Analysis. The green agenda is often touted as “the only way to save our planet.” Leaders around the world collectively chant the same old mantras: “Stop using fossil fuels”; “Reduce your carbon footprint”; “Eat less meat.” All the while, their disingenuous pleas echo a dark bygone era when the Nazis ruled — with iron claws and a green fist.

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Adolf Hitler’s name is notoriously synonymous with destruction, hate, and cruelty. What many do not know, however, is that this murderous madman also promoted a green agenda of his own. In fact, the Nazis advocated green policies some 50 years before any other political party. Their plan included large-scale renewable energy from windmills, as well as the use of synthetic fuels and hydro-power turbines in place of coal, oil, and gas. As Rupert Darwall, author of Green Tyranny, says: “If you look at what the Nazis were doing in the 1930s, in their environmental policies, virtually every theme you see in the modern environmental movement, the Nazis were doing.”

The Nazis were not just interested in changing energy policies, they also wanted to transform people’s attitudes toward animals and eating meat. In 1933, Nazi Germany passed some of the first laws to banish all forms of animal cruelty. Hitler himself was an outspoken vegetarian and conservationist who claimed to love animals. He once stated: “I’m not interested in politics. I’m interested in changing people’s lifestyles.” Of course, this included any lifestyle reliant on capitalism and individual freedom. Hitler’s Chief Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels called meat-eating “a perversion of human nature,” and believed Christianity was a “symptom of decay” since followers did not advocate vegetarianism.

Other top officials, such as Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, portrayed themselves as friends to animals and the environment, but not to the Jews or any whom they considered racially impure. Certainly, these master architects of the Final Solution used their green ideas as strategic propaganda to hide their true intentions.

Insect Dinners for Thee, But Not for Me

Today’s global climate movement bears a grim resemblance to some of the ideas professed by Hitler and his would-be gang of eco-activists. Wealthy elites that shout the praises of Net Zero are the same ones flying in their exotic jets and driving expensive cars. Leaders at the World Economic Forum insist that eating less meat would reduce climate change and that consuming more bugs could save the planet — though it’s doubtful their own dinner plates will be piled high with worms and crickets anytime soon. The Nazis were determined to build the Third Reich, but today’s globally minded activists are interested in building the Fourth Industrial Revolution — or what some have dubbed The Fourth Reich.

Digging deep into the Nazi environmental movement, it becomes obvious that their supposed love of animals and nature was nothing more than a propaganda campaign that was used to manipulate the public into believing they were German society’s protectors instead of its predators. Their ultimate plan was intended to stamp out the rights of anyone who would not conform to their twisted ideologies. Like the Build Back Better movement, which is professed by many of today’s global leaders, the Nazis made promises of tearing down old ways in order to construct a Thousand-Year Reich.

Eighty days after his nomination as chancellor, Hitler became Germany’s animal-rights pioneer by championing laws that would ban all animal cruelty. The text of the Animal Protection Act approved by Hitler says that “making an animal suffer unnecessarily is forbidden.” Article 5 reads: “It is forbidden to abandon your pet.” Article 9 states: “It is forbidden to perform operations without anesthesia.” Article 11: “It is forbidden to force-feed poultry.” Later, other laws were passed that prohibited hunting on horseback, the poisoning of wild animals, and the use of traps. Additionally, only Aryan German citizens were permitted to hunt. The laws also prohibited kosher slaughter, which Hitler saw as being barbaric and cruel. Interestingly enough, even though Germany was entering an age of modernization, their new welfare laws forbade vivisection, also known as live animal experimentation. Göring, who was Hitler’s second in command, announced an end to the “unbearable torture and suffering in animal experiments” and even threatened to “commit to concentration camps those who still think they can continue to treat animals as inanimate property.” Even lobsters and crabs were given special protection, as it was forbidden to throw them into boiling water.

In 1934, Nazi Germany hosted an international conference on animal welfare, and by 1938, animal protection was a subject  taught in public schools and at universities. Research papers touted kinder methods of killing, as the Nazis claimed that the aim of their animal protection laws was “to waken and strengthen compassion as one of the highest moral values of the German people.”

Kindness to Animals, Cruelty to Humans

Hitler and his Nazi followers fashioned themselves as the saviors of nature, but their true goal was to control and punish human beings. While outlawing experimentation and cruelty to animals, they subjected prisoners in concentration camps to painful injections, dissections, starvation, mutilation, and torture. The same year the first animal welfare laws were passed, the Dachau Concentration Camp opened. Behind its hidden walls, inmates became “lab rats” who were injected with diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Others were forced to participate in high-altitude experiments in which dissections of their brains were performed while they were still alive. Additionally, prisoners were placed in vats of icy water or strapped down naked in the freezing cold. From 1933 to 1945, at least 20 concentration camps operated in Germany and Poland for purposes of exterminating Jews and others the Nazis deemed to be lower than animals.

Ghettos and concentration camps stood in stark contrast to the environmentally conscious facade being forecast across Germany. Historian Frank Uekotter explains: “Treating animals gently reflects on the character of people, so this is a very important propaganda tool, making Nazi leaders appear human and trustworthy.” A 1933 postcard of Hitler feeding a fawn fed the lie that he was a protector of animals and that he must therefore be a protector of the people.

