The Dalai Lama and Heinrich Harrer
An Austrian mountaineer and renowned explorer, Harrer was best known for the years he spent as an adviser, teacher and friend of a young Dalai Lama. He was author of Seven Years in Tibet… a chronicle of his experience with the Dalai Lama over the seven years prior to his exile to India. Seven Years in Tibet was eulogized by Hollywood in a movie of the same name starring Brad Pitt. Harrer also wrote more than 20 books about his adventures, some that include photographs considered to be among the best evidence of traditional Tibetan culture. He made about 40 documentary films and founded a museum about Tibet in Austria.
Dalai-Lama-Heinrich-HarrerHarrer is said to have been
“…confidant and informal tutor to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Harrer was afforded access to ceremonies and customs that had been rarely witnessed by Westerners”…
He was both friends with and honoured by the Dalai Lama..
“Harrer was one of the recipients of the International Campaign for Tibet's Light of Truth Award for 2002, presented to Harrer by the Dalai Lama on October 15, 2002 in Graz, Austria. He was honored for his unparalleled mobilization of concern and sympathy for the people of Tibet…”
Heinrich Harrer and the exiled Dalai Lama remained steadfast friends until Harrer’s death on January 7, 2006”.
See Condolence Message from the Dalai Lama to the wife of Heinrich Harrer on his death in 2006.
But this is not simply a touching story of a long lasting friendship between people from widely diverse worlds. What makes this story particularly bizarre is the fact that Heinrich Harrer was a Nazi and an escapee from British prisoner of war camp in India. So how did this Austrian Nazi get to Tibet and become one of the Dalai Lama’s ‘friends’.
In his younger days Harrer was a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA, storm troopers) the infamous "brownshirts" that functioned as a paramilitary organization of the NSDAP – the German Nazi party, and were illegal in Austria at the time. They played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s.
When Austria was annexed by the German regime in March 1938, Harrer joined the SS where he held the rank of Oberscharführer (Sergeant). He also joined the Nazi party that same year and was photographed with Adolf Hitler after the first ascent of the Eige.
According to Stern's report Harrer was quoted as saying,
"It was an estimable reward for us to meet and talk with the Fuehrer. We scaled the northern slope of Eiger, crossed the summit and reached the place wherein the Fuehrer lived."
The photograph on the right, taken on July 1938 shows Heinrich Harrer (2nd from left) with Adolf Hitler in Breslau (Wroclaw). Source: Der Spiegel, No. 45, 3 Nov 1997, p. 146. It says (in German) “Harrer (left Hitler): Children what have you done!
Harrer was detained by British colonial authorities as an enemy alien, but escaped for good in 1944 after several failed attempts, Making their way to Tibet, Harrer and Aufschnaiter entered Lhasa in February 1946, where he would remain for almost seven years and become a friend of the young Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso. Although there is no evidence that Harrer was personally guilty of ‘War Crimes’ or of any participation in Hitler’s ‘final solution’, the question remains.. How many of the Nazis were ‘innocent’?
