Heinrich Himmler - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (October 7th 1900, Munich - May 23rd 1945, Lüneburg), was one of the most powerful men of the Third Reich. It was the absolute master of the S ( Reichsführer - S ) and the chief of all the German police forces ( Chef der Deutschen Polizei ), of which the Gestapo . He is also regarded as the Jahrhundentmörders (“the murderer of the Century”) by certain German authors. He commits suicide the May 23rd 1945 to escape the judgment.

Himmler took the heaviest responsibility in liquidation for the opposition in Nazi Germany and in the mode for terror which reigned in the occupied countries. The concentration camps depended directly on its authority and it implemented the “Final solution”.

The first years (1900-1929)

Youth in Munich

Heinrich Himmler, born with Munich on October 7th, 1900 1 is the second wire of Anna Maria Heyderde and Joseph Gebhard Himmler. His/her father, professor with the college of Landshut, is a cultivated, nationalist and preserving man without being Antisémite. The family is resulting from catholic middle class Bavarian and, the father, as a convinced nationalist, sign with her sons Gebhard Ludwig (born in 1898), Heinrich and Ernst Hermann (1905) the respect of the German fatherland. Gebhard and Ernst will also enter the S, but without holding a particular role to with it. The father of Himmler is also the tutor of the crown prince to Bavaria, Heinrich of Wittelsbach, which agrees to be the godfather of Heinrich.

Himmler carries out its schooling with Landshut, a famous establishment of Munich. It is a model pupil. Small, not very sporting and short-sighted, it appears weak in gymnastics what generates a sense of inferiority. Its frequent school absences indicate a fragile health. During its youth, of 1911 to 1924, it holds a diary. This document traces carried it of an young man integrated well into his medium and the company, capable of kindness and generosity: during the holidays of Christmas (unknown date), it makes the reading with a blind man; he organizes a demonstration of benevolence for the orphans and regrets the ill treatments inflicted to the French prisoners to which he assisted in 1914.

The First World War and the beginning of the year 1920

In August 1914, Heinrich Himmler is enthusiastic with the bursting of the First World War: like his/her brother, Gebhard, it wishes to engage in the Reichsmarine, where it is not accepted because of his myopia and its young age.

In its newspaper, it describes environment with Landshut when the war is declared:

Apprehensive the small middle-class men of Landshut lower the head and are afraid to be massacred by the cossacks. There is not, moreover in Low-Bavaria, much of enthusiasm in those which remained. It is said that when was known the order of general mobilization in the old woman-city everyone pleurnichait but I did not expect that of people of Low-Bavaria! |H. Himmler, diary, August 1914.

Himmler is frustrated to be able to join a school of officers. Following the intervention of his father, it obtains a waiving of age limit in June 1917 and is incorporated in IIe regiment of infantry Bavarian von der Tann . After six months of formation as a pupil officer, it is transferred to Regensburg, then with Freising from June 15th to September 15th and finally with Bayreuth from September 15th to October 1st, 1918 1. Candidate, it sends a letter to his parents whom it signs " Miles Heinrich " (the Heinrich soldier). With its great disappointment, it is demobilized two months without never to have later seen the face and returns in his parents to Christmas.

After the war it forms part, with his Gebhard brother, of the militant circles of Munich ( Völkisch in Rechten Münchens ). Always with his brother, it integrates, in November 1919, the 14th company of the Brigade of protection of Munich, unit of reserve of the army strong near to the Freikorps , these nonofficial units charged in Bavaria by the social democrat legal government to crush the République of the Councils, with communist tendency, with the approval of the allies. The following year he studies agronomy with the agricultural technical school of Munich, while being trainee in a firm-school close to Ingolstadt until 1922. During its studies, it is affiliated with very many associations of which the circle studied Burschenschaft Apollo , for the activities of which it obtains a doctor's certificate in order to be exempted drinking bouts. It is also registered with a country league (??) of extreme right-hand side, the Artamanenbund whose slogan is “blood, the ground and the sword”.

