Heinrich Himmler

by Nikki Chapman

Basic Facts

Born: October 7th 1900 Place of birth: Munich, Germany Died: May 23rd 1945 Place of death: Lüneburg, Germany Cause of death: suicide Positions:

Reichfuhrer-SS (1929-1945) Reich Minister of the Interior (1943-1945)

Childhood

Born to parents Joseph and Anna Himmler and a brother of two, Heinrich Himmler was an academic student, but not an athletic one. His brief stint in military training was a struggle for him because of this.

However, due to extenuating circumstances, the military training led to naught. He instead chose to focus on studies from 1918 to 1922, graduating with a diploma in agriculture from the Munich Technical High School.

Rise to Power

After a participation in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, a marriage in 1927 (or 1928, depending on the source), and a failed attempt at poultry-farming, Himmler earned a position as leader (Reichsführer of the SS (Schutzstaffel, Hitler’s personal bodyguard).

Under Himmler’s direction, the SS grew from a small collection of brown-shirted men to a powerful force of black-clad soldiers.

Before being appointed the leader of the SS, Himmler had been a member of the SA (Sturm Abteilung). However, after expressing concern that the SA might be a hazard to the German army, a purge was organized. This purge, arranged by Himmler, is known as “The Night of the Long Knives.”

Rise to Power

Throughout the years, with the aid of friends in high places and well-staged coups, Himmler rose to even greater power.

He was not only the Reichsführer of the SS. After the demise of Wilhelm Frick, Himmler was appointed the Reich Minister of the Interior.

With this power, Himmler was able to exercise further influence over Germany’s acts of power, especially those concerning the treatment of the Untermensch (sub-human) people.

Holocaust

People tend to lay all of the blame on Adolf Hitler for the mass genocide that took place during WWII. However, a main orchestrator of the attempted extermination was Himmler.

Himmler’s fanaticism in Nazi ideology was the driving force of the creation of the death camps. Jewish people, homosexuals, Roma people (gypsies) and members of other unacceptable races and religions were intended to be killed.

Using previous knowledge of how to breed negative qualities out of a species (learned from chicken farming), Himmler wished to create a perfect Aryan race.

Holocaust

The first concentration camp, found in Dachau, was actually set up by Himmler.

Due to Himmler’s fascination with the occult, mysticism and other such things, the variety of people meant for the concentration and death camps expanded over the years. This was because these supernatural topics only helped to further his racial narrow-mindedness concerning other races versus an Aryan race.

Himmler believed that there was only reason to be courteous and decent to those of their own race or blood.

Death

Believing that the only way to continue the influence Nazi power would be to seek peace with the Allied forces, Himmler attempted to negotiate with the enemy in 1945.

Upon discovering this, Hitler ordered the arrest of the Reichsführer. Himmler took on someone else’s name and identity and tried to evade capture. He was caught, however, by a British soldier in Bremen.

He was brought to jail in Lüneberg, but before any interrogation could begin, he ingested a cyanide capsule, resulting in his death.

To this day, no one quite knows where Himmler’s grave can be found.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/

GERhimmler.htm http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/

Holocaust/himmler.html http://www.deathcamps.info/Nazis/

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