Heinrich Himmler
Army Group Upper Rhine | |
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1942–1943 | Acting Director of the Reich Security Main Office |
1939–1945 | Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood |
1933–1945 | Member of the Prussian State Council |
1933–1945 | Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party |
1933—1945 | Member of the Greater German Reichstag |
1930–1933 | Member of the Reichstag |
Personal details | |
Born | Heinrich Luitpold Himmler 7 October 1900[1] Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire |
Died | 23 May 1945 Lüneburg, Germany | (aged 44)
Cause of death | Suicide by cyanide poisoning |
Political party | Nazi Party (1923–1945) |
Other political affiliations | Bavarian People's Party (1919–1923) |
Spouse | |
Domestic partner | Hedwig Potthast (1939–1944) |
Children |
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Relatives |
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Education | Technical University of Munich |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | |
Branch/service | |
Years of service | 1917–1918 (Army) 1925–1945 (SS) |
Rank | |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (German: [ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈluːɪtpɔlt ˈhɪmlɐ] ⓘ; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German politician who was the 4th Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany, and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, primarily known for being a main architect of the Holocaust.
As a member of a reserve battalion during the First World War, Himmler did not see active service or combat. He joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and the SS in 1925, and in 1929 Adolf Hitler appointed him Reichsführer-SS. Over the next sixteen years, Himmler developed the SS from a 290-man battalion into a million-strong paramilitary group. He was known for good organisational skills and for selecting highly competent subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich in 1931. From 1943 onwards, he was both Chief of the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police) and Minister of the Interior, overseeing all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo (Secret State Police). He also controlled the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS.
Himmler's interest in occultism and Völkisch topics influenced the development of the racial policy of Nazi Germany, and he also incorporated esoteric symbolism and rituals into the SS. He was the principal overseer of Nazi Germany's genocidal programs, forming the Einsatzgruppen and administering extermination camps. In this capacity, Himmler directed the killing of some six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Romani people, and other victims. A day before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, Himmler commissioned the drafting of Generalplan Ost, which was approved by Hitler in May 1942 and implemented by the Nazi regime, killing approximately 14 million people, mostly Polish and Soviet citizens.
Late in the
Early life
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was born in Munich on 7 October 1900 into a conservative middle-class Roman Catholic family. His father was Joseph Gebhard Himmler (1865–1936), a teacher, and his mother was Anna Maria Himmler (née Heyder; 1866–1941), a devout Roman Catholic. Heinrich had two brothers: Gebhard Ludwig (1898–1982) and Ernst Hermann (1905–1945).[3]
Himmler's first name, Heinrich, was that of his godfather, Prince Heinrich of Bavaria, a member of the royal family of Bavaria who had been tutored by Himmler's father.[4][5] He attended a grammar school in Landshut, where his father was deputy principal. While he did well in his schoolwork, he struggled in athletics.[6] He had poor health, suffering from lifelong stomach complaints and other ailments. In his youth he trained daily with weights and exercised to become stronger. Other boys at the school later remembered him as studious and awkward in social situations.[7]
Himmler's diary, which he kept intermittently from the age of 10, shows that he took a keen interest in current events, dueling, and "the serious discussion of religion and sex".
Although many regulations that discriminated against non-Christians—including Jews and other minority groups—had been eliminated during the unification of Germany in 1871, antisemitism continued to exist and thrive in Germany and other parts of Europe.[14] Himmler was antisemitic by the time he went to university, but not exceptionally so; students at his school would avoid their Jewish classmates.[15] He remained a devout Catholic while a student and spent most of his leisure time with members of his fencing fraternity, the "League of Apollo", the president of which was Jewish. Himmler maintained a polite demeanor with him and with other Jewish members of the fraternity, in spite of his growing antisemitism.[16][17] During his second year at university, Himmler redoubled his attempts to pursue a military career. Although he was not successful, he was able to extend his involvement in the paramilitary scene in Munich. It was at this time that he first met Ernst Röhm, an early member of the Nazi Party and co-founder of the Sturmabteilung ("Storm Battalion"; SA).[18][19] Himmler admired Röhm because he was a decorated combat soldier, and at his suggestion Himmler joined his antisemitic nationalist group, the Bund Reichskriegsflagge (Imperial War Flag Society).[20]
In 1922, Himmler became more interested in the "Jewish question", with his diary entries containing an increasing number of antisemitic remarks and recording a number of discussions about Jews with his classmates. His reading lists, as recorded in his diary, were dominated by antisemitic pamphlets, German myths, and occult tracts.[21] After the murder of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau on 24 June, Himmler's political views veered towards the radical right, and he took part in demonstrations against the Treaty of Versailles. Hyperinflation was raging, and his parents could no longer afford to educate all three sons. Disappointed by his failure to make a career in the military and his parents' inability to finance his doctoral studies, he was forced to take a low-paying office job after obtaining his agricultural diploma. He remained in this position until September 1923.[22][23]
Nazi activist
