Heinrich Himmler Facts & Worksheets

• He also began building a parallel SS economic empire. Under Oswald Pohl, Himmler oversaw the establishment of the Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe, a holding company controlling SS-run factories, housing and publishing houses.
• He also fought against Christianity because he thought it made people weak and hurt the Nazi racial goals. He wanted the SS to replace Christianity with a new Germanic religion based on old traditions. In 1937, he said the SS would spend the next 50 years trying to remove Christianity from Germany and build a new belief system focused on race and ancient Germanic ideas.

The Holocaust and War Crimes

• Nazi racial policies, which treated certain groups as ‘racially inferior’ and without the right to live, were central to the regime from its earliest days. Hitler had already laid out these ideas in Mein Kampf, and they guided Nazi policies throughout the 1930s and the Second World War. Around December 1941, Hitler decided that the Jewish people of Europe were to be exterminated.
• In January 1942, Heydrich organised the Wannsee Conference in a Berlin suburb. There, senior Nazi officials discussed the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’. Heydrich detailed the plan: Jewish people who could work would be worked to death, while those unable to work would be killed immediately. The number of Jewish people targeted was estimated at 11 million, and Himmler was placed in charge of carrying out the plan.
• Following Heydrich’s assassination in Prague in June 1942 by Czechoslovak soldiers trained by the British Special Operations Executive, brutal reprisals followed. Himmler, acting with Karl Hermann Frank, oversaw the arrest of over 13,000 people, the destruction of the village of Lidice, and the murder of over 1,300 civilians. After Heydrich’s death, Himmler assumed direct control of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) and intensified the killing programme through Aktion Reinhard, constructing extermination camps at Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka.
• Initially, victims were killed by firing squads or gas vans, but Himmler recognised that these methods were too stressful for the SS men carrying them out. Under his orders, gas chambers were built at Auschwitz, using the pesticide Zyklon B for mass murder. By the end of the war, around six million Jewish people had been murdered by the Nazis.
• Beyond the Jewish people, the Nazis also targeted Romani people, whom Himmler labelled as ‘asocial’ and ‘criminal’. By 1935, Romani communities were forcibly segregated, and by 1938, Himmler had ordered that their status be determined by racial examination. Only those he considered ‘racially pure’ were allowed to live, while thousands were deported to camps.
• Himmler was deeply involved in Nazi eugenics, aiming to breed a so-called ‘master race’ of Nordic Aryans. His background in agriculture and interest in selective breeding influenced his belief that Germany’s population could be racially improved within a few generations. Himmler helped design brutal policies that saw Polish intellectuals targeted for extermination and children kidnapped from Eastern Europe if they were deemed ‘racially valuable’.
• At secret meetings in October 1943, known as the Posen Speeches, Himmler openly spoke to top Nazi leaders about the mass extermination of Jewish people. In one speech, he emphasised that the killings must remain secret, describing the ‘Jewish evacuation’ as a hard but necessary task that every loyal German had to accept.
• In occupied Eastern Europe, Himmler pursued Generalplan Ost, the Nazi plan for the Germanisation of conquered lands. The goal was to expel, enslave or murder the native Slavic populations to create living space (Lebensraum) for ethnic Germans. Himmler’s policies caused the deaths of millions of Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians and others. Volksliste classifications sorted individuals by racial value, and those who refused to be classified as Germans faced deportation, imprisonment or forced labour.
• The kidnapping of children was also part of this racial policy. Himmler believed that any child with German blood should be taken from their families and raised as German. If a child initially judged racially valuable was later rejected, they were often sent to camps where many died. Despite the strain on Germany’s war effort, Himmler continued to push Germanisation projects, resettling hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans into newly conquered territories, while displacing millions of native inhabitants.

Heinrich Himmler's Fall from Power

• During the 20 July Plot of 1944, a group of German officers, including Claus von Stauffenberg, tried to kill Hitler. The plot failed, but it changed Himmler’s position in the Nazi leadership. Even though Himmler didn’t stop the plan before it happened, the event actually made him more powerful. He set up a special group to arrest over 5,000 people who were suspected of being involved in the plot. Many of them were killed as revenge. Himmler’s actions after the plot earned him more trust from Hitler.
• Afterwards, Himmler was made the commander of the Replacement Army (Ersatzheer), replacing General Friedrich Fromm. The Replacement Army was huge, with more than two million soldiers. Himmler saw this as a chance to make the Waffen-SS even stronger by giving key jobs to SS officers. By the end of 1944, Himmler had combined the army officer recruitment department with the Waffen-SS, which allowed him to recruit more soldiers for the SS.
• Himmler’s role in the Nazi regime grew even bigger. In August 1944, he became Reichsminister of the Interior, taking over from Wilhelm Frick, and also became General Plenipotentiary for Administration. Hitler gave Himmler control over the Waffen-SS, the army and the police, giving him even more power.
• By late 1944, Hitler put Himmler in charge of Army Group Upper Rhine to fight the Allied invasion of France. However, Himmler had little military experience, and his weaknesses as a commander soon became clear.
• In early 1945, he was given control of Army Group Vistula to defend against the Soviet army. Despite his higher rank, Himmler’s inability to lead effectively showed. His failure to manage the army and his poor decisions made his position weaker within the Nazi leadership. By March 1945, Himmler’s failures in the military and his growing distance from Hitler marked the end of his influence. 

Capture and Death of Heinrich Himmler

• In March 1945, as Germany was about to lose the war, Himmler secretly started peace talks with the Western Allies, hoping to make a separate peace deal. He believed the SS could help restore order in post-war Germany and worked hard to secure a role in any future German government.
• His intermediary, Felix Kersten, had moved to Sweden, and through him, Himmler communicated with Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish representative of the Red Cross. Himmler even arranged a meeting with Bernadotte on 23 April 1945, where he offered to surrender to the Western Allies in exchange for their assistance against the advancing Soviet forces. He falsely claimed that Hitler would be dead within days and presented himself as the de facto leader of Germany.
• Himmler’s secret talks with the Allies were soon discovered by Hitler’s inner circle. Furious at the betrayal, Hitler ordered Himmler’s arrest and removed him from the Nazi Party in his final will. On 27 April 1945, Himmler’s officer, Hermann Fegelein, was caught trying to flee and was executed. The next day, a BBC report confirmed Himmler’s betrayal, sealing his downfall and leading Hitler to publicly denounce him.
• With the Allies closing in on Berlin, Himmler realised that he was no longer safe. On 20 April, he left Berlin with other Nazi leaders. He fled to Flensburg, where he sought to negotiate a position within the interim government that Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz was attempting to form. However, Dönitz rejected him and dismissed from all his posts on 6 May 1945, just days before Germany’s surrender.
• On 21 May 1945, Himmler was captured by British forces. After being detained, he was taken to a British interrogation camp in Lüneburg, where he was quickly identified. During a medical examination on 23 May, Himmler bit down on a hidden potassium cyanide capsule that he had concealed in his mouth. He died within 15 minutes, despite efforts to revive him.
• The Allies never had the opportunity to put him on trial for his role in the atrocities committed by the SS. Himmler’s body was buried in an unmarked grave near Lüneburg, and its exact location remains unknown.