Himmler: Reichs Fuhrer-SS

For me, as a reader of WW2 history for over 40 years, the figure of Heinrich Himmler looms large. At one point the 2nd most powerful individual in the 3rd Reich. A veritable minister for everything. But oddly one of those characters who I had never really read about in too much depth. So with Peter Padfield's 1990 biography I had high hopes of learning as to what made this sinister individual tick. I have, unfortunately, finished this lengthy book feeling let down by what I can only describe as a lost opportunity.

He quotes from Himmler's diary and with that builds a “psychological profile” quoting everyone from Hugh Trevor-Roper to Buddhist thought to build his (obvious) disdain for Himmler's mental state. This was not what I was expecting but I found it initially extremely interesting. Added in between all this “psychological profiling” was a short history of various other terrors perpetrated in the name of ideology. Witch hunts in Bavaria 400 odd years previously through to the Spanish Inquisition and how they equated to “public demands” (my words) to “find a scapegoat for social frustration” (Padfield's words). Padfield quotes Trevor-Roper and Henry Kaman in that the “community itself” “impose” on tyrants” their general social beliefs and the tyrants are able to act accordingly. The problem was that the author did not stop there. Chapter after chapter he referred to Himmler's thought process to events by subjective psychological opinion that became far too intrusive to the story that should have been told.

I will also ask as to who this book is aimed at in terms of readership. As a lay reader of the rise of the Nazis to power and with that WW2 history I would suggest that a book on this subject would have been aimed at those that were aware of general historical events. The author wrote almost with a dual purpose that went either into very detailed discussion of events or was quick to give a short overview of others. If an individual had read little on the Nazis and WW2 this is the last book I would recommend if they were looking to read about the life of Himmler. As someone who had read extensively on the Nazis and WW2 I became very frustrated at times at the length of information I was already aware of with not a mention of the subject at hand, Himmler.

That leads to another criticism, why have a biography about an individual and then write large tracts about events he seemed to have little or no involvement in. The Night of the Long Knives is a prime example. Plenty of detail about the event but hardly a mention of Himmler. This leads me to consider that the book lacks focus. Going off the subject at hand and nonsensical sentences to the subject at hand abound. A glaring example is Chapter 14. The discussion is in relation to Himmler discussing with his staff etc. that the allies breaking up under the strain of their supposed “unnatural” alliance and the eastern borders of the Reich being pushed back to the Urals. The author writes..........
“Consequently it is possible, even probable that when he spoke of pushing out the eastern borders to the Urals, and of the great German future which he saw beyond the hard present, he believed it. Equally, much of the time, and in the small wee hours of the night he must have known it was all a chimera. In early September, as the Red army occupied the Rumanian oil fields and invaded Bulgaria, and Finland dropped out of the war against Russia, he took to his bed with stomach cramps, that sure indicator of his psychic health. Kersten found him in agony with the Koran lying by his bedside. ‘I can't bear the pain any longer,' Himmler told him.”

The chapter ends with that comment about pain and the Koran lying beside him. In discussion on this book I was informed that Himmler had actually been discussing at this point in time the recruitment of Bosnian Muslims so therefore he was possibly familiarising himself with their beliefs. I referred to the index and it has under Himmler a subheading attitudes: religious: and includes this page. Hardly. It now looks like a throwaway line. Himmler also had ulcers hence the pain. The discussion of Bosnian recruitment to the SS had been discussed in an earlier chapter and never does the author discuss an ulcer.

The writing style can also be pretentious. After Himmler has taken cyanide the author writes “Did images of Bavaria flood the timeless moment as the poison stunned his nerve centre...Das Braunek dort so freundlich schaut, zum Geirgerstein als seine Brut...‘What a miserable creature is man... The heart is turbulent until it rests in the ground”.

The ironic thing about all my own personal observations of this lengthy book is that for long periods I enjoyed the information offered. If toned back the psychological analysis would not have bothered me, cut out superfluous information and focus the book on the subject and there was a wonderful read in this.

So what did I learn about Himmler that I did not know? I know that I need to read up on Karl Wolff, SS-Obergruppenführer in the Waffen-SS and Himmler's right hand man for long periods and a man who denied knowledge of a hell of a lot after the war. This individual was seemingly stuck like glue to Himmler for long periods and received some brutal criticism from the author. In fact I found myself constantly referring to internet to find out more about this paradox of a man.
Himmler himself I can only describe as the most boring megalomaniac mass killer I have read about. He was good to his wife and mistress and his children. He was polite and chivalrous to women in general and had a very romantic view of the fairer sex. He was well read and even had copies of banned books. Even at the bitter end he was polite and genial to all he spoke to and never forgetting to give presents at Birthday and Xmas etc. He was a workaholic and took on any tasks to come his way. He was ordered by Hitler, for example, to take over as commander-in-chief of Army Group Upper Rhine, a position he knew himself he was hardly equipped for but did as he was loyal to the point of stupidity to “his Fuehrer”.

In the end though he was a Nazi and Hitlerite of the highest order and nothing can ever save this man from history's condemnation as this book makes utterly clear. His racial views the author quotes extensively. These are frankly tedious to put it mildly. The racial theories of National Socialism are beyond the pale and to have had to sit through some of this stuff would have made me personally want to drink poison than be subjected to long winded, up to 8 hours at one conference, discussions on Nazi racial theory. Apparently the SS and Hitler Youth, among others, lapped it up. His building of the SS into a killing machine is described in detail, as are the methods in the concentration camps be that the murder of not only Jews but also the medical experiments among a few examples the book covers. No matter how often I have read on this appalling subject I am never ceased to be amazed by man's inhumanity man.

Himmler was a cowardly sycophant who followed Hitler without question. He was responsible for crimes against humanity through his unwavering beliefs in a moribund ideology. He had not one redeeming feature.