Heinrich Himmler

Reichsleiter Heinrich Himmler
Himmler in 1942
4th Reichsführer-SS
In office 6 January 1929 – 29 April 1945
Deputy	Reinhard Heydrich
Preceded by	Erhard Heiden
Succeeded by	Karl Hanke
Chief of the German Police
In office 17 June 1936 – 29 April 1945
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Karl Hanke
Reichsminister of the Interior
In office 24 August 1943 – 29 April 1945
Chancellor	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	Wilhelm Frick
Succeeded by	Paul Giesler
General Plenipotentiary for Administration of the Reich
In office 20 August 1943 – 29 April 1945
Appointed by	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	Wilhelm Frick
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Additional positions
January—March 1945	Commander of Army Group Vistula
1944—1945	Commander of the Replacement Army
1944–1945	Commander of Army Group Upper Rhine
1942–1943	Acting Director of the Reich Security Main Office
1939–1945	Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood
1933–1945	Member of the Prussian State Council
1933–1945	Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party
1933—1945	Member of the Greater German Reichstag
1930–1933	Member of the Reichstag
Personal details
Born	Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (1900-10-07)7 October 1900[1] Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died	23 May 1945(1945-05-23) (aged 44) Lüneburg, Germany
Cause of death	Suicide by cyanide poisoning
Political party	Nazi Party (1923–1945)
Other political affiliations	Bavarian People's Party (1919–1923)
Spouse	Margarete Boden ​ (m. 1928)​
Domestic partner	Hedwig Potthast (1939–1944)
Children	Gudrun Helge Nanette
Relatives	Gebhard Ludwig Himmler (older brother) Ernst Hermann Himmler (younger brother)
Education	Technical University of Munich
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire Nazi Germany
Branch/service	Bavarian Army Schutzstaffel
Years of service	1917–1918 (Army) 1925–1945 (SS)
Rank	Fahnenjunker Reichsführer-SS
Unit	11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment
Commands	Army Group Upper Rhine Army Group Vistula Replacement (Home) Army
Battles/wars	World War II
Heinrich Himmler's voice Heinrich Himmler explaining Nazi views on racial purity (Recorded October 1943)

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (German: [ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈluːɪtpɔlt ˈhɪmlɐ] ^ⓘ; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German politician who was the 4th Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the German Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. He is primarily known for being a principal architect of the Holocaust.

After serving in a reserve battalion during the First World War without seeing combat, Himmler went on to join the Nazi Party in 1923. In 1925, he joined the SS, a small paramilitary arm of the Nazi Party that served as a bodyguard unit for Adolf Hitler. Subsequently, Himmler rose steadily through the SS's ranks to become Reichsführer-SS by 1929.

Under Himmler's leadership, the SS grew from a 290-man battalion into one of the most powerful institutions within Nazi Germany. Over the course of his career, Himmler acquired a reputation for good organisational skills as well as for selecting highly competent subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich. From 1943 onwards, he was both Chief of the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police) and Minister of the Interior, which gave him oversight of all internal and external police and security forces (including the Gestapo). He also controlled the Waffen-SS, a branch of the SS that served in combat alongside the Wehrmacht in World War II.

As the principal enforcer of the Nazis' racial policies, Himmler was responsible for operating concentration and extermination camps as well as forming the Einsatzgruppen death squads in German-occupied Europe. In this capacity, he played a central role in the genocide of an estimated 5.5–6 million Jews and the deaths of millions of other victims during the Holocaust.^[2] A day before the launch of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Himmler commissioned the drafting of Generalplan Ost, which was approved by Hitler in May 1942 and implemented by the Nazi regime, resulting in the deaths of approximately 14 million people in Eastern Europe.

In the last years of the Second World War, Hitler appointed Himmler as Commander of the Replacement Army and General Plenipotentiary for the administration of the Third Reich (Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung). He was later given command of the Army Group Upper Rhine and the Army Group Vistula. However, after he failed to achieve his assigned objectives, Hitler replaced him in these posts. Realising the war was lost, Himmler attempted, without Hitler's knowledge, to open peace talks with the western Allies in March 1945. When Hitler learned of this on 28 April, he dismissed Himmler from all his posts and ordered his arrest. Thereafter, Himmler attempted to go into hiding but was captured by British forces. He committed suicide in British custody on 23 May 1945.