Kalanag

[Tarotist]

I just came across this. A fascinating character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym4hGoxww_M

[Dustin Stinett]

Had you read the June 2021 issue of Genii, and also paid closer attention to the posts on this forum, you would have already known about the fact that Kalanag was outed as a Nazi.

[Tarotist]

I don't need to read the Genii or pay attention to the jabbering here. I know a fair bit about the Nazi period and the characters in it. I already knew all about Kalanag and his Nazi associations. He was mentioned in Albert Speer's book on the Third Reich. In fact I suspect he was the one who influenced Hitler to ban the secrets of magic in German newspapers. I wish he had been around today to do the same for You Tube exposures. I do know that he was regarded more as an opportunist by the US authorities rather than anything too criminal.

I also had conversations with David Berglas who knew Kalanag and I think reluctantly worked with him. He told me Kalanag said to him, "David, don't believe all those stories you hear about me"

I posted that video because I assumed people would be interested in the subject. Reading stuff is one thing but viewing a good documentary has a visual element you don't get from a book.

[Richard Hatch]

He was mentioned in Albert Speer's book on the Third Reich...
I posted that video because I assumed people would be interested in the subject. Reading stuff is one thing but viewing a good documentary has a visual element you don't get from a book.

I don't find any mention of Helmut Schreiber in Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich. I don't have his later book Spandau: The Secret Diaries, but would be surprised if they make any mention of Schreiber (if someone who has them can check, let me know). Schreiber was a very minor figure in the German hierarchy, not even rating a mention in Robert Wistrich's Who's Who in Nazi Germany. He did join the Nazi party, but quite late, when his career advancement no doubt depended on it.

Thanks for posting the link to the English version of that documentary, which is excellent and worth watching. It does show Speer at a Schreiber performance for German troops late in the war, and has a wealth of fascinating images and video clips. Malte Herwig, whose excellent book on Kalanag was excerpted in GENII, is one of many talking heads in the documentary. Worth watching!

[Tarotist]

I swear that I read in Speer's book. It was a very brief mention and I vaguely remember something about a plane journey. Maybe Speer was on a plane journey with him somewhere. He did say that Helmut Schreiber had a very successful career after the war. I was browsing through the book in some bookshop or other. I could have sworn it was the Third Reich book but I suppose it could have been the Spandau one.

I also remember browsing through another book which I vaguely remember was written by Hitler's press secretary. I think his name was something or other Dietrich. It was there that I remembered him writing that Hitler banned the secrets of magic being published in German newspapers. Quite right too!

Incidentally I just came across this little paragraph on the internet (translated from German). It refers to Schreiber:

"At the end of 1943 he accompanied Albert Speer on his journey to Murmansk, where the Minister of Armaments hoped to find shell oil, and shortly before the end of the war he"

[Richard Hatch]

There might also be a mention of Schreiber in Speer's third book, Infiltration, about Himmler and the SS, but I doubt it (again, if someone has it and can check, let us know!). Schreiber, as president of the German Magic Circle, did succeed in having the public exposure of magic secrets made a federal offense, something he was quite proud of, and is jealously mentioned in several pre-war English magic publications. No doubt that was thanks to his superior, Dr. Goebbels, for whom he produced propaganda films.

[Tarotist]

Ah! I suspected that Kalanag had some influence in getting exposure of secrets of magic banned but I never knew for sure. Thank you for the confirmation.

[Joe Lyons]

Schreiber is mentioned many times in Nazi Gold by Sayer and Botting, which basically accuses him and others of absconding with millions before turning paltry sums over to the US Army.

[Dr. Solka]

The names Schreiber and Kalanag are not mentioned in the entire book "Inside The Third Reich".

[Dr. Solka]

The names Schreiber and Kalanag are not mentioned in the books "Infiltration" and "The Secret Diaries".

[Tarotist]

I bet they are! I am psychic and know everything! Mind you it would be very easy to miss. There were only two or three lines about it. At any rate I am pretty sure that Speer wrote it somewhere or other. He said he was in a plane going to some event or other and Kalanag was in the same plane for the same event.

[Zig Zagger]

I looked up that reference many years ago. If memory serves, it was, like Mark says, only one sentence in Speer‘s „Erinnerungen“ about that Murmansk trip with Schreiber, a violinist, and other folks. Nothing earth-shattering, just another event where Schreiber gladly magished for some Nazi brass.

