Heinrich Himmler

{{Audio|de-Heinrich Himmler.ogg|Heinrich Himmler}} (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. As Reichsführer-SS, he controlled the SS and the Gestapo, and was the leading organizer of the Holocaust. As founder and officer-in-charge of the Nazi concentration camps and the Einsatzgruppen death squads, Himmler was responsible for implementing the industrial scale murder of between six and twelve million of people. Among the victims were Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Communists, Slavs, and Catholic priests.

Early Nazi Party

In 1923 Himmler was a Feldwebel (Sergeant) in the Reichkriegsflagge, carrying the Imperial German Battle Ensign in the so-called Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazi Party's failed attempt at a revolution in overthrowing the government of Bavaria.

Related Topics:
1923 - Feldwebel - Beer Hall Putsch - Revolution - Bavaria

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Between 1923 and 1925, with the Nazi party seemingly a failed cause, Himmler devoted himself to other interests, putting his agricultural diploma to work by becoming a poultry farmer. His time as a chicken farmer was unsuccessful, however, and he returned to the Nazi Party in late 1926. In 1927 he married Margaret Boden.

Related Topics:
1925 - Poultry - 1926 - 1927 - Margaret Boden

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The Nazi Party quickly put Himmler to work as the Vice District Leader and Deputy Gauleiter of Upper-Bavaria and also as secretary to Oberste SA-Führer Franz Pfeffer von Salomon. Himmler was subsequently commissioned as an SA-Sturmführer in 1926, and later that year he was appointed an Oberführer, becoming SS-Gauführer (District Leader) in a small SA sub-unit known as the Schutzstaffel or SS. In 1927, Himmler became the vice commander of the SS when he accepted the assignment as Deputy Reichsführer-SS.

Related Topics:
Gauleiter - Oberste SA-Führer - Franz Pfeffer von Salomon - Sturmführer - Oberführer - Schutzstaffel - Reichsführer-SS

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