Heinrich+Himmler(CR)

Heinrich Himmler(Left) led the SS(Right) since it was first created by Herman Goering. He was always considered a cruel man. He was born in near Munich in 1900 to a strict catholic family. Like most German men at that time he fought in World War 1. By the end of the conflict he was promoted to officer cadet. He joined the Nazi party in 1923 and participated in Hitler’s first attempt to take control of the country. He didn’t become a serious participant in Nazism until 1929. After leading the SS for several years he earned the trust of Hitler, and in 1936 was made head of the Gestapo. He was made reichsfuher-SS, which gave him control of all police actions throughout th Nazi empire. He controled the concentration and death camps in the east, where he was to execute the final solution. Himmler was incharge of executing the "Final Solution", where the Nazis tried to wipe the jews off the continent. Himmler was just as set on eliminating the Jews as Hitler was. In one of his two Posen speeches Himmler said "I am now referring to the evacuation of the Jews, to the extermination of the Jewish people. This is something that is easily said: 'The Jewish people will be exterminated', says every party member, 'this is very obvious, it is in our program — elimination of the Jews, extermination, a small matter". (Wistrich, Robert S.)

Hitler put him in charge of the armies on both the western and eastern fronts in 1944 and 1945. By 1945 Himmler knew, like most of the Nazis, that the war was lost and they could either fight to the bitter end, or surrender. He was ordered to be arrested after attempting to negotiate peace with the allies, but he succesfully escaped being arrested by Germany. He was later aprhended by a british officer in occupied Bremen. He killed himself before being interogated.