Himmler joined the Nazi Party on 1 August 1923,[24] receiving party number 14303.[25][26] As a member of Röhm's paramilitary unit, Himmler was involved in the Beer Hall Putsch—an unsuccessful attempt by Hitler and the Nazi Party to seize power in Munich. This event would set Himmler on a life of politics. He was questioned by the police about his role in the putsch but was not charged because of insufficient evidence. However, he lost his job, was unable to find employment as a farm manager, and had to move in with his parents in Munich. Frustrated by these failures, he became ever more irritable, aggressive, and opinionated, alienating both friends and family members.[27][28]
In 1923–24, Himmler, while searching for a world view, came to abandon Catholicism and focused on the occult and in antisemitism. Germanic mythology, reinforced by occult ideas, became a religion for him. Himmler found the Nazi Party appealing because its political positions agreed with his own views. Initially, he was not swept up by Hitler's charisma or the cult of Führer worship. However, as he learned more about Hitler through his reading, he began to regard him as a useful face of the party,[29][30] and he later admired and even worshipped him.[31] To consolidate and advance his own position in the Nazi Party, Himmler took advantage of the disarray in the party following Hitler's arrest in the wake of the Beer Hall Putsch.[31] From mid-1924 he worked under Gregor Strasser as a party secretary and propaganda assistant. Travelling all over Bavaria agitating for the party, he gave speeches and distributed literature. Placed in charge of the party office in Lower Bavaria by Strasser from late 1924, he was responsible for integrating the area's membership with the Nazi Party under Hitler when the party was re-founded in February 1925.[32][33]
That same year, he joined the
Around this time, Himmler joined the
Rise in the SS
Upon the resignation of SS commander
To gain political power, the Nazi Party took advantage of the economic downturn during the Great Depression. The coalition government of the Weimar Republic was unable to improve the economy, so many voters turned to the political extreme, which included the Nazi Party.[44] Hitler used populist rhetoric, including blaming scapegoats—particularly the Jews—for the economic hardships.[45] In September 1930, Himmler was first elected as a deputy to the Reichstag.[46] In the 1932 election, the Nazis won 37.3 percent of the vote and 230 seats in the Reichstag.[47] Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933, heading a short-lived coalition of his Nazis and the German National People's Party. The new cabinet initially included only three members of the Nazi Party: Hitler, Hermann Göring as minister without portfolio and Minister of the Interior for Prussia, and Wilhelm Frick as Reich Interior Minister.[48][49] Less than a month later, the Reichstag building was set on fire. Hitler took advantage of this event, forcing Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial.[50] The Enabling Act, passed by the Reichstag on 23 March 1933, gave the Cabinet—in practice, Hitler—full legislative powers, and the country became a de facto dictatorship.[51] On 1 August 1934, Hitler's cabinet passed a law which stipulated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. Hindenburg died the next morning, and Hitler became both head of state and head of government under the title Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor).[52]
The Nazi Party's rise to power provided Himmler and the SS an unfettered opportunity to thrive. By 1933, the SS numbered 52,000 members.
Himmler's organised, bookish intellect served him well as he began setting up different SS departments. In 1931 he appointed Reinhard Heydrich chief of the new Ic Service (intelligence service), which was renamed the Sicherheitsdienst (SD: Security Service) in 1932. He later officially appointed Heydrich his deputy.[56] The two men had a good working relationship and a mutual respect.[57] In 1933, they began to remove the SS from SA control. Along with Interior Minister Frick, they hoped to create a unified German police force. In March 1933, Reich Governor of Bavaria Franz Ritter von Epp appointed Himmler chief of the Munich Police. Himmler appointed Heydrich commander of Department IV, the political police.[58] Thereafter, Himmler and Heydrich took over the political police of state after state; soon only Prussia was controlled by Göring.[59] Effective 1 January 1933, Hitler promoted Himmler to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer, equal in rank to the senior SA commanders.[60] On 2 June Himmler, along with the heads of the other two Nazi paramilitary organizations, the SA and the Hitler Youth, was named a Reichsleiter, the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party. On 10 July, he was named to the Prussian State Council.[46] On 2 October 1933, he became a founding member of Hans Frank's Academy for German Law at its inaugural meeting.[61]
Himmler further established the
In March 1933, less than three months after the Nazis came to power, Himmler set up the first official concentration camp at Dachau.[67] Hitler had stated that he did not want it to be just another prison or detention camp. Himmler appointed Theodor Eicke, a convicted felon and ardent Nazi, to run the camp in June 1933.[68] Eicke devised a system that was used as a model for future camps throughout Germany.[38] Its features included isolation of victims from the outside world, elaborate roll calls and work details, the use of force and executions to exact obedience, and a strict disciplinary code for the guards. Uniforms were issued for prisoners and guards alike; the guards' uniforms had a special Totenkopf insignia on their collars. By the end of 1934, Himmler took control of the camps under the aegis of the SS, creating a separate division, the SS-Totenkopfverbände.[69][70]
Part of a series on |
Antisemitism |
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Category |
Initially the camps housed political opponents; over time, undesirable members of German society—criminals, vagrants, deviants—were placed in the camps as well. In 1936 Himmler wrote in the pamphlet "The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organization" that the SS were to fight against the "Jewish-Bolshevik revolution of subhumans".
Consolidation of power
In early 1934, Hitler and other Nazi leaders became concerned that Röhm was planning a coup d'état.
