Heinrich Himmler

Who was Heinrich Himmler?

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Nazi Germany. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler later appointed him Commander of the Replacement Army and General Plenipotentiary for the administration of the entire Third Reich. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and one of the persons most directly responsible for the Holocaust.

As a member of a reserve battalion during World War I, Himmler did not see active service. He studied agronomy in college, and joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and the SS in 1925. In 1929, he was appointed Reichsführer-SS by Hitler. Over the next 16 years, he developed the SS from a mere 290-man battalion into a powerful group with its own military, and, following Hitler's orders, set up and controlled the Nazi concentration camps. He was known to have good organisational skills and for selecting highly competent subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich in 1931. From 1943 forward, he was both Chief of German Police and Minister of the Interior, overseeing all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo.