Himmler: Reichsführer-SS [Hardcover]

Peter Padfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1991

This work provides a biography of Heinrich Himmler, looking at his personality and life. Under Hitler's command he was in charge of the death camps in the east, head of the intelligence service, chief of the Home Army and Armaments and in control of the German plans to build an "Aryan" master race.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Impeccably documented, compulsively readable, this is the first full-length biography of the most powerful and coldblooded of Hitler's lieutenants. Before his suicide in 1945 Himmler had ruled the SS and Gestapo, directed the death camps in Poland, headed German intelligence services, and run the slave-labor system in the Reich. He also was responsible for pseudo-medical experiments in the death camps. Delving into the family background and upbringing of this terrible yet strangely ordinary man, Padfield analyzes the master-race theories that inspired Himmler and comes impressively close to explaining how a priggish, idealistic Bavarian boy turned into history's most ruthless slaughterer. Buttressed with excerpts from diaries, letters and speeches, the author examines each phase of Himmler's life in detail. Padfield describes, for instance, how Himmler expanded Hitler's personal bodyguard (the original SS) into an all-embracing empire within the Nazi state used to terrorize party hierarchy as well as occupied Europe. The book sheds light on Himmler's 11th-hour attempt to make a separate peace with the Allies, and on the details of his final hours. A powerful and horrifying narrative by the author of Donitz: The Last Fuhrer. Photos. Military Book Club selection.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 656 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Company; First American Edition edition (February 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805014764
• ISBN-13: 978-0805014761
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,729,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Himmler, November 12, 2007

By 

Stephen Campbell "Author" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Himmler (Paperback)

An outstanding book. I find that a good book will stimulate one or more of these reactions while reading it. I will want to learn more about the subject or I want to read more books by the same author. This book brought out the desire to learn more about the more arcane institutions and crackpot theorists of the Reich.

The images the author invokes of a young Himmler traveling around a motorcycle lecturing the proletarian in the hinterlands on the NSDAP viewpoint is amusing. Especially when contrasted with the all powerful figure in uniform he came to be. Somehow though I am sure he always wore his helmet.

His love of mysticism and his desire to imbure National Socialism with it was as important to its success then as it now. The same mysticism unfortunately lures enough young minds to keep National Socialism from completely disapearing to the rubbish bin of bad ideas.

Padfield describes the complex personality of a man who many rate as one of the most evil of his century. In doing so he does all of us a service by showing even the most evil of us can also be the most banal. He describes how Himmler, no where near an orator in the same league as Hittler or Goebbels, still managed to keep an audiences attention with a dry yet folksy style. I came a way from the book realizing that Himmler, the shy young man who grew up to desire with all his heart to be considered "one of the boys" was an insecure traveling salesman who sold his soul for power.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent account of the life of Heinrich Himmler, August 16, 2001

By 

Robet L. Petrohovich (Richmond, Va) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Himmler (Paperback)

An extremely informative, accurate and unbiased account of one of Hitler's closest ranks. Peter Padfield does an excellent job of capturing, and often analyzing, the life of Himmler from his Catholic childhood, through his initial failures of military life, through his rise to become one of Hitler's inner circle and the most powerful person in the Third Reich. Padfield is consistent with his documentation of what is fact, his conclusions based on historical documentation, to what cannot be known with any level of certainty. It is particularly interesting to delve into Himmler's rationalizations for his actions. Padfield also gives insight into many of the additional cast of characters within the Nazi regime, including Hitler, Donitz, and Goebbels as well as the thoughts and strategies of those both inside and outside Germany during this particular period in history.