Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( Munich , October 7, 1900 - Lueneburg , May 23, 1945) was a Nazi officer senior, Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), and one of the main leaders of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) during the Nationalist regime. The Nazi leader Adolf Hitler appointed for a short period military commander of the army of replacements and plenipotentiary general of the administration of all the Third Reich. Himmler was one of the most powerful people in Nazi Germany, and also one of the main perpetrators of the Holocaust and many other Nazi crimes.

A member of a reserve battalion during World War I, Himmler did not go into combat. He studied agronomy at the university, and joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and the SS in 1925. In 1929 he was appointed Reichsführer-SS by Hitler. For the next sixteen years he developed the SS from a small 290-strong battalion to a large paramilitary group of about one million men; Under the orders of Hitler, established and controlled the Nazi concentration camps . He was known for his good organizational skills and for selecting highly trained subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich in 1931. From 1943 onwards, he was Reich Interior Minister and Chief of the German Police, overseeing all internal and external police forces and Security agencies, including the Gestapo (Secret State Police).

In the name of Hitler, Himmler formed the so-called Einsatzgruppen and built the extermination camps . As a concentration camp supervisor, Himmler led the massacre of some six million Jews , 200,000 to 500,000 Roma , as well as several million Soviet, Polish and / or Yugoslav civilians, among other nationalities; The total number of civilians killed by the Nazi regime ranges from 11 to 14 million dead.

Towards the end of World War II, Hitler appointed Himmler commander of the Army Group of the Upper Rhine and, later, of the Group of Vistula Army ; Despite what Hitler expected, Himmler failed in the direction of military operations and the Fuehrer had to replace him. Realizing that the war was lost, shortly before the end of the war he attempted to initiate peace talks with the Western allies without Hitler’s knowledge. When Hitler found out, he dismissed him from all his posts in April 1945 and ordered him to be arrested. Himmler tried to hide, but was arrested and then put under arrest by the British forces once his identity was discovered. While in British custody, he committed suicide on May 23, 1945.

Youth and first years

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was born in Munich on 7 October 1900 into a conservative-Catholic middle-class family. His father was Gebhard Himmler (17 May 1865 - 29 October 1936), a teacher, and his mother was Anna Maria Himmler (born Anna Maria Heyder, January 16, 1866 - September 10, 1941), a devotee Catholic Heinrich had two brothers, Gebhard Ludwig (1898-1982) and Ernst Hermann (1905-1945). ¹

Himmler’s first name, Heinrich, was given in honor of his godfather , Prince Henri of Bavaria , a member of the Bavarian royal family, who had been tutored by Gebhard Himmler. ^{2 3} Heinrich Himmler attended a grammar school in Landshut , where his father was the deputy principal. He had no problems with the studies, so he began to strive in athletics. ⁴ Throughout his life he had health problems, suffering frequent stomach aches and other ailments. In his youth he practiced almost daily with weights and physical exercises to strengthen himself. Later on, other school friends would remember him as a studious person but without many social skills. ⁵

Himmler’s diary, which he kept intermittently from the age of ten, points out that at that time he began to show great interest in matters relating to current affairs, duels, and “serious discussions about religion and sex.” ^{6 7} In 1915 he began his training with the Landshut Cadet Corps. His father used the connections he had with the Bavarian royal family with the aim of getting Himmler accepted as a pupil to the officer school, being assigned to the reserve battalion of the 11th Bavarian Regiment in December 1917. His brother Gebhard , Served on the Western Front and came to enter into combat, receiving the Iron Cross and being promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In November 1918, while Himmler was still in training, the war ended with the defeat of Germany, denying him the opportunity to become an officer or to fight. After being licensed on 18 December, he returned to Landshut. ^{Referring to Fig.}

After the end of the contest, Himmler completed his studies at the grammar school. Between 1919 and 1922, he studied agronomy at the Technische Hochschule in Munich (now Technical University of Munich ) after a brief apprenticeship on a farm and later illness contracted during his farm practices. ^{9 10}

Although numerous regulations discriminating against non-Christians had already been eliminated during the Unification of Germany in 1871, anti- Semitism continued to exist and flourished both in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. ¹¹ Himmler was already a convinced anti-Semite for the time when he attended college, although it was not an exceptional case; The students at his school used to avoid dealing with Jewish classmates. ¹² While a student, Himmler remained a Catholic devotee and spent most of his leisure time with members of his fencing fraternity, the “League of Apollo,” whose president was Jewish. Despite his growing anti-Semitism, Himmler maintained a kindly attitude towards both the president and other Jewish members of the fraternity. ^{13 14} During his sophomore year, Himmler redoubled their attempts to start a military career. Although he was not successful, he was able to increase his participation in the paramilitary environment of Munich. It was around this time that he met Ernst Röhm , one of the first members of the Nazi Party and co-founder of the Sturmabteilung (SA) or “Assault Battalion “. ^{15 16} Himmler felt admiration for Röhm as he was a decorated soldier, and after being invited, Himmler joined a nationalist and anti-Semitic right-wing group, the Bund Reichskriegsflagge (German Imperial Flag Society). ¹⁷

