Customer Reviews

Himmler

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent book, and indispensable to the library of anyone with a serious interest in Nazism or the Holocaust. Padfield has clearly done an enormous amount of research and he uses it with with great skill and perspicacity. He clearly explains Nazi ideology (as espoused by Himmler) and the projects which gave it shape and meaning. He presents plainly both the realpolitik of Nazi government, and the public policy under which it hid it's corruption. He chronicles the growth and spread of the SS both as Himmlers personal fiefdom and the power base he used to rise to the top. His portraits of the major 'players' both within the SS and in the broader regime are drawn from eyewitness accounts and are skillfully woven into the narrative in a way which empahasises both their personalities and their importance in the history of the period.

Padfield creates a narrative of Himmler's life that takes the reader on a first class tour of the Third Reich, the upper echelons of the SS heirarchy, and the 'hell on earth' of the Holocaust created by Nazi ideology. It is particularly gratifying that Padfield never succumbs to the temptation of 'adjectival' history. He never describes events or people as 'evil' or 'monstrous', preferring to let the facts speak for themselves. He is free to do so because of the extraordinary clarity with which he presents the facts for the reader.

A particularly brilliant example is the juxtaposition of Himmler's outrage at the brutality of a hunting party he took part in in October 1941 - "Nature is so wonderfully beautiful, and every animal has a right to live." which is followed by an account of the clearing of the Riga Ghetto in November of that year (just two weeks later) carried out under his orders. "it is not a Weltanschauungs-question to rid oneself of lice; it is a matter of cleanliness." (pages 351ff)

His presentation of the micro-processes of Einsatzgruppen mass-murder is probably the best I've ever read. The methodology of dehumanising both victim and murderer by a series of incremental steps, coupled to a 'normalising' tempo which leads inevitably to the pit is vital to understanding both the brutality of the crime, and it's essentially human, militarist, 'technically dispassionate' character. As an Organisational Development consultant I find this particularly fascinating given the extent to which corporations seek to 'normalise' human behaviours to suit their own goals.

Padfield is equally clear in tracking the larger history of the Holocaust as it developed over time. He deftly avoids falling into the 'intentionalist' or 'functionalist' camps by sticking to the facts available and presenting the series of orders, actions, refining of methods, and further orders in the context of both the organisations and individuals involved, and in the tempo of the times.

The book is weakest in it's attempts to psycho-analyze Himmler which come across as Freudian psycho-babble when set against the scale of Himmlers crimes, but this is a minor quibble. The honesty with which Padfield's analysis is developed from the facts is refreshing. Where he has a theory or explanation unsupported by the evidence available to him he labels it clearly as 'conjetcture' and returns to the historical record. I have read scores of books on the Nazism and the Third Reich and this is one of the very best. An excellent resource, clear, lucid and rich with the sort of detail that illuminates reather than clutters. Buy this book! ... Aristeas.

To title this book as a biography of Himmler is a bit misleading. It should be titled "Himmler: Things He Did." It starts off promising, with a good account of Himmler's childhood. However, soon after that it devolves into a standard history book, covering events at great length that have already been well-documented elsewhere, events which are often only tangentially related to Himmler. In short, this book is too much a history and too little a biography.

Certainly it does a good job as a factual bio - the dates and events are all there - but contrary to what some other readers have said, there is really very little here (after the childhood section) about Himmler the MAN. Important issues such as his family life, his mistress, his personal views (except as they relate to Jews), and his personality are glossed over in favor of pages and pages of digression. Except for a precious few excerpts from speeches and the occiasional letter or communique, Padfield hardly includes any of Himmler's writing at all. And for a biography, there are almost *no* personal recollections or reminsences of the man from those who knew him. There is a real lack of anecdotes, stories, or other material which would have revealed more about his personality. Other than "He was very indecisive and probably insecure", few elements of his character are revealed. If you want insight into his character, this book doesn't deliver that well.