A difficult married life

According to its diary, Himmler makes knowledge, in 1920 or 1921, of the girl of the owner of the firm-school where he is trainee. Of timid nature, it never informs him of its feelings. Thereafter, the relations with the women seem non-existent. Always according to its newspaper, it is extremely probable which it had its first sexual experiment only at the time of its marriage at the twenty-eight years age. In 1926, it meets a divorced nurse Margarete Siegroth (born Boden), seven years its elder and Protestant. " Marga" , large blonde with the blue eyes, corresponds to the ideal of the Aryan woman '' ''. They marry on July 3rd, 1928; from this union is born a girl, Gudrun on August 8th, 1929 1. In 1928, the couple invests the dowry of " Marga" in a hen breeding with Waldtrudering, in the suburbs of Munich. Until the end of the years 1920, Himmler continues to cultivate its small rural property with his wife.

It affectionate his/her daughter whom he calls Püppi ; it will not make any as much with the adoptive son of Marga. During its first years of political life, it seems to try to fulfill its role of father and husband the best possible one. The pages of its diary show that it had quasi daily phone conversations with his wife and her daughter. Since its firm went bankrupt in 1929, Himmler holds more and more responsibilities within the party and forsakes his wife: they separate finally in 1940 without divorcing. The Reichsführer maintains a relation with one its secretaries, Hedwig Potthast with which it will have two illegitimate children: Helge (1942) and Nanette Dorothea (1944).

Within the Nazi party

The first steps (1923-1926)

Its life, during the beginning of the year 1920, is rather fuzzy. In 1921 or 1922, Himmler leaves graduate Agricultural engineer, seems it like his/her Gebhard brother, and would have become salesman or laboratory assistant in a factory of manure of the suburbs of Munich. Apparently it would have directed an avicolous exploitation until the end of the years 1920. Since 1918-1919, it maintains a friendship with its former frank chief of police, the nationalist captain Ernst Röhm which converts it with its ideas. Between 1918 and 1920, Himmler is probably member of the secret and racist organization: the Company of Thulé. Nevertheless when Hitler becomes rather powerful within the NSDAP, it makes in kind decapitate it successfully.

At the beginning of 1923, Himmler becomes member of a nationalist association, whose Ernst Röhm is one of the leaders, the Reichsflagge . Following internal conflicts, the core of the most radical militants, is 300 people taken along by Röhm, founds a new bunch extremist with the transitory existence, the Reichskriegsflagge .

Himmler adheres temporarily to the Nazi party in August 1923, brought by Röhm which is then in load of SA. At the time of the Putsch of the brewery of Adolf Hitler on November 9th, 1923, one sees it raising the standard to the head of the unit of the Reichskriegflagge which had tried during the night to take by storm the Bavarian ministry of the War located on Ludwigstrasse in Munich. Following the fiasco of the company, it is not continued because of its young age and because of its weak responsibilities within the party. Hitler being imprisoned, Himmler temporarily joined the Bayrische Volkpartei . With the beginning of the year 1924, it probably leaves the Nazi party to become propagandist ( Parteiredner ) active and effective within the NSFB ( Nationalsozialistische Freiheitsbewegung ) of Erich Ludendorff. In the Bavarian agricultural world, its diploma and its competence inspire respect and confidence.

At the same time, Heinrich Himmler continues to attend its old knowledge of post-war period within the Freikorps : the organization of the officers of the German people ( Deutschvölkischer Offizierbund ) and that of the old imperial flag ( Alt-Reichsflagge ). Hitler, profiting from an early release (December 20th, 1924), benefits from it for refonder the following NSDAP with the beginning of the year. Of return in the party in February 1925, Himmler joined SA. Its slow rise is moving: following the success which it met with Ludendorff, it is initially named propagandist ( Reichsredner ), then chief of propaganda, temporary Gauleiter of Low-Bavaria, then of High-Bavaria (at the sides of Gregor Strasser) and finally Gauleiter of the district of High-Bavaria.

