In early 1945, Germany's war efforts were on the verge of collapse, and Himmler's relations with the Führer deteriorated. Himmler considered negotiating a peaceful settlement independently. His masseur, Felix Kersten, has emigrated to Sweden, acting as an intermediary in negotiations with Count Falk Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross. Letters were exchanged between the two and a direct meeting was arranged by Walter Schellenberg of RSHA.
Photographed in 1938
Himmler and the Fuehrer last met at the birthday party of the Fuehrer on April 20, 1945, in Berlin, and Himmler swore unwavering allegiance to the Führer. At a military briefing on the day, the Fuehrer was told that despite the progress made by the Soviet Union, he would not leave Berlin.
After the briefing, Himmler and Goering quickly left the city together. On 21 April, Himmler met with Norbert Masul, a Swedish representative to the World Jewish Congress, to discuss the release of Prisoners from Jewish concentration camps. As a result of these negotiations, about 20,000 people were released during Operation White Bus. Himmler falsely claimed at the meeting that the camp's crematorium was built to dispose of the bodies of prisoners who had died of typhus. He also claimed that the survival rates of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen were very high, and even though these places had been liberated, it was clear that his figures were wrong.
On 23 April, Himmler met directly with Bernadotte at the Swedish Consulate in Lübeck. He claimed to be the interim leader of Germany, claiming Hitler would die in the coming days. Himmler, hoping that Britain and the Americans would fight the Soviet Union with the remaining Wehrmacht, asked Bernadotte to inform General Eisenhower that Germany wanted to surrender to the Western Allies, not to the Soviet Union. Bernadotte asked Himmler to present his proposal in writing, and Himmler agreed.
In 1936, Himmler and Rudolf Hess viewed a scale model of the Dachau concentration camp
Meanwhile, Goering sent a telegram a few hours earlier asking the Fuehrer to allow him to assume the leadership of the Empire as the Fuehrer's designated deputy, a move that was interpreted by the Fuehrer at the urging of Martin Baumann as a request to step down or face a coup d'état.
On 27 April, Hermann Fegelein, SS representative at the Fuehrer's headquarters in Berlin, prepared to flee in plain clothes. He was arrested and taken back to the Führer Bunker. On the evening of 28 April, the BBC broadcast a Reuters news report about Himmler's attempts to negotiate with Western allies.
The Fuehrer has long considered Himmler to be second only to Joseph Goebbels; he called Himmler "the loyal der treue Heinrich" (German: der treue Heinrich). Hitler was furious at this apparent betrayal and told those still in the bunker that Himmler's secret negotiations were the worst betrayal he knew.
In 1941, Himmler, Ernst Kartenbrenner, and other SS officials visited the Mauthausen concentration camp
Hitler ordered the arrest of Himmler, who was court-martialed and shot dead. By this time, the Soviets had advanced to Potsdamer Platz, just 300 meters (330 yards) from the Imperial Chancellery, and were preparing to raid the Chancellery. This report, combined with Himmler's betrayal, prompted Hitler to write his will.
In a will completed on 29 April, the day before the Fuehrer's suicide, both Himmler and Goering were declared traitors. He stripped Himmler of all party and state offices and expelled him from the Nazi Party. Hitler appointed Admiral Carl Dönitz as his successor.
Himmler met with Dönitz in Flensburg and offered to be second in command. He insisted that he had the right to serve as SS Imperial Head in Dönitz's Provisional Government, believing that the SS would be in a favorable position to restore and maintain order after the war. Dönitz repeatedly rejected Himmler's offer and began peace talks with the Allies. He wrote a letter on 6 May — two days before the Instrument of German surrender — formally dismissing Himmler from all his duties.
Different versions of the cause of death (1)
During the post-war manhunt, in order to avoid people's eyes, Himmler and his entourage disguised themselves as traffic policemen and slept on the streets, Himmler covered his left eye with a black cloth strip, wore a dark civilian jacket, and used someone else's passport, named Heinrich Hitelziger (who had been executed by Hitler in the 720 incident), who was stopped by a British inspection post on his way to Bremerhaven on May 21, because his identity card was too new to look like it was owned by the fleeing people.
