Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. As overseer of the Nazi genocidal programs, he directed the killing of some six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Romani people, and other victims. The total number of civilians killed by the regime is estimated at eleven to fourteen million people. He was known for good organisational skills and for selecting highly competent subordinates.

About Heinrich Himmler in brief

Summary Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich Luitpold Himmler (7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of the Holocaust. As overseer of the Nazi genocidal programs, he directed the killing of some six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Romani people, and other victims. The total number of civilians killed by the regime is estimated at eleven to fourteen million people. He was known for good organisational skills and for selecting highly competent subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich in 1931. He tried to open peace talks with the western Allies without Hitler’s knowledge, shortly before the end of the war. After being dismissed from all his posts in April 1945, he was detained and then arrested by British forces once his identity became known. While in British custody, he committed suicide on May 23, 1945. He had a lifelong interest in occultism and incorporated esoteric symbolism and rituals into the SS. His first name, Heinrich, was that of his godfather, Prince Heinrich of Bavaria. He attended a grammar school in Landshut, where his father was deputy principal. His father used his connections with the royal family to get him accepted as an officer candidate. He enlisted with the reserve battalion of the 11th Bavarian Regiment in December 1917. His brother, Gebhard, served on the western front and saw combat, receiving the Iron Cross and eventually being promoted to lieutenant.

After the war ended with Germany’s defeat, he returned to Landshut to complete his agronomy education at the Munich Technische Hochschule. He went to university in 1919, but was denied the opportunity to become an officer or see combat due to his poor health. He studied antisemitism by the time he went to the university, but went on to become a farmer and a farm and farmhand. He died in Munich in 1945, aged 67. He is survived by his wife, two sons, two daughters and a stepson, and two step-granddaughters. He leaves behind a wife and two sons. He also leaves a son, Ernst Hermann, who was a member of the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS, and a daughter, Ernst Himmler, who served in the German army during the Second World War. He never married and never had any children. His last name was Himmel, which he used to refer to himself as his father-in-law, the Prince of Bavarian, Prince of Himmelsburg. He has two brothers, Gebhard Ludwig and Ernst Hermann. He also had a son named Ernst Ludwig, who also served in World War I. He joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and the SS in 1925. In 1929 he was appointed Reichsführer-SS by Adolf Hitler. Over the next 16 years, he developed the SS from a mere 290-man battalion into a million-strong paramilitary group and set up and controlled the Nazi concentration camps.