honor guard was maintained at the assassination site until the end
of the war. See also BERNHARD; EINSATZGRUPPEN; SALON
KITTY; TANNENBERG.HIMMLER, HEINRICH (1900–1945). A pivotal figure of the Third
Reich as head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler was born in Munich on
7 October 1900, the son of a Roman Catholic schoolmaster. After
obtaining a degree in agriculture from the Munich Technical College,
he worked as a laboratory assistant in a fertilizer factory and then as
an unsuccessful poultry farmer. His strong attraction to the fledgling
Nazi Party led him to participate in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, and he
was the party’s deputy propaganda chief between 1925–1930. Most
significant, however, was his appointment in 1929 as commander of
Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard, the Schutzstaffel (SS; Protection
Squad). In 1931, Himmler assigned the formation of the Sicherheits-
dienst (SD; Security Service), the counterintelligence unit of the
party, to his protégé Reinhard Heydrich.
Following the Nazi seizure of power, various police organiza-
tions increasingly fell under his purview, beginning in Bavaria and
extending to all of Germany by June 1936. In this process, Himmler
revealed his determination, despite his taciturn demeanor, to unleash
the full powers of the state against all perceived opponents of the
Nazi regime. The creation of the first concentration camp at Dachau
in 1933 and the bloody elimination of the rival SA the following year
bore his imprint. With the outbreak of World War II came the oppor-
tunity to put his racial theories into practice. In October 1939, Hitler
appointed Himmler the Commissar for Settlement in a newly an-
nexed section of Poland, which resulted in the massive replacement
of Jews and Poles with people of Aryan descent, especially from the
Baltic region. Himmler also ardently promoted the breeding of SS
men with women possessing ideal Nordic traits, even if it involved
multiple sexual relationships.
In August 1943, as the tide of the war turned against Germany,
Himmler was given the post of interior minister—a tacit recognition
that Hitler’s authority now rested primarily on police repression,
not public adulation. The failure of the army conspiracy against
Hitler on 20 July 1944 further strengthened Himmler’s hand. In an
ill-considered move, he was given the command of Army Group
190 • HIMMLER, HEINRICH