Savitri Devi Mukherji (born Maximiani Julia Portas, ; 30 September 1905 – 22 October 1982) was a French-born Greek

fascist Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

sympathizer, and spy who served the

Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

by committing acts of espionage against the Allied forces in India. She was later a leading member of the

Neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...

underground during the 1960s. Savitri was a proponent of a synthesis of

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

and Nazism, proclaiming

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

to have been an

avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appear ...

of the Hindu god

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...

. She depicted Hitler as a sacrifice for humanity that would lead to the end of the worst World Age, the

Kali Yuga ''Kali Yuga'', in Hinduism, is the fourth and worst of the four ''yugas'' (world ages) in a '' Yuga Cycle'', preceded by '' Dvapara Yuga'' and followed by the next cycle's '' Krita (Satya) Yuga''. It is believed to be the present age, which i ...

, which she believed was induced by the Jews, whom she saw as the powers of evil."The new encyclopedia of the occult"
John Michael Greer. Llewellyn Worldwide, 2003. , . p. 130–131 Her writings have influenced

neo-Nazism Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...

and Nazi occultism. Rejecting

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in th ...

and

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

, she believed in a form of

pantheistic Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ...

monism Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...

; a single cosmos of nature composed of divine energy-matter."Christ, Faith, and the Holocaust"
Richard Terrell. WestBow Press, 2011. , . p. 70-71 Within neo-Nazism, she promoted

occultism The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (15 January 195329 August 2012) was a British historian and professor of Western esotericism at the University of Exeter, best known for his authorship of several scholarly books on the history of Germany between the W ...

(1998). ''

Hitler's Priestess ''Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth and Neo-Nazism'' is a book by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. It is a biography of Savitri Devi. It was published by New York University Press in hardcover in June 1998 () and in paperback in O ...

: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism''. NY: New York University Press, and the

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

movement, and more contemporaneously, she has influenced the

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

. She also influenced the Chilean diplomat Miguel Serrano. In 1982, Franco Freda published a German translation of her work ''Gold in the Furnace'', and the fourth volume of his annual review, ''Risguardo'' (1980–), was devoted to Savitri Devi as the "missionary of Aryan

Paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. I ...

"."Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism"
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. NYU Press, 2000. , . pp. 6, 42–44, 104, 130–148, 179, 222 Savitri was an associate in the post-war years of

Françoise Dior Marie Françoise Suzanne Dior (7 April 1932 – 20 January 1993) was a French socialite and neo-Nazi underground financier. She was the niece of French fashion designer Christian Dior and Resistance fighter Catherine Dior, who publicly distanc ...

Otto Skorzeny Otto Johann Anton Skorzeny (12 June 1908 – 5 July 1975) was an Austrian-born German SS-''Obersturmbannführer'' (lieutenant colonel) in the Waffen-SS during World War II. During the war, he was involved in a number of operations, including t ...

,"Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity"
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. NYU Press, 2003. , . p. 97–106

Johann von Leers Omar Amin (born Johann Jakob von Leers; 25 January 19025 March 1965) was an '' Alter Kämpfer'' and an honorary ''Sturmbannführer'' in the ''Waffen-SS'' in Nazi Germany, where he was also a professor known for his anti-Jewish polemics. He was o ...

, and

Hans-Ulrich Rudel Hans-Ulrich Rudel (2 July 1916 – 18 December 1982) was a German ground-attack pilot during World War II and a post-war neo-Nazi activist. The most decorated German pilot of the war and the only recipient of the Knight's Cross with ...

. She was also one of the founding members of the

World Union of National Socialists The World Union of National Socialists (WUNS) is an organisation founded in 1962 as an umbrella group for neo-Nazi organisations across the globe. History Formation The movement came about when the leader of the American Nazi Party, George ...

Early years

Born as Maximiani Julia Portas in 1905 in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

, Savitri Devi was the daughter of Maxim Portas, a French citizen of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

descent and an English woman of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

descent, Julia Portas (née Nash). Maximine Portas was born two and a half months

premature Premature may refer to: * ''Premature'' (2014 film), an American comedy film * ''Premature'' (2019 film), an American romantic drama film * '' PREMature'', a 2015 British television drama miniseries See also * Premature aging, of an organism * ...

, weighing only , and was not at first expected to live. She formed her political views early. From childhood and throughout her life, she was a passionate advocate for

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the s ...

