Heinrich Himmler

Infobox Officeholder
name = Heinrich Luitpold Himmler


imagesize =
small

caption =
order = Reichsführer-SS
term_start = 1929
term_end = 1945
leader = Adolf Hitler
predecessor = Erhard Heiden
successor = Karl Hanke
order2 = Reich Minister of the Interior
term_start2 = 1943
term_end2 = 1945
chancellor2 = Adolf Hitler
predecessor2 = Wilhelm Frick
successor2 = Wilhelm Stuckart
birth_date = 7 October 1900
birth_place = Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
death_date = 23 May 1945 (aged 44)
death_place = Lüneburg, Germany
constituency =
party = NSDAP
spouse = Margarete Bode
children =
profession =
education =
religion =


footnotes =

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (Audio|de-Heinrich Himmler.ogg|listen 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a Nazi German politician and head of the Schutzstaffel (SS). He was one of the most powerful men in Hitler's entourage, together with Hermann Göring, Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels. He used the Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft for personal advancement. As Reichsführer-SS he oversaw all police and security forces, including the Gestapo.

As overseer of concentration camps, extermination camps, and "Einsatzgruppen" (literally: task forces, often used as killing squads), Himmler coordinated the killing of millions of Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Roma, [cited in [http://www.nyed.uscourts.gov/pub/rulings/cv/1996/685455.pdf Re. Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss Banks) Special Master's Proposals, September 11, 2000] ).] [ [http://www.holocaust-trc.org/sinti.htm "Sinti and Roma"] , United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.] many prisoners of war, and possibly another three to four million Poles, communists, or other groups whom the Nazis deemed unworthy to live or simply 'in the way', including homosexuals, and those with physical and mental disabilities. Shortly before the end of the war, he offered to surrender to the Allies if he were spared from prosecution. After being arrested by British forces, he committed suicide before he could be questioned.

Early life

Heinrich Himmler was born in Munich to a Roman Catholic, [ [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/266132/Heinrich-Himmler#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=Heinrich%20Himmler%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia Encyclopedia Brittanica] ] Bavarian, middle-class family. His father was Joseph Gebhard Himmler, a secondary-school teacher and principal of the prestigious Wittelsbacher Gymnasium. [Andersch, A.: "Der Vater eines Mörders" (The father of a murderer). Diogenes, 2006. ISBN 978-3257236088] His mother was Anna Maria Himmler (née Heyder), a devout Roman Catholic and an attentive mother. Heinrich had an older brother, Gebhard Ludwig Himmler, who was born on 29 July 1898, and a younger brother, Ernst Hermann Himmler, born on 23 December 1905. [cite book|first=Heinz|last=Höhne|authorlink=Heinz Höhne|title=The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS|publisher=London: Pan Books Ltd|year=1972|isbn=0-330-02963-0] Heinrich was named after his godfather, Prince Heinrich of Bavaria of the royal family of Bavaria, who was tutored by Gebhard Himmler. [Breitman, p. 9] In 1910, Himmler attended Gymnasium in Landshut, where he studied classic literature. While he struggled in athletics, he did well in his schoolwork. Also, at the behest of his father, Heinrich kept a diary from age ten until age 24. He enjoyed chess, harpsichord, stamp collecting, gardening and other extracurricular activities. Throughout Himmler’s youth and into adulthood, he was never at ease in interactions with women. [Breitman, p. 11] Himmler’s diaries (1914-18) show that he was extremely interested in war news. He implored his father to use his royal connections to obtain an officer candidate position for him. His parents eventually gave in, allowing him to train upon graduation from secondary school in 1918 with the 11th Bavarian Regiment. Since he was not athletic, he struggled throughout his military training. In 1918 the war ended and Germany was defeated, ending Himmler's aspirations of becoming a professional army officer. He was discharged without ever seeing battle, although he later falsely claimed that he had.Fact|date=July 2008 From 1919 to 1922 Himmler studied agronomy at the Munich Technische Hochschule following a short-lived apprenticeship on a farm and subsequent illness. [Breitman, p. 12] Himmler was pursuing a chaste lifestyle when he became interested in a young girl who was the daughter of a store owner. In his diary, he compares his initial encounter with her as like finding himself a sister. Later he experienced rejection when he let her know his true feelings. His difficulty with women persisted throughout his life. His view towards women is shown in a diary excerpt:

A proper man loves a woman on three levels: as a dear child who is to be chided, perhaps even punished on account of her unreasonableness, and who is protected and taken care of because one loves her. Then as wife and as a loyal, understanding comrade who fights through life with one, who stands faithfully at one’s side without hemming in or chaining the man and his spirit. And as a goddess whose feet one must kiss, who gives one strength through her feminine wisdom and childlike, pure sanctity that does not weaken in the hardest struggles and in the ideal hours gives one heavenly peace. [Breitman, p. 13]

