Heinrich Himmler’s name is one of the most reviled in history. As Reichsführer – or Commander – of the Schutzstaffel, also known as the SS, he was a key figure in Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party’s reign of terror during World War II. Born in Munich in 1900, Himmler’s father was a respected professor and his mother a devout Catholic.
Despite being physically weak as a child, Himmler was an ardent nationalist with strong anti-semitic views which had already begun to take shape by his university years. He joined the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (the Nazi Party) in 1919 and slowly rose through its ranks until 1934 when he established the first concentration camp – Dachau – which became the model for all others to follow.
Under his command, Jews were not allowed to marry non-Jews, non-Aryans had their German citizenship revoked and were sent to ghettos blocked off from the rest of the population. The implementation of ‘The Final Solution’, an efficient mass-killing process for Jews and other prisoners including gypsies, people of color and homosexuals is attributed to him during this time.
When it became clear that Hitler was losing the war, Himmler attempted to negotiate with Allied forces before eventually taking his own life by biting down on a cyanide tooth cap while in captivity. To this day Heinrich Himmler remains one of history’s most notorious figures.
If you would like to learn more about this fascinating yet tragic chapter of world history then we strongly recommend watching ‘Heinrich Himmler – The Devil Behind Hitler’; an eye-opening documentary which sheds light on this dark period in our timeline through interviews with historians and experts on the Third Reich.
