November 28, 2025 • 9 mins
Step into the unsettling — and often unbelievably strange — world of Nazi Germany in the 1940s. This episode uncovers Hitler’s carefully crafted vegetarian-animal-lover persona, bizarre Nazi environmental laws, stolen children, occult expeditions to Tibet, underground megaprojects, and the creation of terrifying “wonder weapons.” This isn’t just another World War II history lesson — it’s a deep dive into the absurd contradictions, propaganda strategies, misguided science, and dangerous ideology behind one of history’s most notorious regimes. Delivered with careful respect for victims, historical accuracy, and just enough dark humor to make it survivable.
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This episode of The Strange History Podcast was lovingly crafted with the help of ElevenLabs.io — the magical technology that gives Amy her time to sleep, eat, work and spend time with her dog Jack. While some might say she sounds too good to be true, we assure you, Amy is absolutely a real person… who just happens to have access to studio-grade AI vocal cords and an unnatural ability to pronounce “necromancy” without flinching. Any resemblance to an AI is purely coincidental — and mildly flattering. Dan the announcers name is really Bill and Patrick, the fake ad guy who thinks he is funny? well he is questionable at best. So yes, AI was used but the people are real and the shinanigans are.... well.... shinanigans.
Like and Subscribe:
Apple
Spotify
IHeart
Audible
This episode of The Strange History Podcast was lovingly crafted with the help of ElevenLabs.io — the magical technology that gives Amy her time to sleep, eat, work and spend time with her dog Jack. While some might say she sounds too good to be true, we assure you, Amy is absolutely a real person… who just happens to have access to studio-grade AI vocal cords and an unnatural ability to pronounce “necromancy” without flinching. Any resemblance to an AI is purely coincidental — and mildly flattering. Dan the announcers name is really Bill and Patrick, the fake ad guy who thinks he is funny? well he is questionable at best. So yes, AI was used but the people are real and the shinanigans are.... well.... shinanigans.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back, my dear listeners to the Strange History podcast,
where we take humanity's darkest mistakes, put them under a microscope,
and whisper gently seriously. This Happened Today begins a two
part journey into the unsettlingly bizarre world of Nazi Germany
in the nineteen forties, where science fiction, ideology, pseudoscience, and
(00:25):
straight up delusion collided in ways that would make a
raccoon holding an electrical cable look responsible. A small disclaimer,
I struggled a bit with putting the funny fake ads
in this one. It didn't seem appropriate to add anything
funny to a horrifying point in our history. But if
history has taught me anything, comedy is built from pain sometimes,
(00:47):
and people need to laugh when things are tough, so
I stuck with my usual format. This is the part
where I remind you Nazis equals bad. You'd think that
doesn't need saying, but here we are in a century
where some people need history explained slowly with crayons, as
socialism seems to be on the rise.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Hitler the vegetarian animal lover, except not really.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Nazi propaganda painted Hitler as a morally pure gentle animal
respecting vegetarian genius. Gebels even wrote in his diary about Hitler,
extolling the moral superiority of not eating meat but privately.
Witness accounts contradict it. Hermann Rauschning, who dined with Hitler,
recalled dishes like squab, Bavarian sausage and liver dumplings on
(01:36):
his plate, the opposite of plant based righteousness. Meanwhile, millions
of innocent people were systematically murdered under his orders, a
grotesque irony historians still point out today.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Tired of confusing ethics, try moral compass. The app that
reminds you you can't be compassionate because you pet a
dog once while causing global suffering now available with a
Hitler filter. The one worldview were owning a German shepherd
equals being a philosopher king.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Nazi animal protection laws yes before human rights.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
In nineteen thirty three, the Nazis passed an extensive set
of animal cruelty restrictions. They limited hunting, regulated animal testing,
and even discussed banning boiling lobsters alive. These laws weren't
compassion they were political. Theater Kosher and halal slaughter methods
were banned immediately, not for animal welfare, but to target
(02:38):
Jewish and Muslim communities under the guise of ethics, hypocrisy, score.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Infinity, environmentalism meets war crimes.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Top Nazis, particularly Himmler, promoted conservation, forest protection, and nature
as part of the ideal German soul. They restricted certain
law ugging protected natural spaces and idealized rural purity. Meanwhile,
Behrmacht troops burned entire villages, bombed cities, and destroyed ecosystems
(03:11):
from Poland to the Caucasus. It's like lighting your house
on fire while lecturing strangers about reusable grocery bags.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
The Laban's Born program the SS baby breeding system.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Starting in nineteen thirty five and expanding into the nineteen forties,
labans Born was created as a network of maternity homes
where approved women could give birth anonymously to racially ideal babies.
