DOC The European Reformation by Euan Cameron in History

Description

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.