For someone wanting a lot of facts and dates and events and names, this books is a perfectly good resource, though its length and the density of the text make reading it a real project. And, since it (amazingly) seems to be the only full-length biography of Himmler that's widely available in English, one really has no choice - it's this or nothing.

Padfield's editor should have used the red pen more. At well over 600 pages, the book could have been half as long and twice as good. As it is, it leaves the reader with a very good idea of what Himmler *did*, but only a general idea of what he was *like*.

Peter Padfield's "Himmler" is an authoritative, enlightening and engrossing biography of a man, his (un)reality, and his role in the greatest mass murder spree of the 20th century. Padfield certainly makes no apologies for Himmler, yet he presents a balanced account of how Himmler might have come to the point of cold blooded extermination he was at in 1941-44 and then his "change of heart" at the end.

Padfield spends much of the early part of the book delving into Himmler's childhood, upbringing (by a strick disciplinarian professor father, and soft mother), early adult years and his time during the "day's of struggle" - the early Nazi years. This introduction does a lot to set the scence for Himmler's life. While we certainly can't forgive the man for hwat he did and stood for, we might be able to understand more clearly the mind set behind the decisions he made. Padfield's research paints Himmler as a man who was deeply scared by his upbringing and retreated into a fantasy world which he went deeper into as time went on. When he eventually gained respect and power as one of the Nazi elite he expressed his fantasy world overtly to the world.

Himmler's years in power in Nazi Germany are well documented, yet Padfield does a great job showing not just what Himmler ddid but how he did it - from establishment of the SS and Gestapo to the Holocaust. Himmler didn't do it on his own - again Padfield is carfule not to excuse him or even take blame from him, but rather to show how Himmler created a system within tthe Nazi power structure that allowed him to orchestrate such attrocities on man kind. He was a consumate suck up to others in power - keeping with him his whole life his feelings of insecurity and uselessness, even at the height of his power.

All in all, "Himmler" is a must read for those interested in understanding the how's of WWII's crimes and how a single human can, with the aide of others, so change history.

This compendium of the life of the very personification of evil, Heinrich Himmler, is astounding. The amount of detail, not only concerning Himmler, but of other high ranking Nazi officials, such as Heydrich, Canaris, Mueller, Eichmann, and so forth is incredible. This book belongs alongside Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and "Speer's "Inside the Third Reich." A more unlikely figure to assume the position of head of the SS could not possibly be imagined; how could this weakling of a farmer who raised poultry reach the god-like status he attained, holding the power of life and death over eighty million Germans and later hundreds of millions more in the occupied nations under German domination? And yet he was not a sadist, he lived frugally and did not derive pleasure from reducing millions to human beings to expendable slaves and annihilation, he was largely apathetic to it all. The irony that he himself did not even remotely qualify for the racial characteristics he adamantly required of his subordinates, and would not even pass his own screening test for accepting SS applicants, is something to consider. His devout belief in God, perhaps eclipsed only by his belief in his Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, and the fact that he considered himself a Catholic, are interesting to note. His lack of emotion and impersonal disregard for the sanctity of human life would seemingly suggest the characteristics of a sociopath, someone who could hear a hideous scream of agony, acknowledge it, and calmly resume paperwork activity and proceed to complete it at his leisure. Although Himmler appears to be a harmless, pedantic crank, he is undoubtedly one of the most chilling personages of history, more so since he himself could never understand why his own name caused people to recoil in horror and terror, for reasons that were plain to anyone else.

This is an excellent book, and indispensable to the library of anyone with a serious interest in Nazism or the Holocaust. Padfield has clearly done an enormous amount of research and he uses it with with great skill and perspicacity. He clearly explains Nazi ideology (as espoused by Himmler) and the projects which gave it shape and meaning. He presents plainly both the realpolitik of Nazi government, and the public policy under which it hid it's corruption. He chronicles the growth and spread of the SS both as Himmlers personal fiefdom and the power base he used to rise to the top. His portraits of the major 'players' both within the SS and in the broader regime are drawn from eyewitness accounts and are skillfully woven into the narrative in a way which empahasises both their personalities and their importance in the history of the period.