Himmler underwent religious turmoil during his studies at Munich Technische Hochschule.Fact|date=July 2008 In his diaries he claimed to be a devout Catholic, and wrote that he would never turn away from the church. However, he was a member of a fraternity (and later the Thule Society) which he felt to be at odds with the tenets of the church: biographers have defined Himmler’s theology as Ariosophy, his own religious dogma of racial superiority of the Aryan race and Germanic Meso-Paganism, partly from his interests in folklore and mythology of the ancient Teutonic tribes of Northern Europe. During this time he also became obsessed with the idea of becoming a soldier. He wrote that if Germany did not soon go to war, he would go to another country to seek battle. In 1923, Himmler took part in Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch under Ernst Röhm. In 1926 he met his wife in a hotel lobby while escaping a storm. Margarete Siegroth (née Boden) was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, seven years his senior, divorced, and Protestant. She was physically the epitome of the Nordic ideal. On 3 July 1928, the two were married and had their only child, Gudrun, on 8 August 1929. Himmler adored his daughter, and called her Püppi (English: "dolly"). Margarete later adopted a son, in whom Himmler showed no interest. Heinrich and Margarete separated in 1940 without seeking divorce. Heinrich was too engulfed in Nazi activities to be a competent husband. Himmler became friendly with a secretary, Hedwig Potthast, who left her job in 1941 and became his mistress. He fathered two children with her — a son, Helge (born 1942), and a daughter, Nanette Dorothea (born 1944).

Rise in the SS

Early SS (1927–1934)

Himmler joined the SS in 1925 and became deputy–Reichsführer-SS in 1927. Upon the resignation of SS commander Erhard Heiden, Himmler was appointed Reichsführer-SS in January 1929. The SS then had 280 members and was a mere battalion of the much larger Sturmabteilung (SA).

By 1933, the SS numbered 52,000 members. The organization enforced strict membership requirements ensuring that all members were of Adolf Hitler’s Aryan Herrenvolk ("Aryan master race"). Himmler and his deputy Reinhard Heydrich, began an effort to separate the SS from SA control. Black SS uniforms replaced the SA brown shirts in the autumn of 1933. Shortly thereafter, Himmler was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer and Reichsführer-SS and became an equal of the senior SA commanders, who by this time loathed the SS and its power.

Himmler, Hermann Göring, and General Werner von Blomberg agreed that the SA and its leader Ernst Röhm posed a threat to the German Army and the Nazi leadership. Röhm had socialist and populist views and believed that the real revolution had not yet begun. He felt that the SA should become the sole arms-bearing corps of the state. This left some Nazi leaders believing Röhm was intent on using the SA to undertake a coup.

Persuaded by Himmler and Göring, Hitler agreed that Röhm had to be murdered. He delegated this task to Reinhard Heydrich, Kurt Daluege and Dr. Werner Best, who ordered the execution of Röhm (carried out by Theodor Eicke) and other senior SA officials, plus some of Hitler’s personal enemies (like Gregor Strasser and Kurt von Schleicher) on 30 June 1934, in what became known as the Night of the Long Knives. The next day, the SS became an independent organization.

Consolidation of power

In 1934, Himmler was named head of the Gestapo, the German secret police, and was also named chief of all German police outside Prussia. Two years later, Himmler gained further authority as all of Germany’s uniformed law enforcement agencies were amalgamated into the new , whose main office became a headquarters branch of the SS. Himmler then gained the title Chief of the German Police. Traditionally, law enforcement in Germany had been a state and local matter.

Despite his title, Himmler gained only partial control of the uniformed police. The actual powers granted to him with the appointment were some previously exercised in police matters by the ministry of the interior. It was only in 1943, when Himmler was appointed minister of the interior, that the transfer of ministerial power was complete.

Himmler also oversaw the entire concentration camp system. Once war began, though, new internment camps not formally classified as concentration camps were established, over which Himmler and the SS did not exercise control. In 1943, following the outbreak of popular word-of-mouth criticism of the regime as a result of the Stalingrad disaster, the party apparatus, professing disappointment with the Gestapo’s performance in deterring such criticism, established the Politische Staffeln (political squads) as its own political policing organ, destroying the Gestapo’s monopoly in this field.

With his 1936 appointment, Himmler also gained ministerial authority over Germany’s non-political detective forces, the , which he attempted to combine with the Gestapo into the under the command of Reinhard Heydrich, and thus gain operational control over Germany’s entire detective force. This merger was never complete within the Reich, with Kripo remaining firmly under the control of its own civilian administration and later the party apparatus as the latter annexed the civilian administration. However, in occupied territories not incorporated into the Reich proper, Sipo consolidation within the SS line of command proved mostly effective. Following the outbreak of World War II, Himmler formed the wherein the Gestapo, Kripo and became departments.

