Faith Healing and the Third Reich

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That the Nazi movement was deeply interested in the occult is no big surprise to anyone nowadays. Yet fewer people are aware that the presence of healing fell on the Third Reich. That a death cult should embrace a life cult is strange enough, but one of the strangest stories of all faith healing is that of the relationship between Heinrich Himmler and his personal healer, Felix Kersten. Kersten was born in 1898 in Finland, but spent most of his early life in the Netherlands and came to regard himself as Dutch. He became adept at massage, and extended his powers after meeting a mysterious oriental occultist called Ko.

Through the tutelage of Ko, Kersten developed a method that allowed him to be able to diagnose ailments by means of that ancient technique, the laying on of hands. He could also, he discovered, transfer some of his own energy into the body of the recipient, in the manner of a spiritual healer. When he laid hands on the body of a patient he could feel his whole being flowing through the tips of his fingers into the patient. His ability to relieve pain began to be nothing short of miraculous, and even after the departure of Ko, his amazing powers remained.

His reputation began to grow, his practice prospered, and eventually he rose to such a pre-eminent position that he became the personal doctor of the Dutch royal family. This sudden rise to fame was not without its drawbacks, however. In 1938 he was asked to contact the head of the SS and high priest of the Nazi movement, Heinrich Himmler, with a view to assisting his stomach ailments.

Since Himmler's appointment as head of the SS, the stomach cramps from which he had periodically suffered from the beginning of the Nazi years had become so bad and unremitting that he was in a state of almost constant pain. The visits of doctors and the ministrations of orthodox medicine had done nothing to alleviate these pains, yet after a period of five minutes with Kersten, on his first timorous meeting with the head of the most feared organization in the world, the pains had gone. Himmler was suitably impressed, and Kersten was appointed as personal doctor.

Kersten then became so invaluable to Himmler that the head of the SS could barely countenance the idea of being apart from him. Himmler was probably aware that Kersten's sympathies lay with the Jews but was too dependent on him to care.

After his appointment Kersten used his influence subtly to attempt to dissuade Himmler from his maniacal barbarities against the Jews. His first success was with his own native land. Himmler, in July 1942, travelled to Finland to demand that the Finnish Jews be handed over to Germany and the political power of the Third Reich. In Finland Kersten made contact with the Finnish foreign minister and hit on a plan to stall the Nazi plans.

He persuaded Himmler that the Jewish question was far too important to be decided by anything less than parliament, which did not meet for another four months, in November. It was December before Himmler raised the issue again, only to be dissuaded again by Kersten. The Finnish Jews were saved.

This was only the first of many successes for Kersten. He also managed, among other things, to mastermind the release of concentration camp prisoners to Sweden. His only failure was his attempt to persuade Himmler to make peace with the Western Allies, after the attempted deposing of Hitler.