Heinrich Himmler

commemoration in Munich on 9 November, which showed that in Hitler’s eyes Himmler was fully established in the forefront of the Nazi leadership.

Goebbels’s vicious ruthlessness in the exercise of power appealed to Himmler, whose nature craved for a similar measure of courage and decision. Once Goebbels had decided what he wanted, neither fear nor scruples deterred him. If von Oven is to be believed, Goebbels too was considering who best might govern Germany along with himself if Hitler were no longer in power — not Goring, certainly, who neglected his duties so shamefully; not Bormann, that second-rate climber, but Himmler? Here Goebbels paused before reaching the inevitable negative. Recently, he decided, Himmler had become too arbitrary (eigenwillig) . But while treasonable thoughts were to nibble uneasily at Himmler’s conscience until the day Hitler died, they were firmly rejected by Goebbels, if they were ever entertained at all, as untenable. Goebbels realized what Himmler was incapable of grasping, that there could be no place at all for such a man as himself in a Germany without Hitler.

Himmler also managed to keep on what appear to be easy terms with Bormann, whom Guderian described as the ‘thick-set, heavyjointed, disagreeable, conceited and bad-mannered’ eminence grise of the Third Reich. Himmler’s mistress Hedwig, whose pet name was Haschen, had become friendly with Bormann’s wife, Gerda, the mother of their eight children and the apple of her husband’s sentimental eye. Himmler appears as ‘Uncle Heinrich’ in the letters Bormann dutifully sent home during this period, and Gerda writes in September to say how happy Haschen and her children Helge and Gertrud are in their new home in the Obersalzberg.²¹ Now that Haschen is a neighbour the older children can play together. ‘Helge is a lot taller than our Hartmut’, writes Gerda, ‘but much slimmer and thinner. In his movements and general build he is as much like Heinrich as Hartmut is like you, but I can’t see the facial likeness any more. The little girl, however, is ridiculously like her father. Haschen has some photos from Heinrich’s childhood where he looks exactly the same. The baby has grown big and sturdy, and is so sweet…’

In October we get a domestic glimpse of Himmler from Bormann: ‘Heinrich told me that yesterday he had been hanging pictures, doing things about the house, and playing with the children the whole day long. He didn’t accept any telephone calls either, but devoted himself quite comfortably to his family for once.’ According to Bormann: ‘Uncle Heinrich apparently is very pleased at the way Helge bosses everybody; he regards this as a sure sign of a leader of the future.’

Gerda sees Himmler and her husband as an affectionate team of disciples serving their master. ‘Oh, Daddy,’ she writes to Bormann at the end of September, ‘it doesn’t bear imagining what would happen if you and Heinrich didn’t see to everything. The Fuhrer would never be able to do it all alone. So you two must keep well and take care of yourselves, because the Fuhrer is Germany, but you are his selfless comrades-in-arms…’ Her view of these two men must remain unique in Nazi history, but Bormann’s terms of endearment for his wife (beloved mummy-girl, sweetheart mine, dearest heart, all-beloved) only encouraged her to dream of the roses round the door of Hitler’s headquarters, especially when he describes the fun he and Himmler have together in Berlin:

‘Last night Himmler andI — Himmler had his evening meal with me together with Fegelein and Burgdorff — laughed till we cried at those two funny birds — they are like a pair of naughty boys. And Burgdorff is 49, and will soon be made a General in the Infantry. Fegelein told his boss what it was like to be shouted at by him over the telephone: just, Fegelein felt, as if white steam were puffing from his ears… You can imagine what fun we had.’²²

Other references to Himmler in Bormann’s letters home show the new-born general in action. On 3 September: ‘Heinrich H. drove to the West Wall yesterday; we are in daily communication by telephone. He is tackling his task of C.-in-C. of the Reserve Army with magnificent energy.’ Gerda sent Himmler an encouraging message through her husband. On 9 September: ‘I have told H.H., who telephones once a day, that you are glad to know he’s there, because you think this will solve the problem. It gladdened his heart, and he sends you his warmest regards…’ However, Hitler’s irregular hours of work did not suit Himmler. Bormann is amused: ‘Himmler is always quite shocked at our unhealthy way of living. He says he has to be in bed by midnight, at least as a rule. And we go on working till four in the morning, though we do stay in bed a little longer. But this is just the old, old story…’

Then, on 31 October, Bormann writes: ‘At my request, Uncle Heinrich is going to the Ruhr on 3 November … to put things in order.’

This forecast Himmler’s ineffectual intervention on the Western Front. On 10 December Hitler appointed him Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Rhine. The reason why he was ever appointed at all has been the subject of many and varied speculations. Guderian’s view is typical: the command was given at Bormann’s suggestion in order to ruin Himmler by putting him in a position which would expose his incompetence. Another view was that it was the only way to move Himmler’s Reserve Army to the battlefront. There is also the most obvious explanation, that Hitler thought this loyal and energetic man would be successful where the generals had failed. Hitler always distrusted the experts.

^Hedwig

^{Death of Himmler}

Strangely enough, the appointment deprived Himmler of immediate authority over the counter-offensive in the Ardennes planned by Hitler in October to be carried out by the S.S. General Sepp Dietrich, to whom Hitler gave the command of the Sixth Army, a special Panzer formation under Rundstedt, the Commander-in-Chief in the West. It has been suggested that Himmler’s command was given him in order to divert any attempts he might make to interfere with Dietrich’s strategy. Rundstedt was particularly sensitive to interference from Himmler, who had been tactless enough during one of his tours of inspection to send Rundstedt orders which he signed as ‘Supreme Commander in the West.’ As General Westphal, Rundstedt’s Chief of Staff, puts it, ‘Although we never discovered whether Hitler had in fact appointed him as such for a time, his rival authority was speedily eliminated.’²³

Sepp Dietrich’s S.S. Panzer Army was hardly what it sounded; one-third of his armoured divisions was recruited from the Peoples’ Grenadiers, another third from the Waffen S.S. The campaign was a failure, even though Skorzeny was brought in to form a special brigade operating directly under Himmler, who assumed his command in the west only a few days before the offensive. The Allies learned in advance that Skorzeny had been ordered to send Englishspeaking Germans dressed in Allied uniforms as spearheads behind the enemy lines. Skorzeny’s men penetrated far, wide and deep, but the effort was soon lost when Sepp Deitrich’s armour, which was bogged down in the winter countryside, failed to follow and support them. Himmler’s hastily improvised forces, their commanders including Bach-Zelewski of Warsaw, undertook little fighting. He attempted to take Strasbourg with his untried army and failed. He was rescued from this inglorious situation by being posted to the command of the Vistula Army Group in the east. He left on 23 January, taking Skorzeny with him. According to the scornful General Westphal, he left behind him ‘a laundry-basket full of unsorted orders and reports’.

Himmler had been based in the Black Forest. As Bormann put it in a letter to his wife: ‘he has his quarters — that is to say, his train — either in the vicinity of one of the Murgtal tunnels or near Triberg’. Hitler’s headquarters for the offensive were at Bad Nauheim 150 miles away, but Himmler kept in touch. On Christmas Eve he was present at a dinner party, sitting next to Guderian, a hostile critic, who noted that Himmler seemed to share Hitler’s delusions about the East:

‘He harboured no doubts about his own importance. He believed that he possessed powers of military judgment every bit as good as Hitler’s, and needless to say far better than those of the generals. “You know, my dear Colonel-General, I don’t really believe the Russians will attack at all. It’s all an enormous bluff. The figures given by your department… are grossly exaggerated. They’re far too worried. I’m convinced there’s nothing going on in the East.” There was no arguing against such naivete.’

This apparent lack of concern for the situation in which Germany was placed permeated those under the influence of Hitler, who seems to have spent his evenings looking at films while his staff entertained each other at parties. Himmler gave a reception for Rundstedt and Bormann on 29 December, after which his guests returned to