The SS during these years developed its own military branch, the SS-Verfügungstruppe, which later became the Waffen-SS. Even though nominally under the authority of Himmler, the Waffen-SS developed a fully militarized structure of command and operationally were incorporated in the war effort parallel to the Wehrmacht. Many contemporary commentators refuse to recognize the Waffen SS as in any sense an honorable military organization. Its units were involved in many notorious incidents of murdering civilians and unarmed prisoners. For this reason, postwar war crimes tribunals declared the Waffen SS to be a criminal organization.

Himmler and the Holocaust

After the Night of the Long Knives, the SS-Totenkopfverbände organized and administered Germany’s regime of concentration camps and, after 1941, the extermination camps in Poland. The SS, through its intelligence arm, the Security Service ("Sicherheitsdienst", or SD), dealt with Jews, Gypsies, communists and those persons of any other cultural, racial, political or religious affiliation deemed by the Nazis to be either "Untermensch" (sub-human) or in opposition to the regime, and placing them in concentration camps. Himmler opened the first of these camps at Dachau on 22 March 1933. He was the main architect of the Holocaust, using elements of mysticism and a fanatical belief in the racist Nazi ideology to justify the murder of millions of victims. Himmler had similar plans for the Poles. Intellectuals were to be killed and most other Poles were to be only literate enough to read traffic signs.

In contrast to Hitler, Himmler inspected concentration camps. After that the Nazis searched for a new and more expedient way to kill which culminated in the use of the gas chambers.

Himmler wanted to breed a master race of Nordic Aryans in Germany. His experience as a chicken farmer had taught him the rudimentary basics of animal breeding which he proposed to apply to humans. He believed that he could engineer the German populace, through selective breeding, to be entirely "Nordic" in appearance within several decades of the end of the war. [Pringle, Heather: "The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust". Hyperion, New York, 2006. ISBN 0786868864]

Posen speech

On 4 October 1943, Himmler referred explicitly to the extermination of the Jewish people during a secret SS meeting in the city of Poznań (Posen). The following are excerpts from a transcription of an [http://www.holocaust-history.org/himmler-poznan/ audio recording] that exists of the speech:

The Second World War

In 1939 Hitler masterminded Operation Himmler, arguably the first operation of WWII in Europe.

Before the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), Himmler prepared his SS for a war of extermination against the forces of "Judeo-Bolshevism". Himmler, always glad to make parallels between Nazi Germany and the Middle Ages, compared the invasion to the Crusades. He collected volunteers from all over Europe, especially those of Nordic stock who were perceived to be racially closest to Germans, like the Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, and Dutch. After the invasion, Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Estonians volunteers were also recruited, attracting the non-Germanic volunteers by declaring a pan-European crusade to defend the traditional values of Old Europe from the "Godless Bolshevik Hordes". Thousands volunteered and many thousands more were conscripted.

The volunteers from the occupied Soviet territories were frequently collaborator policemen pressed "en masse" into the Waffen SS once their territories of origin were overrun by the Red Army. In the Baltic States many natives volunteered to serve due to their loathing of their oppression after the occupation by the Soviet Union. As long as they were employed against Soviet troops, they performed acceptably because they expected no mercy if captured. When employed against the Western Allies they often tended to surrender eagerly. Waffen SS recruitment in Western and Nordic Europe collected much less manpower, though a number of Waffen-SS Legions were founded, such as the Wallonian contingent led by Leon Degrelle, whom Himmler planned to appoint chancellor of a restored Burgundy within the Nazi orbit once the war was over.

In 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler’s right hand man was killed near Prague after an attack by Czech special forces supplied by British Intelligence. Himmler immediately carried out a brutal reprisal, killing the entire male population, along with women and children, in the village of Lidice.

Interior minister

In 1943, Himmler was appointed Interior Minister. Himmler sought to use his new office to reverse the party apparatus's annexation of the civil service and tried to challenge the authority of the party gauleiters.

This aspiration was frustrated by Martin Bormann, Hitler’s secretary and party chancellor. It also incurred some displeasure from Hitler himself, whose long-standing disdain for the traditional civil service was one of the foundations of Nazi administrative thinking. Himmler made things much worse still when following his appointment as head of the Reserve Army ("Ersatzheer", see below) he tried to use his authority in both military and police matters by transferring policemen to the Waffen-SS.

With Himmler threatening his power base, Bormann could not give him the opportunity fast enough, initially acquiescing in the policies, until furious protests broke out. Then, Bormann came out against the scheme, leaving Himmler much discredited, especially with the party, whose gauleiters now saw Bormann as their protector.

