New Swabia
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New Swabia (German: Neu-Schwabenland) was the name given to an area in Antarctica by the Nazi German expedition that explored it in 1938/1939.[1][2] It was a Antarctic region covering 600,000 km2 between longitude 20°E and 10°W located in Queen Maud Land
, which at the time was claimed by Norway (which it still is to this day).[3][4] Nazi Germany claimed the area for itself in January 19, 1939; which Norway, that had discovered Queen Maud Land, did not accept. No other country recognized Germany's territorial claim. The Germans were mainly interested in New Swabia as a base area for whaling.[5] The Nazis were ultimately never able to advance any territorial claims to the region, even though they had invaded Norway and forced the native rulership and the government in exile for most of World War II, with the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 effectively killing those ambitions.[6]
Rumors about New Swabia and/or Nazi base in Antarctica began in 1945, following the end of World War II. Around 1943-1946, the British started Operation Tabarin, which began under the pretense of searching Nazi U-boats and other German naval threats in Antarctica, when in reality, being a cover to construct bases in territorial dispute with Argentina.[7][8] Related to Tabarin, possibly being mistaken to it, it was believed that a 1946 US military exercise called Operation Highjump was carried out for to defeat a Nazi stronghold in Antarctica, when in reality, it was to train US troops in Antarctic environments.[1] Despite the fact that no permanent base was built and the region is now a part of the Norwegian Antarctic territory, it has become the focus of several conspiracy theories, sometimes involving Nazi UFOs.[9][10][11]
Appropriately enough, nowadays there is a German research station (also in the Norwegian Antarctic territory) that became the focal point of an unrelated conspiracy theory - Neumayer Station.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The World's Oceans: Geography, History, and Environment. ABC-CLIO. 2018. p. 84. ISBN 9781440843525. "A SECRET NAZI BASE IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN?: A persistent myth that haunts the Internet is the existence of a secret Nazi base in Antarctica called New Swabia. Ever since Germany became a unified country in 1871, German scientists participated in the exploration of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. When the Nazi Party took power in Germany in 1933, it commissioned an exploration of the northern coast of Antarctica by a ship called New Swabia. Between 1938 and 1939 the members of the expedition sought to find a suitable location for a German whaling station to supply the country with fat. Although secondary aims, such as the potential setup of a weather station, had some military applicability, Germany never officially annexed the area. At the end of World War II in 1945, the rumor emerged that the Nazis took refuge in a large underground system of caves supplied by warm underground rivers to establish a base for future operation for Nazi weaponry in New Swabia. The United States' Operation Highjump supposedly set out to defeat the last Nazi stronghold in 1946. Although this operation did indeed take place, it was meant to familiarize U.S. personnel with extreme low temperatures in the event of a potential showdown with the Soviet Union. - Rainer F. Buschmann"
- ↑ John Whitfield, Did Hitler have a base in the Antarctic? Nature, 30 March 2007.
- ↑ McGonigal, D. (2009). Antarctica: Secrets of the Southern Continent. Frances Lincoln. Page 400. ISBN: 9780711229808
- ↑ "Forutsetninger for Antarktistraktaten: Dronning Maud Lands statsrettslige stilling – "utviklingen" frem til 1957" (in Norwegian). Norsk Polarhistorie.
- ↑ Luke Fater (November 6, 2019). "Hitler's Secret Antarctic Expedition for Whales". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
- ↑ Jacek Machowski (1977). The Status of Antarctica in the Light of International Law. Office of Polar Programs and the National Science Foundation.
- ↑ Rose, L. A. (2013). Explorer: The Life of Richard E. Byrd. University of Missouri Press. Page 426. ISBN: 9780826266439
- ↑ Taylor, A. (2017). Two Years Below the Horn: Operation Tabarin, Field Science, and Antarctic Sovereignty, 1944-1946. University of Manitoba Press. ISBN: 9780887552069
- ↑ Colin Summerhayes and Peter Beeching, Hitler’s Antarctic base: the myth and the reality. Polar Record 43 (224): 1–21 (2007) via Wikileaks.
- ↑ Daniel Oberhaus, Fake News About a Secret Nazi UFO Base In Antarctica Refuses to Die. Vice, 12 march 2017.
- ↑ Holm Hümmler: Neuschwabenland – Verschwörung, Mythos oder Ammenmärchen? In: Skeptiker. Nr. 3, 2013, S. 100–106.
- ↑ Germany's Antarctic Claim: Secret Nazi Polar Expeditions by Christof Friedrich (i.e., Ernst Zündel) (1977) Samisdat Publishers.
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