Gold in the Furnace:
Experiences in Post-War Germany

Savitri Devi
Edited by R. G. Fowler
Atlanta: The Savitri Devi Archive, 2006
320 pages
paperback: $25

Gold in the Furnace is an ardent National Socialist’s vivid and moving account of life in occupied Germany in the aftermath of World War II, based on extensive travels and inter­views conducted in 1948 and 1949.

Savitri Devi is scathing in her description of Allied brutality and hypoc­risy: millions of German civilians died in Allied firebombing; millions more perished after the war, driven from their homes by Russians, Czechs, and Poles; more than a million prison­ers of war perished from planned starvation or outright murder in Allied concentration camps; untold thousands more disappeared into slave labor camps from the Congo to Siberia.

Savitri Devi describes in vivid detail how individual National Socialists were subjected to “de-Nazification” by Germany’s democ­ratic “liberators”: murder, torture, starvation, show-trials, imprisonment, and execution for the higher echelons; petty indignities and recan­tations extorted under the threat of impris­onment, hunger, and the denial of liveli­hood for ordinary party members. She also chroni­cles the systematic plunder of Germany by the Allies: the clear-cutting of ancient forests, the dismantling of factories, the theft of natu­ral resources.

In spite of the disaster, Savitri Devi did not view it as the end of National Socialism, but as a purification—a trial by fire separating the base metal from the gold—a prelude to a new begin­ning. Thus Savitri also devotes chapters to pre­senting the basic philosophy and the constructive political program of National Socialism.

Gold in the Furnace is a valuable histori­cal document: of the National Socialists who never lost faith, despite suffering, perse­cution and martyrdom—of the ordinary Germans who revered Hitler even after the war—of the widespread rumors of Hitler’s survival—of the hopes of imminent National Socialist revival, perhaps in the aftermath of a Third World War—of the expectations of Soviet victory in such a war—and of the philosophy, experiences, and unique personality of a remarkable woman.

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 Enemies Camp
9. The Elite of the World
10. Divine Vengeance
11. The Constructive Side
12. The Holy Forest
13. Echoes from the Russian Zone
14. Against Time
Index

ABOUT THE AUTHORESS

Savitri Devi (1905–1982) is one of the most original and influential National Socialist thinkers of the post-World War II era. Born Maximine Julia Portaz in Lyons, France, she was of English, Greek, and Italian ancestry and described her nationality as “Indo-European.” She earned Master’s degrees in philosophy and chemistry and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Lyons. Her books include A Warning to the Hindus (1939), L’Etang aux lotus (The Lotus Pond) (1940), A Son of God: The Life and Philosophy of Akhnaton, King of Egypt (1946), later republished as Son of the Sun (1956), Akhnaton: A Play (1948), Gold in the Furnace (1952), The Lightning and the Sun (1958), Pilgrimage (1958), Impeachment of Man (1959), Long-Whiskers and the Two-Legged Goddess (1965), Souvenirs et réflexions d’une Aryenne (Memories and Reflections of an Aryan Woman) (1976), and And Time Rolls On: The Savitri Devi Interviews (2005).