20 July plot

It was determined that leaders of German Military Intelligence (the "Abwehr"), including its head, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, were involved in the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. This prompted Hitler to disband the "Abwehr" and make Himmler's Security Service ("Sicherheitsdienst", or SD) the sole intelligence service of the Third Reich. This increased Himmler’s personal power.

General Friedrich Fromm, Commander-in-Chief of the Reserve (or Replacement) Army ("Ersatzheer"), was implicated in the conspiracy. Fromm’s removal, coupled with Hitler’s suspicion of the army, led the way to Himmler’s appointment as Fromm’s successor, a position he abused to expand the Waffen SS even further to the detriment of the rapidly deteriorating German armed forces ("Wehrmacht").

Unfortunately for Himmler, the investigation soon revealed the involvement of many SS officers in the conspiracy, including senior officers, which played into the hands of Bormann’s power struggle against the SS because very few party cadre officers were implicated. Even more important, some senior SS officers began to conspire against Himmler himself, as they believed that he would be unable to achieve victory in the power struggle against Bormann. Among these defectors were Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Heydrich’s successor as chief of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, and Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller, the chief of the Gestapo.

Commander-in-chief

In late 1944, Himmler became Commander-in-Chief of the newly formed Army Group Upper Rhine ("Heeresgruppe Oberrhein"). This army group was formed to fight the advancing U.S. 7th Army and French 1st Army in the Alsace region along the west bank of the Rhine. The U.S. 7th Army was under the command of General Alexander Patch and the French 1st Army was under the command of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.

On 1 January 1945, Himmler's army group launched Operation North Wind ("Unternehmen Nordwind") to push back the Americans and the French. In late January, after some limited initial success, Himmler was transferred east. By 24 January, Army Group Upper Rhine was de-activated after having gone over to the defensive. Operation North Wind officially ended on 25 January.

Elsewhere the German Army ("Wehrmacht Heer") had failed to halt the Red Army’s Vistula-Oder offensive, so Hitler gave Himmler command of yet another newly formed army group, Army Group Vistula ("Heeresgruppe Weichsel") to stop the Soviet advance on Berlin. Hitler placed Himmler in command of Army Group Vistula despite the failure of Army Group Upper Rhine, despite Himmler’s total lack of experience and ability to command troops. This appointment may have been at the instigation of Martin Bormann, anxious to discredit a rival, or through Hitler’s continuing anger at the "failures" of the general staff.

As Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula, Himmler established his command center at Schneidemühl. He used his special train ("sonderzug") , "Sonderzug Steiermark", as his headquarters. Himmler did this despite the train having only one telephone line and no signals detachment. Eager to show his determination, Himmler acquiesced in a quick counter-attack urged by the general staff. The operation quickly bogged down and Himmler dismissed a regular army corps commander and appointed Nazi Heinz Lammerding. His headquarters was also forced to retreat to Falkenburg. On 30 January, Himmler issued draconian orders: "Tod und Strafe für Pflichtvergessenheit" —"death and punishment for those who forget their obligations" to encourage his troops. The worsening situation left Himmler under increasing pressure from Hitler; he was unassertive and nervous in conferences. In mid-February the Pomeranian offensive by his forces was directed by General Walther Wenck, after intense pressure from General Heinz Guderian on Hitler. By early March, Himmler’s headquarters had moved west of the Oder River, although his army group was still named after the Vistula. At conferences with Hitler, Himmler aped his leader’s line of increased severity towards those who retreated.

On 13 March, Himmler abandoned his command, and, claiming illness, retired to a sanatorium at Hohenlychen. Guderian visited him there and carried his resignation as Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula to Hitler that night. On 20 March, Himmler was replaced by General Gotthard Heinrici.

Peace negotiations

In the winter of 1944–45, Himmler’s Waffen-SS numbered 910,000 members, with the Allgemeine-SS (at least on paper) hosting a membership of nearly two million. However, by early 1945 Himmler had lost faith in German victory, likely due in part to his discussions with his masseur Felix Kersten and Walter Schellenberg. [cite book|last=Crocker|first=Harry|title=Triumph: A 2,000 Year History of the Catholic Church|date=2001-11-13|publisher=Prima Lifestyles|isbn=0761529241] He realized that if the Nazi regime was to survive, it needed to seek peace with Britain and the United States. Toward this end, he contacted Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden at Lübeck, near the Danish border, and began negotiations to achieve a peace treaty with the Allies. Himmler hoped the British and Americans would fight their Soviet allies with the remains of the Wehrmacht.

When Hitler discovered this, he declared Himmler to be a traitor. He stripped him of his titles and ranks (Reichsführer-SS (Supreme Commander of the SS), Successor of Adolf Hitler (as Reich chancellor), Chief of the German police, Reich commissioner of German nationhood, Reich minister of the interior, Supreme Commander of the Volkssturm, and Supreme Commander of the Home Army) the day before Hitler committed suicide.

