Padfield - Himmler: Reichsführer-SS

Himmler

Reichsfhrer-SS

Peter Padfield

Copyright 2013, Peter Padfield

All Rights Reserved

This edition published in 2013 by:

Thistle Publishing

36 Great Smith Street

London

SW1P 3BU

To the memory of Hans and Sophie Scholl,
and the White Rose of
the University of Munich

whoever today still doubts the real existence of demonic powers has widely misunderstood the metaphysical background to this war. Behind the concrete, behind material perceptions, behind all factual, logical considerations stands the irrational, i.e. the battle against the demon, against the emissaries of the Anti-Christ .

(from a leaflet of the White Rose, Munich, February 1943)

First I must thank Bradley Smith, the authority on Himmlers early life, for offering to fill up a suitcase of his photocopies and transcripts of Himmlers early letters and diaries and bring them to London with him from America. In the event, bleary-eyed from decyphering too many German scripts, I declined his offer, only asking for and receiving selected letters and diary pages. However, the gesture and the response to my request for specific documents were so open and generous that Bradley Smith has to head the list of those I thank. And I should add that my account of Himmlers early life is based on his work.

It is apparent from the suitcase episode that I have not read everything I could have read; I have not read a tenth or perhaps a hundredth of what I might have read. Had I read all the primary and secondary material this book would never have been written. A balance had to be struck and I believe I have spent more than sufficient time peering into Himmlers mind through his diaries, letters, decrees and file notes. I do not believe that another five years of the same would have altered the picture substantially. Ultimately one reaches the unknowable, and that is where I arrived. Nevertheless there is ample scope for others to fill in details and areas of his life I have barely touched.

Of those, apart from Bradley Smith, who have laid foundations for this biography I should like to acknowledge my great debt to Josef Ackermann, whose penetrating study of Himmlers mind, Heinrich Himmler als Ideologe, was invaluable, also to the works of Jochen von Lang, Helmut Heiber, Heinz Hhne, Martin Broszat and Gerald Reitlinger, listed below and/or in the Bibliography and Reference sections.

I owe a great debt to Michael Tregenza, whose biography of Christian Wirth will appear shortly, for the great generosity with which he has shared his hard-won research on the death camps in Poland and the time he has spent answering my queries and providing photocopies of source material from his extensive archive.

I did not interview anyone who knew Himmler personally. The few whom I thought might contribute because they had been exceptionally close to him in a working relationship would neither see me nor answer my letters. This is not as serious as it might appear, as I found when researching for Dnitz that too much time has elapsed since the Nazi era, too many evasions and downright lies have circulated and passed into common currency, and as a consequence it has become impossible to separate fact from fiction in any recollections of participants unless they are supported by the documentary record.

This applies of course to published memoirs. Several of the sources I have used are suspect, the memoirs of Himmlers masseur, Felix Kersten, and the recollections of his adjutant, Karl Wolff, as prime examples. Yet these two were probably closer to Himmler than anyone and to disregard their observations would be as silly as to take everything they wrote on trust. Before citing them I have applied the simple test of asking whether on this or that point they had reason to lie. In any case I have always indicated the source and if necessary the doubts. So far as Felix Kersten is concerned, there is much independent corroboration that the topics he records having discussed with Himmler were indeed on Himmlers mind on the day or in the period he gives; it comes both from records of Himmlers talks with officials and from his table talk which, like Hitlers, was thought worthy of recording for posterity. I have less difficulty in believing Felix Kersten than some historians; conversely I have far more difficulty in believing Karl Wolff.

Of those who have helped in different ways I should like to thank Professor Yehuda Bauer of the University of Jerusalem for his analysis of the diaries of Himmlers daughter, Gudrun, which I was unable to see. He considered them basically unenlightening what is interesting is what is not there. He considers that they do not help to clarify Himmlers relationship with his wife Marga during the time he had a second family with his mistress Hschen Potthast.

I owe much to the help of Mrs Wichmann and all at the Wiener Library, London, who guided me through the Himmler collections, helped with translations of German colloquialisms, answered queries and made many vital suggestions about books to consult. And I should like to express my great thanks to Martin Goldenberg for his help in decyphering several of the more difficult handwritten letters. Similarly I owe much to Philip Reed of the Imperial War Museum for his great help with the Himmler material there and also the Nuremberg and Doctors Trials transcripts. My brother Tim made photocopies of letters to and from Himmler, and Himmlers speeches on microfilm at the National Archives Washington see References; my son Guy added immeasurably to those parts of the book which touch on philosophy by virtue of his knowledge of Sanskrit and the Indian texts which so attracted Himmler.

I should like to thank Volker Berghahn, lately of Warwick University, as ever immensely helpful in loaning vital books, who also read parts of the draft touching on economic matters and made valuable suggestions. Harald Lohl loaned me many books and other material from his library, and Kristina Behnke, formerly secretary to the late and sadly missed Frank Lynder, helped with photocopies of material difficult to find in this country. I should also like to thank President Chaim Herzog of Israel and Niall MacDermot, Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists, who wrote detailed accounts of Himmlers last hours, Dan van der Vat, who pointed me in the right direction at the beginning, Stanislaw Rutkowski, who described wartime Warsaw from personal recollection, Lord Douglas-Hamilton, Martin Gilbert and many others who replied to my requests for information or material.

I thank Mrs Lucy Butler, Robert Byrons sister, for permission to quote extracts from her brothers diary which appeared in the Spectator; the editor of Germania Judaica, Bulletin der Klner Bibliothek zur Geschichte des deutschen Judentum, for permission to quote from George Hallgartens recollections of Himmler as a schoolboy. And I am grateful to the following publishers and authors for permission to quote extracts from their works: Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich, for H. Heiber, Reichsfuhrer! Briefe an und von Himmler, M. Broszat (ed.), Kommandant in Auschwitz, A. Krebs, Tendenzen und Gestalten der NSDAP, Erinnerungen, R. Diels, Lucifer ante Portas, Diogenes Verlag, Zurich, for A. Andersch, Der Vater eines Mrders; Droste Verlag, Dsseldorf, for K. Moczarski, Gesprche mit dem Henker; Dr Heinz Boberach for his illuminating multi-volume compilation, Meldungen aus dem Reich; Century-Hutchinson for F. Kersten, The Kersten Memoirs, R. Hewins, Count Folke Bernadotte, J. Heygate, These Germans; John Murray for P. Leigh Fermors marvellous travel memories, A Time of Gifts; Weidenfeld & Nicolson for H.R. Trevor-Roper (ed.),