Göring had created a Prussian secret police force, the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo in 1933 and appointed Rudolf Diels as its head. Göring, concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to use the Gestapo effectively to counteract the power of the SA, handed over its control to Himmler on 20 April 1934.[76] Also on that date, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of all German police outside Prussia. This was a radical departure from long-standing German practice that law enforcement was a state and local matter. Heydrich, named chief of the Gestapo by Himmler on 22 April 1934, also continued as head of the SD.[77]
Hitler decided on 21 June that Röhm and the SA leadership had to be eliminated. He sent Göring to Berlin on 29 June, to meet with Himmler and Heydrich to plan the action. Hitler took charge in Munich, where Röhm was arrested; he gave Röhm the choice to commit suicide or be shot. When Röhm refused to kill himself, he was shot dead by two SS officers. Between 85 and 200 members of the SA leadership and other political adversaries, including Gregor Strasser, were killed between 30 June and 2 July 1934 in these actions, known as the Night of the Long Knives.[78][79] With the SA thus neutralised, the SS became an independent organisation answerable only to Hitler on 20 July 1934. Himmler's title of Reichsführer-SS became the highest formal SS rank, equivalent to a field marshal in the army.[80] The SA was converted into a sports and training organisation.[81]
On 15 September 1935, Hitler presented two laws—known as the Nuremberg Laws—to the Reichstag. The laws banned marriage between non-Jewish and Jewish Germans and forbade the employment of non-Jewish women under the age of 45 in Jewish households. The laws also deprived so-called "non-Aryans" of the benefits of German citizenship.[82] These laws were among the first race-based measures instituted by the Third Reich.
Himmler and Heydrich wanted to extend the power of the SS; thus, they urged Hitler to form a national police force overseen by the SS, to guard Nazi Germany against its many enemies at the time—real and imagined.[83] Interior Minister Frick also wanted a national police force, but one controlled by him, with Kurt Daluege as his police chief.[84] Hitler left it to Himmler and Heydrich to work out the arrangements with Frick. Himmler and Heydrich had greater bargaining power, as they were allied with Frick's old enemy, Göring. Heydrich drew up a set of proposals and Himmler sent him to meet with Frick. An angry Frick then consulted with Hitler, who told him to agree to the proposals. Frick acquiesced, and on 17 June 1936 Hitler decreed the unification of all police forces in the Reich and named Himmler Chief of German Police and a State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior.[84] In this role, Himmler was still nominally subordinate to Frick. In practice, however, the police were now effectively a division of the SS, and hence independent of Frick's control. This move gave Himmler operational control over Germany's entire detective force.[84][85] He also gained authority over all of Germany's uniformed law enforcement agencies, which were amalgamated into the new Ordnungspolizei (Orpo: "order police"), which became a branch of the SS under Daluege.[84]
Shortly thereafter, Himmler created the
Under Himmler's leadership, the SS developed its own military branch, the
In addition to his military ambitions, Himmler established the beginnings of a parallel economy under the umbrella of the SS.[89] To this end, administrator Oswald Pohl set up the Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe (German Economic Enterprise) in 1940. Under the auspices of the SS Economy and Administration Head Office, this holding company owned housing corporations, factories, and publishing houses.[90] Pohl was unscrupulous and quickly exploited the companies for personal gain. In contrast, Himmler was honest in matters of money and business.[91]
In 1938, as part of his preparations for war, Hitler ended the
Anti-church struggle
According to Himmler biographer Peter Longerich, Himmler believed that a major task of the SS should be "acting as the vanguard in overcoming Christianity and restoring a 'Germanic' way of living" as part of preparations for the coming conflict between "humans and subhumans".[95] Longerich wrote that, while the Nazi movement as a whole launched itself against Jews and Communists, "by linking de-Christianisation with re-Germanization, Himmler had provided the SS with a goal and purpose all of its own".[95] Himmler was vehemently opposed to Christian sexual morality and the "principle of Christian mercy", both of which he saw as dangerous obstacles to his planned battle with "subhumans".[95] In 1937, Himmler declared:
We live in an era of the ultimate conflict with Christianity. It is part of the mission of the SS to give the German people in the next half century the non-Christian ideological foundations on which to lead and shape their lives. This task does not consist solely in overcoming an ideological opponent but must be accompanied at every step by a positive impetus: in this case that means the reconstruction of the German heritage in the widest and most comprehensive sense.[96]
In early 1937, Himmler had his personal staff work with academics to create a framework to replace Christianity within the Germanic cultural heritage. The project gave rise to the Deutschrechtliches Institut, headed by Professor Karl Eckhardt, at the University of Bonn.[97]
World War II
When Hitler and his army chiefs asked for a
Germany subsequently invaded
Himmler declared that the war in the east was a pan-European crusade to defend the traditional values of old Europe from the "Godless
In late 1941, Hitler named Heydrich as Deputy Reich Protector of the newly established Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Heydrich began to racially classify the Czechs, deporting many to concentration camps. Members of a swelling resistance were shot, earning Heydrich the nickname "the Butcher of Prague".[111] This appointment strengthened the collaboration between Himmler and Heydrich, and Himmler was proud to have SS control over a state. Despite having direct access to Hitler, Heydrich's loyalty to Himmler remained firm.[112]
With Hitler's approval, Himmler re-established the Einsatzgruppen in the lead-up to the planned invasion of the Soviet Union. In March 1941, Hitler addressed his army leaders, detailing his intention to smash the Soviet Empire and destroy the Bolshevik intelligentsia and leadership.[113] His special directive, the "Guidelines in Special Spheres re Directive No. 21 (Operation Barbarossa)", read: "In the operations area of the army, the Reichsführer-SS has been given special tasks on the orders of the Führer, in order to prepare the political administration. These tasks arise from the forthcoming final struggle of two opposing political systems. Within the framework of these tasks, the Reichsführer-SS acts independently and on his own responsibility."[114] Hitler thus intended to prevent internal friction like that occurring earlier in Poland in 1939, when several German Army generals (including Johannes Blaskowitz) had attempted to bring Einsatzgruppen leaders to trial for the murders they had committed.[114]
Following the army into the Soviet Union, the Einsatzgruppen rounded up and killed Jews and others deemed undesirable by the Nazi state.