Of SS-Gauführer to Reichsführer-SS (1926-1929)

In 1925, in order to have a disciplined and completely devoted unit, Hitler founds a sub-section within SA, the Schutzstaffel (S) (squadrons of protection) which constitutes its close guard. Himmler will hold a place of first choice within this new organization. In 1926, it is named chief S of the district of High Bavaria ( Gau-SS-Führer ), it directs an small group of S. The same year, while Ernst Röhm emigrated in Bolivia, it meets the Führer ; this last becomes its intellectual guide and the fidelity of Himmler passes from Röhm to Hitler. The following year, he is member of the Staff of SA. Its serious and its honesty leads it to be named assistant of the Reichsführer-SS ( Stellvertreter Reichsführer-SS ) Ehrard Heiden in 1927. Patient, it continues to hold of the secondary roles within the party and only the rank of Its-Oberführer reaches.

The course of the things seems to change during the year 1928. In January, Hitler takes again on its account propaganda, Himmler becomes its assistant. On a photograph the same year, over which Hitler addresses to the leaders NSDAP, Himmler sat with the top table. Following the resignation of Heiden of the head of the S, it is named on January 6th, 1929 Reichsführer-SS . On this date, in spite of its impressive title, it directs only 280 men with whom it ravels in front of the dignitaries of the party with Berlin in spring 1929. During the year, one sees it reviewing the troops. It is from now on a close relation of Hitler which calls it " Faithful Heinrich" ( DER treue Heinrich ) but there remains a subordinate of Röhm which makes its return in 1930. The Führer orders to him to make S a crack corps of SA, but escaping control from Ernst Röhm, which becomes cumbersome in its eyes.

The rise to power of the S (1930-1934)

Regarded a long time by the dignitaries of the party as a " brave man small man " having " a probably inconstant good heart but " , Heinrich Himmler starts to reveal its true nature. In 1930 the Reichsführer-SS , which has just been appointed prefect of police of Munich, is always subordinated to Ernst Röhm. This last returned to the haste of Bolivia, to help Hitler to completely control its 3 million SA. For Himmler, the subordination of the S to SA is increasingly heavy.

In spring 1931, it meets Reinhard Heydrich just dismissed Reichsmarine. Confidence is immediate and the Reichsführer-SS proposes to him to enter the S and taking into account its experiment in the intelligence services of the Navy with Kiel, he asks him to create an internal intelligence service with the S: the future SD ( Sicherheitsdienst ). Right-hand man of Himmler, Heydrich is also the 3eminence grise of the S. They become so powerful that they irritate certain members of the party in particular Joseph Goebbels:

" - On June 30th, 1931 - I detect a plot of great scale: the S (Himmler) maintains an office espionage which supervises me, here, in Berlin. It is him which is at the origin of these irrational rumors (…). Himmler hates me. From now on I will work with his loss. This underhand animal with horns must disappear. Even Göring is of agreement with me on this subject " .

In January 1933, Hitler is named Chancelier. The S of Himmler count hardly 52.000 members compared with the several million SA of Röhm. This numerical difference is explained in particular by the criteria of recruitment of the S, much more strict than those of SA: since the beginning of the years 1930, Himmler requires applicants to prove their membership of the Aryen Herrenvolk (Aryan race); always in order to dissociate SA, during the autumn 1933, it makes design a new black uniform for its troops, created by Hugo Boss. Symbolically, separation between S and SA are started.

As of March 1933, Himmler creates the first Concentration camp, with Dachau, where it makes intern the opponents with the seizure of power by the Nazis.

With Hermann Göring and the general Werner von Blomberg, Himmler is those which think that Röhm and its SA constitute a threat for the Wehrmacht and the Nazi party. Hitler, which needs the support of the army, the preserving mediums and of the large industrialists is conscious of the problems raised by SA, for which the revolution remains to be made, but it feels reluctant to act against Röhm, one of the rare members of the party which it addresses as tu. With the complicity of Heydrich which is the true inspirer, Himmler reveals in Führer a pseudo " Putsch of Röhm" Several tens of persons in charge of SA, of which Röhm itself, but also of the opponents within the Nazi party or outside this one are assassinated during the Nuit of the Long Knives (from June 30th to July 1st, 1934). The following day, the S takes its independence with respect to SA: there is no more obstacle between the Reichsführer-SS and its Führer .

