Heinrich Himmler

28

See Cohen, op. cit., p. 114.

29

For our account of this last phase of Heydrich’s life we have relied mainly on Wighton’s biography and Schellenberg’s Memoirs.

CHAPTER V

1

These instructions, as far as we know, have not previously been published. They exist as a three-page typescript, marked secret, with marginal corrections in Himmler’s hand, and they are held now at the Federal Archives. The pedantic instructions exactly match Himmler’s style; he details, for example, the exact distance at which the execution squads should stand from the prisoner, and whether or not his eyes should be bandaged or his face turned to the wall.

2

I.M.T. XVII, pp. 19-20.

3

See Reitlinger’s The S.S., p. 263. Official S.S. statistics showed that between June and November 1942, 136, 700 prisoners had been taken into the camps, and that 70,610 had died, 28,846 had been ‘transferred out’ (i.e., gassed), 9,267 executed, and 4,711 released.

4

See N.C.A. III, pp. 467-9.

5

A vivid description of this repulsive hoard is given by Reitlinger in The Final Solution, p. 453.

6

Files of correspondence and memoranda held in the Instituut in Amsterdam, for example, set down the hard deals which the S.S. were negotiating for the sale of Jewish liberties, the minimum price of which was eventually increased from 50,000 to 100,000 Swiss francs.

7

For the text of this speech, see N.C.A. IV, pp. 558-78.

8

Various terms were used to camouflage genocide. These included Aussiedlung (desettlement), Abbeforderung (removal), and Auflockerung (loosening-up). Such terms were in keeping with the fiction that ghettoes such as that at Theresienstadt had the status of an ‘Alters-Ghetto’, that is, a place of pleasant retirement for elderly Jews, and so called in order to give a favourable impression. Himmler was very angry when he heard that the true nature of the ghetto at Theresienstadt had leaked out.

9

This story has been most eloquently told by John Hersey in his book, The Wall. A full account of the revolt appears in The Final Solution, p. 274 et seq.

10

The bare notes for this speech have, however, been preserved. See I.M.T. documents, PS 910, and The Final Solution, p. 256.

11

I.M.T. document, PS 1061.

12

See The Final Solution, p. 490. For comparison, it may be of interest to note that in a speech fourteen months later, on 25 May 1944, Himmler quoted to an audience of legal men, including the principal judges, the numbers in the concentration camps as 50,000 Germans and 300,000 aliens.

13

The facts for this brief survey of the fate of the Jews in various parts of Europe over which Germany exercised control is derived from The Final Solution.

14

In conversation with R.M. in Stockholm, Frau Irmgard Kersten recalled how she accompanied her husband and Himmler to Italy on this occasion; this was the only time she had any direct dealings with Himmler, whom she always tried to avoid. After lunch one day in Rome, Himmler made a special point of talking to her about the need to be rid of the Jews and the Jehovah Witnesses, and even delayed his departure on an official journey to continue the lecture he gave her. He evidently felt the need to make an ally of Kersten’s German wife of whom he saw so little.

15

Hoess’s Memoirs, p. 148.

16

The Jehovah Witnesses, apart from their pacificism, exacted some response in Himmler’s nature. He openly admired their fanaticism, their sobriety and their desire for hard work. It irritated him profoundly that such good people should refuse to co-operate.

17

Himmler never used his special train as a centre for self-indulgence after the manner of Goring. The surviving record of the food taken aboard on 12 December 1942 is extremely modest: it’s cost amounted to 20 marks, 75 pfennigs.

18

In a recent book which makes a study of Hitler’s medical record, it is only fair to point out that the document seen by Kersten testifying to Hitler’s alleged syphilis is not mentioned. See Dr Johann Rechtenwald, Woran hat Hitler gelitten. Indeed, it now seems certain that Hitler was not suffering from the after-effects of syphilis but, as has often been stated, from Parkinson’s disease (paralysis agitans).

19

Another intimate adviser was, of course, the former S.S. General, Karl Wolff, who acted as Himmler’s liaison officer at Hitler’s headquarters until 1943, when he was appointed Military Governor of Northern Italy. Prior to his recent sentence he was held in custody at Stadelheim prison in Munich, and there H.F. was allowed to interview him on several occasions. He is a man of some charm and humour, and Himmler always addressed him affectionately as Wolfchen.

20

Officially, Mueller has for some time been regarded as dead, but an excavation of his grave during 1963 has revealed that it contained the remains of three men, all younger than Mueller at the time of their deaths. This deception seems only to confirm the original suspicion that he has escaped to Russia.

21

Schellenberg in his Memoirs (pp. 395 and 432) writes as if he responded quite independently of Himmler to an invitation from Kersten to visit Stockholm and discuss peace proposals with Hewitt. When Kersten reported his discussions to Himmler, he was, says Schellenberg, ‘aghast’. Later, however, he encouraged Schellenberg to maintain contact with Hewitt.

22

Hitler’s and Himmler’s racial prejudices lost the Germans, until it was too late, the opportunity to draw on Russian reinforcements alleged to amount to some 800,000 men of the Cossack elite regiments. Led by the Ukrainian General, Vlassov, their price would have been equality with the German soldiers and independence for the Ukraine. Hitler failed to develop the Ukraine into an anti-Stalinist, pro-German stronghold. See also Chapter VII, p. 203.