Himmler’s negotiations with Count Bernadotte failed. He joined Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, who by then was commanding all German forces within the northern part of the western front, in nearby Plön. Dönitz sent Himmler away, explaining that there was no place for him in the new German government.

Himmler next turned to the Americans as a defector, contacting the headquarters of General Dwight Eisenhower and proclaiming he would surrender all of Germany to the Allies if he was spared from prosecution. He asked Eisenhower to appoint him "minister of police" in Germany's post-war government. He reportedly mused on how to handle his first meeting with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) commander and whether to give the Nazi salute or shake hands with him. Eisenhower refused to have anything to do with Himmler, who was subsequently declared a major war criminal.

Capture and death

Unwanted by his former colleagues and hunted by the Allies, Himmler wandered for several days around Flensburg near the Danish border. Attempting to evade arrest, he disguised himself as a sergeant-major of the Secret Military Police, using the name Heinrich Hitzinger, shaving his moustache and donning an eye patch over his left eye, [ [http://www.thirdreich.net/Himmler_by_Fest.html Heinrich Himmler] - Petty Bourgeois and Grand Inquisitor by Joachim C Fest] in the hope that he could return to Bavaria. He had equipped himself with a set of false documents, but someone whose papers were wholly in order was so unusual that it aroused the suspicions of a British Army unit in Bremen. Himmler was arrested on 22 May by Major Sidney Excell, and in captivity, was soon recognized. Himmler was scheduled to stand trial with other German leaders as a war criminal at Nuremberg, but committed suicide in Lüneburg by potassium cyanide capsule before interrogation could begin. His last words were "Ich bin Heinrich Himmler!" ("I am Heinrich Himmler!"). Another version has Himmler biting into a hidden cyanide pill when searched by a British doctor, who then yelled, "He has done it!". Several attempts to revive Himmler were unsuccessful. ["Heinrich Himmler": Roger Manvall and Heinrich Fraenkel] Shortly afterwards, Himmler’s body was buried in an unmarked grave on the Lüneburg Heath. The precise location of Himmler’s grave remains unknown.

Forgeries, fabrications and conspiracy theories

Some historians speculated that the man who committed suicide in Lüneburg was not Himmler but a double.

The theory was explained in the book "SS-1: The Unlikely Death of Heinrich Himmler" by Hugh Thomas, published in 2001 by 4th Estate. Thomas gained access to the autopsy records. It recorded such details as the amount of hair in the ears of the corpse (p. 172), but it was alleged made no mention of a v-shaped scar which Himmler was known to have had; the remnants of a wound above his left cheekbone, sustained in a fencing duel in his youth. Whilst sections of the work were highly readable, historians dismissed the works primary thesis as baseless, produced to cash-in on the populist genre of the period, manufactured conspiracy fantasies about “surviving Nazis.” [Rebuilding the Reich [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,6121,445372,00.html] ]

A recently-published book by pro-Nazi, Holocaust denier Joseph Bellinger, "Himmler’s Death", [ [Meet Joe Bellinger http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2006/07/meet-joe-bellinger.html] ] offers a speculative account of Himmler’s death, stating that Himmler was assassinated by his British interrogators in May 1945 along with other high-ranking officers of the SS and Werwolf organizations.

Bellinger’s account was first published in Germany by the ultra-Rightist and extremist [Right Wing Extremists [http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/f/funke-hajo/Irving-03.01.shtml] ] Arndt Verlag, [Federal Ministry of the Interior [http://www.bmi.bund.de/cln_028/nn_148138/Internet/Content/Common/Anlagen/Broschueren/1999/Annual__Report__of__the__Office__for__Id__10269__en,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/Annual_Report_of_the_Office_for_Id_10269_en.pdf] ] Kiel. It is largely derivative of the mainstream book, "Himmler’s Secret War", by Martin Allen, which makes identical allegations, but later admitted to being based on fabricated documents, [Dear Mr Hitler: forgeries fool Brits [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23645391-601,00.html] ] "in fact produced using a laser printer, documents replete with anachronistic terminology” [Historic Forgery and Fraud [http://www.caslon.com.au/forgeryprofile2.htm] ]

Public confirmation of the hoax was forthcoming in "July 2005, it was discovered that a number of files held at The National Archives contained forged documents." [The National Archives : Forged Documents [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/foi/log2007.htm] ]

In May 2008, a British police investigation “identified 29 forgeries that had been slipped into 12 files after 2000” [ UK police find Himmler/Churchill archive forgeries http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL0342892320080503?sp=true] ] which had been used to support recent Himmler conspiracies and speculations.

