SAVITRI DEVI Archive

This is the ninth chapter of Savitri Devi’s previously unpublished book Forever and Ever.

In transcribing and editing these texts, I have translated the German epigraphs, corrected any spelling and grammatical errors, and “Americanized” and updated the spelling. I have not altered Savitri’s sometimes eccentric capitalization practices. Nor have I altered her punctuation, although I have pruned her sometimes long ellipses down to three dots each. Editorial additions appear in square brackets. Omissions and substitutions are indicated with notes. All notes are by the editor. PDF images of the typescript are available for those who wish to check my editing or bypass it altogether. Just click the title of each chapter.

Which one of us does not, today, with tears, remember that great year among all years: glorious 1940? Which one of us does not with bitterness look back to those staggering days, in which the noise and flames and smoke of spreading war answered on Thy behalf the world’s unjust attack?

O great One, Leader of the best, from Thy young Reich, towards the east, towards the West, towards the hallowed North, on land and sea and in the skies, in irresistible formations, Thy men of iron poured forth, for Thee, for greater Germany and all that Germany implies. The song of freedom, pride, and power accompanied their onward march across the boundaries of seven nations. And there was nothing that could halt their godlike thrust . . . And from its northernmost promontory facing the Pole, down to the smiling shores of the great Inner Sea, the continent that had believed the Jewish² lies,—the continent that had rejected Thee—lay at Thy feet within the dust!

Unforgettable days and nights of permanent elation, when every blessed hour brought me through subtle aether-waves, along with Thy beloved voice, the joy of further victory! When both the sunlit earth, so bright in its tropical glory, and all the countless lights of starry space seemed to tell me: “Rejoice! The Western Resurrection that you have waited for so long has come at last; and He, the Savior Whom you loved unknowingly for centuries, and Whom you hailed but yesterday as Leader of his people and of all those who recognize and who welcome his people’s place in history, now rules the Aryan race according to your dream!”

The sky was blue; the Sun was hot; the joy and pride of conquest made my face beam. Stronger and stronger in my heart grew the sweet certitude of Thy invincibility. One day, —I knew not when, but, surely, thought I, “soon”—I would go back and see all Europe under Thee . . . It mattered little, then, whether I were or not, for the time being[,] on the spot.

I pictured in my mind Thy endless rows of armored tanks, rushing through woods and moors and through deserted towns along the international highways; through mud and sand, along the river banks. I pictured in my mind Thy fleeing enemies under the pouring rain—the roaring sea before them, the angry sky above them, the dark night all around them, Thy battalions behind them—nearer and nearer every second—and in their hearts, more powerful than all, the overwhelming terror of Thy name!³ I pictured⁴ in my mind the famous Arch of Triumph; the no less famous Avenue, pride of the conquered Capital; and under it, and along it, the unforgettable parades!⁵

There stood and marched those who, in Ypres and elsewhere, had fought alongside Thee during the first World War; those whom within the grip of death, had sung along with Thee, the conquering Hymn of love in which echoed the call of joyful Duty: “Germany, Germany above all . . . !” There stood and marched also, like unto living Nordic gods, Thy fair and strong Young men, hope of the resurrected Reich, hope of the Western world, messengers of everlasting Aryan faith.

Moving in incredible order, there they were, the ones I had been longing for[,] ever since the decay of Aryandom—over two thousand years; the ones I had been seeking in the immortal forms of bygone Grecian gods, and the immortal characters of Aryan heroes held as gods in India to this day: the real earthly “shining ones”: my better brothers and Thy sons!

And as they went the music played, and as they went they sang the new hymn of the Strong and Free,—the Song of the young Hero, who, ten years before, had died for Thee: “Along all highways, ever soon, will our banners flutter; slavery is to last only a short time more!”⁶ And there indeed, the holy blood red flags, bearing within their midst in black on white the eternal Swastika, fluttered triumphantly above the glittering helmets, above the cadenced March, above the conquered Continent, in the warm air of June.

From the Eastern world far away, where I then stood, a cry had sprung—a cry of admiration, for thee, for those who followed Thee; for Thy young resurrected nation.

One day, a dusky youth of the Far South greeted me with amazing words, as though the Gods had chosen to express their unshakable wisdom through his mouth. “Fair Lady, believe me,” he said, “I too within my heart adore your Leader, now Lord of the West!—For He has come to overthrow the money-power in the world; for He has come in order to set up the wisdom of the Shining Ones Who conquered us in Bygone days—the Aryan Wisdom of all times; the Wisdom of the Best—against the Christian way of Life[,] in order to fulfill the words of the most holy Writ: ‘Age after age, I come . . .’; for He is God in human garb, the One Who never fails.”⁷

Another day, a fair-skinned man in orange-colored robes—a man of those who look beyond the Realm of Time—sat by my side and told me: “Your Continent has now within its midst another Incarnation of the great World-Sustaining-One. No longer weep over its long decay! But follow Him, and you shall win, in the long run. The struggle of today is but another phase of the perennial Struggle. And He is Light and Life come down to earth again to lead the Aryan World once more along the glorious Way!”⁸

And in the glaring homage of the village youth, echo of popular insight[,] as well as in that of the serene ascetic, I heard the world proclaim in space and time, that Thou was right, and foreign men on⁹ foreign shores, age after age, in speeches yet unknown, exalt Thy wisdom and Thy might.

And I was happy, even though so far away. And I too sang the conquering Song, with my right arm outstretched, while the¹⁰ Wise One, the truest of our true Allies, now bound to me through solemn mystic ties,¹¹ stood by my side and smiled, as though his eyes could see, beyond six thousand miles of land and sea, the Parade of Thy trusted Bodyguard along the conquered Avenue, the rush of Thy glittering planes across the sky.

Oh, great days! We were all so happy;¹² then Before our eyes, we saw the map of the expanding Reich unfold itself in all directions; and all our dreams materialize! In the glory of our reborn heathen civilization, ahead of us, we saw, a future of world domination, that was never to fail . . .

Oh, great days! Whether on the spot or far away, we watched the Gods come down from heaven at Thy call, and fight for Thee. We were so happy, then!—And I, the happiest of all!

¹ “. . . and then, as Death, straightforward and businesslike, reached into our ranks, the song also reached us, and we took it up and passed it on: ‘Germany, Germany over everything, over everything in the world!’” (Mein Kampf, 1939 edition, p. 181)—Trans. R.G. Fowler.

² Capitalizing “jewish.”

³ Referring to the evacuation of fleeing British and French troops at Dunkirk from 26 May to 4 June 1940.

⁴ Reading “picture” as “pictured.”

⁵ Referring to the German army’s entry into Paris on 14 June 1940, during which they paraded down the avenue des Champs-Élysées beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

⁶ “Die Fahne Hoch” by Horst Wessel.

⁷ The young man was named Khudiram, and Savitri relates his story in her essay “Hitlerism and the Hindu World,” The National Socialist, no. 2 (Fall 1980): 18-20. It is available online under its original title, “Hitlerism and Hindudom” at the Savitri Devi Archive, www.savitridevi.org.

⁸ Probably Swami Satyananda, the leader of the Hindu Mission in Calcutta, who seems to have been the first to suggest to Savitri that Adolf Hitler was an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, the sustainer of order. See And Time Rolls On, 24, 119.

⁹ Deleting here the superfluous phrase “on foreign man.”

¹⁰ Deleting here a superfluous repetition of “while the.”

¹¹ Savitri Devi and A.K. Mukherji were married in Calcutta in a civil ceremony on 29 September 1939 and in a religious ceremony on 9 June 1940.

¹² Substituting a semicolon for a comma.