Final Solution, the Holocaust, racial policy, and eugenics
Part of Auschwitz , May 1944 |
Nazi racial policies, including the notion that people who were racially inferior had no right to live, date back to the earliest days of the party; Hitler discusses this in
In June 1942, Heydrich was assassinated in
Initially the victims were killed with
He decided that alternate methods of killing should be found.
The Nazis also targeted Romani (Gypsies) as "asocial" and "criminals".[141] By 1935, they were confined into special camps away from ethnic Germans.[141] In 1938, Himmler issued an order in which he said that the "Gypsy question" would be determined by "race".[142] Himmler believed that the Romani were originally Aryan but had become a mixed race; only the "racially pure" were to be allowed to live.[143] In 1939, Himmler ordered thousands of Gypsies to be sent to the Dachau concentration camp and by 1942, ordered all Romani sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.[144]
Himmler was one of the main architects of the Holocaust,[145][146][147] using his deep belief in the racist Nazi ideology to justify the murder of millions of victims. Longerich surmises that Hitler, Himmler, and Heydrich designed the Holocaust during a period of intensive meetings and exchanges in April–May 1942.[148] The Nazis planned to kill Polish intellectuals and restrict non-Germans in the General Government and conquered territories to a fourth-grade education.[149] They further wanted to breed a master race of racially pure Nordic Aryans in Germany. As a student of agriculture and a farmer, Himmler was acquainted with the principles of selective breeding, which he proposed to apply to humans. He believed that he could engineer the German populace, for example, through eugenics, to be Nordic in appearance within several decades of the end of the war.[150]
Posen speeches
On 4 October 1943, during a secret meeting with top SS officials in the city of Poznań (Posen), and on 6 October 1943, in a speech to the party elite—the Gauleiters and Reichsleiters—Himmler referred explicitly to the "extermination" (German: Ausrottung) of the Jewish people.[151]
A translated excerpt from the speech of 4 October reads:[152]
I also want to refer here very frankly to a very difficult matter. We can now very openly talk about this among ourselves, and yet we will never discuss this publicly. Just as we did not hesitate on 30 June 1934, to perform our duty as ordered and put comrades who had failed up against the wall and execute them, we also never spoke about it, nor will we ever speak about it. Let us thank God that we had within us enough self-evident fortitude never to discuss it among us, and we never talked about it. Every one of us was horrified, and yet every one clearly understood that we would do it next time, when the order is given and when it becomes necessary.
I am talking about the "Jewish evacuation": the extermination of the Jewish people. It is one of those things that is easily said. "The Jewish people is being exterminated", every Party member will tell you, "perfectly clear, it's part of our plans, we're eliminating the Jews, exterminating them, ha!, a small matter." And then they turn up, the upstanding 80 million Germans, and each one has his decent Jew. They say the others are all swines, but this particular one is a splendid Jew. But none has observed it, endured it. Most of you here know what it means when 100 corpses lie next to each other, when there are 500 or when there are 1,000. To have endured this and at the same time to have remained a decent person—with exceptions due to human weaknesses—has made us tough, and is a glorious chapter that has not and will not be spoken of. Because we know how difficult it would be for us if we still had Jews as secret saboteurs, agitators and rabble-rousers in every city, what with the bombings, with the burden and with the hardships of the war. If the Jews were still part of the German nation, we would most likely arrive now at the state we were at in 1916 and '17 ...[153][154]
Because the Allies had indicated that they were going to pursue criminal charges for German war crimes, Hitler tried to gain the loyalty and silence of his subordinates by making them all parties to the ongoing genocide. Hitler therefore authorised Himmler's speeches to ensure that all party leaders were complicit in the crimes and could not later deny knowledge of the killings.[151]
Germanization policies and Generalplan Ost
As
Himmler's racial groupings began with the
The plan also included the kidnapping of Eastern European children by Nazi Germany.[163] Himmler urged:
Obviously in such a mixture of peoples, there will always be some racially good types. Therefore, I think that it is our duty to take their children with us, to remove them from their environment, if necessary by robbing, or stealing them. Either we win over any good blood that we can use for ourselves and give it a place in our people, ... or we destroy that blood.[164]
The "racially valuable" children were to be removed from all contact with Poles and raised as Germans, with German names.[163] Himmler declared: "We have faith above all in this our own blood, which has flowed into a foreign nationality through the vicissitudes of German history. We are convinced that our own philosophy and ideals will reverberate in the spirit of these children who racially belong to us."[163] The children were to be adopted by German families.[161] Children who passed muster at first but were later rejected were taken to Kinder KZ in Łódź Ghetto, where most of them eventually died.[163]
By January 1943, Himmler reported that 629,000 ethnic Germans had been resettled; however, most resettled Germans did not live in the envisioned small farms, but in temporary camps or quarters in towns. Half a million residents of the annexed Polish territories, as well as from Slovenia, Alsace, Lorraine, and Luxembourg were deported to the General Government or sent to Germany as slave labour.[165] Himmler instructed that the German nation should view all foreign workers brought to Germany as a danger to their German blood.[166] In accordance with German racial laws, sexual relations between Germans and foreigners were forbidden as Rassenschande (race defilement).[167]
20 July plot