The Financial Times newspaper further reported that "the forgeries were cited as sources by a historian who had written three books about World War Two.”

Author Allen was widely reported to have a history of making sensationalistic accusations and reliance on fabricated materials when writing about other notable Nazis. “When challenged about a supposed letter from the Duke of Windsor to Hitler, Allen responded that it had been given to his late father by Albert Speer, later being found in the author's attic.” [Historic Forgery and Fraud [http://www.caslon.com.au/forgeryprofile2.htm] ]

Convicted holocaust denier David Irving has similarly made allegations that Himmler was beaten and killed by the British. Relying on the now discredited forgeries, Irving remarked, “Britain's secret agents had secretly and criminally liquidated one of the most wanted men in history” [ ['Revelations' that cheered the Right http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1493197/%27Revelations%27-that-cheered-the-Right.html] ] Reputable historians consistently reject such claims, affirming that the British and Allies supported a policy that was committed to having Himmler stand trial. The photograph of the body shows no signs of violence, and there is no supporting forensic evidence, or any other evidence supporting either Irving or Allen's speculations.

Irving has been discredited by an English court which found that he was an "active Holocaust denier," as well as an antisemite and racist, and that he "associates with right-wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism.". The judge ruled that Irving had "for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence." [http://www.guardian.co.uk/irving/article/0,,181049,00.html "The ruling against David Irving"] , excerpts from High Court Judge Charles Gray's ruling, "The Guardian", 11 April 2000.] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/709128.stm "Hitler historian loses libel case"] , BBC News, 11 April 2000.]

Allach porcelain

The porcelain factory Porzellan Manufaktur Allach was established as a private concern in 1935 in the small town of Allach, near Munich, Germany. In 1936 the factory was acquired by the SS. Heinrich Himmler saw the acquisition of a fine porcelain factory as a way to establish an industrial base for the production of works of art that would represent, in Himmler's eyes, true Germanic culture. Allach porcelain was one of Himmler’s favorite projects and produced various figurines (soldiers, animals, etc.) to compete in the small but profitable German porcelain market.

High-ranking artists were locked into contract. The program of the factory included over 240 porcelain and ceramic models. As output at the Allach factory increased, the Nazis moved production to a new facility near the Dachau concentration camp. The fact that the factory might have been taking advantage of a pool of slave labor provided by the Dachau camp was strongly denied by the factory managers at the Nuremberg Trials. [ [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/05-15-46.htm The Avalon Project : Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 13 ] ] Initially intended as a temporary facility, The Allach sub camp of Dachau remained the main location for fine porcelain manufacture even after the original factory in the town of Allach was modernized and reopened in 1940. The factory in the town of Allach was instead retrofitted for the production of ceramic products such as household pottery.

Allach was a sub-camp of the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, located approximately 10 miles from the main camp at Dachau. According to Marcus J. Smith, who wrote "Dachau: The Harrowing of Hell," the Allach camp was divided into two enclosures, one for 3,000 Jewish inmates and the other for 6,000 non-Jewish prisoners. Smith was a doctor in the US military, assigned to take over the care of the prisoners after the liberation. He wrote that the typhus epidemic had not reached Allach until 22 April 1945, about a week before the camp was liberated. [Liberation of Allach, a Dachau sub-camp,http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Dachauscrapbook/DachauLiberation/Allach.html]

Hitler, unlike Himmler, did not seem to care as much for Allach porcelain. He is quoted as saying, "It’s like looking for ghosts in your attic. What culture can be found in a clay pot?" ["The Private Voice of Hitler", program shown on the History Channel.] about Himmler’s efforts at finding evidence about the ancient origins of the Germanic people. What he said could also show his true feelings about Allach porcelain.

The fall of the Third Reich brought an end to the Allach concern. The Allach factories were shut down in 1945 and never reopened.

The Allach "Julleuchter" was unique in that it was made as presentation piece for SS officers to celebrate the winter solstice. It was later given to all SS members on the same occasion, 21 December. Made of unglazed stoneware, the "Julleuchter" was decorated with early pagan Germanic symbols. Himmler said, “I would have every family of a married SS man to be in possession of a "Julleuchter". Even the wife will, when she has left the myths of the church find something else which her heart and mind can embrace.” [SS Porcelain Allach by Michael Passmore & Tony Oliver 1972] During WW2 "Julleuchters" were also used at SS wedding ceremonies, and some were given to family members of SS soldiers that were killed in action. Production numbers in 1939 alone were a staggering 52,635, certainly a record for any single item produced at the Porzellan Manufaktur Allach. [Candle Holders,http://www.allachporcelain.com/]

Historical views

Historians are divided on the psychology, motives, and influences that drove Himmler. Some see him as dominated by Hitler, fully under his influence and essentially a tool carrying Hitler’s views to their logical conclusion. Others see Himmler as extremely antisemitic in his own right, an even more eager 'ethnic cleanser' than his master. Still others see Himmler as power-mad, devoted to the accumulation of power and influence.

