Nazi Occultism and Racial Hierarchies in Silver Nitrate's Magic

The Thematic Claim: Magic as Racial Entitlement in Silver Nitrate

In Silver Nitrate, Silvia Moreno-Garcia critiques Nazi occultism by showing how its racial theories were baked into the very structure of magical practice. Wilhelm Ewers builds a magic system that mirrors Nazi pseudoscience: Aryans sit at the top of a racial pyramid, Indigenous peoples are cast as “degenerated” descendants of an ancient Aryan civilization, and mixed-race people are dismissed as “mutts.” This hierarchy is not decorative—it determines who is deemed worthy of wielding “high magic” as a hierophant versus who is relegated to “lower forms” as an adept. The novel traces this system from its European origins through Ewers's South American journey to its practical application in a 1961 Mexican film project, then dismantles it, showing that the magic works (or fails) regardless of racial pedigree and that Ewers's true purpose was always self-serving.

The Magic System as Racial Hierarchy

The novel introduces Ewers's beliefs through Abel Urueta's recollections in Chapter 5. Ewers drew from a web of European occultists who all promoted racial theories: Krumm-Heller “believed that certain races were inferior to others,” Blavatsky “talked about higher and inferior races,” and von List was “firmly in favor of eugenics.” Ewers synthesized these ideas into a system where Aryans were “naturally suited for magic practices.”

The pyramid structure is described in Chapter 22 by José López: “brilliant Aryan stock, were at the top,” while the rest were “mutts of the world.” Each level was “carefully color-graded.” Ewers believed the Aztec and Inca had been great but had “degenerated,” and that Mexicans with Indigenous ancestry could achieve “a certain level of magic mastery”—but not the highest levels.

This is the core of the thematic claim: magic in Ewers's system is not a neutral craft but a racial entitlement. The hierophants needed “some of that pure Aryan or Indigenous strain,” while others could only be adepts handling lower forms of magic. The silver nitrate film becomes the conduit for this system—a medium that Ewers believed intensified magic through its material properties, but which was also the vehicle for his racialized spellcasting.

Ewers's South American Journey and the Rationalization of Contradiction

Chapter 11 contains Ewers's own account of his journey to South America. He encounters a beggar performing divination with pebbles and feels “a distinctive tug” of real magic. This moment should have shattered his worldview—here is a “brown-skinned man” doing actual magic. Instead, Ewers rationalizes it: the beggar's power must descend from “the ancient magic of my Aryan ancestors” who “had left their marks on the world and on certain people.”

This is the novel's sharpest critique of Nazi occultism: its ability to absorb contradictory evidence. Ewers studies Quechua and Aymara, meets with shamans and sorcerers, and acquires their knowledge—all while maintaining that the knowledge ultimately belongs to Aryans. When an old woman refuses to teach him, saying she “did not trade in blood magic” and that he carried “two deaths,” Ewers is rattled but does not question his framework. He simply incorporates the deaths of his father and his companion L into his understanding of his own power.

The runes Ewers develops are part of this appropriation. Inspired by von List's invented runic alphabet and other occultists, Ewers creates his own system—but he also sees “parallels between European runes and Aztec and Maya ideograms and glyphs,” claiming Indigenous knowledge as evidence of Aryan influence rather than independent achievement.

The 1961 Film and the Hierophants

The film project brings the racial hierarchy into practical application. Ewers selected his hierophants by examining “birth dates, our family histories.” Urueta was told he descended from lost Atlanteans. Montserrat immediately sees through this: “He couldn't have said you were a Maya prince” by looking at him—he must have told Urueta he descended from a great Aryan lord.

The novel shows how this flattery worked on the Mexican elite. López notes that “the elites in Mexico are proud of their European roots.” Clarimonde Bauer's father changed his name from Kahlo to sound more local, but the family's German heritage was a point of pride. Urueta admits he wanted to be special: “they never imagine themselves as peasants covered in shit.”

The spell itself was a lie. Ewers promised Alma Montero her lost beauty and youth, but López reveals the spell was designed for Ewers's own rebirth. The racial hierarchy was not just a belief system—it was a tool for manipulation. Ewers told each hierophant what they wanted to hear, using their desire for distinction against them. The author's note confirms this pattern, explaining that Ewers is a composite of real occultists and that the Mexican phrase “mejorar la raza” (improving the race) is part of the cultural context the novel critiques.

The Dismantling

By the end of the novel, the system is rejected. Montserrat says “Ewers offered nothing true.” The nitrate print and Ewers's book are burned, and Montserrat destroys all photos of him. The magic's effects are real—Tristán sees his dead girlfriend, Montserrat's sister improves—but the racial framework that supposedly enabled it is exposed as hollow.

The novel's final position is that magic is not racially determined. The spell works (or has consequences) regardless of the participants' ancestry. What Ewers's system actually did was create a mythology of entitlement that served his own ends.

Complexity and Contradiction

The novel does not present a simple condemnation. Urueta is sympathetic—he was young, ambitious, and seduced by the promise of being special. The Mexican elites' complicity is shown as a product of colonial history, not simple villainy. Even Ewers is not a cartoon villain; his beliefs are a “mishmash” of ideas he genuinely held, and his journey to South America suggests a real (if self-serving) curiosity.

The contradiction at the heart of Ewers's system is that it both denies and depends on Indigenous knowledge. He claims Aryans invented magic, but he travels to South America to learn from Indigenous practitioners. He calls Mexicans “mutts” but recruits Mexican hierophants. The novel suggests that Nazi occultism was never coherent—it was a flexible mythology that could be adjusted to serve the speaker's needs.

Study Questions

1. How does Ewers's magic system encode racial hierarchy, and what specific beliefs does it draw from?

Ewers's system places Aryans at the top, Indigenous peoples as “degenerated” descendants of Aryan civilization, and mixed-race people as “mutts.” He draws from Krumm-Heller, Blavatsky, von List, and Lanz von Liebenfels, all of whom promoted racial theories. The system determines who can be a hierophant (high magic) versus an adept (low magic).

1. Why does Ewers's encounter with the beggar in Buenos Aires fail to change his worldview?

Ewers feels real magic from the beggar but rationalizes it as a remnant of ancient Aryan power. He cannot accept that a “brown-skinned man” could possess magic independently, so he absorbs the evidence into his existing framework.

1. How does Montserrat expose the racism in Urueta's story about being chosen as a hierophant?

Montserrat points out that Ewers couldn't have identified Urueta as a “Maya prince” by looking at him—he must have told Urueta he descended from a great Aryan lord. She notes that Ewers's “upper tier of followers must have been pale as fuck.”

1. What role does the Mexican elite's European pride play in the novel's critique?

López explains that Mexican elites are proud of their European roots, which made them receptive to Ewers's flattery. Urueta admits he wanted to be special. The novel shows that racial hierarchies in magic mirror and reinforce existing social hierarchies.

1. How does the novel's ending reject Ewers's system while acknowledging the magic's effects?

Montserrat says Ewers “offered nothing true,” and the film and book are burned. But the spell's effects were real—Tristán saw Karina, Montserrat's sister improved. The novel suggests magic exists but is not racially determined; Ewers's framework was a lie used for manipulation.