William L. Pierce on Savitri:

"Savitri Devi was born Maximiani Portas on September 30, 1905 in Lyons, France, of an English mother and a Greek father who was a citizen of France.

Maximiani was an extraordinarily intelligent and independent-minded girl. She easily qualified for the adjective "gifted" or "brilliant", and she excelled in her studies, first at the university of Lyons and later in Athens. She earned advanced degrees in both philosophy and chemistry, and she finished a doctoral thesis in mathematics in 1931 at the University of Lyons.

Although as a child she adopted the Greek Orthodox faith, her study of philosophy and history led her as a young woman to reject christianity and the semitic view of life and turn instead toward pan-Aryan paganism. In order to pursue her pan-Aryan interests she went to India in 1932. She was fascinated by the country and its traditions, and with only a brief trip back to France to take the oral examination for her doctorate in 1934, she remained in India throughout the 1930s, learning Hindi and Bengali, associating herself with the Hindu nationalist movement, teaching and writing.

Soon after her arrival in India she changed her name to Savitri Devi. Savitri is the name of the old Indo-Aryan goddess of the Sun, and devi is the sanskrit word for "goddess".

Already early in the 1930s Savitri had declared to her friends in India her admiration for Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist movement in Germany. Hitler also had many ardent admirers among the Indians even before the conflict between Germany and Britain pushed Hindu nationalists into the German camp. A leader and spokesman among these was Asit Krishna Mukherji, a Calcutta publisher.
Savitri met Mukherji early in 1938, and he subsequently became her principal supporter and the publisher of her books.

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Savitri intended to go to Germany and do what she could there to assist the National Socialist cause, but she delayed her departure until it was too late for easy travel between British India and Germany, and she was obliged to remain in India until the end of the war.

In 1945 Savitri left India, travelling first to Britain and then to France. Profoundly depressed by the judeo-democratic destruction of Germany, she wrote and travelled in Europe for three years, not gaining the courage to visit Germany until 1948. When she finally did go to Germany she distributed National Socialist leaflets she had prepared herself to Germans at every train station through which she passed. The jewish "reeducation" program imposed on conquered Germany had not yet taken effect, and she found many sympathetic recipients for her leaflets. She made three trips altogether to Germany in 1948, each time becoming bolder and bringing a larger quantity of National Socialist material to distribute. She also took every opportunity to talk with Germans who shared her beliefs and to develop new contacts in Germany.

She was arrested by German police during her leafleting campaign early in 1949 and sentenced to three years imprisonment. of which she served six months in a prison at Werl before being deported to India. While in prison she was able to write substantial portions of two books, "Gold in the furnace" and "Defiance", describing her experiences and impressions in Germany.

Despite being banned from Germany Savitri managed to return in 1953 and made a tour of all the historic sites associated with Hitler and the National Socialist movement. This tour became the basis for her book "Pilgrimage".

Savitri wrote more than a dozen books, dealing with Hindu nationalism, animal rights, religion and philosophy, and her experiences in postwar Germany. The most significant by far of her books is "The Lightning and the Sun", published in India in 1958.

I first read this book in 1965. It was 452 pages of small print on very cheap paper and contained, in addition to its main theme, a number of digressions on such subjects as vegetarianism, Hindu mythology, vivisection, and so on. Like all her books except one until that time it had been published in Calcutta, with only a small number of copies printed, all of which were distributed free to her friends and anyone else who requested a copy.

I was profoundly moved by "The Lightning and the Sun", and after reading it I established correspondence with Savitri in late 1965. I received her permission to edit the book and republish it, which I did in 1966. It was the first publication of one of her books in America. The current (2000) National Vanguard Books edition is a reprint of my 1966 edition.

Savitri Devi died on October 22, 1982 in England, at the age of 77."

Great video and narrative on an incredible woman. More information on her writings is available at http://www.savitridevi.org/

This is the Savitri Devi Archive.