Heinrich Himmler

1936, and adds that ‘Himmler was in the best of spirits because the whole inspection has gone off without a hitch. Dachau … is also going well.’ Himmler asked after Hoess’s family, and shortly afterwards promoted him an S.S. Second Lieutenant. Following his usual practice at these inspections, Himmler picked out a few prisoners and interviewed them in front of the Gauleiters and high Nazi officials who accompanied him.

15

For Frick’s attempts at intervention, see I.M.T. XII, pp. 203-6, 266.

16

Hottl, Behrends and Schellenberg.

17

The police under Himmler were divided into the uniformed police (O.R.P.O.) and the secret, plain-clothes police (S.I.P.O.). Himmler’s security police were placed under Heydrich, and embodied the Gestapo, their colleagues in Kripo (the criminal police, or C.I.D.) and the Security Service, the S.D., which was still a Party, not a state, organization. In September, a further stage was reached in merging the S.S. and the Police by making S.S. leaders of each district the Chief of Police for their areas, and the operations of the Gestapo, which were still nominally confined to Prussia, extended to the whole of Germany. It was not until two years later, however, in June 1938, that all members of the Security police had to become members of the S.S., so closing the gap in Himmler’s dual control in the state. (See Crankshaw, Gestapo, p. 90.)

18

In his speech, Himmler described the strategy of the Saxon duke called Henry the Fowler, who became Heinrich I, founder of the German state. He made a pact with the Hungarians, who threatened his newly-formed kingdom, in order to give himself time to prepare to resist them. Himmler did not share the normal German admiration for Charlemagne, whom he regarded as representative of an inferior race.

19

It is necessary in connection with the Lebensborn movement to make it quite clear that the homes were no more than large maternity establishments to care for mothers some of whom were bearing legitimate and some illegitimate children. The rumour soon got around that they were stud farms where suitable men and women were mated in order to breed even more suitable children. This was not so, though there are records of women applying to the Lebensborn homes saying that they ‘wanted to give the Fuhrer a child’. One of the official replies to such women reads: ‘We are not a matrimonial agency.’ The Lebensborn movement was officially founded ‘by the will of the Reichsfuhrer S.S.’ in 1936, and registered in Munich on 24 March 1938. For further details of Lebensborn, see the Bulletin of the Wiener Library, July 1962, p. 52. Cp. Chap. IV, Note 13.

20

In 1944 Himmler was to be formally recognized as the father and official guardian of his illegitimate son and daughter. See Chap IV, Note 14. Himmler’s relationship with Hedwig, who was known affectionately as Haschen, amounted to a form of bigamous marriage, and there is no doubt that she represented the lasting love of Himmler’s life. Frau Heydrich told H.F. that Himmler’s whole manner changed when he developed this relationship with Hedwig; he became for a while more relaxed and human. As a result of her situation, Hedwig lived a very enclosed life, but she was both liked and respected by all who came in contact with her. At one stage, Himmler wanted to divorce his wife and marry Hedwig, but she refused to let him do so for Gudrun’s sake. In conversation with H.F., Schwerin-Krosigk, Hitler’s Minister of Finance, reported that Hanna Reitsch, the famous Nazi woman aviator, had told him of her experiences immediately after the war when she was confined for questioning along with Hedwig. Himmler’s mistress told her how much she had loved Himmler, and how good he had been to her. Hedwig is now married and wishes to forget the past; her two children by Himmler were given other surnames.

21

The five ‘required’ sports which caused so much trouble for the older men who were expected to qualify in them, just as Himmler desired to do, were sprinting, swimming, long-distance running, the high or long jump, and putting the shot or javelin. Achieving a sports badge was made obligatory for all S.S. men, and Himmler, after months of training mostly at the Junkerschule at Bad-Toelz, had to be deliberately deceived by his subordinates that he had in fact passed the necessary tests. When men, such as Baldur von Schirach, regarded as valuable over-strained themselves to fulfil Himmler’s sports requirements Hitler became annoyed with the idea.

22

See Kersten’s Memoirs, pp. 294, 306.

23

See N.C.A. IV, pp. 616-34 for the text of this speech.

24

In our book Hermann Goring, we followed Wheeler-Bennett in his Nemesis in placing this challenge as being sent after the hearing. It seems more likely, according to Reitlinger, that the challenge was sent during February. The story of the challenge came originally from Otto John.

25

Memoirs, p. 32.

26

It is possible that Eichmann was already in Vienna. See Reitlinger, The Final Solution, pp. 25-6, and Lord Russell, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann, p. 186.

27

During the winter of 1938-9, Himmler formed two companies, Deutsche Ausruestungswerke and Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke for this purpose. They were administered by the business management department of the S.S. under Oswald Pohl, who had been a Paymaster-Captain in the Navy. See Reitlinger, The S.S., p. 257.

28

See Henderson, Failure of a Mission, p. 111.

29

See I.M.T. III, pp. 191-2.

CHAPTER IV

1

Gisevius in To the Bitter End, Kersten in the Memoirs, and Hoettl in The Secret Front, pp. 44 et seq.

2

After the war, H.F. interviewed Madame Kitty in Berlin to obtain further details of this exclusive and specialized establishment. By no means all the women who worked there were high-class professional prostitutes; some were young society women who volunteered for service, posing as patriots. Kitty told H.F. that though Ribbentrop was a frequent visitor, Goebbels only came once; he exuded charm, viewed a lesbian display, but declined to patronize any of the girls. Neither Himmler nor Goring thought fit to visit a place of this kind.

3

In conversation with H.F., Werner Best, who also had to work closely with Heydrich, confirmed his insatiable ambition, his intelligence and his ruthless energy. He is certain Heydrich aimed to supplant Himmler, and even possibly Hitler himself. He deliberately set out to terrorize his subordinates, and he was always making sarcastic remarks to Best on account of his legal training. However, he made something of a confidant of Best and spoke to him on one occasion about his supposed Jewish ancestry. There was, said Heydrich, a man called Suss among his forebears, but he claimed, quite reasonably, that Suss was not an exclusively Jewish name. (See also Chapter II, note 4). Wolff’s view of Heydrich given to H.F. during an interview, is that he was able and efficient, but a most