Himmler..The Family Man

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Prior to wielding the Dolchstoss to his erstwhile boss....

[Friedrich-Berthold]

At the 1934 or 1935 Reichsparteitag in a typical pose near the Gulaschkanonen

[Friedrich-Berthold]

On the way to the height of power in 1940 with the LAH at an awards ceremony. Compared to other Nazi Potentaten, the Fotografen often found a smile on his odd face, one must say.

[Wuerstenfuchs]

Humm - the smile is gone.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Humm - the smile is gone.

How true and thanks for the proper end to our little inquiry. One wonders with the counter factual approach, that had he had a better chin and grown up in prosperity and peace (say he got a job at court raising his chickens and what not with the Wittelsbachs stil on the throne if Germany had won in 1918), would his career swerved into mass murder? It is a moot point, really. Contemporary European history since 1989 indicates that all sorts of otherwise normal seeming people are quite capable of extraordinary barbarism.
Actually, I am no friend of counter factual history. Maybe had he a better wife, too? Alles Quatsch.

[zwerge]

Here is a picture of Gudrun in later years,I don`t know how old she is,she was 15 when the war ended. Now known as Gudrun Burwitz.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

She is apparently a figure in extreme right wing German politics. But I do not follow her closely, surely.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

On the theme of Heini H's smile, here is the April 1941 visit to Mauthausen, with our man with a big smile accompanied by the Gauleiter for Oberdonau (Linz...) Eigruber ( in a black SS uniform in the spring of 1941...) as well as Ziereis, the camp commander of the Mauthausen complex. The camp was part of the DEST empire, the slave labor enterprise to quarry stone for the rebuilding of such German cities as Linz, itself, to say nothing of Munich, Berlin, etc.

A horrifying image, especially if you have been to the place... This image is from the on line Bundesarchiv offering of great interest.

[ColinD]

Many times people will smile on seeing a camera, even in the most unfriendly circumstances.. I remember seeing photos of people on the brink of being executed still crack a smile on seeing a camera pointed at them, an automatic reflex response a bit like Pavlov's dogs, though of course we would'nt treat a dog in the manner Himmler treated other human beings.
C

[OKW]

Not a combat medal among them. Uniformed penpushers the like of which you'll find in any large organisation. This organisations brief was robbery, blackmail, theft, asset stripping and mass murder. Once you'd accepted that this was quite normal you could go home to the family just like any other bureaucrat. Plus who knew what uncle Heini had in his files about you. That why he's smiling hes got the black on everyone maybe even the boss, Hitler.