The Private Heinrich Himmler: Letters of a Mass Murderer

About this book

At the end of World War II it was assumed that the letters of Heinrich Himmler were lost. Yet sixty years after Himmlers capture by British troops and subsequent suicide the letters mysteriously turned up in Tel Aviv and in early 2014 excerpts were published for the first time by the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot providing a rare if jarring glimpse into the family life of one of Hitlers top lieutenants while he was busy organizing the mass extermination of the Jews. It was generally held that Himmler once appointed head of the SS blended seamlessly into the Nazi hierarchy. The image that emerges however is more subtle. Himmler is seen here as a man whose observations can often be characterized by their unpleasant banality; a man whose obsession with family life ran alongside a brutal detachment from all things human a serial killer who oversaw the persecution and extermination of all Jews and other non-Aryans and those opposed to the regime. His letters remove any doubt that he was the architect of the Final Solution and a man who was much closer to Hitler than many historians previously thought. The letters in this edition were arranged by Katrin Himmler the great-niece of Heinrich and Marga Himmler and Michael Wildt a renowned expert on the Nazi regime who also provide historical context to the letters and their author. The entire work was translated by Thomas S. Hansen and Abby J. Hansen.