This technique is similar to the virtue signaling that goes on in our world through culture, news, and social media. Celebrities, leaders, corporations, and influencers proudly broadcast their plans for reducing carbon emissions. While devouring a plant-based burger, they drive their electric cars to their mansions. Nonetheless, a huge thumbs up is given to the trailblazers of the new green economy, in which most citizens will allegedly “own nothing and be happy.” Standing in the background, however, are the farmers who have been forced to cull their livestock or sell off their land. Businesses falter around the world, struggling to comply with climate laws. Ordinary families find it impossible to make ends meet as prices continue to climb. When fossil fuels are forcibly removed from once-thriving economies, the standard of living plummets for everyone, except those in charge of this “green reset.” The picture painted by climate activists is one of being kind to the earth and animals. But while people are busy calculating their carbon footprint, a digital concentration camp that is run based on ESG scores awaits them in the wings.

Members of the Third Reich knew how to fool the public into thinking that they genuinely cared about earth’s creatures. They boasted of a mystical relationship with the soil and the trees, and particularly with such apex predators as lions and wolves. The horrible truth, however, is that Nazis were more interested in showcasing, dominating, and manipulating nature than in saving it. The Berlin Zoo was used as a prime venue to highlight the supremacy of German animals. The wealthiest elites of Aryan society came in droves just to view German animals housed in cages decorated with a swastika.

Among domesticated animals, the German Shepherd was given special status for its obedience and loyalty. Because of this, they were trained as fierce, aggressive war dogs. Over 200,000 dogs helped soldiers on the battlefield. A large number, however, were deliberately starved so that they would terrorize the prisoners in concentration camps. At Ravensbruck and Dachau, dogs were ordered to bite prisoners in the genitals if they collapsed at roll calls. Guards often referred to human prisoners as animals while dogs herded them through the camps.

An Animal Master Race

The Nazis took their obsession with nature to a new level by attempting to genetically modify the animal kingdom. Though they didn’t have access to modern gene editing tools such as CRISPR-Cas 9, they set up strict breeding programs for cows, horses, and other animals, hoping to produce the purest, finest, bravest breeds in the world. Hitler was particularly interested in creating a race of master horses. As such, horses from all over Europe were kidnapped and used to achieve the goal. In the end, however, most horses ended up dying painful deaths as trophies of war.

Looking to create an animal that exemplified Nazi brute force and dominance, scientists even attempted to resurrect extinct species: A large ox-like creature called the auroch became an obsession for Nazi scientists. Cattle of all kinds were crossbred to create a Frankenstein-like cow. The end result was an animal so aggressive that it charged fences and tried to kill humans.

Unfortunately, manipulation of the environment and nature is still happening today, and even accelerating. Recently, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs posted an article titled We Need 7 Years of Accelerated Transformative Action to Achieve SDGs. This agency insists that we are at a turning point and that the planet must be rescued through a seven-year plan to be launched at the SDG Summit in September 2023. “Delivering change at the speed and scale required to achieve the SDGs (sustainable development goals) by 2030 will demand that political leaders make bold decisions to match their ambitions. It will require transferring resources from one sector to another, creating new regulatory environments, deploying new technologies, and mobilizing a wide range of actors for disruptive change. Doing so can strengthen trust and social cohesion.”

The list of 17 SDGs includes everything from globalized health care and vaccine passports to decreasing meat consumption and realigning people with biodiversity. But all the promises of a greener utopian future are a smokescreen for a much darker agenda. When governments promote “disruptive change,” this includes genetic manipulation of plants, animals, and humans. Moreover, dangerous schemes such as solar geoengineering are being used to artificially alter the climate.

Hitler was a master of “disruptive change,” and the main way he achieved it was through fear and propaganda. This strategy is the global movement’s most effective tool. As an example, the World Health Organization, through its One Health initiative, is calling for minimizing or eliminating certain types of animal-human contact, increasing the use of vaccines in animals, and expanding bio-surveillance. As if in lockstep with this plan, a recent report from the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program (at Harvard Law School) and the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection (at New York University) predicts that the next pandemic could emerge from the U.S. meat supply, the fur trade, a petting zoo, or even from household pets. This report cites climate change as being a driver of zoonotic diseases, as well as legislative and regulatory actions that could be used to prevent outbreaks. Organizations like the World Health Organization push the idea that the real threat is pathogens that jump from animals to humans, while ignoring the major threat of biolabs. Unfortunately, the end goal isn’t to protect the environment, animals, or people, but rather to centralize control over the world’s populations while making them eat fake, engineered meat.

As Americans and as Christians we must see this agenda for what it is: an attempt to reset our economy, environment, biology, and humanity. In Daniel 7 we see what is described as a “fourth beast,” one with iron teeth and ten horns, that devours the entire earth. This is remarkably like a “Fourth Reich” rising to power and demanding total compliance. Hitler’s plans seem to have been repackaged with a green bow on top.

God gave us the earth and all its plants and animals so that we could be blessed to the fullest measure. Of course, we are expected to love and care for these precious gifts. Unfortunately, the members of the climate industrial complex aren’t really interested in protecting any of these resources, but only in exploiting them for their own gain.

Let’s call upon the just and righteous King of kings:

Lord Jesus, we ask for Your mighty hand to put a stop to this evil and disastrous agenda that seeks to dominate plants, animals, and humans. Please return here soon and set up Your perfectly just kingdom — in which all living and nonliving things will truly coexist in harmony.

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Angela Rodriguez is an author, blogger, and home-schooling mom who studies the historical and biblical connections between Israel and the U.S. You can visit her blogs at 67owls.com and 100trumpets.com. Her latest book, Psalm 91: Under the Wings of Jesus, was released in June 2021. Photo Credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1994-036-09A / CC-BY-SA, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, Wikimedia Commons.