. Her earliest political affiliations were with

Greek nationalism Greek nationalism (or Hellenic nationalism) refers to the nationalism of Greeks and Greek culture.. As an ideology, Greek nationalism originated and evolved in pre-modern times. It became a major political movement beginning in the 18th century, ...

. Portas studied philosophy and chemistry, earning two

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

s and a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

in philosophy from the

University of Lyon The University of Lyon (french: Université de Lyon), located in Lyon and Saint-Étienne, France, is a center for higher education and research comprising 11 members and 24 associated institutions. The three main universities in this center are: C ...

. She next traveled to Greece, and surveyed the legendary ruins. Here, she became familiar with

Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and pioneer in the field of archaeology. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeolog ...

's discovery of

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. I ...

s in

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. Her conclusion was that the

Ancient Greeks Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

were

Aryan Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ...

in origin. Her first two books were her

doctoral dissertation A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

s: ''Essai-critique sur Théophile Kaïris'' (''Critical Essay on

Theophilos Kairis Theophilos Kairis (Greek: Θεόφιλος Καΐρης; baptismal name Θωμᾶς ''Thomas''; 19 October 1784 – 13 January 1853) was a Greek priest, philosopher and revolutionary. He was born in Andros, Cyclades, Ottoman Greece, as a so ...

'') (Lyon: Maximine Portas, 1935) and ''La simplicité mathématique'' (''Mathematical Simplicity'') (Lyon: Maximine Portas, 1935).

Nazism

In early 1928, she renounced her French citizenship and acquired Greek nationality. Joining a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

to Palestine during

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Jesus, temptation by Satan, according ...

in 1929, Portas decided that she was a

. In 1932, she traveled to India in search of a living

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. I ...

Aryan culture, believing that the country represented "the best of

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Intern ...

." Formally adhering to

, she took the name Savitri Devi (

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

: सावित्री देवी; which means "Sun-rays Goddess" in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

). She volunteered to work at the Hindu Mission as an advocate against

and

, and wrote '' A Warning to the Hindus'' in order to offer her support for

Hindu nationalism Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. "Hindu nationalism" or the correct term ''Hindū rāṣṭ ...

and independence, and rally resistance to the spread of

and

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

in India. During the 1930s, she distributed pro-

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

propaganda and engaged in intelligence gathering on the British in India. She claimed that, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, she enabled

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...

(the leader of the Axis-affiliated

Indian National Army The Indian National Army (INA; ''Azad Hind Fauj'' ; 'Free Indian Army') was a collaborationist armed force formed by Indian collaborators and Imperial Japan on 1 September 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. Its aim was to secure In ...

) to contact representatives of the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent form ...

.Shrabani Basu
"The spy who loved Hitler"
''Rediff News'' (first published in ''Sunday'' magazine), March 1999, retrieved 6 November 2012.

World War II

During

, Devi's connection to the

led to a clash with her mother, who served with the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

during the German occupation of France.Greg Johnson, 2006, "Savitri Devi's Communist Nephews", ''savitridevi.org''
; (6 November 2012). In 1940, Devi married Asit Krishna Mukherji, a

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers ( ...

with Nazi views who edited the pro-German newspaper ''New Mercury''. During 1941, Devi chose to interpret Allied military support for Greece, against Italian and German forces, as an invasion of Greece. Devi and Mukherji continued to gather intelligence for the Axis cause. This included entertaining Allied personnel, which gave Devi and Mukherji an opportunity to question them about military matters. The information which they gathered was passed on to Japanese intelligence officials and the Japanese military found it useful when they launched attacks against Allied airbases and army units.

Post-war Nazi activism

After

, she travelled to Europe in late 1945 under the name Savitri Devi Mukherji as the wife of a British subject from India, with a

British Indian passport The British Indian passport was a passport, proof of national status and travel document issued to British subjects of the British Raj, British subjects from other parts of the British Empire, and the subjects of the British protected states in ...

. She briefly stopped in England, then she visited her mother in France, and then she traveled to

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

, where she witnessed the

eruption Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often ...

of Mount Hekla on 5–6 April 1947. She briefly returned to England, then she traveled to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

, where she met Sven Hedin. On 15 June 1948, she boarded the Nord-Express and traveled from Denmark to Germany, where she distributed thousands of copies of handwritten leaflets in which she encouraged the "Men and women of Germany" to "hold fast to our glorious National Socialist faith, and resist!" She recounted her experience in ''Gold in the Furnace'' (which was re-edited and released as ''Gold in the Furnace: Experiences in Post-War Germany'' to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of her birth). Arrested for posting bills, she was tried in Düsseldorf on 5 April 1949 for the promotion of Nazi ideas on German territory as a subject of the

Allied Control Council The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority (german: Alliierter Kontrollrat) and also referred to as the Four Powers (), was the governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany and Allied-occupied Austria after the end of ...

