7
See Note 22, p. 211 of the article by Angress and Smith mentioned above.
8
Each state in Germany had, and still has, its own provincial parliament for the conduct of local affairs, to which deputies are appointed from the parties after local elections. The Reichstag represented, and still represents under its new name the Bundestag, the federal parliament, dealing with national policy and legislation. Deputies were elected to the Reichstag (as now to the Bundestag) on the basis of proportional representation, the various parties selecting their own deputies to fill the number of seats due to them after each election.
9
Gebhard Himmler recollects that the motor-cycle was a second-hand Swedish machine of which Himmler was inordinately proud.
10
We drew this conclusion from evidence originally given us by Otto Strasser when he was interviewed by H.F. in connection with our book, Doctor Goebbels.
11
See Kurt G. W. Ludecke, I Knew Hitler, p. 267.
12
See The Early Goebbels Diaries, pp. 78, 94, 116.
13
Otto Strasser told the story to H.F. that Himmler came into his office shortly before his marriage and solemnly admitted that he had lost his virginity. Strasser congratulated him. According to Gebhard Himmler, it was Marga’s blonde hair that was her outstanding attraction for Himmler. Himmler’s first meeting with her at Berchtesgaden came about through his clumsiness in pouring melting snow all over her frock when removing his Tyrolean hat with too generous a flourish as he entered the hotel lobby. His apologies led to making her acquaintance, and this in turn to long walks and longer conversations.
14
The initials S.S. also stood for Saal-Schutz, that is, ‘hall protection’. This is a reminder that the original duty of the S.S. was to act as ‘chuckers-out’ at political meetings.
Additional Note
Among the superfluity of personal papers meticulously preserved by Himmler and now held in the Federal Archives, there is an early essay written by Himmler as a very young man and revealing his idea on the economic and ideological aspects of agriculture. The date of this essay cannot be exactly determined, but according to the style and content there can be no doubt that he wrote it while studying at Munich. This impression is confirmed by his brother Gebhard. The essay is naïvely idealistic and visualizes what Himmler regarded at that time as a model farming community, entirely self-supporting, that is, living on the fruits of the soil and by their own labour, and having no use for money within the community itself. Money would only be required to repay the initial cost of machinery and other capital expenditure, and this would be obtained from the sale of surplus products from the land. When writing at this time Himmler deliberately used archaic terms such as Meister, Geselle and Lehrling for the hierarchy of his community; he advocated chastity and a deep communion with the soil, together with the revival of ancient folklore, folk-dancing, traditional music and so on. It is interesting to compare his concept for community living on the land with the economy and ideology of the contemporary Israeli kibbutz.
CHAPTER II
We are grateful to Frau Lina Heydrich, widow of the S.S. leader, for giving us facts concerning her husband’s early career and initial meeting with Himmler.
1
Darré’s conception of inferior races extended to the Latin peoples, Negroes and Asiatics. When the Rome-Berlin axis was widened to include the Japanese, this caused Himmler and the other racialists considerable embarrassment.
2
The text of the code appeared as document PS-2284 at I.M.T.
3
The word Sippe is a deliberate archaism which has no exact English equivalent, the nearest word being possibly ‘clan’. In using it, Himmler was anxious to stress the Teutonic ideals of ancestry.
4
In the evidence she gave H.F., Frau Heydrich denies the familiar story that the girl with whom Heydrich was previously in love was with child by him. She also denies that Heydrich had any Jewish blood in his ancestry; even so, the suspicion of it hung over him throughout his career in the Party. See also Chapter IV, note 3.
5
This account of Heydrich’s introduction to the Nazi Party and to Himmler was given us by Lina Heydrich. It is supported by Werner Best in evidence he gave H.F.
6
Frau Heydrich has stressed how extremely poorly paid her husband was, as well as other S.S. leaders. Since neither she nor Heydrich had significant private means, they lived very humbly. Frau Heydrich’s family gave them furniture and linen. They could afford no servants for several years. Frau Heydrich has also given us a number of interesting sidelights on Himmler’s character at this time. He insisted that she address him as Reichsführer, and not as Herr Himmler, which she thought more appropriate for a woman. She found him fussy, and still remembers with some amusement how, when he came to stay at her house, he carefully hung up his face-cloth to dry, and that it had a red rose embroidered upon it. He refused to eat potatoes, rice or spaghetti.
