Heinrich Himmler is a name that makes one shudder. As chief of the SS, he was one of the most influential figures in the Third Reich and the chief architect of the Final Solution. He didn't have much use for Christianity. Himmler was interested in finding scholarly proof of Aryan superiority. To that end, he created the Ahnenerbe, an academic think-tank instructed to follow every lead that could hope to create a scientific basis for the political opinions the Nazis held about race. The Ahnenerbe was given palatial offices, laboratories and a seemingly bottomless purse. It employed not only Germany's best scholars, but a rag tag bunch of fantasists, adventurers and opportunists.