At 2 p.m. on May 23, Himmler and 2 others asked to meet with the officer in charge, and Himmler immediately disassembled his identity and asked to see Marshal Montgomery. While waiting for a reply, a British captain took a British uniform for Himmler to wear, but he refused. The captain then ordered the soldiers to search him and found a bottle of poison in the lining of his jacket, and nothing else.
After bathing and eating, in the evening Colonel Michael Murphy, head of Montgomery's intelligence service, decided to be escorted by intelligence officers to Himmler to the headquarters of the 2nd Army. Upon arriving at headquarters, Murphy asked the captain if he had checked on the poison he had hidden, and asked the doctor to examine his mouth, where a potassium cyanide capsule was found, and after the doctor wanted to confirm it further, Himmler suddenly turned his head and bit the capsule and committed suicide. A day later, after receiving a british report that the Americans and Soviets had come to conduct an autopsy, Himmler was buried on the outskirts of Lüneburg.
Body after suicide by himself by himself by cyanide poisoning, May 1945
Different versions of the cause of death (2)
Himmler, rejected by his former comrades and pursued by the Allies, tried to hide. He wasn't fully prepared for it, but he was carrying a forged payroll with the name of Sergeant Heinrich Heisinger. On 11 May, he headed south to FriedrichSkog with a small group of companions, with no idea of his final destination.
They continued to Neuhaus, where the group parted ways. On 21 May, Himmler and two aides were stopped and detained at the Bremervörde checkpoint set up by soviet prisoners of war. Over the next two days, he was transferred to several camps and taken to the British 31st Civilian Interrogation Camp near Lüneburg on 23 May.
Officials noticed that Himmler's identity card had a seal on it, which British military intelligence had seen fled SS members use. The officer on duty, Captain Thomas Sylvester, began the routine interrogation. Himmler confessed his identity, and Selvist searched the prisoners. Himmler was taken to the headquarters of the British Second Army in Lüneburg, where he was examined by a doctor.
Doctors tried to examine the inside of Himmler's mouth, but the prisoner, unwilling to open his mouth, jerked his head away. Then Himmler took a bite of the hidden potassium cyanide pill and fell to the floor. He died within 15 minutes. Soon after, Himmler's body was buried in an unmarked grave near Lüneburg. The location of the tomb remains unknown.
A firm believer in the occult
Himmler was interested in mysticism and occultism from an early age. He linked this interest to his racist philosophy, looking for evidence of the superiority of ancient Aryan and Norse races. He advocated ancestor worship, especially among SS members, as a way to maintain racial purity and provide immortality for the nation.
In 1939, he saw the SS as the "order" of the Teutonic Knights and had them take over the Teutonic Knights Church in Vienna. He began to reject humanitarianism and challenge the Christian view of marriage. Ananielb's research society, founded by Himmler in 1935, searched the globe for evidence of Germanic racial superiority and ancient origins.
Himmler with wife Margaret and daughter Gudrun
All the royal powers and uniforms of Nazi Germany, especially the SS, used symbolism in their designs. In 1932 the stylized lightning mark of the SS was chosen. The flag is a pair of runes in a set of 18 Armanen runes created by guido von List in 1906.
The ancient Sowilō runes originally symbolized the sun, but were renamed "Sieg" (victory) in Liszt's portraits. Himmler modified various existing customs to emphasize the elitism and central role of the SS; the SS naming ceremony would replace baptism, the marriage ceremony would be changed, a separate SS funeral would be held in addition to the Christian ceremony, and the SS-centered celebrations would establish the summer and winter solstices.
The Totenkopf (Head of Death) symbol, which had been used for hundreds of years by German military units, had been chosen by Schreck for use in the SS. Himmler placed special emphasis on the heads rings of the deceased; they were never sold and returned to him after the master's death. He interpreted the death head symbol as a unity for the cause and a commitment to death.