Roger Manvell - Heinrich Himmler

8

Hanna Reitsch. See Shirer, End of a Berlin Diary, p. 168-9.

9

In the will he dictated and signed during the small hours of 29 April, Hitler referred expressly to Himmler’s treachery: ‘Before my death I expel from the Party and from all his offices the former Reichsführer S.S. and Reich Minister of the Interior, Heinrich Himmler. In his stead I appoint Gauleiter Karl Hanke as Reichsführer S.S. and Chief of the German Police, and Gauleiter Paul Giesler as Reich Minister of the Interior.’

10

Doenitz and Himmler met during the morning of 30 April to consider the best action to take to prevent Kaufmann, the Gauleiter of Hamburg, from surrendering the city to the British. Doenitz in the end sent his own messages to Kaufmann, considering Himmler’s too pathetic and impractical. Doenitz’s own guarded account of his dealings with Himmler is given in his autobiography, Zehn Jahre und Zwanzig Tage (1958), p. 439 et seq. He refers first of all to a meeting with Himmler on 28 April at Rheinsberg, at which Himmler openly asked him if he would be ‘available’ in case Himmler were appointed Hitler’s successor; Doenitz replied he would be for any legal government out to stop bloodshed. He also claims that he received a signal from Bormann on 30 April which referred to Himmler directly: ‘New treason afoot. According enemy broadcasts Himmler offered capitulation via Sweden. Führer expects you to deal with all traitors fast as lightning and hard as steel. Bormann.’ Doenitz observes that he was in no position to cope with Himmler, who was still surrounded by S.S. men and police. He says that he met Himmler again on 30 April at a police station in Lübeck, because, he says, ‘I wanted to know what he was up to’. Himmler kept him waiting and seemed to behave as if he were already the Führer. But the meeting remained friendly; Himmler denied that he had had any dealings with the Allies. Only after this meeting was concluded did Doenitz learn from Bormann that he was to succeed as Führer.

11

This meeting, according to Doenitz, took place at Ploen at midnight. Himmler arrived with six armed officers. Doenitz claims to have received him with a loaded gun hidden under his papers. Himmler was appalled at the news that he had been displaced.

12

Hanna Reitsch records a conversation she had with Himmler after the news of Hitler’s death in which she claims she challenged him to his face with high treason. Himmler seems to have made no attempt to deny that he had undertaken the negotiations; on the contrary, she says that he stated Hitler was insane and that history would interpret the negotiations as an attempt to save Germany from further bloodshed. See Shirer’s End of a Berlin Diary , pp. 171-2.

13

Degrelle has left his own account of this meeting in his book, Die Verlorene Legion. See also The S.S., pp. 442-3.

14

Best gave his own account of this meeting in conversation with H.F. Himmler’s act of thoughtfulness on behalf of his women secretaries was confirmed to H.F. by Doris Mähner. She also recalls the moment when he said goodbye a few days later. He thanked her, and told her to go back to Bavaria and rest. Soon, he said, they would meet again, and then there would be a great deal of work to do.

15

Schwerin-Krosigk in conversation with H.F.

16

The copy of this note was found in one of Doenitz’s files. According to Prof. Trevor-Roper, it remains uncertain whether the original was actually delivered to Himmler, or whether Doenitz told him of his dismissal personally. (See The Last Days of Hitler, p. 246, note.) Doenitz does not clarify this point in his memoirs, but he claims that had he known about the atrocities in the concentration camps he would never have let Himmler go free. (See pp. 466~8) ‘Now, most clearly’, he writes, ‘I recognized the evil side of National Socialism and so changed my attitude to the form of state created by it.’

17

Arolsen has now become the headquarters of the International Red Cross Tracing Service financed by the Bonn government.

18

For details of this journey we are grateful to Josef Kiermaier, who accompanied Himmler almost up to the time of his arrest by the British. Kiermaier recalls suggesting to Himmler that they fly south while they still had an aircraft at their disposal; then at least, said Kiermaier, they could see their womenfolk before the end came. Himmler turned this suggestion down on the grounds that in times as adverse as these, no man should indulge his personal desires.

19

Information on the following events from Colonel Michael Murphy and Captain Tom Selvester.

20

The following account is taken from the B.B.C. broadcast by Sergeant-Major Austin in a programme introduced by Chester Wilmot from Luneberg on May 24 1945, shortly after Himmler’s death.

21

Colonel Murphy writes that as part of the effort to keep Himmler alive he ‘shouted for a needle and cotton, which arrived with remarkable speed. I pierced the tongue and with the cotton threaded through held the tongue out.’ There seems no doubt that, since the normal action of cyanide produces a quick death, Himmler’s long death agony was caused by the interference with the penetration of the poison into his system. After Himmler’s death, Colonel Murphy says that it was some twenty-four hours before the Russians sent their representatives to view the body and agree, ‘grudgingly’, that ‘it might be Himmler’. Only after this examination was Himmler’s body buried. Gebhard Himmler, who was in the south, was not brought in to identify the body, as Frischauer claims in his book, p. 257. Gebhard Himmler, in conversation with H.F., has confirmed this.

Colonel Murphy has some interesting comments to make on the poison capsule. Himmler, he said, had not eaten in his presence, ‘and there is no doubt in my mind that from the time I met him to the time of his death the capsule was in his mouth. So far as I can remember from the one taken from his clothes, this was of thin metal — strong enough to withstand careful mastication and liquids, especially if the other side of the mouth was used, but not strong enough to withstand a decision to break it. I think the time of death was midnight May 23—4, but I cannot be sure. Himmler was sure of himself and arrogant to the end. He was quite convinced that he would be taken to see Montgomery and was surprised at the firm treatment I gave him in getting rid of the bodyguards and searching him. I should have received a German General with more courtesy’!

1We are grateful to Karl Kaufmann, the former Gauleiter of Hamburg, for giving us an account of his own observation of Himmler’s arrest. During the morning of 23 May, Kaufmann, along with Brandt and other prisoners stood at the barbed-wire fence of Camp 031 at Kolkhagen, near Nienburg on the river Weser. They were watching lorries from Fellingbosdel Camp (Lüneberg Heath) driving up. Among those who got out was Himmler, minus his moustache and with a patch over one eye. He stood in the right wing of the group, wearing boots, field grey trousers and some sort of civilian jacket. He did not recognize Kaufmann and the others, but they saw him suddenly disappear behind a nearby rhododendron bush, where he removed the eye-patch. He reappeared almost instantly putting on his glasses; he was immediately recognizable. This was the time he decided to give himself up, in Kaufmann’s opinion. A few minutes later there was quite a commotion; extra guards with tommy-guns and machine guns appeared; extra sentries were posted at the gate. Soon the cause of the excitement was being passed through the grapevine of the camp. The British soldiers seemed overjoyed that Himmler was among their prisoners.