, and sentenced to two years imprisonment. She served eight months in

Werl Prison Werl Prison has about 900 inmates, and is one of the largest prisons in Germany. It is located in the town of Werl in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, east of Dortmund. In April 1945, the 95th Infantry Division (United States) "Victory" divis ...

, where she befriended her fellow Nazi and SS prisoners (recounted in ''

Defiance Defiance may refer to: Film, television and theatre * ''Defiance'' (1952 film), a Swedish drama film directed by Gustaf Molander * ''Defiance'' (1980 film), an American crime drama starring Jan-Michael Vincent * ''Defiance'' (2002 film), a ...

''), before she was released and expelled from Germany. She then went to stay in Lyon, France. In April 1953, she obtained a Greek passport in her

maiden name When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" is also use ...

in order to re-enter Germany, and while she was there, she went on a

, as she called it, to Nazi "holy" sites. She flew from Athens to Rome and then she traveled by rail over the

Brenner Pass The Brenner Pass (german: link=no, Brennerpass , shortly ; it, Passo del Brennero ) is a mountain pass through the Alps which forms the border between Italy and Austria. It is one of the principal passes of the Eastern Alpine range and has ...

into " Greater Germany", which she regarded as "the spiritual home of all racially conscious modern

Aryans Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ...

". She traveled to a number of sites which were significant in the life of Adolf Hitler and the history of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

(NSDAP), as well as German nationalist and heathen monuments, as recounted in her 1958 book ''Pilgrimage''. Savitri Devi became a friend of

, and she completed her manuscript of '' The Lightning and the Sun'' at his home in March 1956. Through his introductions, she was able to meet a number of Nazi émigrés in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. In 1957, she visited

in Egypt and traveled across the Middle East before she returned to her home in New Delhi, making stops in Beirut,

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, and

Zahedan Zahedan ( Balochi and fa, , ' ) is a city and capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 587,730. The city was the site of a deadly crackdown in October 2022, with dozens citizens killed by pro- ...

. In 1961 she stayed with

in Madrid. Savitri Devi took employment teaching in France during the 1960s, spending her summer holidays with friends at

Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps, south of Berchtesgaden; th ...

. In the spring of 1961, while she was on her Easter holiday in London, she learned about the existence of the original

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

. This group emerged after the Second World War when a handful of former members of the

British Union of Fascists The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, f ...

took on the name. (The original BNP was quickly absorbed into the

Union Movement The Union Movement (UM) was a far-right political party founded in the United Kingdom by Oswald Mosley. Before the Second World War, Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) had wanted to concentrate trade within the British Empire, but the Uni ...

– it has no direct connection to the present-day BNP.) She met the British National Party's president

Andrew Fountaine Andrew Fountaine (7 December 1918 – 14 September 1997) was an activist involved in the British far right. After military service in a number of conflicts Fountaine joined the Conservative Party and was selected as a parliamentary candidate u ...

. Beginning a correspondence with

Colin Jordan John Colin Campbell Jordan (19 June 1923 – 9 April 2009) was a leading figure in post-war neo-Nazism in Great Britain. In the far-right circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly "Nazi" inclination in his open use of the sty ...

, she became a devoted supporter of the National Socialist Movement. In August 1962, Savitri Devi attended the international Nazi conference in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

and she was also a founder-signatory of the Cotswold Agreement which established the

(WUNS). At this conference she met, and was greatly impressed by, George Lincoln Rockwell. When Rockwell became the leader of the WUNS, he appointed William Luther Pierce the editor of its new magazine: ''National Socialist World'' (1966–68). Along with articles by Jordan and Rockwell, Pierce devoted nearly eighty pages of the first issue of the magazine to a condensed edition of ''The Lightning and the Sun''. Because of the enthusiastic response, Pierce included chapters from ''Gold in the Furnace'' and ''Defiance'' in subsequent issues. After retiring from teaching in 1970, Savitri Devi spent nine months at the Normandy home of her close friend

while she was working on her memoirs; although she was welcome at first, her annoying personal habits began to disrupt life at the presbytery (among her habits, she did not take baths during her stay and she continually chewed garlic). Concluding that her pension would go much further in India and encouraged by Françoise Dior, she flew from Paris to Bombay on 23 June 1971. In August, she moved to New Delhi, where she lived alone, with a number of cats and at least one cobra. Savitri Devi continued to correspond with Nazi enthusiasts in Europe and the Americas, particularly with

John Tyndall John Tyndall FRS (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was a prominent 19th-century Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the ...