Padfield creates a narrative of Himmler's life that takes the reader on a first class tour of the Third Reich, the upper echelons of the SS heirarchy, and the 'hell on earth' of the Holocaust created by Nazi ideology. It is particularly gratifying that Padfield never succumbs to the temptation of 'adjectival' history. He never describes events or people as 'evil' or 'monstrous', preferring to let the facts speak for themselves. He is free to do so because of the extraordinary clarity with which he presents the facts for the reader.

A particularly brilliant example is the juxtaposition of Himmler's outrage at the brutality of a hunting party he took part in in October 1941 - "Nature is so wonderfully beautiful, and every animal has a right to live." which is followed by an account of the clearing of the Riga Ghetto in November of that year (just two weeks later) carried out under his orders. "it is not a Weltanschauungs-question to rid oneself of lice; it is a matter of cleanliness." (pages 351ff)

His presentation of the micro-processes of Einsatzgruppen mass-murder is probably the best I've ever read. The methodology of dehumanising both victim and murderer by a series of incremental steps, coupled to a 'normalising' tempo which leads inevitably to the pit is vital to understanding both the brutality of the crime, and it's essentially human, militarist, 'technically dispassionate' character. As an Organisational Development consultant I find this particularly fascinating given the extent to which corporations seek to 'normalise' human behaviours to suit their own goals.

Padfield is equally clear in tracking the larger history of the Holocaust as it developed over time. He deftly avoids falling into the 'intentionalist' or 'functionalist' camps by sticking to the facts available and presenting the series of orders, actions, refining of methods, and further orders in the context of both the organisations and individuals involved, and in the tempo of the times.

The book is weakest in it's attempts to psycho-analyze Himmler which come across as Freudian psycho-babble when set against the scale of Himmlers crimes, but this is a minor quibble. The honesty with which Padfield's analysis is developed from the facts is refreshing. Where he has a theory or explanation unsupported by the evidence available to him he labels it clearly as 'conjecture' and returns to the historical record. I have read scores of books on the Nazism and the Third Reich and this is one of the very best. An excellent resource, clear, lucid and rich with the sort of detail that illuminates reather than clutters. Buy this book! ... Aristeas.

Peter Padfield's bio of Himmler is one of the most thoroughly researched books I've ever read. Padfield turns all his literary siege engines on the enimatic personality of the fourth and most important Reichsfuhrer-SS, attempting to crack the Himmler facade and present the world's most notorious secret policeman in all his human complexity. As much is as possible with such a cypher, he succeeds.

Padfield's book is wide-ranging, covering not merely Himmler but his development of the SS Order from a 290 man bodyguard detail into a quasi-religious empire numbering in the millions. Special emphasis is placed on his relationships with top Nazi leaders, as well as his chief subordinates: Schellenberg, Wolff, Eicke, Kaltenbrunner, and most importantly Reinhard Heydrich. Padfield's aim is not merely to account for Himmler, but for the deeds of his organization. Considering the enormity of his task, he does a pretty impressive job: he's especially skilled at following cause to effect, i.e., of showing how Himmler's bureacratic decisions affected the lives of millions of people, often by ending them. He's unflinching in his depictions of concentration camps, extermination centers, slave camps, and the mass executions of the Einsatgruppen, but more importantly he does an excellent job of putting them in context. They are part, but not all, of the SS mission, and Padfield shows how the many responsibilities of the organization blended together to serve Hitler's wishes as they were percieved by the "Reichsheine."

A good bit of the book is conjecture on Padfield's part -- conjecture as to what was said during certain conversations, conjecture as to what Himmler was thinking or the reasons behind his actions. Padfield deserves strong praise for pain-stakingly pointing out where he is speculating and where he is recounting the facts: a lot of authors can't seem to tell the difference between fact and opinion. On the other hand, Padfield isn't shy about trashing other historians who disagree with his opinions on the evolution of the Holocaust. He usually prefaces their opinions with the words, "Some historiuans, apparently in all seriousness, maintain..."

