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SS1: The Unlikely Death of Heinrich Himmler
 
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SS1: The Unlikely Death of Heinrich Himmler (Hardcover)

by Hugh Thomas (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 276 pages
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd (12 Feb 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841153060
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841153063
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 481,267 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Hugh Thomas paints a vivid picture of the Nuremberg trial of the leading Nazis. The court's heating system had not been repaired by the time it started its sessions, in the winter of 1945-1946. As a consequence, learned lawyers traipsed the aisles in ski boots, and one of the British counsel for the prosecution, Anthony Marecco, wore mittens as well as two pairs of tights. It is this kind of detail that brings history to life. However, most of this book about that most monstrous of the Nazis, Heinrich Himmler, is inevitably short of amusing details. It is a grim read but a fascinating one. The key question that Hugh Thomas asks from the outset, is how could an inveterate plotter and schemer, an evil intelligence, an organisational genius like Himmler, allow himself to be captured so easily by the Allies at the end of the war? Was it really Himmler who was captured? Was it really him who took the poison capsule to evade questioning, and was later buried in mysterious secrecy on the Luneberg Heath? Among the first doubters of the official account of Himmler's death and interment was one Kim Philby--it makes for a dark and compelling read. Thomas' previous works include Hess; A Tale of Two Murders, which led to a six-month enquiry by Scotland Yard and the immediate suppression of its concluding report. This new book is likely to stir up a similar hornet's nest. It would be unfair to give away Thomas' conclusion, but given the facts, one is left wondering uncomfortably about the truth of the affair. Why all the secrecy? There is "a hundred-year ban on material relating to Himmler's death, an absence of post-mortem evidence, a paltry identification procedure, unacceptable photographic evidence, and inconsistent and occasionally false accounts of his death." It all adds up to a mystery as dark as anything in the dark annals of the Nazi years. --Christopher Hart


Review

Hugh Thomas seems to be fond of conspiracy theory. His Murder of Rudolf Hess was highly controversial. Now he turns his attention to Heinrich Himmler, perhaps the most revolting of the Nazi leaders of Germany during the Third Reich. Cold, calculating, inhuman, he not only masterminded the 'final solution' which sent millions of men, women and children to their deaths, but was faithless to the leader, Adolf Hitler, who he alledgedly adored. This book reherses his evil deeds, but concentrates on the question whether the corpse which lay on the floor of an army internment camp after swallowing cyanide, and which was eventually buried in an anonymous grave at Luneburg was actually Himmler. He makes a strong case for this not being the case, not only on the practical grounds (dissimilarities between the corpse and photographs of Himmler, the failure of some of those who knew him well to recognize it) but also on the grounds that an almost pathologically clever man would have been highly unlikely to stumble into captivity in the way he did. If Himmler did not commit suicide, where did he go? To this question, Thomas has no answer; indeed, there can be none. A fascinating series of questions, then, with questionable but fascinating theories as to their answers. (Kirkus UK)
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Missing the hard facts ..., 21 Jan 2003
By Bernd B. (Irland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: SS 1: The Unlikely Death of Heinrich Himmler (Paperback)
I like a good conspiracy theory ... but this book takes it a bit too far. What the author basically does is throw lots of facts at the reader, which (in the author's opinion) seem to point at something dodgy going on in Germany in 1945. The essence is: Himmler wasn't the man who committed suicide when captured by British troops, it was a "Doppelgaenger".

So far, so good - unfortunately some of the most basic facts seem to go haywire, for instance the Munich "Putsch" is misdated. Unfortunately too, a lot of the "facts" seem to be mere impressions. Himmler's nose for instance is made a central indicator for the "Doppelgaenger"-theory, but the author fails to convince me at least that the nose in the photo of the dead Himmler is not the nose in the Party photo. So one by one we are left with few irrefutable facts ... and these do not make a valid base for the wild assumption that Himmler escaped.

The book is inaccurate, mostly based on wild speculation and aimed at the "Last Secrets of the Reich"-readership, which seems to be obsessed with "surviving" Nazis.

Disappointing at least!

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars pure fantasy, 1 Mar 2001
Hugh Thomas attempts to create a mystery where there is none ,a conspiracy where there is none and a book when there shouldent be one. As in his previous book "Hess" he chooses to ignore all the concrete evidence and bases his book on the most ridiculous of theories that a man was found nearing the end of the war who was the exact double of Himmler whom he managed to convince to kill himself on capture.A man who happened to be under arrest at the time for defeatism,wow what a patriotic candidate for self sacrifice, i could go on but it would be as pointless as the book,bizarre theories and badly written this book has been written for sensationalism and bares no relation to historical fact...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A bit of a Curate's Egg..., 30 May 2001
By A Customer
A disappointing effort from Hugh Thomas, following his keenly argued past work. The research is undoubtedly thorough in several respects, but Mr. Thomas seems unwilling to go the extra mile and tell us what he thinks really happened to Himmler... The book thus ends prematurely with a chapter seemingly missing.

Disappointing.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Compulsory reading for all researchers.
As an academic myself, whose special subject is the secret financial accords during the 2nd World War, I am staggered at this book's depth. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars A compulsive read - the evidence is utterly convincing!
One starts this book with disbelief and sceptisism, but when it comes, the effect of the final evidence is totally numbing. Read more
Published on 7 Mar 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars The subject shouldn't be enthralling - but it is !
This book gives us hard concrete facts about grave doubts concerning the identity of the corpse buried as Himmler. Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2001

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