On 20 July 1944, a group of German army officers led by Claus von Stauffenberg and including some of the highest-ranked members of the German armed forces attempted to assassinate Hitler, but failed to do so. The next day, Himmler formed a special commission that arrested over 5,000 suspected and known opponents of the regime. Hitler ordered brutal reprisals that resulted in the execution of more than 4,900 people.[168] Though Himmler was embarrassed by his failure to uncover the plot, it led to an increase in his powers and authority.[169][170]
General Friedrich Fromm, commander-in-chief of the Replacement Army (Ersatzheer) and Stauffenberg's immediate superior, was one of those implicated in the conspiracy. Hitler removed Fromm from his post and named Himmler as his successor. Since the Replacement Army consisted of two million men, Himmler hoped to draw on these reserves to fill posts within the Waffen-SS. He appointed Hans Jüttner, director of the SS Leadership Main Office, as his deputy, and began to fill top Replacement Army posts with SS men. By November 1944, Himmler had merged the army officer recruitment department with that of the Waffen-SS and had successfully lobbied for an increase in the quotas for recruits to the SS.[171]
By this time, Hitler had appointed Himmler as Reichsminister of the Interior, succeeding Frick, and General Plenipotentiary for Administration (Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung).[172] At the same time (24 August 1943) he also joined the six-member Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, which operated as the war cabinet.[173] In August 1944 Hitler authorised him to restructure the organisation and administration of the Waffen-SS, the army, and the police services. As head of the Replacement Army, Himmler was now responsible for prisoners of war. He was also in charge of the Wehrmacht penal system, and controlled the development of Wehrmacht armaments until January 1945.[174]
Command of army group
On 6 June 1944, the Western Allied armies landed in northern France during
On 26 September 1944, Hitler ordered Himmler to create special army units, the Volkssturm ("People's Storm" or "People's Army"). All males aged sixteen to sixty were eligible for conscription into this militia, over the protests of Armaments Minister Albert Speer, who noted that irreplaceable skilled workers were being removed from armaments production.[178] Hitler confidently believed six million men could be raised, and the new units would "initiate a people's war against the invader".[179] These hopes were wildly optimistic.[179] In October 1944, children as young as fourteen were being enlisted. Because of severe shortages in weapons and equipment and lack of training, members of the Volkssturm were poorly prepared for combat, and about 175,000 of them died in the final months of the war.[180]
On 1 January 1945, Hitler and his generals launched
On 25 January 1945, despite Himmler's lack of military experience, Hitler appointed him as commander of the hastily formed Army Group Vistula (Heeresgruppe Weichsel) to halt the Soviet Red Army's Vistula–Oder offensive into Pomerania[182] – a decision that appalled the German General Staff.[183] Himmler established his command centre at Schneidemühl, using his special train, Sonderzug Steiermark, as his headquarters. The train had only one telephone line, inadequate maps, and no signal detachment or radios with which to establish communication and relay military orders. Himmler seldom left the train, only worked about four hours per day, and insisted on a daily massage before commencing work and a lengthy nap after lunch.[184]
General Heinz Guderian talked to Himmler on 9 February and demanded that Operation Solstice, an attack from Pomerania against the northern flank of Marshal Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front, should be in progress by the 16th. Himmler argued that he was not ready to commit himself to a specific date. Given Himmler's lack of qualifications as an army group commander, Guderian convinced himself that Himmler tried to conceal his incompetence.[185] On 13 February Guderian met Hitler and demanded that General Walther Wenck be given a special mandate to command the offensive by Army Group Vistula. Hitler sent Wenck with a "special mandate", but without specifying Wenck's authority.[186] The offensive was launched on 16 February 1945, but soon stuck in rain and mud, facing mine fields and strong antitank defenses. That night Wenck was severely injured in a car accident, but it is doubtful that he could have salvaged the operation, as Guderian later claimed. Himmler ordered the offensive to stop on the 18th by a "directive for regrouping".[187] Hitler officially ended Operation Solstice on 21 February and ordered Himmler to transfer a corps headquarter and three divisions to Army Group Center.[188]
Himmler was unable to devise any viable plans for completion of his military objectives. Under pressure from Hitler over the worsening military situation, Himmler became anxious and unable to give him coherent reports.[189] When the counter-attack failed to stop the Soviet advance, Hitler held Himmler personally liable and accused him of not following orders. Himmler's military command ended on 20 March, when Hitler replaced him with General Gotthard Heinrici as Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula. By this time Himmler, who had been under the care of his doctor since 18 February, had fled to the Hohenlychen Sanatorium.[190] Hitler sent Guderian on a forced medical leave of absence, and he reassigned his post as chief of staff to Hans Krebs on 29 March.[191] Himmler's failure and Hitler's response marked a serious deterioration in the relationship between the two men.[192] By that time, the inner circle of people whom Hitler trusted was rapidly shrinking.[193]
Peace negotiations
In early 1945, the German war effort was on the verge of collapse and Himmler's relationship with Hitler had deteriorated. Himmler considered independently negotiating a peace settlement. His masseur, Felix Kersten, who had moved to Sweden, acted as an intermediary in negotiations with Count Folke Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross. Letters were exchanged between the two men,[194] and direct meetings were arranged by Walter Schellenberg of the RSHA.[195]
