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The Hollow Earth Theory was nothing new, even in Hitler's time. It's as old as history, in fact, since basically every religion had the idea that there was an underworld inside the Earth. The theory took on "scientific" life in the 17th through 19th centuries, though. A number of learn'd gentlefolk, including Edmond Halley (the Halley's Comet guy), proposed the idea of an Earth made up of either concentric shells (of which we lived on the outermost) or absolutely nothing.

The originator of the modern Hollow Earth theory was an Army captain named John Cleves Symmes, Jr., who spent much of his life lecturing about his theory to people across America. It was basically the old-timey equivalent to a late night informercial. He also proposed that there were holes on the surface of the Earth that led down inside, which were located at the North and South Poles, and the Nazis' supposed secret base over the South Pole.

telegraph.co.uk

Santa is a Nazi.

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Symmes' proposal became a popular bit of pseudoscience, but it was never taken very seriously. It was mostly a spiritualist fringe thing until, for reasons that are beyond anyone with even a micron of sense, the theory was attached to the Nazis after World War II. No nuggets of truth this time. Just pure bullshit.

According to legend, Nazis discovered Symmes' hole in the planet at a secret location in Antarctica, then built their base there to protect it. They then retreated into the Earth itself when the war went sour, which means, in a James Bond-esque twist, that the secret base that supposedly got nuked may have just been a decoy. Even Hitler himself, who faked his death, now resides in the center of the Earth. Or he might, anyway, if he wouldn't be 125 years old by now.