Nazi Germany Using Swastikas to Claim Antarctica

In Book 1, The Hesperus Prophecy, we learn about Nazi Germany’s 1939 mission to Antarctica. Please see MS Schwabenland and Antarctica for more information. Briefly, Nazi Germany travelled to Antarctica, ostensibly searching for new whaling locations. In the process, they claimed a large section of Antarctica as German territory.

In The Hesperus Prophecy, after the German mission fled Antarctica, amongst the items left behind were crates filled with tiny metal swastikas. While these Nazi symbols cause trouble for Declan in Book 1, the swastikas leading to his imprisonment in Dante’s Inferno, they are a source of entertainment in Girl in the Glass. When Bruce decides there’s time to play cards, they use the tiny metal swastikas as poker chips.

During their game, Garrett explains why these Nazi trinkets exist:

The swastikas “came with instructions. Krauts were gunna sprinkle them all over the Antarctic, stake their claim. We found a much better use for them.”

During their Antarctic voyage, Nazi Germany wanted to symbolically claim territory by dropping objects emblazoned with swastikas. The planes used for aerial reconnaissance and surveys were also meant to disperse these metal swastikas, marking out a section of Antarctica they called Neuschwabenland or New Swabia. These markers have never been found in Antarctica, and in Girl in the Glass, we learn they were never dropped. After WW II, Germany’s claims to Antarctica were not honored, as the territory was already under Norway’s sovereignty.

MS Schwabenland, the ship used for Germany’s Antarctic mission

MS Schwabenland launching seaplanes over Antarctica