The book does have weaknesses. Padfield often dismisses out of hand the accounts of certain Nazis when they disagree with his version of events, then unhestitatingly accepts them later on when they jibe. His prose bogs down on more than one occasion: he seems to have a love-affair with run-on sentences that leave the reader (this reader anyway) exhausted and confused. His choice of phrasing is sometimes poor, obscuring the meaning of his passages, and there are a number of small editing mistakes such as incorrect dates or missing letters(probably the publisher's fault and not the author's). More annoying is the strange sloppiness of detail on his description of military events. It's as if his huge effort to research every aspect of Himmler/the SS left him too weary to proof his passages on the war for easily avoidable errors. He writes, for example, that the SS Panzer Corps penetrated the Soviet lines to a depth of 100 miles at Kursk. Uh, no, Peter, it didn't. If it had, the Germans would have won the battle and maybe the war, since the Kursk Salient was only 80-odd miles wide. If this seems like nit-picking, I mention it only because it is far from the only example. In another passage he says the German Ardennes offensive was supported by the fire of 10,000 assault guns. Again, sloppiness: an assault gun is a turretless tank, not an artillery piece, and the Germans certainly did not have anything close to 10,000 guns. A quick check of any coffee-table book on that battle would give the accurate figures, but Padfield didn't bother.

What Padfield left out of Himmler's military career is also interesting. He makes virtually no mention of the "North Wind" offensive launched on Strasbourg in January, 1945, which occurred under Himmler's command. Though he spends much of the latter part of the book discussing the Nazi hope of engineering a split between the various Allies, he makes no mention of how Himmler's attack nearly accomplished this, by creating a violent disagreement between the Americans and the French over whether Strasbourg should be abandoned. Similarly, he leaves out the role of Panzerbrigade 150, the SS unit equipped with American uniforms and equipment, during the Battle of the Bulge. Some of this may simply have been editing decisions, but the ommissions are notable.

Another problem is opinionated psychological theorizing. Padfield does not simply aim to recount Himmler's life and doings and let the reader infer what he may from them; he constantly, and sometimes annoyingly, tries to probe Himmler's psyche, and the psyche of all the top Nazis. This is tempting and to be expected on some level -- obviously we want to understand Himmler's motivations -- but any psychological profile is speculation and inference (the so called SWAG or scientific wild-ass guess), and Pafield plays amateur psychological detective to a tiresome degree.

A final complaint: the abrupt ending of the book. "Himmler" has no afterword; it stops literally at the moment of his death, and I never did find out what happened to Himmler's wife, his mistress, or his children by both.

Having made these criticisms, I have to say that "Himmler" is still a very significant book. I was fascinated by the bold and often contraversial take Padfield had on major events, by his willingness to attack commonly accpeted versions of events (such as the supposedly poor relationship between Bormann and Himmler)
by his exhaustive research on every aspect of the SS and by his insightful thoughts on Himmler's relationship to Hitler. I did not find "Himmler" an easy read, but it is an important one.

As one who reads WWII history as a hobby, I was a bit disappointed in this book. A biography it is not. This book is more of a history of the SS starring Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. After reading this biography, I still do not know what made the man tick.

The introduction itself almost made me stop reading the book as it was a long-winded passage about the inquisition and how it related to the Nazis and Heinrich. Therefore, I skipped the intro and started reading the book.

The first half of the book covered lots of his childhood and early history with the Nazis. The first half elaborated way too much on items I did not think were important...such as a home for women who could become impregnated by the master race, and so on. It just didn't do anything for me.

The only saving grace for this book was the second half. It related entirely to the war and Himmler's involvement with the prison camps, round up and extermination of the Jews. This was riveting reading. And it is only this half of the book that saves it from being a bore.

The book abruptly ends with Himmler's death. However, nothing more is ever said about the post-war lives of his wife, his mistress, and his kids by both. I think this would have added more depth to the book.

Nevertheless, the book is worth one read, but I would not read it again. I didn't find anything more here than I do in other books about the SS.

