Heinrich Himmler : A Life (151 page)

225
. Ibid. Himmler to Galke, 5 November 1937.

226
. Ibid. Himmler to Galke, 4 November 1937.

227
. Ibid. 20 April 1940.

228
. This is clear from his letter of 20 April 1940.

229
. Hitler,
Monologe
, 4 February 1942.

230
. Justus H. Ulbricht, ‘“Heil Dir, Wittekinds Stamm”. Verden, der “Sachsenhain” und die Geschichte völkischer Religiosität in Deutschland’,
Heimatkalender für den Landkreis Verden
(1995), 69–123, and also (1996), 224–67, esp. 245 ff.

231
.
Verdener Anzeigenblatt
, 22 June 1935, quoted in Ulbricht, ‘“Heil Dir”’, 258.

232
. Ibid. 97 f.

233
. BAB, NS 19/3666, Personal Staff to Diebitsch re dispositions made by Himmler on his visit on 18 June 1938.

1
. PRO, WO 208/4474, Himmler dossier, testimony from Josef Kiermaier, who was responsible for Himmler’s personal security, 5 August 1945. See in addition the testimony given by Himmler’s adjutant Rudolf Brandt at the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial, published in
Der Nürnberger Ärzteprozess 1946/47. Wortprotokolle, Anklage- und Verteidigungsmaterial, Quellen zum Umfeld,
commissioned by the Foundation for Twentieth-Century Social History, ed. Klaus Dörner
et al
., final editing by Karsten Linne (Munich, 1999), 4933 ff. Himmler’s
Dienstkalender
(office diary), which exists for the years 1941 and 1942, shows that he seldom began work before 10 and most often still had appointments late into the evening. Colonel Eismann of the General Staff, Himmler’s closest military colleague in his capacity as commander of the army group Vistula, claims in his memoirs that in general Himmler began work around 10.30 (BAM, N 265/127, notes of Colonel Eismann).

2
. BAB, NS 19/4009, speech at the SS and Police Leaders’ Conference in the HQ at Hegewald, 16 September 1942.

3
. This album is one of four photograph albums belonging to the Himmler family that were given in 2004 to the archive of the US Holocaust Museum.

4
. BAB, NS 19/4003, speech at the summer solstice on the Brocken, 22 May 1936.

5
. BAB, NS 19/4013, speech on 5 May 1944 in Sonthofen.

6
. OA Moscow, Himmler file. In 1934 he edited a piece of writing about him that contained false information about his school-leaving exams (Abitur) and his service in the ‘field’.

7
. BAB, NS 19/1718, letter of 30 October 1933 to Ferdinand Bruger as a response to the latter’s request of 13 August 1933.

8
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Johst, Johst to Himmler, 30 April 1942, and Himmler’s reply, 14 May 1942; see Rolf Düsterberg,
Hanns Johst: ‘Der Barde der SS’. Karrieren eines deutschen Dichters
(Paderborn, 2004), 290.

9
. BAB, NS 19/3666, note on file for SS Oberführer von Alvensleben, 5 December 1938.

10
. OA Moscow, Himmler file, correspondence with photographic business, 17 and 27 June 1938.

11
. Ibid. Wolff to RFSS cash fund, 2 June 1937.

12
. BADH, ZM 766 A 19, travel expenses of RFSS from 1939 and 1940.

13
. PRO, WO 208/4474, Himmler dossier, testimony of Josef Kiermaier, 5 August 1945; see also a similar statement by Himmler’s adjutant Rudolf Brandt in the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial, published in
Nürnberger Ärzteprozess
, 4978; on his modest requirements see also the recollections of Colonel I. G. Eismann (BAM, N 265/127).

14
. Otto Wagener,
Hitler aus nächster Nähe. Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932
(Frankfurt a. M., 1978), 76 ff.

15
. Albert Speer,
Erinnerungen
(Berlin, 1969), 382.

16
. Evidence of the extensive administration of Himmler’s present-giving can be found in files BAB, NS 19/116, 424, 569, 1076, 3535, 3972, and 4044. The personal files of the SS leaders (BDC) also contain summaries of gifts received.

17
. BAK, NL 1126/7, diary for 1935, entry for 28 December 1935.

18
. BAB, NS 19/4003, 22 May 1936. Himmler stuck to this wish, as he told Hildebrandt, the head of the Race and Settlement Main Office, on 17 December 1943 (NS 19/1047).

19
. Himmler issued a decision personally in cases of doubt. When in April 1940 Untersturmführer Küchlin was to be dismissed from the SS as it turned out that one of his ancestors, born in 1643, had been of the ‘Mosaic’ faith, Himmler, after a personal interview with Küchlin, instructed that a new investigation be conducted and let the Untersturmführer stay in the SS until final clarification. His declared reason can only be described as bizarre: he did not, he said, believe that the ancestor had really been a Jew, as the man’s daughter had married the
landlord of an inn called ‘The Wild Man’; he, however, knew that owners of inns with this name had been ‘very race-conscious and inwardly unchristian men and members of German [ . . . ] heathen secret societies and they would certainly not have permitted anyone to marry a Jew’ (BAB, NS 19/453).

20
. The ‘mental attitude of a free member of the master race’, as Himmler explained in a speech to members of the Hitler Youth on 22 May 1936, was in cases of doubt more important than external characteristics (Himmler,
Geheimreden
, 61 f.).

