Gudrun Burwitz

Infobox Person
name = Gudrun Burwitz


image_size =
caption = Gudrun Himmler (aka "Gudrun Burwitz") (standing right) with her mother at the International Military Tribunal trial of war criminals at Nuremberg, 1945.
birth_name = Gudrun Himmler
birth_date = birth date|1929|08|08
birth_place = Munich)
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nationality = German
other_names = Püppi
known_for = Stille Hilfe, Wiking-Jugend
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spouse = Wulf Dieter Burwitz
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parents = Heinrich Himmler, Margarete Boden
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Gudrun Burwitz, born Himmler was born 8 August 1929. Her parents were Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS and head of the German police and eight year older Margarete (born Boden). Gudrun was the first child of Himmler's marriage, they later adopted a son. In 1940, Heinrich Himmler started an affair with the secretary Hedwig Potthast with whom he had two children. [Andersen 2007:165]

Relation to father

Heinrich Himmler adored his daughter and called her " Püppi " (doll). He regularly had Gudrun flown to his offices in Berlin from München where she lived with her motherCitation
last =Helm
first =Siegfried
date =
year =1998
title =Himmlers Tochter hilft den alten Gefährten
periodical =Berliner Morgenpost
url =http://www.hagalil.com/archiv/98/03/ss-himmler.htm
issn =
doi =
oclc =
accessdate = 5 October 2008 ] She accompanied Heinrich Himmler on some official duties, for instance inspecting concentration camps (picture) or in other appearances [http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/HimmlerPhotographs04.html (view picture)] . She has never renounced the Nazi ideology and has repeatedly sought to justify the actions of her father, relative to the context of his time [The German wiki] . People who know her say that she has created a golden image of her fatherCitation
last =Sanai
first =Darius
date =
year =1999
title =The sins of my father
periodical =The Independent (London)
url =http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19990201/ai_n14214264/pg_2?tag=artBody;col1
issn =
doi =
oclc =
accessdate = 5 October 2008]

Heinrich Himmler died in British captivity. She contests that his death was a suicide from a concealed cyanide capsule (as do others [cite book
last = Bellinger
first = Joseph
title = Himmlers Tod. Freitod oder Mord? Die letzten Tage des Reichsführers-SS (Himmler's death. Suicide or murder? The last days of the SS Reichfürher
publisher = Arndt Verlag
year = 2005
location = Kiel
url = http://www.arndtverlag.de/homepages/himmlers-tod/index2.htm
doi =
id =
isbn = ] )After World War II she and her mother were held in detention by the British occupying powers for four years. She later bitterly referred to these years as the most difficult of her life, and that they had to atone for her father

Nazi symphaties

She married the journalist and author Wulf Dieter Burwitz, whoFact|date=October 2008 like herself is active in Neo-Nazism. She has remained active in the Nazi community, and has since 1951 been a member of Stille Hilfe, an organisation providing support to arrested, condemned or fugitive former SS-members. In 1952 she helped to found Wiking-Jugend which was organized after the Hitler Youth model. She was a longtime friend of Florentine Rost van Tonningen (died in 2007), who was known in the Netherlands as "the black widow" and was active in Nazi circles after the war.

For decades Gudrun Burwitz has been a prominent symbol and idol in Stille Hilfe . At various meetings, for instance the annual Ulrichsberg gathering in Austria, she enjoys the status as both a star and an authority. Oliver Schröm, author of a book about "Stille Hilfe", has described her as a "fickle Nazi princess" ("schillernde Nazi-Prinzessin"). [ [http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/;art771,2008240 Fabian Leber: "Gudrun Burwitz und die „Stille Hilfe“: Die schillernde Nazi-Prinzessin"] ; in: Der Tagesspiegel vom 10. Juni 2001 (In German)]

Gudrun Burwitz has intensified the support for Nazi war criminals within the last years. This was particularly evident in the case of Anton Malloth, a supervisor of Theresienstadt, who was extradited to Germany in 1988 and after a prolonged public trial was sentenced in 2001 to life in prison. During 1988-2001 she arranged his stay at an expensive nursing home in Pullach at the southern outskirts of Munich. There was a public outcry when it was discovered that the premises had been the property of the prominent Nazi Rudolf Hess and that the stay was largely financed by public welfare funds.

References

Books

* Oliver Schröm, Andrea Röpke: "Stille Hilfe für braune Kameraden." Christoph Links Verlag 2001, ISBN 386153231X (in German)
* Norbert und Stephan Lebert: "Denn Du trägst meinen Namen." Goldmann Verlag 2002, ISBN 3-442-15188-0 (in German) [http://www.randomhouse.de/book/edition.jsp?exc=3157&serviceAvailable=true&mid=4&showpdf=true&edi=53710 Excerpt from hardcover edition] mentioning Gudrun Burwitz
* cite book
last= Andersen
first= Dan H
title= Nazimyter - blodreligion og dødskult i Det Tredje Rige (Danish) (Nazi myths - blood religion and death cult in the Third Reich)
origyear= 2007
publisher= Aschehoug
language= Danish
isbn= 978-87-11-11847-4

Notes

"(To a great extent, this article is a translation of the info in the German Wikipedia, 15 September 2008)"