Matt Koehl Matthias Koehl Jr. (January 22, 1935 – October 9, 2014) was an American Marine, neo-Nazi politician and writer. He succeeded George Lincoln Rockwell as the longest serving leader of the American Nazi Party, from 1967 to 2014. Like the Chi ...

, Miguel Serrano, Einar Åberg and

Ernst Zündel Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel (; 24 April 1939 – 5 August 2017) was a German neo-Nazi publisher and pamphleteer of Holocaust denial literature.

. She was the first person to tell Zündel that the Nazi genocide of the Jews was untrue; he proposed a series of taped interviews (conducted in November 1978) and published a new illustrated edition of ''The Lightning and the Sun'' in 1979.

Animal rights activism

Devi was an

activist, as well as a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

from a young age, and she also espoused

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

views in her works. She wrote ''The Impeachment of Man'' in 1959 in India in which she espoused her views on animal rights and nature. According to her, human beings do not stand above the animals; in her ecologist views, humans are a part of the

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

and as a result, they should respect all life, including animals and the whole of nature. She always held radical views with regard to vegetarianism and believed that people who do not "respect nature or animals" should be executed. She also believed that

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for experiment ...

circuses A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicycli ...

, slaughter and fur industries among others do not belong in a civilized society.

Death

By the late 1970s, she had developed

cataract A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble ...

s and her eyesight was rapidly deteriorating as a result. Myriam Hirn, a clerk from the French embassy in India, looked after her, making regular house visits. She decided to leave India, returning to Germany to live in Bavaria in 1981 before re-moving to France in 1982. Savitri eventually died in 1982 in

Sible Hedingham Sible Hedingham ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the Colne Valley in the Braintree District of Essex, in England. It has a population of 3,994 according to the 2011 census. Sible Hedingham lies in the northern corner of Essex, close to ...

, Essex, England, at a friend's home. The cause of her death was recorded as a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

and

coronary thrombosis Coronary thrombosis is defined as the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. This blood clot may then restrict blood flow within the heart, leading to heart tissue damage, or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart at ...

. She was ''en route'' to lecture in the United States at the invitation of Matthias Koehl at the time of her death. Devi's ashes were shipped to the headquarters of the

American Nazi Party The American Nazi Party (ANP) is an American far-right and neo-Nazi political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The organization was originally named the World Union of Free Enterprise Nation ...

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...

, where they were purportedly placed next to those of George Lincoln Rockwell in a "Nazi hall of honor".

Works

Notes

External links

The Savitri Devi Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devi, Savitri 1905 births 1982 deaths 20th-century French philosophers 20th-century French poets 20th-century Greek philosophers 20th-century French women writers Antisemitic propaganda Anti-vivisectionists Burials in Wisconsin Converts to Hinduism Neo-Nazism in the United Kingdom French animal rights activists French autobiographers French collaborators with Nazi Germany 20th-century French criminals French environmentalists French expatriates in India French Hindus French neo-Nazis French people of English descent French people of Greek descent French people of Italian descent French political writers French religious writers 20th-century travel writers French travel writers Greek autobiographers Greek collaborators with Nazi Germany Greek environmentalists Greek neo-Nazis Greek people of English descent Greek people of French descent Greek people of Italian descent Greek political writers Greek religious writers Greek travel writers Hindu mystics Hindu nationalism Indian independence activists Hindu writers Nazi propagandists Occultism in Nazism New Age writers Non-fiction environmental writers Pantheists People deported from Germany People from Lyon People from New Delhi Pseudonymous women writers University of Lyon alumni Visva-Bharati University alumni Women autobiographers Women religious writers Indian women travel writers World War II spies for Germany World War II spies for Japan World War II spies for Italy Indian travel writers Indian women non-fiction writers Women biographers 20th-century Indian biographers 20th-century Indian women writers Writers from Delhi Hindu female religious leaders 20th-century pseudonymous writers