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Reviewed by:
  • Heinrich Himmler by Peter Longerich
  • Peter Black*
Heinrich Himmler, Peter Longerich (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 1031 pp., hardcover $34.95.

Given existing research on the significance of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler for Nazi security and population policies, the dearth of biographical works is surprising.1 Peter Longerich offers a solid biography of this evocative symbol of Nazi evil. Born in 1900 into an economically comfortable, conservative Catholic family, Himmler drifted into the Nazi movement in winter 1922/23, absorbing its völkisch, social Darwinist ideology in the paramilitary sub-culture of the Weimar Republic. Ernst Röhm, leader of the Nazi Party Assault Detachments (SA), brought Himmler into the movement; Gregor Strasser, Party Propaganda chief until 1932, mentored him [End Page 338] politically. In June 1931, two years after becoming leader of the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadrons), Himmler disclosed his ambitions for the SS: an elite created by racial selection, a security apparatus, and a disciplined organization devoutly loyal to the leadership, that would spearhead the future existential struggle of "superior" Nordic races against "sub-humanity" marching under the banner of "international Bolshevism" (pp. 122-27). Established in 1931, the Race and Settlement Office (RuSHA) established physical, behavioral, and political standards for SS men and their brides; the Security Service (SD) under Reinhard Heydrich monitored real, perceived, and potential enemies. Functioning as an executive security force, the SS defended Nazi officials and premises when SA dissidents rebelled in 1930/31.

Himmler's biography demonstrates how ideological commitment and political acumen created careers when the leadership required anticipatory understanding of the gist of Hitler's plans—"working towards the Führer."2 Until 1945, Himmler had few equals in this as his areas of responsibility expanded, eliciting Hitler's approval—often ex post facto. As deputy Gauleiter, Himmler streamlined the Lower Bavarian Party apparatus, constructing a Gau (district) reporting system and saturating rural areas with propaganda, foreshadowing Nazi tactics in future elections. After Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, Himmler and Heydrich centralized all political police offices into a Secret State Police (Gestapo) that soon refined "protective custody" into a tool for the indefinite incarceration—without judicial oversight—of persons deemed "dangerous" to the state.

As of June 17, 1936, Himmler controlled all of Germany's police forces, justifying this result of the incremental extension of his authority by reference to the framework of Hitler's long-term vision. By 1939, Himmler and Heydrich had joined Gestapo and Kripo (the Criminal Police) into the Security Police (Sipo), and merged the latter with the SD to create the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). This SS-police merger spawned a State Protection Corps (Staatsschutzkorps) to crush opposition and target "hidden" enemies: "criminal elements," "asocials," homosexuals, "Marxists," and so on. Led by "international Jewry" through Communism and "finance capitalism," an enemy vanguard had betrayed Germany inWorldWar I and, bolstered by new Soviet "hordes," was poised to attack Germany again. Himmler thus oversaw an apocalyptic security policy that envisioned the physical annihilation of European Jewry and the mass murder of Roma, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish elites, and others. Himmler's appointment as Reich Commissar for the Strengthening of German Ethnicity (RKFDV) on October 7, 1939, extended his authority to all facets of population policy. The RuSHA's determinations of who was "German," the Ethnic German Liaison Office's (VoMi) cultivation of German communities throughout the continent, the settlement of Germans in the occupied Polish and Soviet territories, and the displacement of indigenous populations, all became SS responsibilities.

Himmler seized opportunities as they appeared. In 1939 and 1940, he created the Armed SS (Waffen SS), which by 1944 numbered half a million men. In 1942, [End Page 339] Himmler took command of anti-partisan operations, and as Interior Minister after summer 1943 enjoyed monopolistic control of internal security. The SS even encroached upon the Wehrmacht, seizing control over its intelligence agency, the Abwehr (February 1944) and its Replacement Army (which oversaw conscription and the reserves) (July 1944). Confirmation of these accretions to Himmler's empire likely reflected Hitler's confidence in a loyalty forged in blood on June 30, 1934, when Himmler had his mentors Röhm and Strasser murdered...

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