Himmler himself accepted the "Hitler dominated" view to an extent, opining that if Hitler were to tell him to shoot his mother, he would do it and "be proud of the Führer’s confidence". This unconditional loyalty was the driving force behind Himmler’s unlikely career. But most commentators agree that Himmler was also a murderous racist and was of his own accord a willing mastermind of genocide. Most historians also concur that Himmler was power hungry.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Himmler’s decisive innovation was to transform the race question from "a negative concept based on matter-of-course anti-Semitism" into "an organizational task for building up the SS ... It was Himmler’s master stroke that he succeeded in indoctrinating the SS with an apocalyptic ‘idealism’ beyond all guilt and responsibility, which rationalized mass murder as a form of martyrdom and harshness towards oneself." [ [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/himmler.html Himmler] ]

The wartime cartoonist Victor Weisz saw Himmler as a terrible octopus, wielding oppressed nations in each of his eight arms. [ [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhimmler.htm Heinrich Himmler : Nazi Germany ] ]

Wolfgang Sauer, historian at University of California, Berkeley, felt 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." [ [http://www.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_himmler.html GI - World War II Commemoration ] ]

Himmler told his personal masseur Felix Kersten that he always carried with him a copy of the ancient Indo-Aryan scripture, the Bhagavad Gita because it relieved him of guilt about implementing the final solution; he felt that like the warrior Arjuna in that he was simply doing his duty without attachment to his actions. [ Padfield, Peter "Himmler" New York:1990,Henry Holt, p. 402; Roger Manvell, Heinrich Fraenkel, "Himmler", Putnam, 1965, p.181; Ted Morgan, "An Uncertain Hour: The French, the Germans, the Jews, the Klaus Barbie Trial, and the City of Lyon", 1940-1945, Arbor House, 1990, p.372]

In an extract in the Norman Brook "War Cabinet Diaries", [ [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/releases/2006/january/january1/default.htm News | Cabinet Secretaries´ Notebooks from World War Two ] at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk] Winston Churchill took a view towards Himmler widely shared during the war, advocating his assassination. According to Brook, responding to a suggestion that Nazi leaders be executed, "this prompted Churchill to ask if they should negotiate with Himmler ‘and bump him off later’, once peace terms had been agreed. The suggestion to cut a deal for a German surrender with Himmler and then assassinate him with support from the Home Office. ‘Quite entitled to do so’, the minutes record [... Churchill] as commenting." [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/politicspast/story/0,,1676129,00.html]

A main focus of recent work on Himmler has been the extent to which he competed for and craved Hitler’s attention and respect. The events of the last days of the war, when he abandoned Hitler and began separate negotiations with the Allies, are obviously significant in this respect.

Himmler appears to have had a distorted view of how he was perceived by the Allies; he intended to meet with US and British leaders and have discussions "as gentlemen". He tried to buy off their vengeance by last-minute reprieves for Jews and important prisoners. According to British soldiers who arrested Himmler, he was genuinely shocked to be treated as a prisoner.