7
The term Junker is mostly misunderstood outside Germany. It is an archaic term implying descent from noble stock, an élite class. A Junkerschule, therefore, is an institution for the upper class, or so Himmler implied.
8
Nevertheless, Himmler seemed at first to welcome the idea of the return of Roehm, his former commanding officer, and not to see it as a threat to his own position. Roehm and Himmler corresponded while Roehm was in Latin America; during 1930 Himmler wrote to him at least twice, complimenting him on his escape from danger in campaigns against the Indians, and joking about him being an old hand at revolutions. He also urged him to raise money for the S.S. among the wealthy Latin Americans of German descent and said how he looked forward to their future co-operation on Roehm’s return to Germany. The letters are preserved at the Federal Archives at Koblenz.
9
Herr Riss, a friend of Himmler during his student days, told H.F. that when he met Himmler during 1931 and complimented him on becoming a Reichstag deputy, Himmler merely laughed at the ‘talking shop’ and claimed the Nazi deputies were only there to make use of the occasion for their own ends. What he was proud of, he said, was being Reichsführer S.S.
10
See Lüdecke, op. cit., p. 433.
11
See Gerald Reitlinger, The S.S. p. 27, William L. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich pp. 144-5, and Nuremberg Case XI, transcript of judgment 28, 440-7; 28, 599; and 28, 794. Keppler was later to support Himmler’s so-called research into Aryan history by forming a circle of businessmen-patrons called ‘Friends of the Reichsführer S.S.’. Himmler is stated by Schroeder himself to have accompanied Hitler when he attended the famous Hitler-Schroeder meeting. See Alan Bullock, Hitler (Edition, 1952), p. 220 and Schroeder’s testimony at Nuremberg in N.C.A. II, 922-4.
12
LM.T. XX, p. 246.
13
Later, in 1936, he was to become head of the uniformed police (O.R.P.O.) and, after the assassination of Heydrich in Prague in 1942, Heydrich’s successor as Reich Protector.
14
This and subsequent accounts of Hoess’s extraordinary career and relationship to Himmler are taken largely from his own autobiography written in prison after the war — Commandant of Auschwitz.
15
See I.M.T. II, p. 361.
16
See I.M.T. documents PS-778; also Trial II, pp. 371 — 2. And compare Shirer, op. cit., p. 272.
17
Himmler worked fast; he became Chief of Political Police in Bavaria in April 1933, then in Hamburg the following October, and in Mecklenburg, Lübeck, Wuertemberg, Baden, Hessen, Thüringen and Amhalt in December. In January 1934, he assumed the same office in Oldenburg, Bremen, Saxony and Prussia. (Taken from the official file listing Himmler’s offices preserved at the Berlin Document Centre.)
CHAPTER III
1
Gebhard Himmler expla
ined to H.F. that the boy Gerhard, who was a year or so older than Gudrun, was never formally adopted by his brother. He was the son of an S.S. officer called von Ahe who had been killed before the war, and he was brought up in Himmler’s household.
2
The estrangement was neither formally recognized nor privately acknowledged, even when Himmler much later set up a second household with his mistress Hedwig, who bore him the two children of whom he became the legal guardian. His love for his wife Marga cooled after a period of years, and his visits to Gmund became less and less frequent, though he was always deeply concerned over the welfare of Gudrun. Himmler and his wife continued to conduct the mere business of marriage throughout the rest of their lives, though Marga tacitly accepted Himmler’s relationship with Hedwig and all affection died between them. Marga’s term of address for her husband in her letters became Mein Lieber Guter, an untranslateable phrase which combines a kind of old-fashioned feminine effusiveness, with possessive sentimentality. As we shall see, Himmler’s relations with Marga’s interfering sister Bertha became very strained. It should be added that on rare occasions Himmler did allow Marga to accompany him on state occasions. For example, he took her to Italy; it is typical of him that, on this occasion, he insisted that all her expenses should be charged to his private account.