Having acquired its independence, the Reichsführer-SS wishes to put the hand on the last tool for repression which still escapes the S, the Gestapo. After hard conflicts with Göring, this one yields, in 1934, the direction of the Gestapo in Himmler and Heydrich, assisted by Heinrich Müller.

“The architect of the Final solution”

A mystical theorist

" Civil servant of the mort" , Heinrich Himmler is before a whole concerned bureaucrat of the detail until the mania. It compensates for its physical deficiencies by its obsession of the racial purity of its men. With the difference of SA, Himmler chooses according to him " the elite in black uniform which went réincarner the old order of the Knights teutoniques" . Like the majority of the Nazis, Himmler is influenced by two fanatic theorists: Joseph Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain for which the " race nordique" is the ideal human prototype like had announced it Hegel one century earlier. The theorist of the Nazi party, Alfred Rosenberg, takes up this idea of " blood pur" and of the attachment to the ground developed under cover of the Lebensraum .

As a Large Master of this new kind, it institutes rigorous criteria for the new entries in the S. One of these units, the special guard of the Führer , is composed until 1937 young men, fair, with the blue eyes whose necessary size is at least of 1m80. In 1931, Himmler legislates a special rule of marriage for the S prohibiting a man from taking a woman if this one cannot justify purity of its Aryan origins during the two previous centuries. The intention of the Reichsführer-SS is clear: with the institution of the marriage S, he wants to be the builder of a vast germano-Scandinavian empire of the Atlantic in the Ural in which fate of the " races inférieures" neighbors belongs to the " race of Seigneurs".

Heinrich Himmler wants to rewrite the History. July 2nd, 1936, in the collegial one of Wewelsburg it celebrates the thousandths birthday of dead of its hero the Germanic king Heinrich I., Henri the Bird-catcher. It deposits a sheaf and branches of oak on the tomb of the sovereign and states a speech:

From this same point of view of rewriting of the History, he declares on April 7th, 1942 in front of the senior officers and the department heads of Schutzstaffel: All that we make must be justified compared to our ancestors. If we do not find this moral fastener, major and best because most natural, we will not be able on this level to overcome Christianity and to constitute this Germanic Reich which will be a blessing for the whole ground. Since millenia, it is the duty of the fair race which to dominate the ground and always to bring happiness and civilization to him.

Many forwardings are launched for:

to find the evidence " irréfutables" Aryan race everywhere in the world, of forwardings are financed in direction of the Tibet, in the the Andes, with the the Middle East;
to find the Holy Grail (required mainly in the neighborhoods of Montségur (the sure mount in Occitan) like in Montserrat (the narrow Mount as a Catalan) in Catalonia, in the Massif Central and its surroundings, presumedly hidden by the Cathares before their disappearance);
to study pagan rites pre-Christians of the Aryan race (that related to the worship of the equinox S, of the harvest, the various beliefs of Sorcellerie practiced).

Himmler also applied a vast program of Eugénisme, the program Lebensborn (source of life). Under this name is hiding place a company of reproduction to large scales intended exclusively for the S, which is supposed to represent the racial purity Aryen.

Certain historians advance that during the war, more than 400.000 children (of Poland only) were off-set towards institutes Lebensborn starting from racial criteria. Norway and Belgium also had their Lebensborn.

The fall

Negotiations and disgrace (February-April 1945)

Since the winter 1944-1945 Himmler, like much of dignitaries Nazis, knows that Germany lost the war. Moreover, it continues to sacrifice thousands of Germans in their hammering that Reich can still be victorious.

" Our bad enemies will have to note and to understand that an intrusion in Germany, had it to succeed here or there, a price will cost them which will be equivalent for them to a national suicide " (Speech of Himmler, at the beginning of 1945).

