Although the Second World War came to a decisive and bloody conclusion way back in 1945, it was a six-year-long and carnage-filled event that still provokes major discussion and commentary to this very day. One of the many notable reasons for that same commentary relates to the secret, wartime actions of the Nazis in relation to: (a) priceless historical treasures plundered by Adolf Hitler’s hordes as a means to fund its war-effort, and (b) Nazi-Germany’s over-riding fascination with religious and priceless artifacts.

Just like the maniacal Hitler himself, a significant body of high-ranking Nazis, such as Richard Walther Darré, Rudolf Hess, Otto Rahn, and Heinrich Himmler had major, unsettling obsessions with matters of a supernatural and mystical nature. Rahn, for example, who made his mark in a wing of Nazi-Germany’s greatly feared SS, spent a significant period of time deeply engaged in a quest to find the so-called Holy Grail, which, according to Christian teachings, was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the legendary Last Supper.

That the Grail was said to possess awesome and devastating powers spurred the Nazis on even more in their attempts to locate it, and then utilize those same powers as weapons of war against the Allies. Thankfully, the plans of the Nazis did not come to fruition, and the Allies were not pummeled into the ground by the mighty fists of God.

Acknowledged by many historians with being the ultimate driving-force behind such research, Heinrich Himmler was, perhaps, the one high-ranking official in the Third Reich, more than any other, most obsessed with the occult. In 1935, Himmler became a key player in the establishment of the Ahnenerbe, which was basically the ancestral heritage division of the SS.

With its work largely coordinated according to the visions of one Dr. Hermann Wirth, the chief motivation of the Ahnenerbe was to conduct research into the realm of religious-themed archaeology; however, its work also spilled over into areas such as the occult – the latter, primarily from the perspective of determining if it was a tool that, like the Holy Grail, could be useful to further strengthen the Nazi war-machine.

Then there is Trevor Ravenscroft’s book The Spear of Destiny, which detailed a particularly odd fascination Adolf Hitler had with the fabled spear, or lance, that supposedly pierced the body of Jesus during the crucifixion. Ravenscroft’s book maintained that Hitler deliberately started the Second World War with the intention of trying to secure the spear – again as a weapon to be used against the Allies – and with which he was said to be overwhelmingly obsessed.

So the account went, however, Hitler utterly failed. Ravenscroft suggested as the conflict of 1939-1945 came to its end, the spear came into the hands of U.S. General George Patton. According to legend, losing the spear would result in nothing less than death – a prophecy that that was said to have been definitively fulfilled when Hitler, fortunately for the Allies, committed suicide.

But, perhaps not every ancient artifact remained quite so elusive to Hitler. One rumor suggests that an attempt on the part of the Nazis to locate the remains – or, at least, some of the remains – of nothing less than the legendary Ark of Noah was actually, and incredibly, successful. It’s a strange and secret story indeed.

The Bible states: “God said unto Noah…Make thee an ark of gopher wood…And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.” A cubit roughly equates to twenty inches – thus making the Ark five-hundred feet in length, eighty-three feet in width and fifty-feet in height.

In addition, it is said the Ark was powerful enough to withstand the cataclysmic flood that allegedly overtook the globe and lasted for forty terrible days and nights. So the legend has it, when the flood waters finally receded, the Ark came to rest on Mount Ararat.

Precisely why Hitler was apparently hot on the trail of the Ark is tantalizingly unclear; however, that he was certainly after it is not a matter of doubt. Intelligence files generated by Britain’s highly secret MI6 in 1948 state that, in the closing stages of the War, rumors were coming out of Turkey to the effect that German military personnel were then engaged in a secret program that involved flying a sophisticated spy-balloon – based upon radical, Japanese designs – over Mount Ararat, as part of an attempt to photograph the area.

And, if the operation proved successful in locating the Ark, to recover it, or whatever remains still might be left, given the lengthy passage of time and the harsh conditions that exist on the permanently snow-capped mountain.

The secrets of the ancient past may be only a locked vault away…