Heinrich Himmler was the Reichsfuhrer or commander of the Schutzstaffel or SS, the military arm of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party.
Himmler’s father was a respected professor born in Munich in 1900, and his mother was a devout Catholic. His body is not a very strong kid, and he is always sick. He worked hard at school, but unfortunately did not do very well, and in 1917 he enlisted in the army and trained as a gunner. He did not complete Army training and never fought during World War I, although he lied about it later in his career.
Even in college, he was an outspoken anti-Semite and nationalist militarist, very proud of Germanic culture and traditions. In 1919, he became a member of Hitler’s brand new Nationalist Socialist Party (NSDAP), whose radical far-right ideology perfectly suited his prejudices.
At first he was just a volunteer, traveling the countryside talking about the Jews and why they were “wicked”. From there he gets small jobs like editing their newsletter and checking out their secret armories all over Germany (because he owns a motorcycle). He joined the newly formed SS, a bodyguard unit for prominent Nazis. In 1926, he became Deputy Minister of Propaganda and worked with Joseph Goebbels.
He quickly rose through the ranks and got Hitler’s attention by reorganizing the SS so that only the best, strongest and most Aryan, Germanic and pure blood were allowed to join. He established the Nazi counterintelligence service and established the first Dachau concentration camp in 1934, which became the model for all other concentration camps.
At this point, he now controls all German police forces and the Gestapo. Under Hitler at the helm, anti-Semitism flourished. Jews were not allowed to marry non-Jews, non-Aryans were denied German citizenship, and most were sent to ghettos and isolated from the rest of the population.
When World War II officially broke out, the Nazis executed thousands of people with death squads. Messy, unhygienic, and time-consuming, affected the mental health of German soldiers. Meticulous and process-oriented, Himmler helped design the “Final Solution,” an efficient and modern process for the mass murder and extermination of Jews and all other prisoners – including Gypsies, blacks, homosexuals wait.
Himmler, despite his high status in the party, realized that Hitler was losing and secretly turned to the Allies. This eventually led to Hitler committing suicide when the Russians attempted to attack Berlin. After Hitler’s death, Himmler disguised himself as a regular German soldier. He was captured and killed himself in captivity by biting on a cyanide tooth cap.
Himmler’s legacy is cruel, inhuman and evil. Perhaps this is his compensation for being mild, ordinary, even disappointing in his early years.