In March 1945, Himmler issued a directive that Jews were to be marched from the South-east wall (Südostwall) fortifications construction project on the Austro-Hungarian border, to Mauthausen. He desired hostages for potential peace negotiations. Thousands died on the marches.[196][197]
Himmler and Hitler met for the last time on 20 April 1945—Hitler's birthday—in Berlin, and Himmler swore unswerving loyalty to Hitler. At a military briefing on that day, Hitler stated that he would not leave Berlin, in spite of Soviet advances. Along with Göring, Himmler quickly left the city after the briefing.[198] On 21 April, Himmler met with Norbert Masur, a Swedish representative of the World Jewish Congress, to discuss the release of Jewish concentration camp inmates.[199] As a result of these negotiations, about 20,000 people were released in the White Buses operation.[200] Himmler falsely claimed in the meeting that the crematoria at camps had been built to deal with the bodies of prisoners who had died in a typhus epidemic. He also claimed very high survival rates for the camps at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, even as these sites were liberated and it became obvious that his figures were false.[201]
On 23 April, Himmler met directly with Bernadotte at the Swedish consulate in
Meanwhile, Göring had sent a telegram, a few hours earlier, asking Hitler for permission to assume leadership of the Reich in his capacity as Hitler's designated deputy—an act that Hitler, under the prodding of Martin Bormann, interpreted as a demand to step down or face a coup. On 27 April, Himmler's SS representative at Hitler's HQ in Berlin, Hermann Fegelein, was caught in civilian clothes preparing to desert; he was arrested and brought back to the Führerbunker. On the evening of 28 April, the BBC broadcast a Reuters news report about Himmler's attempted negotiations with the western Allies. Hitler had long considered Himmler to be second only to Joseph Goebbels in loyalty; he called Himmler "the loyal Heinrich" (German: der treue Heinrich). Hitler flew into a rage at this betrayal, and told those still with him in the bunker complex that Himmler's secret negotiations were the worst treachery he had ever known. Hitler ordered Himmler's arrest, and Fegelein was court-martialed and shot.[204]
By this time, the Soviets had advanced to the Potsdamer Platz, only 300 m (330 yd) from the Reich Chancellery, and were preparing to storm the Chancellery. This report, combined with Himmler's treachery, prompted Hitler to write his last will and testament. In the testament, completed on 29 April—one day prior to his suicide—Hitler declared both Himmler and Göring to be traitors. He stripped Himmler of all of his party and state offices and expelled him from the Nazi Party.[205][206]
Hitler named
Capture and death
Rejected by his former comrades and hunted by the Allies, Himmler attempted to go into hiding. He had not made extensive preparations for this, but he carried a forged paybook under the name of Sergeant Heinrich Hizinger. On 11 May 1945, with a small band of companions, he headed south to Friedrichskoog, without a final destination in mind. They continued on to Neuhaus, where the group split up. On 21 May, Himmler and two aides were stopped and detained at a checkpoint in Bremervörde set up by former Soviet POWs. Over the following two days, he was moved around to several camps[209] and was brought to the British 31st Civilian Interrogation Camp near Lüneburg, on 23 May.[210] The officials noticed that Himmler's identity papers bore a stamp which British military intelligence had seen being used by fleeing members of the SS.[211]
The duty officer, Captain Thomas Selvester, began a routine interrogation. Himmler admitted who he was, and Selvester had the prisoner searched. Himmler was taken to the headquarters of the Second British Army in Lüneburg, where a doctor conducted a medical exam on him. The doctor attempted to examine the inside of Himmler's mouth, but the prisoner was reluctant to open it and jerked his head away. Himmler then bit into a hidden potassium cyanide pill and collapsed onto the floor. He was dead within 15 minutes,[212][213] despite efforts to expel the poison from his system.[214] Shortly afterward, Himmler's body was buried in an unmarked grave near Lüneburg. The grave's location remains unknown.[215]
Mysticism and symbolism
Himmler was interested in
All regalia and uniforms of Nazi Germany, particularly those of the SS, used symbolism in their designs. The
Relationship with Hitler
As second in command of the SS and then Reichsführer-SS, Himmler was in regular contact with Hitler to arrange for SS men as bodyguards;[224] Himmler was not involved with Nazi Party policy-making decisions in the years leading up to the seizure of power.[225] From the late 1930s, the SS was independent of the control of other state agencies or government departments, and he reported only to Hitler.[226]
Hitler promoted and practised the Führerprinzip. The principle required absolute obedience of all subordinates to their superiors; thus Hitler viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex.[227] Accordingly, Himmler placed himself in a position of subservience to Hitler, and was unconditionally obedient to him.[228] However, he—like other top Nazi officials—had aspirations to one day succeed Hitler as leader of the Reich.[229] Himmler considered Speer to be an especially dangerous rival, both in the Reich administration and as a potential successor to Hitler.[230]
Hitler called Himmler's mystical and pseudoreligious interests "nonsense".[231] Himmler was not a member of Hitler's inner circle; the two men were not very close, and rarely saw each other socially.[232][233] Himmler socialised almost exclusively with other members of the SS.[234] His unconditional loyalty and efforts to please Hitler earned him the nickname of der treue Heinrich ("the faithful Heinrich"). However, in the last days of the war, when it became clear that Hitler planned to die in Berlin, Himmler left his long-time superior to try to save himself.[235]
Marriage and family
Himmler met his future wife,
