Review: Peter Longerich Heinrich Himmler

Recently I reviewed historian Peter Longerich's book Davon haben wir nichts gewusst! in which he examined what the German public knew about the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.  I was impressed by his thorough and systematic scholarship.  In his 2010 biography Heinrich Himmler Longerich has written THE definitive work on the Reichsführer-SS - arguably the second most important figure in the Nazi regime. I read the translation in English (excellent work by Jeremy Noakes and Lesley Sharpe) which was over 1000 pages, including 200 pages of footnotes.

In normal times, a person of the caliber of Heinrich Himmler, the product of a strict, middle-class Catholic upbringing, might rise to achieve the status of a Filialleiter - branch manager - of the local Sparkasse.  But these were not normal times, and Himmler was able to use his organizational talents, his frenetic obsessive compulsive energy, and access to the Nazi terror apparatus to take control of the entire security structure of the Third Reich, both within the greater German Reich and the occupied territories during the war. At the height of his power, Himmler was in charge of the entire SS organization, including the military arm Waffen-SS, the entire network of concentration camps, the Einsatzgruppen involved in extermination campaigns in the occupied territories, the internal security and police organizations, including the Gestapo and Kripo as well as a gigantic staffing service that provided hundreds of thousands of slave labor resources to German industry and to Albert Speer for his grandiose projects.  And yet, as Longerich points our, despite his vast power and absolute loyalty to der Führer, Himmler never belonged to Hitler's inner clique. 

Longerich completely turned my understanding of Heinrich Himmler on its head.  I had always imagined him as a competent functionary issuing orders at the command of the Führer - an embodiment of "the banality of evil." But Himmler was the exact opposite of the faceless bureaucrat sitting behind the desk.  Himmler was always on the move, visiting concentration camps, recruiting new SS, giving speeches to police commands.  He took a personal interest in every aspect of the SS, including the diet, personal hygiene, and sex lives of the men.  And not just the men: Himmler was interested in the racial history and child-bearing capacity of their wives and girlfriends. Longerich writes: "The position [Himmler] built up over the years can instead be described as an extreme example of the almost total personalization of political power.”

Longerich spends much time reconstructing Himmler's worldview. It is fascinating to read how the Reichsführer-SS developed a hostility to towards Christianity and instead embraced a kind of Teutonic mysticism, which then found expression in the rituals of the SS.  Basically, the SS, as built by Himmler, was a cult organization, a cult based on junk science (see Cosmic Ice Theory) and and the crude racial ideology that was central to Nazi thinking and Nazi policy.  Himmler, of course, was convinced that Jews were a race that was alien to Germanic culture.  But he also hated homosexuality and abortion, which he viewed as catastrophic to Germany's biological destiny. 

Himmler's bizarre belief system would be laughable if it didn't have such catastrophic consequences.  He had the authority and power to act on his beliefs, in setting up the camp network first in Germany and then in Poland and the eastern territories.  His massive resettlement plans, designed in accordance with his racial fantasies, resulted in total chaos and death. And the invasion of the Soviet Union was framed as a battle of the Teutonic ideal against the Jewish-Bolshevik subhumans: 

"Dies ist ein Weltanschauungskampf und ein Kampf der Rassen. Bei diesem Kampf steht hier der Nationalsozialismus, eine auf dem Wert unseres germanischen, nordischen Blutes aufgebaute Weltanschauung, steht eine Welt, wie wir sie uns vorstellen: schön, anständig, sozial gerecht [...] eine frohe, schöne, kulturerfüllte Welt [...] Auf der anderen Seite steht ein 180-Millionen-Volk, ein Gemisch aus Rassen und Völkern, deren Namen schon unaussprechlich sind und deren Gestalt so ist, dass man sie bloß ohne jede Gnade und Barmherzigkeit zusammenschießen kann."

