In line with Himmler’s extended work on Aryan origins, Rahn used the Cathars to further his work on German race theory.65 But dogged by the Nazi regime for his open homosexuality, in 1939 Rahn found himself pursued by the Gestapo for desertion. Rahn disappeared that same year and his body was discovered frozen to death in the Austrian mountains on 13 March, just days before the anniversary of the fall of Montségur. His demise was tragic. It has been claimed he was following the example of the Cathars he so admired by undertaking the ‘endura’, purging his body of impurity, then at the point of
...more
