Heinrich Himmler

Lore & Background

Heinrich Himmler was born in Munich on 7 October 1900 into a conservative middle-class Catholic family. After serving in a reserve battalion during World War I without seeing combat, he joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and the SS in 1925. He rose steadily through the ranks to become Reichsführer-SS by 1929, growing the SS from a 290-man battalion into one of the most powerful institutions in Nazi Germany. From 1943 onward, he was Chief of the Kriminalpolizei and Minister of the Interior, overseeing all police and security forces including the Gestapo, and also controlled the Waffen-SS.

As the principal enforcer of the Nazis' racial policies, Himmler was responsible for operating concentration and extermination camps and forming the Einsatzgruppen death squads. He played a central role in the genocide of an estimated 5.5–6 million Jews and millions of other victims during the Holocaust. A day before Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, he commissioned the drafting of Generalplan Ost, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 14 million people in Eastern Europe.

In the last years of the war, Hitler appointed Himmler as Commander of the Replacement Army and General Plenipotentiary for the administration of the Third Reich, and later gave him command of Army Group Upper Rhine and Army Group Vistula. After failing to achieve his objectives, Himmler attempted to open peace talks with the western Allies without Hitler's knowledge in March 1945. When Hitler learned of this on 28 April, he dismissed Himmler from all posts and ordered his arrest. Himmler attempted to go into hiding but was captured by British forces and committed suicide in British custody on 23 May 1945.

Reader's Guide

Heinrich Himmler's significance lies in his central role as the chief administrator and enforcer of the Nazi regime's racial policies, particularly the Holocaust. As Reichsführer-SS from 1929 to 1945, he transformed the SS from a small bodyguard unit into a vast organization that controlled police, security forces, and combat units. His oversight of concentration and extermination camps, along with the Einsatzgruppen death squads, made him directly responsible for the genocide of millions. Himmler's commission of Generalplan Ost further extended Nazi mass murder into Eastern Europe. His legacy is that of a key architect of systematic state-sponsored genocide, whose organizational skills were applied to industrial-scale killing. His suicide in custody prevented any judicial accounting for his actions.

Did You Know?

• Himmler joined the Nazi Party on 1 August 1923, receiving party number 14303.
• He was involved in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 but was not charged due to insufficient evidence.
• Himmler's diary, kept from age 10, shows interest in current events, duelling, and religion and sex.
• He committed suicide in British custody on 23 May 1945.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"I still lack to a considerable degree that naturally superior kind of manner that I would dearly like to possess." — Heinrich Himmler "Speech in Potsdam (13 October 1926), quoted in Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 92-93." — Heinrich Himmler "It is vital we rid ourselves of [homosexuals]; like weed we must pull them up, throw them on the fire and burn them. This is not out of a spirit of vengeance, but of necessity; these creatures must be exterminated." — Heinrich Himmler "One rejects as un-German and impossible the Bolshevist method of physical extermination of a people." — Heinrich Himmler