Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was a German high-ranking Nazi politician. He headed the Schutzstaffel (SS). Throughout much of the war he was the second-most powerful man in Nazi Germany, having displaced Hermann Göring. As Reichsführer-SS he oversaw all police and security forces including the Gestapo.

As overseer of the concentration camps, extermination camps, and Einsatzgruppen (death squads), Himmler coordinated the killing of approximately six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Roma,and millions of Soviet prisoners of war, communists or other groups whom the Nazis deemed unworthy to live, including,people of colour, and those with physical and
mental disabilities. Shortly before the end of the war, he offered to surrender to the Allies if he was spared from prosecution. He was arrested by British forces and committed suicide before he could be questioned.

Historians are divided on the psychology, motives, and influences that drove Himmler. Some see him as a dupe of Hitler, fully under his influence, seeing himself essentially as a tool, carrying Hitler’s views to their logical conclusion, the executor of Hitler’s direct orders. Others see Himmler as a rabid antisemite in his own right, a willing racial murderer. Still others see Himmler as power-mad, devoted to self-aggrandisement, the accumulation of power and influence. There are elements of truth in all three of these claims.