Heinrich Himmler : A Life (153 page)

34
. BAB, NS 7/245, SS judge on RFSS staff to the Main Office of the SS Court, 21 July 1941, about Himmler’s idea of imposing a ‘rehabilitation stay’ in such cases. Glücks, who was working out the details, suggested KZ Buchenwald in a letter to the RFSS of 23 July 1942; SS judge to Glücks, 18 August 1941, passes on Himmler’s agreement. A letter of 18 November 1941 from the Main Office of the SS Court to the Personal Staff reveals that the process of admitting the first four candidates was already under way.

35
. BAB, NS 7/24, SS judge to Glücks, 18 August 1942, on Himmler’s ideas and instructions for the rehabilitation, which the Personal Staff sent to Glücks on 24 October 1941. Finally the Main Office of the SS Court made a summary of the stipulations in a directive about the arrangements for rehabilitation stays of 28 March 1942.

36
. BAB, NS 7/245, SS judge to Main Office of the SS Court, 5 January 1942.

37
. BAB, NS 2/2, order of RFSS of 25 June 1937.

38
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Bach-Zelewski, correspondence from the years 1935 to 1938.

39
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Moder, 15 October 1937.

40
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Hennicke, Ludwig Guldener to RFSS, 9 September 1938.

41
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Otto Hofmann, note for the file, head of department III, 28 August1934.

42
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Rösener, Rösener to Schmitt, 14 October 1938; Schmitt’s reply,12 November 1938.

43
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Bürger, 16 January 1940;Bürger’s reply, 28 February 1940, in which she basically apologizes for her request.

44
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Alvensleben, letter from von Alvensleben of 11 December 1934.

45
. Ibid. Himmler’s response, 25 October 1934.

46
. Ibid. note in the file about the meeting dated 26 July 1937.

47
. BAB, NS 2/3, RFSS directive of 25 June 1937.

48
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Alvensleben, von Alvensleben to managing director Rudolf Stahl, August 1938, in which he confirms that he will act as the latter’s ‘personal adviser’ and mentions Himmler’s approval. Draft agreement with Stahl sent to Wolff, 26 August 1938; Himmler’s approval via a letter from Wolff to von Alvensleben, 24 November 1938.

49
. BAB, NS 2/5, staff order 22/36, 10 December 1936.

50
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Backe, Himmler to Herbert Backe, 30 June 1938; also to be found here are the details of the first loan of 1 million Reich marks.

51
. BAB, NS 19/4004, Gruppenführer meeting in Bad Tölz, 18 February 1937.

52
. Himmler explained the procedure to the Gruppenführer on 18 February 1937 (ibid.). In an order of 3 May 1937 Himmler forbade SS men to take on debt
obligations: ‘In particular I forbid so-called hire purchase agreements.’ The order of 30 September 1937 dealt with further details and confirmed that hire purchase was forbidden on principle (BAB, NS 2/176).

53
. BAB, NS 19/4004, speech at the Gruppenführer meeting in Munich in the leaders’ quarters of the SS-Standarte Deutschland, 8 November 1937.

54
. BAB, NS 19/2651, Himmler to Werner Lorenz, Behrend’s superior, 16 December 1942, published in Himmler,
Reichsführer!
, no. 180.

55
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Rudolf Jung, Himmler to Hans Krebs, 19 January 1943.

56
. BAB, NS 19/3221, letter of 24 June 1942.

57
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Korsemann, Himmler to Korsemann, 12 March 1943.

58
. BAB, NS 19/3901, instruction from Himmler, 19 March 1939.

59
. BAB, NS 19/4005, speech at the Gruppenführer meeting in Munich, 8 November 1938, published in Himmler,
Geheimreden
, 25 ff., 44 f.

60
. Ibid.

61
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Fritz Weitzel, letter from Himmler of 24 Januar 1939: ‘Dear Fritz, I strongly wish and command that first of all in the interests of your health you and your wife spend your leave in southern Italy and not in northern Italy (Tyrol), and secondly that this leave should last for three weeks without interruption. I forbid you to leave for Germany or to have files sent to you during this time, with the exception of one batch of items for reading and information only. A holiday has a purpose only if it takes one away completely from everyday things and other worries and so leads to proper relaxation and thus recovery. I need precisely the senior leaders for a long time yet and we cannot afford to wear them out within a few years from overwork.’ See also SS-O Ebrecht, communication of 17 August 1938 concerning a period of leave imposed by Himmler.

62
. Abschrift in BAB, BDC, SS-O Rösener, medical report, 28 April 1944.

63
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Gutenberger, medical report, 13 March 1944. Also here see Herff to Gutenberger, 28 February 1944, und Herff to Himmler, 16 and 25 March 1944.

64
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Rösener, medical report Braitmaier, 29 May 1944.

65
. In the same file.

66
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Sauberzweig, Prof. Koch, medical report for Gebhardt, 29 November 1944, cites a further report from his colleague Crinis, a neurologist at the Charité hospital in Berlin; Gebhardt to Herff, 12 March 1945.

67
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Schmitt, medical certificate, 9 July 1942.

68
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Hildebrandt, medical certificate, 3 February 1942.