Some came willingly, many others were stolen. In occupied Poland,
Norway and parts of Yugoslavia, Blonde, blue eyed children were
(03:47):
forcibly taken from families, renamed and raised as German after
the war. Many children didn't know who they were or
that their identities had been erased. One Norwegians survivor later said,
I grew up thinking the Nazis loved me. Then I
learned who they were. That is nightmare level psychological damage.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
The kidnapped children of occupied Europe.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
SS Racial Inspectors, Yes, that was a real job title,
assess children like livestock if they fit the racial template.
They were taken. Thousands vanished into German orphanages and SS
family homes. Records were destroyed as Germany collapsed, leaving many
permanently lost to history.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Tonight's sponsor, Nordic DNA, the only genealogy test that guarantees
your results won't be confiscated by Heinrich Himler, now offering
new features like are you adoptable by the SS spoiler.
If the answer is yes, run.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The Wunderwaffen Wonder weapons that would win the war. Allegedly.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Near the end of the war, Nazi leadership BE came
obsessed with apocalyptic superweapons. They built the V one flying
bomb V two ballistic missile jet powered aircraft like the
ME two six to two. They hoped technology could reverse defeat,
like switching to hard mode and hoping a cheek code
exists German civilians became convinced there was a secret ultimate weapon,
(05:22):
something enormous, something that would turn the tide spoiler. It
did not.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Flack towers, concrete fortresses too strong to demolish.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
To counter Allied bombing, massive anti aircraft citadels called Flakturma
were built in Berlin, Vienna, and Hamburg. Their walls were
up to eleven feet thick. Some still stand because modern
nations went, yeah, dynamite, won't touch that, Just put a
skate park next to it. Historically haunting, architecturally.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Stubborn, project reci underground me structures with no known purpose.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Deep in the owl mountains of modern Poland lies the
unfinished Rheze complex, networks of tunnels carved into mountain side rock.
No one truly knows what it was meant to be bunker, factory, fearer, headquarters,
final boss layer. Forced laborers dug these tunnels. Thousands died
building something that was never finished and never used. Haunting
(06:27):
doesn't begin to describe it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Occultism, fake archaeology, and mystical racial pseudoscience.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Himmler, head of the SS, believed in Atlantis, magic ruins
and an ancient super civilization of Aryans. Who ruled the world.
He sent an SS expedition to Tibet in nineteen thirty
eight searching for Aryan origins picture. This trained mountain climbers, anthropologists,
and soldiers, traveling thousands of miles at government expense to
(06:59):
measure skulls and take photos of monks because their boss
believed ancient Germans invented civilization, taxpayer funded nonsense before it
was cool.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Hitler youth scouting artillery duty.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
The Hitler youth began like boy scouts, with propaganda, camping
uniforms slogans. By nineteen forty three they were being deployed
as anti aircraft crews and later frontline defenders. Some fought
in the Battle of Berlin children facing Soviet tanks with rifles,
grenades and ideological delusion. A Soviet officer later said they
(07:38):
were just boys, but they fought like men who believed
nothing else existed. History is rarely comforting.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Tonight's next sponsor Tanks versus Teenagers, the board game where
poor strategic planning meets doomed political ideology. Ages twelve plus
difficulty level impossible, playtime fortunately short.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
The Autobon Propaganda and Infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
The Autobond was showcased as Hitler's brilliant achievement, proof Nazism
brought progress. Truth planning started during the Weimar Republic. Nazis
just slapped their label on it, added ceremonies, and made
everyone clap. To this day, huge chunks remain in use,
a monument to engineering and egos.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Degenerate art banned publicly hoarded privately.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
The Nazis held an exhibition mocking modern art Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky,
labeling them dangerous. Yet many high ranking Nazis stole or
collected the same art secretly because they thought it might
be valuable. So the moral stance was this art is terrible,
but also priceless. Give it to me. So that was
(08:56):
part one. If you're emotionally hydrated, morally centered, and still interested,
join us for part two, where things get darker, stranger,
and yes, even more absurd. Because if history teaches us
anything it's this. When ideology meets pseudoscience, humanity gets weird.
