There have been a number of rumors over the years, as well as a few more elaborate conspiracy theories that have followed, that involve various Nazi technologies. Some have speculated that such projects might have involved things like space travel or, at very least, projects that were aimed at achieving it eventually.
It is known that a number of ambitious projects were indeed underway toward the end of the war; a so-called “sun gun” that would use mirrors to direct light back toward Earth from a position in orbit had been considered, as well as certain directed-beam technologies. But despite a wealth of anecdotal evidence involving secretive wartime technologies the Nazis may have been developing, little has emerged that provides a credible link to anything akin to spacecraft, exotic propulsion, or anything similar within the context of the wunderwaffe projects Nazis had commissioned at the time.
Rather than relying on ties to historical information, the digital age has presented a countless number of questionable sources, often of obviously dubious nature, which nonetheless fuel theories about things such as ancient interactions between humankind and extraterrestrial visitors, strange structures and artifacts found on the moon, and a host of other things. In keeping with the various unexplained “objects” that have purportedly turned up in images of lunar surface, one of strangest I have come across is the idea that a swastika-shaped structure is said to inhabit any one of several craters visible on moon.
I have found this particular fringe notion to be one with a surprisingly long history, and though rooted almost entirely in science fiction (most notably in the film Iron Sky), there have been a few “literalists” along the way too, who have argued the existence of something along the lines of a Nazi base on the moon. I recently outlined the history of belief associated with this claim, leading right up to the present day, in an article at Mysterious Universe, which features different science fiction literature that has probably helped fuel what is, in honesty, shoddy research that continues today, which helps perpetuate the myth.
A friend of mine, Mark Brady, who read the article wrote to me after it was published, pointed out to me that there had, in fact, been a base discovered using satellite images that depicted a swastika-shaped structure. Granted, the structure referred to here hadn’t been found in any lunar crater, but instead right here on Earth: specifically, the building was the Coronado Naval Amphibious Base, located in San Diego, built in 1967.
Commenting on the structure’s odd shape a few years ago, Time wrote:
[I]n 2007, Google Earth sleuths found that four unconnected buildings on the base formed an unfortunate shape when viewed from above: a swastika. The Navy says it’s spending more than $600,000 to mask the shape. “We don’t want to be associated with something as symbolic and hateful as a swastika,” a spokesman said.
This story made big headlines around the time that Google released the satellite images, and needless to say, it also presents a rather odd circumstance, since the architect in question must have known the shape of the building he designed.
The architect in question, John Mock, had even apparently acknowledged the shape of the building in a statement, where he said, rather plainly, “We knew what [the building complex] was going to look like.” In 2007, a Daily Kos article discussed the affair, producing images of both the vicinity plan, as well as the US Navy’s official statement on the shape of the building, as seen below:
The Navy’s statement on the building’s controversial shape, and the original intent of the design, was as follows:
In the Daily Kos piece, Israeli American researcher Avrahaum Segol argued that what the Navy had called an “oversight” had been nothing of the sort, and that further instances of antisemitism had possibly been employed within government architecture between the 1930s and 1960s.
A final odd (and mildly disgusting) element in relation to the controversy surrounding the base’s “swastika” design can be found at the Wikipedia page for the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. Before completing this article, I thought that a glance at the page might offer a few leads on any additional commentary regarding the obvious controversy surrounding the building’s shape, in addition to public domain images of the building in question. Instead, what I found in the “Controversy” section of the Wiki article was that where the word “swastika” had obviously been intended for placement, the word “Obama” had now been added, with a link back to the page for the current U.S. Commander in Chief, as seen below:
Sadly, while one may hope this had been merely a Freudian slip on part of the Wikipedia editor in question, the prank — and its message — are as obvious as the poor taste they present. It is also akin to the recent discovery on Google Maps that associated a racial slur with the address of the White House.
While the tasteless Wikipedia edit has yet to be addressed, the note regarding no noticeable changes made to the building by the Navy (as of July 5, 2014) do appear to remain accurate.