After the Nazis came to power the family moved first to Möhlstrasse in Munich, and in 1934 to Tegernsee, where they bought a house. Himmler also later obtained a large house in the Berlin suburb of Dahlem, free of charge, as an official residence. The couple saw little of each other as Himmler became totally absorbed by work.[239] The relationship was strained.[240][241] The couple did unite for social functions; they were frequent guests at the Heydrich home. Margarete saw it as her duty to invite the wives of the senior SS leaders over for afternoon coffee and tea on Wednesday afternoons.[242]
Margarete's diaries record that Gerhard left the National Political Educational Institute in Berlin due to poor examination results. At 16 he joined the SS in Brno and fought on the Eastern Front. He was captured by the Russians but was later returned to Germany.[244]
Hedwig and Margarete both remained loyal to Himmler. Writing to Gebhard in February 1945, Margarete said, "How wonderful that he has been called to great tasks and is equal to them. The whole of Germany is looking to him."[245] Hedwig expressed similar sentiments in a letter to Himmler in January. Margarete and Gudrun left Gmund as Allied troops advanced into the area. They were arrested by American troops in Bolzano, Italy, and held in various internment camps in Italy, France, and Germany. They were brought to Nuremberg to testify at the trials and were released in November 1946. Gudrun emerged from the experience embittered by her alleged mistreatment and remained devoted to her father's memory.[246][247] She later worked for the West German spy agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) from 1961 to 1963.[248]
Historical assessment
Peter Longerich observes that Himmler's ability to consolidate his ever-increasing powers and responsibilities into a coherent system under the auspices of the SS led him to become one of the most powerful men in the Third Reich.[249] Historian Wolfgang Sauer says that "although he was pedantic, dogmatic, and dull, Himmler emerged under Hitler as second in actual power. His strength lay in a combination of unusual shrewdness, burning ambition, and servile loyalty to Hitler."[250] In 2008, the German news magazine Der Spiegel described Himmler as one of the most brutal mass murderers in history and the architect of the Holocaust.[251]
Historian
See also
- Glossary of Nazi Germany
- Heinrich Himmler papers
- Lebensborn
- List of Nazi Party leaders and officials
- List of SS personnel
References
Notes
- ^ At that time Reichsführer-SS was only a titled position, not an actual SS rank (McNab 2009, pp. 18, 29).
Citations
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- ^ Himmler 2007.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 12–15.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 1.
- ^ Breitman 2004, p. 9.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 17–19.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, pp. 3, 6–7.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 16.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 8.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 20–26.
- ^ Padfield 1990, pp. 36–37, 49–50, 57, 67.
- ^ Breitman 2004, p. 12.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 29.
- ^ Evans 2003, pp. 22–25.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 33, 42.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 31, 35, 47.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, pp. 6, 8–9, 11.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 54.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 10.
- ^ Weale 2010, p. 40.
- ^ Weale 2010, p. 42.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 60, 64–65.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, pp. 9–11.
- ^ Gellately 2020, p. 54.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 11.
- ^ a b Biondi 2000, p. 7.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 72–75.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 77–81, 87.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, pp. 11–13.
- ^ a b Evans 2003, p. 227.
- ^ Gerwarth 2011, p. 51.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 70, 81–88.
- ^ a b Evans 2003, p. 228.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 89–92.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, pp. 15–16.
- ^ a b McNab 2009, p. 18.
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- ^ Shirer 1960, p. 148.
- ^ Weale 2010, p. 47.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 113–114.
- ^ Evans 2003, pp. 228–229.
- ^ McNab 2009, pp. 17, 19–21.
- ^ Evans 2005, p. 9.
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- ^ a b Williams 2015, p. 565.
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- ^ Frank 1933–1934, p. 254.
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- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 127, 353.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 302.
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- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 378.
- ^ Evans 2003, p. 344.
- ^ McNab 2009, pp. 136, 137.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 151–153.
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- ^ Himmler 1936.
- ^ Evans 2005, p. 87.
- ^ Evans 2005, pp. 86–90.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, pp. 306–309.
- ^ Evans 2005, p. 24.
- ^ Evans 2005, p. 54.
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- ^ Kershaw 2008, pp. 308–314.
- ^ Evans 2005, pp. 31–35, 39.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 316.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 313.
- ^ Evans 2005, pp. 543–545.
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- ^ Evans 2003, p. 34.
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- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 270.
- ^ Padfield 1990, p. 170.
- ^ Shirer 1960, pp. 518–520.
- ^ McNab 2009, pp. 118, 122.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, pp. 518, 519.
- ^ Evans 2008, pp. 14–15.
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- ^ Evans 2008, pp. 173–174.
- ^ Cesarani 2004, p. 366.
- ^ McNab 2009, pp. 93, 98.
- ^ Koehl 2004, pp. 212–213.
- ^ McNab 2009, pp. 81–84.
- ^ van Roekel 2010.
- ^ McNab 2009, pp. 84, 90.
- ^ McNab 2009, p. 94.
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- ^ Longerich, Chapter 15 2003.
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- ^ a b Longerich, Chapter 17 2003.
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- ^ Evans 2008, p. 264.
- ^ a b Gerwarth 2011, p. 280.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 129.