69
. The strong emphasis that Fahrenkamp placed on psychosomatic factors is evident in his book
Kreislauffürsorge und Gesundheitsführung
(Stuttgart, 1941).

70
. BAB, NS 19/1630, list of members of the Personal Staff as around May 1943; NS 19/3666, correspondence of the Personal Staff with Fahrenkamp. See in addition NS 3/1136, construction of the cosmetics factory in Dachau, esp. correspondence with medical officer Dr. med. Karl Fahrenkamp (Personal
Staff Reichsführer-SS, department F). On Fahrenkamp’s activities at Dachau see Kaienburg,
Wirtschaft
, 785, 817, and 830 ff.

71
. BAB, NS 19/3666.

72
.
Dienstkalender
, 3 January 1941 und 25 February 1942. Fahrenkamp advised him on 29 July 1940 to get a carbonic-acid bath as a way of helping his low blood pressure (OA Moscow, Akte Himmler).

73
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Berger, 28 November 1941. On 12 November he had had a meal with Fahrenkamp (
Dienstkalender
).

74
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Fahrenkamp, 1 March 1942.

75
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Greifelt, medical report Fahrenkamp, 7 December 1938.

76
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Fahrenkamp, 13 May 1944.

77
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Jost, 22 November 1943.

78
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Rediess, report from Fahrenkamp to Himmler, 2 October 1939.

79
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Bach-Zelewski, report of Reich Medical Officer, 9 March 1942.

80
. Ibid. 14 June 1933.

81
. Ibid. letter to Himmler, 31 March 1942.

82
. Ibid. Himmler to Bach, 6 April 1942.

83
. Ibid. report from Ruppert (specialist), 22 March 1944.

84
. Beckenbauer, ‘Landshuter Jugendfreundschaft’, sheds little light on the relationship between Himmler and Gebhardt.

85
. BAB, NS 19/1292, Brandt, date illegible.

86
. Ibid. Gebhardt to Himmler, 5 and 11 July 1938.

87
. For example, Gebhardt reported a conversation he had had in Brussels with the Queen of Belgium while visiting a patient there and four weeks later on a conversation with the Queen Mother (ibid. reports from Gebhardt of 14 June and 14 July 1939).

88
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Darré, report of 22 August 1936.

89
. BAB, NS 19/1292, Himmler to Gebhardt, 9 October 1942.

90
. BAK, NL 1126/13, Gebhardt to Himmler, 22 September 1936.

91
. BAB, NS 19/1292, Himmler to Gebhardt, sent on 14 January 1938, Gebhardt to Himmler, 23 January 1938.

92
. What is meant is a ‘Politruk’, the usual term for a political commissar in the Soviet army.

93
. BAB, NS 2/59, Himmler to Pohl, 12 August 1942; published in Himmler,
Reichsführer!
, no.136.

94
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Eicke, 19 January 1943. See also a letter from Himmler to Eicke of 16 April 1942 that is similar in tone.

95
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Alvensleben, 1 November 1943.

96
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Jüttner, letter of condolence from Himmler, 8 Dezember 1943: ‘I press your hand in sympathy.’ Further examples in Birn,
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 371.

97
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Krüger, 8 August 1941.

98
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Eberstein, Himmler to Eberstein, 7 October 1942.

99
. BAB, NS 19/382, 30 December 1944.

100
. BAB, NS 19/3904, Himmler to Möller, 24 August 1942.

101
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Kroeger, 12 April 1943.

102
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Höfle.

103
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Hofmann.

104
. Ibid. memorandum on the meeting with Hofmann, 13 March 1943. Himmler also passed on to Hildebrandt his personal esteem for the latter’s predecessor, Hofmann: ‘Hofmann’s departure is not in the slightest dishonourable’ (SS-O Hildebrandt, letter of 15 May 1943).

105
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Hofmann, 29 September 1943.

106
. Ibid. 2 October 1943. Nine years previously Hofmann had tried using a very similar formula to avoid a punishment imposed on him. ‘I am determined that my work will be guided only by National Socialist ideology. Because I believe that this way of thinking is so firmly rooted in me that I never consciously do anything wrong, and because I cannot reproach myself with having done anything wrong unconsciously, I would ask you, Reichsführer, to exempt me from this punishment’ (ibid. [1934], cited in Birn,
Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer
, 373).

107
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Hofmann, 29 November 1944.

108
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Korsemann, Himmler to the head of the Personnel Main Office, 5 July 1943.

109
. Ibid. Himmler to commander of the SS Panzer division ‘Leibstandarte’, January 1944 (no day given).

110
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Eicke, 28 November 1942.

111
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Dietrich, 23 July 1938.

112
. Ibid. 30 August 1943.

113
. BAB, NS 19/1667, 15 July 1943. Berger reported on 28 July 1943: ‘Steiner’s loyalty to the Reichsführer-SS is strong and inviolable.’ Steiner’s ‘informal manner’ accounted for much.

114
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Steiner, 12 August 1943.

115
. Ibid. Himmler to Steiner, 25 August 1943.

116
. BAB, BDC, SS-O Hausser, letter of March 1943.