In 1922, Himmler already began to show interest in the ” Jewish question “. In his diary there are already entries containing a growing number of anti-Semitic observations and annotations, as well as a series of discussions with his classmates about the Jews. His reading lists, as recorded in his diary, were dominated by anti-Semitic pamphlets, German myths, and occult plots. ¹⁸ Following the assassination of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau on June 24, Himmler’s political views turned to the extreme right, and he began to participate in demonstrations contrary to the Treaty of Versailles . During that summer hyperinflation continued to increase, and his parents could not continue to afford the education of their children, including Himmler. Disappointed by his failure to make a career in the Army and the inability of his parents to finance his doctoral studies, he was forced to accept a poorly paid job after obtaining a diploma in agricultural engineering. He held this position until September 1923. ^{19 20}

Nazi activist

Himmler joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in August 1923; His party number was 14 303. ^{21 22} As a member of the paramilitary unit of Ernst Röhm , Himmler was involved in the Putsch of the Brewery - an attempted Hitler coup and the NSDAP to seize power in Munich. This event meant for Himmler an important change of course in his life. A posteriori would be questioned by the police on his participation in the Putsch, but no charges were filed against him for lack of evidence. However, he ended up losing his job, being unable to find a new job as an agronomist, and had to move to the family home in Munich. Frustrated by these failures, he became increasingly irritable, aggressive and obstinate, moving away from both his friends and family. ^{23 24}

In 1923-24, while seeking a new worldview, Himmler eventually abandoned Catholicism and focused more on occultism and anti-Semitism. The Germanic mythology , reinforced by occult ideas, ended in a religion for him. Himmler found attractive to the Nazi Party because his political positions were close to his own points of view. Initially, he was not attracted by the charisma of Hitler or by the cult of worship to the Fuehrer. However, as was knowing more and more about Hitler from his writings, he began to regard it as a useful symbol of the party, ^{25 26} and then admired to the point of idolizing. ²⁷ To consolidate and improve in his own position in the NSDAP, Himmler took advantage of the disorder existing in the party after Hitler’s arrest by the Putsch. ²⁷ From mid-1924 he worked under Gregor Strasser as party secretary and propaganda assistant. He traveled all over Bavaria campaigning for the party, giving speeches and distributing writings on National Socialism. Strasser put him in charge of the party’s office in Lower Bavaria in late 1924; He was also responsible for the integration of new members in the area when the party NSDAP was refounded in February 1925. ^{28 29}

That same year he joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) as SS-Führer (SS Leader); Their affiliation number was 168. ²² The SS, which were initially part of the much larger SA, were created in 1923 for the personal protection of Hitler, and were reformed in 1925 as an elite unit of the SA. ³⁰ Himmler’s first leadership post in the SS was that of SS- Gauführer (district leader) in Lower Bavaria, a position he held since 1926. In January 1927, Strasser appointed Himmler as deputy head of Nazi propaganda. As was typical of the NSDAP, in this position he had considerable freedom of action, which also increased with the passage of time. It began drafting statistics on the number of Jews, Freemasons and enemies of the party, and because of their strong need for control, developed an elaborate bureaucracy. ^{31 32} In September 1927, Hitler Himmler told his idea to transform the SS into a powerful, loyal and racially pure elite unit. Convinced that Himmler was the right man for the post, Hitler appointed him deputy to the Reichsführer-SS , with the rank of SS-Oberführer . ³³

By this time Himmler joined the League Artaman , a youth group of type Völkisch . There he met Rudolf Höss , who would later be the commander of the Auschwitz extermination camp , and Walther Darré , whose book The peasantry as the Source of life of the Nordic race , caught the attention of Hitler and would later lead to his appointment as Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture. Darré was a firm believer in the superiority of the Norse race, and his philosophy had a great influence on Himmler. ^{34 30}

Ascension in the SS

In January 1929, after the resignation of SS chief Erhard Heiden , Himmler assumed the position of Reichsführer-SS with the approval of Hitler; ^{33 35 n. 2} Despite the new position he assumed, Himmler still continued to perform the functions of propaganda in the Nazi Party headquarters. In that sense, one of his first responsibilities was to organize the members of the SS that would participate in the Congress of Nuremberg that was going to be celebrated in September of that year. ³⁷ The following year, Himmler had already increased the SS from a small force of 290 men to about 3000. By 1930 Himmler had persuaded Hitler to authorize the SS constituted a separate, although officially still was subordinated to the SA organization. ^{38 39}