Don't forget to subscribe. You wouldn't want to miss a
(09:19):
second of all this weirdness.
Welcome back, my dear listeners to the Strange History podcast,
where we take humanity's darkest mistakes, put them under a microscope,
and whisper gently seriously. This Happened Today begins a two
part journey into the unsettlingly bizarre world of Nazi Germany
in the nineteen forties, where science fiction, ideology, pseudoscience, and
(00:25):
straight up delusion collided in ways that would make a
raccoon holding an electrical cable look responsible. A small disclaimer,
I struggled a bit with putting the funny fake ads
in this one. It didn't seem appropriate to add anything
funny to a horrifying point in our history. But if
history has taught me anything, comedy is built from pain sometimes,
(00:47):
and people need to laugh when things are tough, so
I stuck with my usual format. This is the part
where I remind you Nazis equals bad. You'd think that
doesn't need saying, but here we are in a century
where some people need history explained slowly with crayons, as
socialism seems to be on the rise.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Hitler the vegetarian animal lover, except not really.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Nazi propaganda painted Hitler as a morally pure gentle animal
respecting vegetarian genius. Gebels even wrote in his diary about Hitler,
extolling the moral superiority of not eating meat but privately.
Witness accounts contradict it. Hermann Rauschning, who dined with Hitler,
recalled dishes like squab, Bavarian sausage and liver dumplings on
(01:36):
his plate, the opposite of plant based righteousness. Meanwhile, millions
of innocent people were systematically murdered under his orders, a
grotesque irony historians still point out today.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Tired of confusing ethics, try moral compass. The app that
reminds you you can't be compassionate because you pet a
dog once while causing global suffering now available with a
Hitler filter. The one worldview were owning a German shepherd
equals being a philosopher king.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Nazi animal protection laws yes before human rights.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
In nineteen thirty three, the Nazis passed an extensive set
of animal cruelty restrictions. They limited hunting, regulated animal testing,
and even discussed banning boiling lobsters alive. These laws weren't
compassion they were political. Theater Kosher and halal slaughter methods
were banned immediately, not for animal welfare, but to target
(02:38):
Jewish and Muslim communities under the guise of ethics, hypocrisy, score.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Infinity, environmentalism meets war crimes.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Top Nazis, particularly Himmler, promoted conservation, forest protection, and nature
as part of the ideal German soul. They restricted certain
law ugging protected natural spaces and idealized rural purity. Meanwhile,
Behrmacht troops burned entire villages, bombed cities, and destroyed ecosystems
(03:11):
from Poland to the Caucasus. It's like lighting your house
on fire while lecturing strangers about reusable grocery bags.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
The Laban's Born program the SS baby breeding system.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Starting in nineteen thirty five and expanding into the nineteen forties,
labans Born was created as a network of maternity homes
where approved women could give birth anonymously to racially ideal babies.
