Title: Digging for Hitler: The Nazi Archaeologists Search for an Aryan Past
Author: David Barrowclough
Genre: non-fiction, archaeology, World War II, European history, archaeological ethics


I had to read this book for my Anthropology and Pop Culture class this semester during our unit on Nazi archaeology. Yes, the Nazi search for supernatural artifacts as portrayed in the Indiana Jones series of movies was inspired by real life. In this book, Barrowclough explains how the Nazi regime hired archaeologists and anthropologists to look for historical proof of a superior Germanic "race" as part of the Nazi propaganda machine. Nazi archaeologists were also hired by Himmler to "look for evidence of an alternative pagan religion to replace Christianity" (96). Cave paintings, geological formations, Scandinavian folk tales, Atlantis, and runes are some of the things that Nazis used to link early 20th century Germany to a mythological past.

This book had a lot of potential but, unfortunately, Barrowclough didn't flesh out certain chapters enough and others were a confusing mess, which was a shame since Barrowclough had plenty of time to research and flesh out this book while he was in jail for fraud. What really bothered me about the book was the multiple spelling errors I found throughout the book (and these weren't differences in British and American spelling of common words). Where was the editor?