Heinrich Luitpold Himmler
(
German:
[?ha?n??c ?luː?t?p?lt ?h?ml?]
(
listen
)
; 7 October 1900 ? 23 May 1945) was a high-ranking German
Nazi
politician
and leader of the
SS
and the
Gestapo
. He was involved in the
Beer Hall Putsch (1923)
and
Night of the Long Knives (1934)
and as well as
Kristallnacht/Night Of The Broken Glass (1938)
. He was one of the youngest top leader of the
Nazi Party
and one of the few who did not fight in
World War I
. One of Heinrich Himmler's most evil and cruel henchman was
Reinhard Heydrich
, deputy head of the
Schutzstaffel
and
Gestapo
.
Himmler has been portrayed in various works of fiction. In the 1989
Steven Spielberg
movie
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Himmler was portrayed by
Ronald Lacey
. In the TV series
The Man in the High Castle
he appeared along with
Reinhard Heydrich
(who was actually assassinated in 1942).
Himmler's
SS
(the
Totenkopfverbande
) organized and
administered
Germany’s
regime
of
concentration camps
. After 1941, they administered
the Holocaust
in
Poland
. The SS, through its Security Service (
Sicherheitsdienst
, or SD), hunted down
Jews
,
Gypsies
,
communists
and any persons who the Nazis believed to be either
Untermensch
(sub-human) or against the regime. They were brought to concentration camps. Himmler opened the first of these camps at
Dachau
on the 22nd of March, 1933.
Unlike
Hitler
, Himmler inspected concentration camps. In August 1941, he saw many Jews being
shot
in
Minsk
. It was said that he turned green in the
face
after
brain
matter from one of the Jews splashed onto his
coat
. His assistant had to jump forward and hold him steady.
[
source?
]
After that, the
Nazis
searched for a new and easier way to kill. This led to the use of the
gas chambers
. In June-July 1934 Heinrich Himmler and
Reinhard Heydrich
were both responsible for the
SS
to execute
Ernst Rohm
the head of the
SA
during
Night of the Long Knives
.
On 4 October 1943, Himmler spoke of the
extermination
of the Jewish people during a secret SS meeting in the
city
of
Pozna? (Posen)
. The following are parts from an
audio
recording
of the speech:
I also want to mention a very difficult subject before you here, completely openly. It should be discussed amongst us, and yet, nevertheless, we will never speak about it in public. I am talking about the Jewish evacuation: the extermination of the Jewish people. It is one of those things that is easily said. "The Jewish people are being exterminated," every
Party member
will tell you: "Perfectly clear, it’s part of our plans, we’re eliminating the Jews, exterminating them, ha!, a small matter."
Heinrich Himmler died on 23 May 1945 age 44 when he was captured by the
British Army
and he committed suicide by potassium cyanide capsule. It is unknown where Heinrich Himmler’s body is buried in
Germany
.
Mail Stamp
They called him "father of the concentration camp". The architect of genocide.
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All ministers were
NSDAP
members except where indicated ("ind" = nominally independent). Most of them later became NSDAP members, except Von Papen, Hugenberg and Von Eltz-Rubenach.
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