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WARTIME DIARIES KEPT by top Nazi henchman Heinrich Himmler, serialised this week in Germany’s daily Bild, offer chilling insights into the life of one of the principal architects of the Holocaust.
Himmler, the head of the Nazi paramilitary SS, kept tabs on even the banal minutiae of his daily comings and goings, even as he oversaw the systematic slaughter of six million European Jews.
The journals, unearthed in Russia in 2013 and currently being studied at the German Historical Institute in Moscow, reveal a confidant of Adolf Hitler as a micromanager marked by deep contradictions.
They also “help to better make sense of key events and understand who took part in decision making for the regime,” researcher Matthias Uhl of the German Historical Institute told AFP.
Now we can say exactly whom Himmler met each day, where he was, and who his closest advisers were.
The documents, found in the archives of the Russia defence ministry, cover the years 1938, 1943 and 1944. The German institute plans to published an annotated version by 2018.
The journals for 1941 and 1942 were already discovered in 1991 in Russia, which holds 2.5 million documents from the Wehrmacht, the Nazi-era German military.
The image that emerges is of a caring family man who nevertheless kept mistresses and had secret children as part of one illicit love affair.
Himmler is shown to be a passionate stargazer and avid card player even as he ordered massacres and oversaw the death camps.
“The man who planned the Holocaust was obsessive about organising his personal life,” Bild said.
Between (poison) gas, execution orders and thousands of rendezvous, he took care of his family, his mistress and his hobbies.
On 3 January, 1943, for example, Himmler received one of many “therapeutic massages” from his doctor, took part in meetings, called his wife and daughter and then ordered, after midnight, the killing of several Polish families.
According to Bild, Himmler was an ambitious careerist who met with more than 1,600 people between 1943 and his suicide in British custody in May 1945.
“The number of contacts, as well as attempts by Himmler to gain influence through the SS on important institutions of the party, state and army, are impressive,” Uhl said.
He tried, during the course of the war, to consolidate his power.
Himmler’s secretaries, one of whom, Hedwig Potthast, bore him two children, noted down regular inspection tours to the concentration camps including Sachsenhausen, with Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, on 10 March, 1938, and the Sobibor extermination camp on 12 February, 1943.
“Himmler wanted to have a demonstration of the ‘effectiveness’ of killing by gas,” Bild said.
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Maybe I missed it but where is the cost calculations and the length of payback on “Gary’s” investment??
@P.J. Nolan:
When the extra property tax is paid, probably never.
Some costings would be very informative
Yeah how much did Gary pay for all this great work can Joe soap worker afford to get it done
Right now 1/1000 or so is getting their house retrofitted at a quite astronomical coat. And good for them. But what if the majority in the future, by 2030 ideally; is everyone with a private house suddenly going to find ‘the money’ to retrofit?
And what I’d they can’t? What will be the ramifications? Pay more prop-tax, a slap on tbe wrist tax, sell up at a lower price and forced into the slavery of rent? Like trying to afford rent when you retire, what are the ramifications of NOT retrofitting, exactly? Please don’t inform me of grants – the home owner must pay the lion’s share.
Its like an ad from the government and Garys an actor, people cant afford to pay their mortgages and they peddling this rubbish , Ireland has little effect on the global climate crisis and yet they expect ye to fork out 50 grand to do up your house , just plant some lettuce on your windows be grand
Home energy upgrades are a complete racket that just line the pockets of contractors. We recently bought a house a few km outside the nearest town in Co. Wicklow. The house was circa 35 years old with single glazing, little roof insulation and an oil boiler. We got the windows and doors replaced (€28K) for security and comfort and insulated the attic (€6.5K) again for comfort and to hopefully reduce the heating bills. We looked at replacing the oil boiler but a heat source pump will cost circa €10K and for it to be any use, we need to insulate the walls. Internal is not a option due to the amount of time we’d be out of the house and the fact that a lot of the rooms are small so we can’t afford to lose 100mm of space. External costs between €40K & €50K. Estimates are that this would reduce our heaing bills by 1/3. Considering these are €3K p.a., that equates to a saving of €1K p.a. which means a 50-60yr payback. I’ll be long gone before that.
Well known who sponsored this article
Gary should tell us how much
Liam Byrne.
Anyone who has the ability to spend tens of thousands on major retrofit suggested in the article is worried about €50 or €100 more on property tax.
@P.J. Nolan:
Exactly.
Joke
Sponsored by SEAI .. cost cost cost going from D2 to A1 .. the one thing everyone wants to know how much Gary paid not included …I wonder why ???
I thought you can only avail of SEAI grant once if you’re considering doing it bit by bit?
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