Heinrich Himmler
There were later speculations that the man who committed suicide in Lüneburg was not Himmler but a double.
This was taken up 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.”[14]
A recently-published book by pro-Nazi, Holocaust denier Joseph Bellinger, Himmler’s Death[15], 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 [16] Arndt Verlag, [17] 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, [18] "in fact produced using a laser printer, documents replete with anachronistic terminology” [19]
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." [20]
In May of 2008, a conclusive and thorough British police investigation “identified 29 forgeries that had been slipped into 12 files after 2000” [21]which had been used to support recent Himmler conspiracies and speculations.
The Financial Times newspaper had further “reported the forgeries were cited as sources by a historian who had written three books about World War Two.” [22]
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.” [23]
Convicted writer David Irving whom an English court found was an "active Holocaust denier," as well as an antisemite and racist, and that he "associates with right-wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism."[24] and the judge having ruled that Irving had "for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence."[24][25] 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”[26] 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 for either Irving or Allen.
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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 be representative, in Himmler's eyes, of truly 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. Initially intended as a temporary facility, Dachau remained the main location for fine porcelain manufacture even after the original factory in Allach was modernized and reopened in 1940. The factory in 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 April 22, 1945, about a week before the camp was liberated.[27]
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?"[28] 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.
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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, seeing himself essentially as a tool, carrying Hitler’s views to their logical conclusion, the executor of Hitler’s direct orders. 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 self-aggrandizement, the accumulation of power and influence. There is truth in all three of these positions.
Himmler to some extent accepted the "Hitler dominated" view, 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, of his own accord a willing mastermind of genocide. And most commentators agree 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." [8]
The wartime cartoonist Victor Weisz saw Himmler as a terrible octopus, wielding oppressed nations in each of his eight arms. [9]
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." [10]
Himmler told his personal masseur Felix Kersten that he always carried with him a copy of the ancient Aryan scripture, the Bhagavad Gita because it relieved him of guilt about implementing the final solution; he felt that like the warrior Arjuna, he was simply doing his duty without attachment to his actions.[29]
In an extract in the Norman Brook War Cabinet Diaries[11], 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." [12]
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.
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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 as an SS chief overseeing the resurrection of Heinrich I and the occult during Operation Resurrection. He and his team were successful in the ordeal, but Heinrich I and his dark knights were quickly defeated by Agent Blazkowicz. He watched in horror that "This American, he has ruined everything" before he was told that he needed to go back to Berlin to report to Hitler.
- 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 also made an appearance in the Gordon Stevens book And All The Kings Men about German Operation Sea Lion succeeding and Britain being invaded.
- 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.
- Himmler is the godfather of Herr Otto Flick, a fictitious Gestapo officer in the BBC comedy 'Allo 'Allo.
- Himmler appears briefly in Jerry Spinelli’s book Milkweed.
- Himmler is depicted as a vampire who ultimately faked his death in the White Wolf, Inc. publication for Vampire: the Masquerade entitled Berlin by Night.
- Himmler is played by Michael Palin in the sketch-show Monty Python's Flying Circus
- 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
- His brain preserved and launched in a rocket to the moon, Himmler threatened to destroy the world but was defeated and killed by the Justice Society of America in a three-part series of comic books, JSA Classified #29-31 (2007).
- 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.
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References
- ^ cited in Re. Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss Banks) Special Master's Proposals, September 11, 2000).
- ^ "Sinti and Roma", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- ^ Andersch, A.: Der Vater eines Mörders (The father of a murderer). Diogenes, 2006. ISBN 978-3257236088
- ^ Höhne, Heinz (1972). The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS. London: Pan Books Ltd. ISBN 0-330-02963-0.
- ^ Breitman, p. 9
- ^ Breitman, p. 11
- ^ Breitman, p. 12
- ^ Breitman, p. 13
- ^ Obergruppenführer-SS Karl. Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
- ^ Pringle, Heather: The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust. Hyperion, New York, 2006. ISBN 0786868864
- ^ Crocker, Harry (2001-11-13). Triumph: A 2,000 Year History of the Catholic Church. Prima Lifestyles. ISBN 0761529241.
- ^ Heinrich Himmler - Petty Bourgeois and Grand Inquisitor by Joachim C Fest
- ^ "Heinrich Himmler": Roger Manvall and Heinrich Fraenkel
- ^ Rebuilding the Reich [1]
- ^ [Meet Joe Bellinger http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2006/07/meet-joe-bellinger.html]
- ^ Right Wing Extremists[2]
- ^ Federal Ministry of the Interior [3]
- ^ Dear Mr Hitler: forgeries fool Brits [4]
- ^ Historic Forgery and Fraud [5]
- ^ The National Archives : Forged Documents[6]
- ^ [ UK police find Himmler/Churchill archive forgeries http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL0342892320080503?sp=true]
- ^ [ UK police find Himmler/Churchill archive forgeries http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL0342892320080503?sp=true]
- ^ Historic Forgery and Fraud [7]
- ^ a b "The ruling against David Irving", excerpts from High Court Judge Charles Gray's ruling, The Guardian, 11 April 2000.
- ^ "Hitler historian loses libel case", BBC News, April 11, 2000.
- ^ ['Revelations' that cheered the Right http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1493197/%27Revelations%27-that-cheered-the-Right.html]
- ^ Liberation of Allach, a Dachau sub-camp,http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Dachauscrapbook/DachauLiberation/Allach.html
- ^ "The Private Voice of Hitler", program shown on the History Channel.
- ^ Padfield, Peter Himmler New York:1990--Henry Holt Page 402
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Sources
- 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
- Padfield, Peter (2001). Himmler. Reichsführer-SS. Cassel & Co, London. ISBN 0-304-35839-8.
- Himmler, Katrin (2005). Die Brüder Himmler. Eine deutsche Familiengeschichte. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. ISBN 3-10-033629-1. (in German — Heinrich Himmler was a grand-uncle of the author)
- Hale, Christopher (2003). Himmler’s Crusade: The true story of the 1938 Nazi expedition into Tibet. Transworld Publishers, London. ISBN 0-593-04952-7.
- Breitman, Richard (2004). Himmler and the Final Solution: The Architect of Genocide. Pimlico, Random House, London. ISBN 1-84413-089-4.
- Pringle, Heather (2006). The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust. Hyperion, New York. ISBN 0786868864.
- 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
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See 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
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External links
- 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.
- Die Schutzstaffel als antibolschewistische Kampforganisation An essay by Himmler
- About Heinrich Himmler
| Preceded by Erhard Heiden |
Reichsführer-SS 1929–1945 |
Succeeded by Karl Hanke |
| Preceded by Wilhelm Frick |
Interior Minister of Germany 1943–1945 |
Succeeded by Wilhelm Stuckart |
| Preceded by None |
Commander of Army Group Upper Rhine December 10, 1944-January 24, 1945 |
Succeeded by None |
| Preceded by None |
Commander of Army Group Vistula January 25, 1945-March 13, 1945 |
Succeeded by Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici (March 20) |
|
|||||||||||
| 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 |
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