Heinrich Himmler
Leader of Nazi Germany (Munich, 1900-Lüneburg, Hannover, 1945).He was an agricultural engineer by profession and a German ultra-nationalist by parental influence.At the end of the First World War (1914-1918), in which he enlisted as a soldier, he was active in nationalist movements, before joining Hitler during the failed coup that he carried out in Munich (1923).
Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler
In 1929 Hitler put him in charge of the «Defense Squads» that made up his personal guard, the Schutzstaffel or SS (about 280 men).Himmler made this armed group the basis of his power, providing it with an extremely useful information service of its own in the political struggle (1931) and expanding it to include some 52,000 men on the eve of the conquest of power.
After Adolf Hitler's accession to the government (1933), Himmler was appointed chief of the political police (Gestapo) in 1934.In alliance with Göring he eliminated that same year Röhm, head of the rival paramilitary organization of the SS within Nazism (the "Assault Sections" or SA), during the purge known as the "Night of the Long Knives" (June 30, 1934).
That coup strengthened its power, allowing it to turn the SS into the elite body of the Reich, while giving it control over the concentration camps and the entire German police (1936).Therefore, it was held the maximum responsibility for the bloody repression of dissidents and opponents carried out by the Nazis, as well as for the persecution of the Jews.
With the outbreak of the Second World War (1939-1945) his power ended, when he was appointed Reich Commissioner for the Defense and Reinforcement of the German Race: since then he has been in charge of the implementation of "Aryan" populations in the conquered territories in Eastern Europe, as well as the extermination campaign of the Jews in the countries controlled by the German army.The extraordinary cruelty with which the SS directed the murder of millions of European Jews responded to Himmler's personal orders, methodically interested in the technical details of the operation.
Since the course of the war turned against Germany, Himmler, appointed Minister of the Interior in 1943, began contacts with the enemy to save his life.In 1944 he was given military command on the Russian front, which was promptly withdrawn for demonstrated incompetence.Aware of his betrayal in the last moments of the war, Hitler expelled him from the Nazi Party; He tried to escape in disguise, but after being detained by the British Army, he committed suicide.
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