Seven Years In Tibet

Heinrich Harrer (1912-2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, writer, explorer, and a figure defined by the dramatic personal transformation he experienced while living in Tibet just before the Chinese invasion in 1950. His skied for Austria in the 1936 Winter Olympics, and co-led the first ascent of the treacherous Eiger North Face in 1938 (an ascent sponsored and affirmed by the Nazis). 

Though Harrer later framed his Nazi involvement as opportunistic, archival records show he joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1933 and became an SS Oberscharführer in April 1938, soon after the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria), before entering the Nazi Party on May 1st. Hitler personally congratulated him after Harrer’s Eiger ascent, and Harrer himself shared that he wore his SS uniform on his wedding day and used party ties to access a government-sponsored Himalayan expedition. 

In British India in September 1939, Harrer was planning to climb Nanga Parbat when he was interned as a prisoner of war (POW) after WWII began. Harrer eventually successfully escaped with three other POWs. He traversed jungles, swamps, snowfields, and Himalayan passes until reaching Tibet. While Harrer’s curiosity led to a deeper respect for Tibetan culture, spirituality, and communal life, he maintained a Eurocentric mindset and often either romanticized or judged the Tibetans as “other” compared to Western culture.