3
Himmler’s good relations with Roehm rapidly changed when his former superior officer stood in his way. It should, however, be realized that what finally drove Hitler to discard Roehm, of whom he was genuinely fond, was the implacable opposition to him and the S.A. that had developed among the very people whose support he felt at this stage he most needed — the generals and the industrialists. Hitler’s promise to Eden to reduce the S.A. fitted in well with this policy. These considerations, and not solely the pressure brought to bear on him by Goring and Himmler led to Hitler’s decision to strike down Roehm and destroy the influence of the S.A. For Frick’s affidavit see N.C.A. V, pp. 654-5. See also Reitlinger, S.S. p. 62 for further evidence from Roehm’s legal adviser that Himmler twisted every circumstance he could in order to incriminate Roehm in Hitler’s eyes.
4
Gisevius, the former Gestapo official who joined the resistance movement and whose book, To the Bitter End, is one of the most revealing and colourful sources of information about the Nazi regime, claims to have seen the report on this incident prepared by Daluege on orders from Himmler. Daluege was much more amused than concerned about the hole in the windscreen, which his report claimed was made by a stone thrown up by a passing car. This explanation was also given to H.F. by Bodenschatz, who was present at the ceremony. According to Gisevius, Himmler, ‘white, trembling, excited’, held up the interment while he insisted that forty Communists should be shot at once as a reprisal; later he had two S.A. brigade leaders executed for making an attempt on his life. Frischauer, in his biography of Himmler (p. 64) is inaccurate in claiming that Himmler was travelling to Carinhall in the same car as Hitler after their conference on Roehm in Berlin, and that he was actually wounded in the arm.
5
I.M.T. XX, p. 249.
6
This was Papen’s own view as he expressed it to H.F.
7
I.M.T. XII, p. 278.
8
The oath demanded of the S.S. officers was more exacting: for example, the oath for a Lieutenant-General ran: ‘Being an S.S. Lieutenant-General, I undertake to see to the best of my ability that, with complete disregard of whatever merits his parents or ancestors may have, only such men are to be accepted into the S.S. who comply fully with its high standard. I will see to this even if it means rejecting my own sons or daughters or those of my Sippe. I further undertake to see to it that in every year one quarter of S.S. candidates consists of men who are not sons of S.S. men. I swear to live up to these obligations in loyalty to our Führer Adolf Hitler and to the honour of my ancestors: so help me God.’ The text of this oath is preserved in the Federal Archive at Koblenz. It is significant because it reveals Himmler’s deep distrust of aristocrats exploiting the ‘merits of their ancestors’.
9
Schellenberg’s Memoirs, p. 10.
10
See I.M.T. III, p. 130.
11
A considerable file of correspondence survives in the Federal Archive dealing with the coats-of-arms the S.S. officers were expected to produce for formal emplacement at Wewelsburg. Since for the most part S.S. men were of middle-class origin, they had some difficulty in concocting ‘authentic’ coats-of-arms to satisfy Himmler’s Teutonic snobbery. See below, Chap. IV, Note 12.
12
A letter is preserved in the Federal Archive in which a schoolboy called Fritz Brüggemann wrote in January 1937 directly to Himmler for an authoritative statement as to whether or not Jesus was a Jew. Himmler sent the answer through a member of his staff: ‘Most certainly, dear boy, Jesus was not a Jew.’ Himmler favoured adapting Christian ceremonies and festivals to Teutonic forms — for example, ceremonies for christening and burial stressing the affinity between the individual and the nation. He turned Christmas into a Teutonic feast, and he gave a Teutonic form of candlestick, called a Jul-Leuchter, as his normal Christmas present.
13
Ahnenerbe first appears as an official organization in an order signed by Himmler at Gmund on 9 August 1937. A record of this is held at the archives at Amsterdam.
14
Hoess, the future commandant of Auschwitz, records that Himmler held ‘a grand inspection’ of Dachau in 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
Höttl, 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 Führer 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 Reichsführer 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 Häschen, 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.
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