21
. On the examination see in particular BAB, NS 2/53, Himmler’s order concerning proof of Aryan descent and genetic health, 13 July 1934. In 1936 Himmler ruled that applicants who had submitted their applications in the previous two years should be admitted to the SS before the completion of the examination of their descent (NS 2/166, Himmler’s order of 1 October 1936). See also instructions on this matter of 20 April 1935 (NS 2/280) and 26 May 1939 (NS 2/152). Further relevant dispositions are found in files NS 2/166 and NS 31/279; see also Heinemann,
‘Rasse’
, 59 ff.

22
. BAB, NS 2/152, letter from head of RuSHA, 2 August 1939.

23
. Ibid. letter from RuSHA, 22 March 1938.

24
. BAB, NS 2/166, order of 20 May 1935, reproduced in letter of 3 June 1936.

25
. Doc. PS-1992 (A), lecture by Himmler on the nature and purpose of the SS as part of a Wehrmacht course on national politics, 15 to 23 January 1937, in
IMT
, vol. 29, pp. 206 ff., here 210.

26
. Heinemann,
‘Rasse’
, 61.

27
. BAB, NS 2/152, RuSHA circular, 22 December 1939.

28
. BAB, NS 19/1047, Hildebrandt to Himmler, 1 December 1943, and Himmler’s reply, 17 December 1943, published in Himmler,
Reichsführer!
, no. 288a.

29
. BAB, NS 19/4002, speech at the leaders’ conference of SS-Oberabschnitt South-East in Breslau, 19 January 1935; see also Ackermann,
Himmler
, 106 ff. Himmler also described the ‘path’ of the SS man in similar terms in other speeches: NS 19/4005, speech at the camp at Ahrenshoop to Napola senior staff, teachers, and pupils, 3 July 1938; doc. PS-1992 (A), lecture by Himmler on the nature and purpose of the SS as part of a Wehrmacht course on national politics, 15 to 23 January 1937, in
IMT
, vol. 29, pp. 206 ff.

30
. BAB, NS 2/86, note by Caesar, reporting to Reichsführer-SS, 21 November 1938.

31
. Such catalogues of virtue can be found, for example, in the following speeches: BAB, NS 19/4005, speech in Znaim, 11 December 1938;NS 19/4009, The Hague, 17 May 1942;NS 19/4013, speech to the 13th SS Alpine division, 11 January 1944;
Berliner Tageblatt
of 15 June 1937, report on the speech on the occasion of the consecration of the memorial for Gauleiter Loeper, Leopoldshalle in Stassfurt, 13 June 1937.

32
. Himmler,
Schutzstaffel
, 23 (speech of 12 November 1935 in Goslar).

33
. This is Birn’s convincing explanation, in
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 365 ff. On loyalty see also Ackermann,
Himmler
, 149 ff.

34
.
SS-Leitheft
, 11 (January 1937), 29 f.

35
. BAB, NS 19/4005, speech at the Gruppenführer meeting in Munich, 8 November 1938, published in Himmler,
Geheimreden
, 25 ff., here 43.

36
. Ackermann,
Himmler
, 150.

37
. Ibid.

38
. NS 19/3902, order of 9 November 1936; cf. Ackermann,
Himmler
, 119 f.

39
. Birn,
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 367 ff.

40
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Eicke, 6 October 1937. For further declarations of loyalty (in addition to those examples cited in the text and in Birn,
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 363 ff.) see, among others, BDC, SS-O Gerhard Klopfer, 12 December 1942, on his promotion; SS-O Albin Rauter, 20 June 1943 (promotion); SS-O Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger, 7 October 1938 (birthday); SS-O Heissmeyer, letter of thanks for Yule light, 6 January 1936; SS-O Alfred Wünnenberg, New Year letter, 15 December 1942.

41
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Rediess, 22 December 1935, also published in Birn,
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 370.

42
. Birn,
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 376 f.

43
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Martin, 3 August 1944.

44
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Fegelein, 5 October 1943.

45
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Jeckeln, 18 May and 1 June 1944.

46
. Ibid. 7 November 1944; quoted by Birn,
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 394.

47
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Fitzthum, 4 September 1940.

48
. Birn,
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 375 f.; Hans Buchheim, ‘Befehl und Gehorsam’, in id.
et al
.,
Anatomie des SS-Staates
, 7th edn. (Munich, 1999), 213–320, 235; Ackermann,
Himmler
, 152 ff.

49
. BAB, NS 19/1667, Berger to Himmler, 28 July 1943; BDC, SS-O Steiner, letter from Himmler of 25 August 1942. Birn, in
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 381, emphasizes in particular the examples of Woyrsch und von Alvensleben, who in spite of inadequate performance were able to maintain their relationship of loyalty with the Reichsführer. Also instructive in this respect is the example of Eicke (see above p. 152).

50
. Himmler,
Schutzstaffel
, 23.

51
. Birn,
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 379.

52
. BAB, NS 19/4005, speech in Znaim, 11 December 1938.

53
. BAB, NS 2/50. On Himmler’s concept of ‘decency’ see Ackermann,
Himmler
, 153 ff.

54
. BAB, NS 19/4002, speech at the leaders’ conference of SS-Oberabschnitt South-East in Breslau, 19 January 1935.

55
. BAB, NS 19/4010, 4 October 1943, published as doc. PS-1919 in
IMT
, vol. 29, pp. 110 ff., quotation 145.

56
. BAB, NS 19/4003, also published as Himmler,
Rede des Reichsführers-SS vor den Preußischen Staatsräten.

57
. BAB, NS 19/4010, 4 October 1943, published as doc. PS-1919 in
IMT
, vol.29, pp. 110 ff., quotation 123.

58
. BAB, NS 19/4013, speech in Salzburg, 14 May 1944.