[Dr. Solka]

Zig Zagger is correct:
Speer wrote in his Errinnerungen
"In der Morgendämmerung starteten wir mit meiner neuen Maschine, einer viermotorigen Condor von Focke-Wulf; sie besass durch eingebaute Reservetanks eine besonders grosse Reichweite. Der Geiger Siegfried Borries und ein Amateurzauberer, der nach dem Kriege unter dem Namen Kalanag berühmt geworden ist (and an amateur magician who became famous after the war under the name Kalanag), befanden sich im Flugzeug, denn ich wollte, statt eigene Reden zu halten, den Soldaten und den OT-Arbeitern im Norden eine Weihnachtsfreude bereiten. Im Tiefflug sahen wir uns die Seenketten Finnlands an, eines der Sehnsuchtsziele meiner Jugend, die meine Frau und ich einst mit Faltboot und Zelt durchwandern wollten. Am frühen Nachmittag, im letzten Dämmerlicht dieser nördlichen Gegend, landeten wir auf einem primitiven, mit Petroleumlampen ausgesteckten Schneefeld bei Rovaniemi."

[Zig Zagger]

Thank you for digging it out, Hans-Christian!

Let‘s note that Schreiber‘s real name (unlike the violinist‘s) isn‘t even mentioned here, likely because Speer had forgotten about it and/or didn‘t consider it a relevant addition to the given later stage name, Kalanag. It was just „an amateur magician,“ not „the“ famous or infamous Helmut Schreiber.

[Richard Hatch]

Thanks for that reference in the Speer book. Neither Schreiber nor Kalanag are listed in the index of the English language edition (Inside the Third Reich, 1970), but there it is on page 318:

"We started at dawn in my new plane, a four-motored Focke-Wulf Condor. It had unusually long range because of its built-in reserve tanks. Siefgried Borries, the violinist, and an amateur magician who became famous after the war under the name of Kalanag, accompanied us. My idea was that instead of making speeches, we would provide some Christmas entertainment for the solider and Todt Organizaion workers in the north."

This was for Christmas 1943. According to Wikipedia, the "Organization Todt" was notorious for using forced labor from concentration camps for its engineering projects.
Congratulations to Mark for having spotted and remembered this and to Dr. Solka and Zig Zagger for the follow up!

[Richard Hatch]

Typo, sorry: "Siegfried Borries"

[Tarotist]

Zig Zagger is correct:
Speer wrote in his Errinnerungen
"In der Morgendämmerung starteten wir mit meiner neuen Maschine, einer viermotorigen Condor von Focke-Wulf; sie besass durch eingebaute Reservetanks eine besonders grosse Reichweite. Der Geiger Siegfried Borries und ein Amateurzauberer, der nach dem Kriege unter dem Namen Kalanag berühmt geworden ist (and an amateur magician who became famous after the war under the name Kalanag), befanden sich im Flugzeug, denn ich wollte, statt eigene Reden zu halten, den Soldaten und den OT-Arbeitern im Norden eine Weihnachtsfreude bereiten. Im Tiefflug sahen wir uns die Seenketten Finnlands an, eines der Sehnsuchtsziele meiner Jugend, die meine Frau und ich einst mit Faltboot und Zelt durchwandern wollten. Am frühen Nachmittag, im letzten Dämmerlicht dieser nördlichen Gegend, landeten wir auf einem primitiven, mit Petroleumlampen ausgesteckten Schneefeld bei Rovaniemi."

I just translated it to English. Yes---that is the EXACT bit I read. i don't want to say I told you so but I told you so.

[Dr. Solka]

Dear Mark,
Yes, you have! Please accept my apologies and my bow. I did not really doubt!

[Tarotist]

Dear Mark,
Yes, you have! Please accept my apologies and my bow. I did not really doubt!

It was very easy to miss. Just a tiny few lines. The bit I found interesting is that Speer referred to him as "an amateur magician". He seemed to have turned professional after the war.

Another semi related tid bit of gossip along the same lines is that I have always been a bit taken aback by is that the author of the classic "Amateur Magicians Handbook" June Mussey AKA Henry Hay was also the translator of Mein Kampf into English!

[Richard Hatch]

Another semi related tid bit of gossip along the same lines is that I have always been a bit taken aback by is that the author of the classic "Amateur Magicians Handbook" June Mussey AKA Henry Hay was also the translator of Mein Kampf into English!

Mussey was one of several translators of one of several competing versions. The one he worked on (he didn't complete it) was published by Stackpole and advertised the fact that it did not pay any royalties to Hitler. It was withdrawn from the marketplace when courts decided that it violated Hitler's copyright (Stackpole had argued that when it was originally published in Germany, Hitler was a stateless person without any copyright protection). It is the rarest edition. Here's a copy for just under $3,000:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDe ... 1297482123

Mussey told me that the challenge in translating it was to avoid the temptation to make bad German sound good!