In fiction

* In Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson’s alternative-history novel "Fox on the Rhine" (ISBN 0-8125-7466-4), in which Hitler is killed in the attempted bomb plot of 20 July 1944, Himmler assumes command of the Third Reich by a series of assassinations of the conspirators planning to form a new government and, most prominently, of Hermann Göring, who was appointed the official new Führer. Thus Himmler, as the highest-ranking official remaining, takes up the position as leader of Nazi Germany, which enables him to execute "Operation Carousel"—a new offensive against the Allies. Himmler also features in "Fox at the Front" (ISBN 0-641-67696-4), the sequel to "Fox on the Rhine".
* Himmler is played by Donald Pleasence in the movie "The Eagle Has Landed", which is based on a novel by Jack Higgins (ISBN 0-425-17718-1). He is also featured in several other Jack Higgins books, including "The Eagle Has Flown", the sequel to "The Eagle Has Landed".
* He also appears in "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" in his historical role, overseeing the resurrection of Heinrich I and the occult during "Operation Resurrection".
* In the Colonization alternative history/sci-fi novel series by Harry Turtledove, Himmler is the Führer of the Greater German Reich in the 1960s, following the death of Hitler in the 1950s of a seemingly natural heart attack. Himmler dies of a stroke while working at his desk in 1965. He was succeeded shortly thereafter by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who proceeded to adopt Himmler’s plan of invading Poland, which is occupied by aliens referred to as The Race, with catastrophic consequences.
* In Turtledove’s stand-alone novel "In the Presence of Mine Enemies", in which Germany won World War II and which is set in 2010, Himmler had succeeded Hitler as Führer at an unspecified date, and remained so until his death in 1985—though some say he died in 1983 and the Reich was secretly ruled by a junta until a successor could be agreed upon.
* The plot of Anthony Burgess’s novel "Earthly Powers" hinges on an episode in which the narrator, a homosexual British novelist, accidentally saves Himmler from assassination by pushing him out of the path of the bullet. The Nazis praise him as a hero for saving Himmler's life.
* "The Spear" by James Herbert deals with a neo-Nazi cult in Britain and an international conspiracy which includes a right-wing US general and a sinister arms dealer, and their obsession with and through the occult with resurrecting Himmler.
* Himmler is the key background figure in the controversial alternative history drama "Bogart's Sleeping" by Belfast playwright Tom Kline. Himmler is depicted as negotiating escape to South America for himself with his Allied captors, who are presumed then to have faked his death.
* In John Birmingham's book, Final Impact - third in the Axis of Time trilogy, an alternate history / techno-thriller series of novels where a US-led task force off Indonesia in 2021 finds itself sent back to 1942 - Himmler assumes the position of Führer in 1944 after Hitler suffers an apparent stroke, and Himmler uses a pillow to smother and end the life of a man who (as Himmler proclaims) would not have wished to continue living as a vegetable. Himmler then authorises the use of anthrax against the Red Army in retaliation to a nuclear strike against Łódź.
* Himmler is the godfather of Herr Otto Flick, a fictitious Gestapo officer in the BBC comedy "'Allo 'Allo".
* Himmler is depicted as a vampire who ultimately faked his death in the White Wolf, Inc. publication for entitled "Berlin by Night."
* In James Rollins Black Order, Himmler is depicted as a mystic and head of the black order. He oversaw the device called " the bell", which accelerated evolution to create near-perfect humans.
* Featured in Philip K. Dick's post-WWII alternate history novel, "The Man in the High Castle".
* In one of the special features on the DVD version of "Robocop", "Robocop" writer/director Paul Verhoeven states that one of the film's main villains, Clarence Boddicker, was visually inspired by Heinrich Himmler; Kurtwood Smith, the actor who played Boddicker, reminded Verhoeven of Himmler.
* Ronald Lacey depicted Himmler during the Berlin scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (Lacey had previously played the character Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark.)

References

ources

* Andre Mineau, "Himmler's Ethics of Duty: A Moral Approach to the Holocaust and to Germany's Impending Defeat," "The European Legacy", 12,1 (2007), pp. 55-73.
*Stuart Russell, "La fortezza di Heinrich Himmler - Il centro ideologico di Weltanschauung delle SS - Cronaca per immagini della scuola-SS Haus Wewelsburg 1934-1945" (original title: "Heinrich Himmlers Burg - Das Weltanschauliche Zentrum Der SS - Bildchronick der SS-Schule Haus Wewelsburg 1934-1945"), Editrice Thule Italia, Roma 2007. ISBN 9788890278105
* Thomas, Hugh W., M.D.: "Strange Death of Heinrich Himmler: A Forensic Investigation"
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* (in German — Heinrich Himmler was grand-uncle of the author)
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* Haiger, Ernst: "Fictions, Facts, and Forgeries: The ‘Revelations’ of Peter and Martin Allen about the History of the Second World War" in "The Journal of Intelligence History", Vol 6 no. 1 (Summer 2006 [published 2007] ), pp. 105–117

* Padfield, Peter "Himmler" New York:1990--Henry Holt

ee also

*Nazi mysticism
*Germanic neopaganism — Himmler was a neopagan adherent
*Karl Maria Wiligut - Called "Himmler's Rasputin"
*Gudrun Burwitz (Formerly Gudrun Himmler) - Himmler's beloved Daughter
*Ernst Kaltenbrunner - RSHA and SD chief under Himmler. Held responsible for Gestapo and SS activities after Himmler's suicide.
*Racial policy of Nazi Germany — Himmler’s involvement
*Operation Himmler - A false flag project to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany

External links

* [http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/Himmlerspeeches.htm List of Himmler speeches] A very detailed list of Himmler speeches including online sources and material in the U.S. National Archives. Article numbers in the archives are listed for professional scholars.
* [http://www.archive.org/details/DieSchutzstaffelAlsAntibolschewistischeKampforganisation "Die Schutzstaffel als antibolschewistische Kampforganisation" An essay by Himmler]
* [http://www.holocaustresearchproject.net/holoprelude/himmler.html About Heinrich Himmler]

Persondata
NAME= Himmler, Heinrich Luitpold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Commander of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany
DATE OF BIRTH=7 October 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH=Munich
DATE OF DEATH=23 May 1945
PLACE OF DEATH=Lüneburg