(This is a struggle of ideologies  and a battle of the races. On the one hand we have National Socialism, an ideology based on the value of our Germanic, Nordic blood, a world that we envision as beautiful, decent, socially just. .. a joyous, beautiful, cultured world.  On the other side we have 180 million people, a mixture of races and peoples whose names are unpronounceable and physical appearance is such that we can just shoot them down without any pity or sympathy.)

Longerich points out that it is fruitless to search for the exact date on which the orders for the Endlösung - the "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Question" - were issued.  But one could make the argument that Himmler had set things in motion long before the Wannsee Conference.  First, when it became apparent that the fantastical dream of deporting 10 million Jews to Madagascar would never be realized, Himmler set the Einsatzgruppen in motion to murder tens of thousands of Jewish male "bandits". Second, when he witnessed first hand how the constant shooting was causing a great deal of stress among his men, he hit upon the idea of using carbon monoxide and then Zyklon B to murder detainees.  Finally, when it became difficult to handle all the women and children left behind, Himmler had them murdered as well - ostensibly "under orders of the Führer."  In fact, Himmler was acting "in the spirit of the Führer" and it was not until later that he convinced Hitler of the necessity of killing women and children. 

So Himmler, as described in detail in Longerich's biography, was a Vordenker - a pioneer - of the Holocaust, if not the mastermind.  But he was careful to involve and implicate other Nazi leaders, as well as the Wehrmacht generals, in the genocide.  In May 1944 he spoke openly about the
Endlösung to a gathering of generals:

"The Jewish question was solved ruthlessly in accordance with orders and a rational assessment of the situation. {...] I did not consider myself justified - I'm referring here to to Jewish women and children - in allowing avengers to grow up in the shape of children who will then murder our fathers and grandchildren.  I would have considered that a cowardly thing to do.  As a result the questions was solved uncompromisingly."

The series of candid speeches concerning mass murder casts doubt on the postwar "clean hands" theory concerning the Wehrmacht.  (See also my review of Wolfram Wette's The Wehrmacht )

In the end, as the Third Reich collapsed, Himmler comported himself in the most cowardly fashion, first trying to elude capture by assuming the false identity of Heinrich Hitzinger and then, when caught, killing himself with a cyanide capsule, depriving us today of a more detailed understanding of how he was able to achieve such power.  But, thanks to Peter Longerich's exhaustive research, we still know plenty about Himmler - enough to label him as one of the greatest criminals of modern times. 

Comments

[Zyme]

I think there were a handful of days after he was captured by the British until his identity was discovered and he decided to commit suicide.

During these days it would be fascinating to find out what he thought when encountering ordinary captured Germans who have lost all reason to refrain from speaking their mind on the old system.

Him having been at the top of the decision making process meeting those who were on the receiving end of the chain of command. Must have been an immense experience.

[koogleschreiber]

At no time after his capture Himmler had any contact to ordinary German soldiers. His false papers identified him as a member of the secret field police, he didn't know there was an arrest warrant for all of them. Plus, his papers had been recognized as false immediately, he didn't even try to deny his true identity but confessed he was Heinrich Himmler in deed. He was isolated from his accompliced and commited suicide during the first thoroughful body search.
=> http://www.deathcamps.org/reinhard/himmlercap_de.html

[David]

Longerich unfortunately does not include the protocol of Himmler's interrogation by the British.

You may be able to find more information in: "Die letzten Tage von Heinrich Himmler. Neue Dokumente aus dem Archiv des Föderalen Sicherheitsdienstes.
Vorgelegt und eingeleitet von Boris Chavkin und A.M. Kalganov"

[Hattie]

I have got to read this. Thanks for the tip.

[M.L.]

Perceptions of Himmler tend to be strongly influenced by his physical appearance, which was far from impressive. Yet the man must have had qualities in person that are not apparent in those old black and white stills to have risen so high amongst such a pack of vicious wolves. He looks like an anal retentive, personality-less cipher in photos but I imagine he must have projected considerable charisma in person to have risen as high as he did (arguably the most powerful person in Nazi Germany after Hitler).