Its advisers, for example Walter Schellenberg (the chief of against-espionage) and Felix Kersten (its doctor), propose to him to relieve Hitler, which Himmler refuses to make. On the other hand, in order to give one second chance to the Nazi party during the phase of post-war period, it decides to contact the English and the Americans by the means of the count Folke Bernadotte. This last is the vice-president of the Swedish Croix-rouge and the two men meet for the first time at the Sanatorium of Hohenlychen close to Berlin on February 14th. Bernadotte takes in note the project of pacification envisaged between Reich and the Allies and proposed by Himmler. The Reichsführer-SS stipulates there that Germany would submit itself to Great Britain and the United States provided that it could continue resistance against the " Bolchevism " , in vain…

Himmler flees in the property of its doctor Felix Kersten in Hartzwalde, in the north of Berlin. The Swedes - probably Bernadotte itself - ask Kersten to intervene to avoid the sabotage of the concentration camps like wanted it Hitler. March 12th, 1945, after long negotiations, Himmler ensures that one will not sabotage the concentration camps and that the Swedish Red Cross will be authorized to send vivres for the prisoners. A member of the Jewish Congress, Norbert Masur, is dispatched on the spot and obtains the guarantee that Himmler and its S will not molesteront any more any Jew.

The next April 19th, Adolf Hitler is put at the current of treasons of Himmler. Old the Reichsführer-SS deposed of its functions and is replaced at once by the admiral Karl Dönitz with the report heading. After the death of Hitler, new and transitory government Nazi is formed under the crook of Dönitz called the Gouvernement of Flensburg. Trying to incorporate it, Himmler is ejected by the admiral. The marshal Wilhelm Keitel capitulates the May 9th 1945 with the Soviets. Then begin for Himmler a true hunting for the man.

The escape and death (May 1945)

Driven back by the new direction Nazi and pursued by the Allies, Himmler wanders several days with its faithful last around Flensburg close to the Danish border. Its project is to flee either in Bavaria or in Austria where it could hide. Shaved and disguised as a quartermaster-sergeant of the Geheime Feldpolizei , it carries a stringcourse on the left eye, a uniform torn and of false paper in the name of Heinrich Hitzinger. The unit which it joined is stopped close to Lüneburg by the men of the sergeant Arthur Britton, on May 22nd, 1945. It is told that what alarmed the British was the fact that pseudo Hitzinger presented new papers and all the required documents in full period of rout.

Its unit is sent in the prison camp of Bramstedt close to Lüneburg. A British warrant officer tells the scene of May 23rd, 1945:

One did not know that it was Himmler, I knew only that it was an important prisoner. When it entered the part, not the elegant person that we all know, but out of shirt of the army and long johns, with a cover around the body, I recognized it at once. I addressed the German word to him, I indicated a free settee to him and I said to him: Here is your bed, you strip . It looked at me, then it looked at an interpreter and it said It does not know which I am! I said: If I know, you are Himmler and this is your bed, strip you! It looked at me fixedly, but I returned his glance to him, finally it lowered the eyes and sat down on the bed and it started to withdraw its pants. The doctor and the colonel entered, they sought poison, we suspected it of dissimulating some on his body. The doctor looked between his toes, everywhere on his body, under his arms, in his ears, behind his ears, in his hair and then it arrived at its mouth. He asked Himmler to open the mouth, he obeyed and it managed to stir up the language rather easily. But the doctor was not satisfied, it asked him to approach the light, it approached and it opened the mouth. The doctor tried to put to him two fingers in the mouth for better looking at. Then Himmler withdrew the head of only one blow, bit the doctor with the fingers and broke the capsule of poison which it contained since of the hours in his mouth. The doctor said: He did it, he died . One put a cover on him and one left it there.

As much of other Nazis, Himmler commits suicide to escape humiliation from the International court from Nuremberg. Its last words are: ( I am Heinrich Himmler ). In 2005, Martin Allen affirms that Himmler would have been assassinated by the Allies, thesis which is divided only by David Irving, notorious revisonnist condemned on several occasions. A few months after the publication of its book, and following an open survey at the request of the persons in charge of the British files, the British police force showed that certain these new " documents" were actually only forgeries. According to the official version, the corpse would have been buried secretly in an anonymous tomb some share in the moor of Lüneburg.

Appendices

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