The Himmler Brothers: A German Family History [Unabridged] [Paperback]

This is a most interesting piece of family history research into the background, upbringinging and subsequent fate, of the three Himmler brothers Gebhard, Heinrich and Ernst. It vividly portrays a picture of an industrious and clever middle class family with useful connections to the Bavarian royal family. The prevailing political views of the time and the profound effect of the First World War upon the family and their careers are carefully documented. This book gets away from the 'one-dimensional monster' descriptions of modern journalism and illustrates well the relationship with friends when the family is exalted and then in disgrace. This excellent translation is well written and faced paced throughout apart from a small section which illustrates the competition between the various Nazi agencies for control of the radio industry. I have no hestitation in commending this well balanced book to all those interested in the history of the Third Reich and the shaping of one of the main players.

Katrin Himmler is the granddaughter of Heinrich Himmler's younger brother Ernst. Growing up she was aware her great uncle was known as "the greatest murderer of the century". She studied German history but shied away from examining the history of her own family. Anyone familiar with Laurence Rees's "The Nazis : A Warning From History" will be aware of the way in which many who lived during the Nazi regime were relectant to talk about what they did. For them it was a time best forgotten, as was their role in what took place. In some cases they invented a fictional account of their personal history. According to family legend Ernst was a non political person who occupied the position of Chief Engineer of the Reich Broadcasting Company in Berlin. He left Hitler's bunker shortly after the Furher killed himself in a bid to reach the Allied lines. He stumbled, and bit into the cynanide capsule in his mouth and died immediately, leaving open the question of whether it was an accident or suicide.

When Katrin Himmler started her research she found that Ernst Himmler joined the Nazi Party in 1931, was a member of the SS from 1933 and "had been a convinced Nazi who, in return for a helping hand in his career from his brother Heinrich, the Reichfuhrer SS carried out dubious tasks for him." One such task was his written recommendation that the protection accorded to a Jewish engineer, Major Schmidt, be removed. Ernst did not need to make such a recommendation and, while it was obvious such action could lead to Schmidt's death, his comment, "irrespective of the way such cases will be dealt with later on" suggested support for the Nazis' programmes. The letter destroyed the cautious empathy which she had previously had for her unknown grandfather.

Increasingly she found that while the family acknowledged the horrendous nature of Heinrich Himmler's crimes, like many other German families they tended to downplay their own role in supporting the Nazi state. She discovered that Heinrich's elder brother, Gebhard "was an ambitious careerist and a convinced Nazi from the earliest days of the Party" who was with Hitler during the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. Gebhard was a company commander during the invasion of Poland and his brother-in-law, Richard Wendler, "had been Governor of Cracow when the city's Jews were deported." In that capacity it became apparent that Wendler's concerns were not about the killing of the Jews but the failure to carry out deportations in an orderly manner. Heinrich Himmler had placed on record his views when he addressed a meeting of SS leaders in 1943. He regarded anti-Semitism as the de-lousing of the Greater German nation. There was no reason to suppose his brothers felt any differently.

The rationalisation of personalised egotism revealed itself in unexpected ways. Heinrich Himmler had convinced himself that Teutonic custom permitted racially impeccable SS men to have a second wife. He deplored monogomy as a "diabolical inevention" of the Catholic Church. He wanted more children for the Reich and needed a fertile female to produce offspring which was something his wife could no longer provide. His mistress, Hedwig Potthast, gave birth to two children and reinforced Himmler's belief that he was the reincarnation of Henry 1. Himmler laboured under the misapprehenson that he had a political standing separate from that of Hitler. This was quickly dispelled when the Allies rejected his bid to negotiate a separate peace on behalf of Germany and later by Donitz who formally dismissed him from office. Like his brother Heinrich Himmler bit into a cyanide capsule but in his case it was suicide.

One aspect of history which is often overlooked is the postwar position of those who had an association with the Nazi regime. Ernst's widow, Paula, returned to her home town where many treated her disdain. After several applications she was allowed to open a millinery shop and managed to get by. Himmler's mistress gradually withdrew from the outside world, dying in 1997. His eldest daughter Gudrun, continued to believe in Nazi ideology and constantly protested at the image painted of her father, whom she idolised. Gebhard distanced himself from his brother's ideological views presenting him as as a soft hearted and sensitive person who had put the nation's interests before his own. Gebhard "portrayed his own career during the Nazi period as if it had nothing to do with the system." He almost convinced himself things happened differently than the record shows. Katrin Himmler believes this state of denial still exists in many German families.

Katrin Himmler met and married an Israeli Jew and the writing of the book has filled in many gaps which will make it possible for her to explain to her son why one half of his family tried to eliminate the other. The integrity of her writing, including the many questions she asks, culminates in a frank, unsentimental and realistic acknowledgement of the guilt and responsibility of her forebears. This volume has provided an insight into how ordinary people rationalise their life choices. Well written with some excellent photographs and short bibliography. My only reservation is the absence of an index which would have earned an addtional star. Highly recommended nontheless.

Katrin Himmler has had the unfortunate experience of having Adolf Hitler's second in command, Heinrich Himmler as her Great Uncle. Throughout her life, her family have down-played the role of her own grandfather, Himmler's brother Ernst, who she was told, "went along with things" and was a very minor Nazi. However, over the last few years she has conducted an in-depth investigation into her family history, and the result is this excellent book.

Katrin Himmler begins by describing the childhood and youth of the three Himmler brothers, and the home life they had with their parents. They were by any account a fine family, the parents strict, but involved in every aspect of their sons' lives, and the three boys being in turn respectful of their parents and working hard at the various activities around home and school. Their parents were proud, upper middle-class people who sought and found recognition from influential people in Munich society. The family were strong Catholics, and despite this, Katrin Himmler shows us the family's strong feelings of nationalism and ethnicity, and an unquestioning dislike for Slavs and Jews who were seen as "dirty" and primitive peoples. We read of family life in the Weimar Republic, with holidays and games, and a rich involvement with friends and relatives, but also increasing money and employment problems due to the rampant inflation which beleagured the nation during the 1920s.

Heinrich joins the emerging National Socialist movement and due to his great skills of organisation, rises up through the ranks until he achieves the terrifying position of Commander of the SS. The Himmler name turns out to be a helpful passport for the other two brothers, and Katrin discovers that far from being a "minor Nazi", her grandfather was in fact a key figure in the broadcasting organisation, who arranged broadcasts from the Nuremburg rallies and the 1936 Olympic games - a position he could not possibly have maintained without being a seriously committed party member.

It will spoil the book for others if I go on to describe further what Kain Himmler found in her investigations. However, the book is a fascinating picture of life in Germany through the 1920s and 30s and into the war. Katrin Himmler's research has been impeccable and she gained access to a considerable amount of family and national archive material, which she has pulled together into a unique narrative, both informative and very readable, and also containing a number of excellent photographs to illustrate the text. It was as enjoyable as any detective novel but fills in many gaps in our understanding of what the Nazi party meant to countless Germans.

This is another book for those (like me) who want to understand quite what happened to the minds of the German people in the run up to the Second World War. Other books on Amazon deal with this question and the reviews reveal considerable divergence of views about whether the Germans were unique in their ability to adopt such a cruel ideology and make it their own. Whatever stance the reader takes on this question, this book is invaluable as an account of the inner life of this prominent German family. One cannot help but admire the willingness of Katrin Himmler to explore and then document her findings with such painful honesty and humanity.