- ^ Gerwarth 2011, pp. 280–285.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 714.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 570–571.
- ^ Evans 2008, pp. 282–283.
- ^ Evans 2008, pp. 256–257.
- ^ Trigg 2020, p. 172.
- ^ Gilbert 1987, p. 191.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 547.
- ^ Gerwarth 2011, p. 199.
- ^ Evans 2008, pp. 295, 299–300.
- ^ Steinbacher 2005, p. 106.
- ^ Evans 2008, p. 318.
- ^ Yad Vashem, 2008.
- ^ Introduction: Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- ^ Evans 2008, pp. 288–289.
- ^ a b Longerich 2012, p. 229.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 230.
- ^ Lewy 2000, pp. 135–137.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 230, 670.
- ^ Zentner & Bedürftig 1991, p. 1150.
- ^ Shirer 1960, p. 236.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 3.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 564.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 429, 451.
- ^ Pringle 2006.
- ^ a b Sereny 1996, pp. 388–389.
- ^ Posen speech (1943), audio recording.
- ^ Posen speech (1943), transcript.
- ^ IMT : Volume 29, p. 145f.
- ^ Cecil 1972, p. 191.
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- ^ Lens 2019.
- ^ Naimark 2023, pp. 359, 377.
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- ^ Shirer 1960, §29.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 696–698.
- ^ Evans 2008, p. 642.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 698–702.
- ^ Lisciotto 2007.
- ^ The Career of Heinrich Himmler 2001, pp. 50, 67.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 702–704.
- ^ Shirer 1960, p. 1036.
- ^ Shirer 1960, p. 1086.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 715.
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- ^ a b The Battle for Germany 2011.
- ^ Evans 2008, pp. 675–678.
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- ^ Ziemke 1968, p. 446-447.
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- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 715–718.
- ^ Duffy 1991, p. 241.
- ^ Duffy 1991, p. 247.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, pp. 891, 913–914.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 914.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, pp. 230–233.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, pp. 943–945.
- ^ Rathkolb 2022, p. 138.
- ^ Nuremberg Trials 1946.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, pp. 923–925, 943.
- ^ Penkower 1988, p. 281.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 724.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 727–729.
- ^ Shirer 1960, p. 1122.
- ^ Trevor-Roper 2012, pp. 118–119.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, pp. 943–947.
- ^ Evans 2008, p. 724.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 237.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 733–734.
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- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 734–736.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 1, 736.
- ^ Corera 2020.
- ^ Bend Bulletin 1945.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 1–3.
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- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 248.
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- ^ Yenne 2010, p. 134.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 50.
- ^ Yenne 2010, p. 64.
- ^ Yenne 2010, pp. 93, 94.
- ^ Flaherty 2004, pp. 38–45, 48, 49.
- ^ Yenne 2010, p. 71.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 287.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 16.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 20.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 251.
- ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 181.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 83.
- ^ Sereny 1996, pp. 322–323.
- ^ Sereny 1996, pp. 424–425.
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- ^ Toland 1977, p. 869.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 29.
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- ^ Weale 2010, pp. 4, 407–408.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 17.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 258.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 109–110.
- ^ Flaherty 2004, p. 27.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 109, 374–375.
- ^ Manvell & Fraenkel 2007, p. 40–41.
- ^ Gerwarth 2011, p. 111.
- ^ Longerich 2012, pp. 466–68.
- ^ Himmler 2007, p. 285.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 732.
- ^ Himmler 2007, p. 275.
- ^ Sify News 2010.
- ^ Deutsche Welle 2018.
- ^ Longerich 2012, p. 747.
- ^ Sauer, Wolfgang.
- ^ Von Wiegrefe 2008.
- ^ Toland 1977, p. 812.
- ^ Weale 2010, pp. 3, 4.
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Further reading
- Frischauer, Willi (2013) [1953]. Himmler: The Evil Genius of the Third Reich. Unmaterial Books. ISBN 978-1-78301-254-1.
- Haiger, Ernst (Summer 2006). "Fiction, Facts, and Forgeries: The 'Revelations' of Peter and Martin Allen about the History of the Second World War". The Journal of Intelligence History. 6 (1): 105–117. S2CID 161410964.
- ISBN 978-0-593-04952-5.
- ISBN 978-3-10-033629-3.
- Himmler, Katrin (2016). The Private Heinrich Himmler. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-250-06465-3.
- ISBN 978-0-14-139012-3.
- ISBN 978-1-84212-024-8.
- ISBN 978-0-370-31504-1.
- ISBN 978-0-13-839936-8.
- Russell, Stuart (2007). La fortezza di Heinrich Himmler – Il centro ideologico di Weltanschauung delle SS – Cronaca per immagini della scuola-SS Haus Wewelsburg 1934–1945 [The Fortress of Heinrich Himmler: The Center of SS Ideology: A Chronicle With Pictures of the SS Haus Wewelsburg School, 1934–1945]. Rome: Editrice Thule Italia. ISBN 978-88-902781-0-5.
External links
- List of Himmler speeches This list of Himmler speeches includes online sources and material in the US National Archives.
- Heinrich Himmler at the Holocaust Research Project
- Register of the Heinrich Himmler Papers, 1914–1944 at the Hoover Institution Archives
- Footage of Himmler's corpse and the cyanide capsule he used to kill himself
- Newspaper clippings about Heinrich Himmler in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW