Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945), German Nazi leader, head of the black-shirted Schutzstaffel SS troops and of the dreaded Gestapo, or German secret police. He was the second most powerful Nazi and designed many of the National Socialist programs. His loyalty to Hitler (until near the end), combined with his organizational skills and ambition, and his sadistic nature, made him one of the most notorious war criminals of World War II. As chief of police for all of Germany, Himmler was responsible for establishing concentration camps and for devising methods for the Holocaust, the mass murder of 6 million Jews. During the War he built up the military strength of his SS, which became an army separate from the regular army.

Background

Himmler was born near Munich on Nov. 7, 1900. He attended the Technical College in Munich and served during World War I as a clerk in the Eleventh Bavarian Infantry. He joined the Hitler ranks in 1919, and was one of the first members of the Nazi Party. In 1923, Himmler was appointed business manager in Bavaria, and in 1929 he became commander of the SS troops.

Third Reich: 1933-39

He prepared the list of Hitler's opponents who were to be executed or imprisoned in the "blood purge" of June 30, 1934, and as a reward was placed at the head of the Prussian police. He became leader of the Gestapo in 1936 and subsequently set up 17 concentration camps.

SS industries

Himmler created a powerful "state within a state" as the the SS acquired more than forty businesses with some 150 plants and factories. They, paid for the Holocaust and financed the training and equipping of thirty-eight SS divisions.

At first he was undefunded because his enemies in the party controlled the money. As late as 1938, only 3,500 of 14,000 SS officers received monthly pay; the rest were volunteers. Himmler turned to the concentration camps--not yet killing camps--to raise money. Prisoners could be ransomed for a large sum; others had to pay for their keep. Factories were set up in the camps as the prisoners became slave laborers for commercial enterprises owned by the SS. For example the Gesellschaft fur Textil- und Lederverwertung GmbH (Society for Textile and Leather Work, Ltd.), in Ravensbruck, the women's concentration camp, produced uniforms.

War Years

In 1943 Himmler was appointed minister of the interior and strengthened his grip on the civil service and the courts.

Holocaust

On January 20th, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second-in-command, chaired the Wannsee Conference to plan the systemnatic roundup and execution of all Jews the nazis could reach. The Conference ensured inter-agency co-operation and set strategy and financing. Among Heydrich's directives, Adolf Eichmann, chief of Gestapa IVB4, the SS's Jewish office, was charged with arranging deportation financing. Eichmann forced Jews into paying for their own deportation. In February 1942 Himmler and another aide Pohl reorganised SS administrative and economic offices to form the SS Wirtschaft-und Verwaltungshauptamt (Economic and Administrative Head Office, or WVHA). On April 16th, the Inspectorate of Concentration Camp became part of the WVHA, and on the 20th, Himmler promoted Pohl to Obergruppenfuhrer und General der Waffen-SS, making him the third highest-ranking officer in the SS. Eighteen weeks after Wannsee, a Czechoslovak commando team with British support assassinated Heydrich, advancing Pohl to the second slot under Himmler.

Himmler's choice to command the operation was Gruppenfuhrer Odilo Globocnik, who maintained a headquarters in Lublin and received guidelines for the 'treatment and distribution of the belongings of [deported] Jews' from Obergruppenfuhrer August Frank, deputy chief of the WVHA despite his sister's marriage to a Jew whom she refused to divorce.

SS Army

Himmler had dreams of his own army, which were strenuously opposed by the regular army. He managed to field three division on the eastern front in 1941-42; their ferocity impressed Hitler and the SS was allowed to recruit volunteers directly from devoted Nazi youth groups.

In July 1944 after the failed Army plot against Hitler's life, Himmler reached the apex of his power. As commander in chief of the German Home Forces, he was the most powerful man in Germany next to Hitler. Everyone between the ages of 12 and 70 was subject to his will through the draft. Concentration camps and torture and death chambers increased in number.

Finale

As the Allied forces penetrated into Germany and across the Rhine River, coming ever closer to Berlin, Himmler opened negotiations for a separate peace with the U.S. and Britain. This move failed, however, and Himmler fled in disguise, leaving Hitler to die in a bunker at Berlin. On May 21, 1945, he was captured by the British near Bremen. Two days later, Himmler committed suicide by swallowing a phial of poison concealed in his mouth.

See also

• Adolf Hitler
• Bergen-Belsen, concentration camp
• Holocaust
• National Socialism
• SS

Bibliography

• Dederichs, Mario. Heydrich: The Face of Evil (2006)
• Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich in Power: 1933-1939., 2005. 800 pp.
• Goldin, Milton. "Financing the SS" History Today, (Jun 1998), Vol. 48, Issue 6 full text in Academic Search Premier
• Gutman, Israel, ed. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vol (1989)
• Manvell, Roger, and Heinrich Fraenkel. Heinrich Himmler: The SS, Gestapo, His Life and Career (2007)
• Wachsmann, Nikolaus. "Looking into the Abyss: Historians and the Nazi Concentration Camps." European History Quarterly 2006; v 36; pp247+ online

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