The definitive biography on Himmler. The author describes one of the most terrifying character in history in a text that is at the same time informative and objective. From his youth as a worker on a chicken farm to his death by suicide shortly after his arrest by the British, we see the development of a cold-blooded murderer...well, not so cold-blooded, since he appears to have nearly fainted when he saw for the first and only time the actions of his henchmen from the Einsatzgruppen first hand.
Himmler's numerous speeches, whether secret or public, form the most chilling reading.
A brilliant piece of historic literature, this book is indispensable for a clear understanding of how evil can take the improbable look of a bland, bespectacled schoolmaster. Himmler definitely embodies what has been called "the banality of evil".

In other works I've read about WW2,Himmler always seems to be the mysterious man in the background.Sinister,looming,machiavellian,evil? The mystery is now gone for me at least after reading this book.The only memorable quote I've ever remembered regarding him was from another book where a Nazi affiliate described him as "half school-marm,half crackpot",and really that's the description of him throughout this 600 page bio.He's a nerd with an extreme sadistic streak,the kind of a guy who would execute ants with a dry cell battery in the garage and wondered how it would work on humans.(Of course only in the interests of his warped Nazi psuedo-science!!)There must be thousands like this on any given day anywhere throughout the modern world,only waiting for an opportunity to rise.Educated,competent but with an ideological axe to grind,Himmler literally worshipped German WW1 veterans and bought whole-heartedly into the"stab-in -the-back"theory rampant in post WW1 Germany.(Himmler himself was too young at the time of the war to participate but one of his brothers did.
Post-WWI Germany is an excellent plate glass culture growth for Himmlers' sociopathic leanings.Himmler was from a German middle-class family and as the author points out had feelings of compassion toward his immediate family,but outside of this, other peoples rights or feelings were an abstraction to be trampled on. By the way his bachelors degree was in agriculture so he has alot of experience on cattle-breeding which he believed he could coldly apply to the human species as well.If not Heinrich I'm sure there would have been others to take his place.Toward the end of the book there is a page or two on Heinrich's dabbling in the German resistance movement against Hitler.The authors' scant mention leaves one to take it as a sour joke.Heinrich finally realizes that when Germany loses the war he will be one of the TOP war criminals-So much for his opposition to Hitler,whose open mouth is quoted as "the gates of Hell".Heinrich is dug into the Nazi crimes too deep for escape and he knows it.Time for that extra pack of Rolaids for his ulcers and a cyanide capsule? I loved the end where Himmler adopts numerous disguises in an attempt to escape much like a vampire trying to get back to his coffin before sunlight.Padfield has satisfied my curiousity to the max but who knows with so many newer books on Heinrich coming out,I might try and tackle another one.If you don't have the time to read a bio on him just remember,"half school marm-half crackpot,full vampire and you'll come off as an expert on Heinrich.

Peter Padfield's biography of Heinrich Himmler is by turns chilling and fascinating. Himmler's role in the construction of practical racial ideology for the Third Reich illustrates a soul utterly devoid of empathy and compassion. Padfield presents Himmler as a man searching for relevance after his failure to participate in the central event of his generation- World War I. Padfield expertly traces his drift into extreme right-wing politics and his conversion from Christianity to Nazism. Padfield also does a commendable job of showing Himmler's contradictions, as when he is shown practically apologizing to a subordinate for having a Christmas Tree in his home after railing against Christianity in his public life. Overall, this book is a very well written piece on one of Hitler's most ruthless followers.

It is not without its flaws, however. For instance, Padfield presents as fact the proposition that it was the Nazis themselves who initiated the Reichstag fire in 1933. Most responsible historians agree that, while the Nazis certainly capitalized on the incident they themselves did not start the fire. Padfield also offers the fantastic idea that Heydrich's dismissal from the Navy was part of a military attempt to infiltrate the Nazi Party. Also, the book ends rather abruptly at Himmler's death. This work could have benefited from some closing commentary or a look at the Reichsfuhrer's enduring legacy of evil.

Despite its occasional minor problems this is a book that all students of the Third Reich should read.