Some came willingly, many others were stolen. In occupied Poland,
Norway and parts of Yugoslavia, Blonde, blue eyed children were
(03:47):
forcibly taken from families, renamed and raised as German after
the war. Many children didn't know who they were or
that their identities had been erased. One Norwegians survivor later said,
I grew up thinking the Nazis loved me. Then I
learned who they were. That is nightmare level psychological damage.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
The kidnapped children of occupied Europe.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
SS Racial Inspectors, Yes, that was a real job title,
assess children like livestock if they fit the racial template.
They were taken. Thousands vanished into German orphanages and SS
family homes. Records were destroyed as Germany collapsed, leaving many
permanently lost to history.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Tonight's sponsor, Nordic DNA, the only genealogy test that guarantees
your results won't be confiscated by Heinrich Himler, now offering
new features like are you adoptable by the SS spoiler.
If the answer is yes, run.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The Wunderwaffen Wonder weapons that would win the war. Allegedly.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Near the end of the war, Nazi leadership BE came
obsessed with apocalyptic superweapons. They built the V one flying
bomb V two ballistic missile jet powered aircraft like the
ME two six to two. They hoped technology could reverse defeat,
like switching to hard mode and hoping a cheek code
exists German civilians became convinced there was a secret ultimate weapon,
(05:22):
something enormous, something that would turn the tide spoiler. It
did not.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Flack towers, concrete fortresses too strong to demolish.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
To counter Allied bombing, massive anti aircraft citadels called Flakturma
were built in Berlin, Vienna, and Hamburg. Their walls were
up to eleven feet thick. Some still stand because modern
nations went, yeah, dynamite, won't touch that, Just put a
skate park next to it. Historically haunting, architecturally.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Stubborn, project reci underground me structures with no known purpose.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Deep in the owl mountains of modern Poland lies the
unfinished Rheze complex, networks of tunnels carved into mountain side rock.
No one truly knows what it was meant to be bunker, factory, fearer, headquarters,
final boss layer. Forced laborers dug these tunnels. Thousands died
building something that was never finished and never used. Haunting
(06:27):
doesn't begin to describe it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Occultism, fake archaeology, and mystical racial pseudoscience.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Himmler, head of the SS, believed in Atlantis, magic ruins
and an ancient super civilization of Aryans. Who ruled the world.
He sent an SS expedition to Tibet in nineteen thirty
eight searching for Aryan origins picture. This trained mountain climbers, anthropologists,
and soldiers, traveling thousands of miles at government expense to
(06:59):
measure skulls and take photos of monks because their boss
believed ancient Germans invented civilization, taxpayer funded nonsense before it
was cool.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Hitler youth scouting artillery duty.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
The Hitler youth began like boy scouts, with propaganda, camping
uniforms slogans. By nineteen forty three they were being deployed
as anti aircraft crews and later frontline defenders. Some fought
in the Battle of Berlin children facing Soviet tanks with rifles,
grenades and ideological delusion. A Soviet officer later said they
(07:38):
were just boys, but they fought like men who believed
nothing else existed. History is rarely comforting.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Tonight's next sponsor Tanks versus Teenagers, the board game where
poor strategic planning meets doomed political ideology. Ages twelve plus
difficulty level impossible, playtime fortunately short.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
The Autobon Propaganda and Infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
The Autobond was showcased as Hitler's brilliant achievement, proof Nazism
brought progress. Truth planning started during the Weimar Republic. Nazis
just slapped their label on it, added ceremonies, and made
everyone clap. To this day, huge chunks remain in use,
a monument to engineering and egos.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Degenerate art banned publicly hoarded privately.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
The Nazis held an exhibition mocking modern art Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky,
labeling them dangerous. Yet many high ranking Nazis stole or
collected the same art secretly because they thought it might
be valuable. So the moral stance was this art is terrible,
but also priceless. Give it to me. So that was
(08:56):
part one. If you're emotionally hydrated, morally centered, and still interested,
join us for part two, where things get darker, stranger,
and yes, even more absurd. Because if history teaches us
anything it's this. When ideology meets pseudoscience, humanity gets weird.
Don't forget to subscribe. You wouldn't want to miss a
(09:19):
second of all this weirdness.
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