Heinrich Himmler (redirected from Himler)

Himmler, Heinrich 

Born Oct. 7, 1900, in Munich; died May 23, 1945, in Lüneburg. One of the major war criminals of fascist Germany.

As a member of fascist bands after World War I (1914-18), Himmler took part in the suppression of the workers’ movement in Germany. He was a participant in the putsch in Munich in November 1923. In 1929 he became chief of the SS. After the seizure of power by the Hitlerites in 1933, Himmler was first head of the political police of Munich, then of Bavaria, and later of all Germany; in 1936 he became chief of the Gestapo. From 1943 he was Reich minister of the interior and from 1944, commander of the German Home Forces. Himmler was one of the principal organizers of the brutal terror against antifascists, of the concentration camp system, and of the mass extermination of the innocent civilians of the territories occupied by Hitler’s armies. After fascist Germany’s capitulation in 1945, he attempted to hide but was arrested and subsequently committed suicide.

REFERENCES

Niurnbergskii protsess nad glavnymi nemetskimi voennymi prestupnikami, Sb. materialov, vols. 1-7. Moscow, 1957-61.
Rozanov, G. L. Germaniia pod vlast’iu fashizma (1933-1939 gg.). Moscow, 1964.
Bartel, W. Deutschland in der Zeit derfaschistischen Diktatur 1933-1945. Berlin, 1956.