Nazi UFOs?

An idea that I'm seeing gain increasing currency on the paranormal talk shows is the concept of "Nazi UFOs," specifically, the argument that the Roswell crash was not "alien" but instead contraband Nazi equipment, piloted by either the Nazis themselves (from bases in South America) or by Americans.

It's almost as if we have to replace an unlikely theory (the ETH) with an absurd one.

I've never read any of the books arguing the Nazi UFO connection. And no, it's not a case of don't-bother-me-with-the-facts-my-mind-is-made-up.

It's just that I'm a fair student not only of World War Two history but also of twentieth-century technology in general. Not only is there no evidence in the official histories that the Third Reich came anywhere near approaching the capability of mastering the physics involved--not a hint--but there's much to argue against it.

Indeed, the Nazis blundered greatly in their anti-semitism and opposition to non-classical physics by causing not only Albert Einstein to flee Germany but other prominent scientists as well.

You could argue that Hitler *might* have won the war but for this tragic and moral flaw; but the Nazis' persecution of the Jews stemmed from a skewed moral as well as scientific sensibility.

The Nazi UFO proponents get around this by hinting at the even more bizarre notion that Himmler and gang consorted with eastern mystics and dabbled in black (but non-Jewish) magic, as if a practice that barely can find you a vacant parking place will get you a UFO.

I see more than a hint of revisionism in all this Nazi UFO talk. I don't want to see philosophical and political overtones in it, but I do.

The nice thing about the ETH is that when you apply it to the UFO puzzle, you gotta admit, most of the parts fit. No, they don't fit well, but as a placeholder theory, it has it's advantages.

Throw it out--throw out Hopkins and Jacobs--and what are you left with? A wide open mystery, begging to be researched, and a fertile ground for some dark conspiracies.