{{infobox personInfobox officeholder
|name=Heinrich Himmler
|image=Himmler.jpg
|birth_date=October 7, 1900
|birth_place=Munich, Germany|death_date=May 23, 1945 (aged 44)|death_place=Luneburg, Germany|religion=|spouse=Margarete Boden (m. after 1928)3 |children=*Gudrun Burwitz (1929 |alma_mater=|party=|office=4th Reichsführer- 2018)SS|term_start=January 6, 1929|term_end=April 29, 1945|preceded=[[Erhard Heiden]]|succeeded=[[Karl Hanke]]
}}
'''Heinrich Luitpold Himmler''' (1900-1945), was a [[German]] [[Nazi Party]] leader, head of the Schutzstaffel (Protective squadron; [[SS]]) and of the dreaded [[Gestapo]] (Secret state police). Starting from a junior position in the SS, by 1942 he was the second most powerful Nazi leader and designed many of the [[National Socialist]] programs. His loyalty to [[Adolf Hitler]] (until near the end in April 1945), combined with his organizational skills, ambition, and his sadistic nature, made him one of the most notorious [[war criminal]]s of [[World War II]]. As chief of police for all of [[Germany]], Himmler was responsible for establishing [[concentration camp]]s and death camps. Himmler oversaw the [[Holocaust]], the mass murder of 6 million [[Jew]]s, and his anti-Semitism was such that it arguably exceeded even that of Hitler's own anti-Semitic views. Aside from this, he was also infamous for Lebensborn, a plan to abduct well over 12,000 children throughout Europe meeting the description of the "Master Race", and then place them by adoption with prospective families in order to help "breed" the superior race.<ref name="Stolen Nazis: The Tragic Tale">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1111170/Stolen-Nazis-The-tragic-tale-12-000-blue-eyed-blond-children-taken-SS-create-Aryan-super-race.html</ref> During the war he built up the military arm of his SS, which became a "de facto" fourth branch of the German [[military]]. After Hitler dismissed him from all his offices in April 1945, Himmler was captured by the [[British]] Army. However, he committed suicide before the Allies could put him on trial for war crimes at the [[Nuremberg Trials]].
==Background==
==War years==
[[File:Himmler inspects Ukrainian SS volunteers.PNG|right|350px|thumb|Himmler inspects the Ukrainians who volunteered for the [[14th SS Division Galicia]].<ref>http://espritdecorps.ca/history-feature/the-rcaf-officer-who-brought-hitlers-waffen-ss-to-canada</ref>]]
In 1943 Himmler was appointed Minister of the Interior and strengthened his grip on the civil service and the courts. The SS grew rapidly as Himmler sought a new human type, men keeping their various professional competences but each becoming a part of the intricate fabric of the SS. To its police activities the SS added protection of the German Volk in Poland and elsewhere, their "blood" and their unity, and also the protection of the Nazi leadership. For Himmler the paradoxical mystical motif of his understanding was the SS's great struggle against what Himmler called the two pillars of evil, the Jews and the Slavs.
[[Category:Socialists]]
[[Category:Neopagans]]
[[Category:Former Christians]]
[[Category:Bigotry]]