actually to read what she had written, and no one in the Werl administration seemed inclined to do so. Before her trial, Savitri was not required to work; after her conviction, she was. But a sympathetic German member of the prison staff gave her light duties so she would have time to continue writing.31

  The lack of paper was a significant inconvenience, but Savitri was resourceful:

  I saved to the utmost the little paper I had. I would write upon the envelopes of the rare letters I received, or even upon the letters themselves, between the lines, or on the packing paper from the parcels that a kind friend occasionally sent me from England, so as to make the half a dozen sheets I had left last as long as I could. I wrote at first very faintly, with a black pencil. Then, again, upon the same paper, over the pale writing with more stress, so that, this time, only the second writing would show. Then, I used over that second writing an indelible pencil which Colonel Vickers had given me “to write letters,” on the day following my arrival . . . . And whenever it was possible, I would write a fourth time over this third writing, with pen and ink. Each successive writing I copied, after correcting it, in the brown copy-book, with pen and ink.32

  The lack of paper became even more acute after the search. Savitri was forbidden to continue work on Gold, and although she was given paper to continue writing Lightning, she could not use it for writing Gold because
the pages had been counted, and she might have been asked to account for her use of each page. But again Savitri was resourceful:

  What I actually did was to write the rough text of my dangerous book . . . upon my wooden stool, with a piece of chalk that the searchers were kind enough to forget in a corner of my drawer; to correct it, wiping out with a damp cloth this sentence or that one, until I was satisfied with it; and then to copy it off with pen and ink, in tight writing, paragraph by paragraph, not upon my new writing pad nor in the copy-book . . . but at the back of the pages of the letters that I used to receive from Miss V [Veronica Vassar]. And that too, not in English, but in Bengali; and with many abbreviations and conventional signs of my own.33

  After each letter was filled, Savitri returned it to its envelope and asked to have it placed in storage until the day of her release. Once free, she needed only to translate the end of her book into English.

  Another inconvenience was lack of access to reference materials. Savitri mentions this in the text of Gold itself.34 Because of these limitations, Gold consists primarily of professions of faith and narratives of Savitri’s and others’ personal experiences, rather than rigorously documented philosophical and historical discussions of National Socialism, World War II, and the Allied occupation. Nevertheless, Gold does contain many quotations, and Chapters 7 and 11 in particular contain many footnotes. Thus it is tempting to conclude that these quotations and notes were added after Gold was completed, which belies Savitri’s assertions that the book was composed entirely in prison.