Synopses & Reviews
Heinrich Himmler was an unremarkable looking man. Yet he was Hitler's top enforcer, in charge of the Gestapo, the SS, and the so-called Final Solution. We can only wonder, as biographer Peter Longerich asks, how could such a banal personality attain such a historically unique position of power? How could the son of a prosperous Bavarian Catholic public servant become the organizer of a system of mass murder spanning the whole of Europe?
In the first comprehensive biography of this murderous enigma, Longerich answers those questions with a superb account of Himmler's inner self and outward acts. Masterfully interweaving the story of Himmler's personal life and political career with the wider history of the Nazi dictatorship, Longerich shows how skillfully he exploited and manipulated his disparate roles in the pursuit of his far-reaching and grandiose objectives. Himmler's actual strength, he writes, consisted in redrawing every two or three years the master plans for his sphere of power. Himmler expanded that sphere with ruthless efficiency. In 1929, he took the SS-a small bodyguard unit-and swelled it into a paramilitary organization with elite pretensions. By the end of 1934 he had become Reich Chief of the Political Police, and began to consolidate all police power in his own hands. As Germany grabbed neighboring territory, he expanded the Waffen SS and organized the "Germanization" of conquered lands, which culminated in systematic mass murder. When the regime went on the defensive in 1942, Himmler changed his emphasis again, repressing any opposition or unrest. The author emphasizes the centrality of Himmler's personality to the Nazi murder machine-his surveillance of the private lives of his men, his deep resentments, his fierce prejudices-showing that man and position were inseparable.
Carefully researchedand lucidly written, Heinrich Himmler is the essential account of the man who embodied Hitler's apparatus of evil.
Review
"Splendid" - The Sunday Telegraph
"Longerich's study of Himmler's banal evil promises to bear the standard" --The Village Voice
"A masterpiece." - Richard J. Evans, author of The Coming of the Third Reich
Review
"[S]upremely enlightening." --Jacob Heilbrunn, The New York Times Book Review
"Splendid" - The Sunday Telegraph
"Longerich's study of Himmler's banal evil promises to bear the standard." --The Village Voice
Review
and#8220;Bruce F. Pauley skillfully intertwines his familyand#8217;s experience of immigrating from Europe to the American Midwest with his own research on fascism and communism. The result is a captivating and truly transatlantic history of modern times.and#8221;and#8212;Gerald Steinacher, Rosenberg Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraskaand#8211;Lincoln and author of
Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justiceand#160;
Review
and#8220;Bruce F. Pauley writes with an accomplished historianand#8217;s eye for context and intergenerational change and has skillfully interwoven different narratives in his autobiography. This is great reading for people interested in immigrant heritage, coming of age in the Midwest in the 1950s, the transformative power of international education, Austria, or history as a profession.and#8221;and#8212;Lonnie R. Johnson, executive director of the Austrian-American Fulbright Commission in Vienna
Review
andquot;Pioneering History on Two Continents is as much an eye-opening portrayal of historyand#39;s tides as it is about one familyand#39;s determination to survive.andquot;andmdash;Midwest Book Review
Synopsis
Heinrich Himmler was an unremarkable looking man. Yet he was Hitler's top enforcer, in charge of the Gestapo, the SS, and the so-called Final Solution. We can only wonder, as biographer Peter Longerich asks, how could such a banal personality attain such a historically unique position of power? How could the son of a prosperous Bavarian Catholic public servant become the organizer of a system of mass murder spanning the whole of Europe?
In the first comprehensive biography of this murderous enigma, Longerich answers those questions with a superb account of Himmler's inner self and outward acts. Masterfully interweaving the story of Himmler's personal life and political career with the wider history of the Nazi dictatorship, Longerich shows how skillfully he exploited and manipulated his disparate roles in the pursuit of his far-reaching and grandiose objectives. Himmler's actual strength, he writes, consisted in redrawing every two or three years the master plans for his sphere of power. Himmler expanded that sphere with ruthless efficiency. In 1929, he took the SS-a small bodyguard unit-and swelled it into a paramilitary organization with elite pretensions. By the end of 1934 he had become Reich Chief of the Political Police, and began to consolidate all police power in his own hands. As Germany grabbed neighboring territory, he expanded the Waffen SS and organized the "Germanization" of conquered lands, which culminated in systematic mass murder. When the regime went on the defensive in 1942, Himmler changed his emphasis again, repressing any opposition or unrest. The author emphasizes the centrality of Himmler's personality to the Nazi murder machine-his surveillance of the private lives of his men, his deep resentments, his fierce prejudices-showing that man and position were inseparable.
Carefully researchedand lucidly written, Heinrich Himmler is the essential account of the man who embodied Hitler's apparatus of evil.
Synopsis
Bruce F. Pauley draws on his family and personal history to tell a story that examines the lives of Volga Germans during the eighteenth century, the pioneering experiences of his family in late nineteenth-century Nebraska, and the dramatic transformations that influenced the history profession during the second half of the twentieth century. An award-winning historian of anti-Semitism, Nazism, and totalitarianism Pauley helped shape historical interpretation from the 1970s to the and#8217;90s both in the United States and Central Europe.and#160;
Pioneering History on Two Continents provides an intimate look at the shifting approaches to the historianand#8217;s craft during a volatile period of world history, with an emphasis on twentieth-century Central European political, social, and diplomatic developments. It also examines the greater sweep of history through the authorand#8217;s firsthand experiences as well as those of his ancestors who participated in these global currents through their migration from Germany to the steppes of Russia to the Great Plains of the United States.
About the Author
Peter Longerich is Professor of Modern German History at Royal Holloway University of London, and founder of Royal Holloway's Holocaust Research Centre. He has published extensively on Nazi Germany, including the acclaimed
Holocaust: The Nazi Murder and the Persecution of the Jews, The Unwritten Order: Hitler's Role in the Final Solution, and
The Systematic Character of the National Socialist Policy for the Extermination of the Jews.
Table of Contents
Abbreviatons and Glossary
Prologue
Part I: The Young Himmler
1. Childhood and Youth
2. The Student of Agriculture
3. Struggle and Renunciation
4. A New Start in Lower Bavaria
5. The Party Functionary
6. Reichsfuhrer SS
Part II: In the Third Reich
7. The Take-Over of the Political Police
8. From Inspector of the Prussian Gestapo to Chief of the German Police
9. The State Protection Corps
Part III: The Order
10. Ideology and Religious Cult
11. Himmler's Leadership Style
12. Himmler the Educator
13. The SS Family
Part IV: Ambition and Disappointment
14. War Preparations and Expansion
15. War and Settlement in Poland
16. A New Racial Order
17. Repression in the Reich
18. Shifting Borders: The Year 1940
Part V: The Greater Germanic Reich: Lebensraum and Ethnic Murder
19. An Ideological War of Annihilation
20. From Mass Murder to the 'Final Solution'
21. The Murder of the European Jews
22. Settlement Policy and Racial Selection
23. The 'Iron Law of Ethnicity': Recruitment for the Waffen-SS
24. A Europe-wide Reign of Terror
Part VI: Downfall in Stages
25. Can a Turn in the War Present an Opportunity?
26. Collapse
Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Comments on Sources and Literature
Bibliography
Index