Hitler's Master of the Dark Arts: Himmler's Black Knights and the Occult Origins of the SS

Description

Heinrich Himmler was a Nazi’s Nazi—the head of the ruthless SS and the driving force behind the Final Solution. How did Himmler, known for a weak stomach and self-conscious of his poor eyesight and slight physical stature, become one of the most feared men in history? Bill Yenne traces Himmler’s rise through the ranks in the 1920s alongside Adolf Hitler, his appointment as Reichsf?hrer SS in 1930, and his increasing influence and power in the Reich in the 1940s.Although Himmler looked like a henpecked husband from central casting, he saw himself as the reincarnation of Heinrich I, first king of the Germans. He delved deeply into German folklore and mythology, picking up anything that elevated the German peoples above others. His occult beliefs and his increasing power under Hitler led, perhaps inevitably, to the grim reality of the death camps. His dark power came to a fitting end when, captured by Allied soldiers as the Reich collapsed, he followed his hero Hitler in suicide, biting into a cyanide capsule developed by one of the mad Nazi doctors of Dachau.