„Gold in the furnace”

by Savitri DEVI „Contre le Temps/ Against time editions”, France, 2020

We have already written an article on another book by Savitri Devi and, despite the expensive price of it (35 euros with postage), we decided to buy it. And it was really for a very good reason that we did it since we loved „L’or dans le fourneau/Gold in the furnace” which was released for the first time in full in French. The translator Pierre Bergeron (we do not know if he is related to the homonymous Francis publisher of the „Présent” newspaper) really did a remarkable job. In all the other out of print works by the same author, the defense of the Third World is omnipresent: Savitri Devi was a Frenchwoman living in India and converted to Hinduism. But here she returns to Germany after being a few years in prison for collaborating with the Nazis. She details the mistreatment and torture that the former National Socialists suffered by the allies during the period 1948-1949 when she was there as a witness, journalist and essayist. The attack on the Judeo-Christian lie is felt from the first pages: „the triumph of the philosophy of the swastika over those of the cross” (op.cit. page 42). A Nazi is not a Christian seems to tell us on page 49 the author who was a fervent admirer of Hitler. If we loved all of her thought it was because she gives us a very good explanation of the „degenerate Aryans” who involuntarily precipitated the fall of Hitler. Why this title? Is there a connection with the Jews? This is the highlight of this strong work that we recommend to all readers. Note that we also listened to an interview with the author given to Marc Nicoud in 1982, shortly before her death. In this very old interview Savitri advances as title „L’or dans la fournaise/Gold in the furnace” and we doubted for a moment why the translator would have changed it? But we quickly understood her choices: it’s a question of size and she surely preferred the larger sizes. The Jews had started the race mixing and the author who was for „the hierarchy of the races” (op.cit.p.78) and against „the sin of the mixing” (op.cit.p.49) should fight against „the dark forces” (op.cit.p.71) who want to impose „a world possessed by demons” (op.cit.p.91) since it is „a world led by the Jews” (op.cit .p.133).

The essay tells us further about the torture imposed by the allies on the Germans, the strongest of which would be „washing with your urine” (op.cit.p.144) and „sleeping on the ground” (op.cit.p . 154), despite the fact that the German authorities deny these accusations. Everyone remembers the beautiful film „Katyn” by Andrei Wajda but I would say that it is a pity that the entirety of this work was released in France this year since on page 200 Devi gives us the truth about this crucial episode. It was in 1952 when the original English work came out in Calcutta and Devi reveals to us the true version of this incident, badly interpreted by a „degenerated Europe” (op.cit.p.206). On page 213 we were surprised by the words of a French soldier who shouts at the author when he returns to France at the border „but you are not French … and you married one of these dirty boches” (ibid- the last word means Germans in popular french). It was a big blow for us since a few days ago we had ordered the translation of a freshly released work here is France”The dirty boches told to good people/Les sames boches racontés aux braves gens” by Benton Bradberry. This way we understood that there would be a kind of posthumous telepathy between the Great Devi and ourselves!

We will end with another highlight of this essay. On page 220 the author gives us a macabre humor question: „why do so many people consider it criminal to use the skin of deceased people?”. It made us think of the macabre anti-Semitic jokes from our childhood!

written by Dionysos Andronis