Himmler..The Family Man

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Do look carefully at the figures on this tour of Mauthausen, also apparently in 1941.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Otto Kumm, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Oswald Pohl, Karl Wolff

[Adrian Stevenson]

I think what is also very relevent is the presence of members of the Waffen SS inc one RKT taking part in this visit....

Cheers, Ade.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Might I cordially suggest that there is more than one Waffen SS officer in this image, which belies the claim made by Hausser in his book of the 1950s as to his tendentious delineation of roles and missions in the SS.

The SSTV became an integral part of the Waffen SS, and its origins were to be found in the concentration camp system perfected by Eicke with its cradle in Dachau.

Adrian's post above appeared as I typed the above. Thank you, dear leader, for the intervention.

In Himmler's mind the battlefields of war were varied: the homefront with its inner enemies was as much a battlefield as Kharkov or Kursk where one fought "die Bolshevisten und den juedischen Weltfeind." Do listen to his speeches in the internet, especially the one given to the victors of Kharkov in 1943 where he goes into this very point. Or the famous speech in Posen of the same year.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Thanks FB, we hit the reply button together it seems.

The identity of the RKT is eluding me at present. Someone please help me out.

Yes, this relationship is one many people would prefer to forget or worse still, deny. "The enemy behind the wire" is a phrase that springs to mind, I am right in thinking it was one which was coined by Eicke?

Cheers, Ade.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thanks for yours. I do not know who was the exact author of said phrase, but such was crucial to the thinking of all the leading lights in the regime, from Hitler downwards to the enlisted men on guard at Mauthausen and the Wienergrube. Eicke gave it all a particular interpretation, and his biography is revealing of the blurring of the line between internal security and what in the Anglo-Saxon world is deemed a proper role for a soldier.
Chas. Sydnor's book on the Totenkopfdivision is instructive on this score.

Hausser and the others denied these facts in the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to piggy back on the backlash against Nuremberg and denazification, and their denial has been picked up by others and repeated ad infinitum.

All this being said, all of this is important history made more urgent and tangible by these excellent photographs.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here Himmler climbs the steps upon which the inmates were doomed to heft the quarried stone. You see one of these men at attention as the potentates pass on their way up to the main camp.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

For those fans of Uniformkunde the contrast of the grey and black uniform between the RFSS and the Gauleiter des Gaues Oberdonau. The latter was also a prime mover of the Mauthausen complex as part of the DEST branch of the SS economic enterprises. His look at Himmler is revealing. Eigruber was on very close terms with AH. Also, this image suggests that those with honorary SS rank continued to wear the black uniform in wartime. In later images of this duo in the camp, it seems that Eigruber got an updated uniform.