The NSDAP began to skyrocket during the Great Depression . The coalition government of the Weimar Republic was unable to achieve economic improvements, so many voters began to vote for extreme options, including the NSDAP. ⁴⁰ Hitler used a populist rhetoric , including looking for Turkish heads, particularly the Jews, whom to blame for the economic difficulties. ⁴¹ In the June 1932 elections the Nazis obtained 37.3% of the votes and 230 seats in the Reichstag . ⁴² Finally, on January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg , going to direct a short coalition government between the Nazis and the National German People ‘s Party . The new cabinet initially had only three members of the Nazi Party: Hitler, Hermann Göring as Minister without portfolio and Minister of Interior of Prussia , and Wilhelm Frick as Reichsminister of Interior . ^{43 44} Less than a month later, the Reichstag came out burning . Hitler took advantage of this event, forcing von Hindenburg to sign the so-called Reichstag fire decree , which suspended basic rights and allowed for detention without trial or any judicial process. ^{Four. Five}

The Enabling Law , passed by the Reichstag in 1933, gave the Cabinet - and in particular Hitler - full legislative powers, so that from that moment the country became de facto a dictatorship. ⁴⁶ On August 1, 1934, Hitler’s cabinet passed a law stipulating that after the death of von Hindenburg, the post of president would be abolished and its powers would merge with the chancellor. Von Hindenburg passed away the next day, and Hitler became at once head of state and head government under the title of Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor). ⁴⁷

The rise to power of the Nazi Party allowed Himmler and the SS an inestimable opportunity to grow. By 1933, the SS already had 52,000 members. ⁴⁸ The strict membership requirements pursuing all applicants were of Aryan race . The candidates were examined for their Nordic qualities. ^{49 There} were few who dared to point out that, according to the SS norms themselves, Himmler was the first one who did not fulfill his own ideals. ^fifty

Himmler’s organization and intellect were useful to him when he began to establish different departments of the SS. In 1931 he appointed Reinhard Heydrich as head of the new Ic Service (intelligence service), which in 1932 was renamed Sicherheitsdienst (SD) or “Security Service”. Subsequently, and officially, Himmler named Heydrich as his deputy. ⁵¹ Both Himmler and Heydrich maintained a good working relationship and mutual respect. ⁵² In 1933, they began to eliminate the control that SA had over SS. With the collaboration of Interior Minister Frick, they hoped to create a unified police force for the whole of Germany. In March 1933, the Reich governor for Bavaria Franz Ritter von Epp appointed Himmler as head of the Munich police. Himmler, in turn, appointed Heydrich commander of Department IV, the political police. ⁵³ That same year, Hitler promoted Himmler to the rank of SS- Obergruppenführer , which ranked in rank to the high command of the SA. ⁵⁴ From that point on , Himmler and Heydrich were taking control of the political police of other states, one after another; The only one they did not control was Prussia, where Göring had control of the security agencies. ⁵⁵

Himmler later established the Central Bureau of Race and Settlement ( Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt or RuSHA), a racist and anti-Semitic organization. He named Darré as his first boss, with the rank of SS-Gruppenführer . The department implemented several racial policies and monitored the “racial integrity” of SS members. ⁵⁶ The members of the SS were carefully examined for their racial origin. On December 31, 1931, Himmler introduced the so-called “Order of Marriage,” which required that SS men who wished to marry had to write genealogical trees demonstrating that both families were Aryan in origin since 1800. ⁵⁷ If during the Racial research was found to be non-Aryan ancestors, whether inside or outside the family tree, the person in question was automatically excluded from the SS. ⁵⁸ Each man had to write a Sippenbuch , a genealogical record detailing his genetic history. ⁵⁹ Himmler hoped that every SS marriage would have produced at least four children, thus creating a community of future genetically superior SS members. However, the program had disappointing results; Less than 40% of SS members had married and had at least one child. ⁶⁰

In March 1933, less than three months after the Nazis seized power, Himmler created the first official concentration camp at Dachau . ⁶¹ Hitler had already stated that he did not want this to be another prison, or another detention camp. In June of that year Himmler named Theodor Eicke , a convicted and ardent Nazi delinquent, to lead the camp. ⁶² Eicke devised a system that would be used as a model for future fields throughout Germany. ⁶³ Among its main characteristics, it highlights the isolation of the outside world to which victims were subjected, lists of prisoners and events, use of force and executions to force obedience, and a strict code of discipline for guards. The guards of the camps wore uniforms, and had a special badge, the Totenkopf or “skull.” At the end of 1934, Himmler took control of all the fields under administration of the SS and created a separated division for its management , the SS-Totenkopfverbände . ^{64 65}

Initially the camps welcomed political opponents; Over time, all those who were considered by the Nazis as undesirable members of German society - criminals, vagabonds, homosexuals - were also sent to the camps. A decree of Hitler of December 1937 allowed the imprisonment of any person whom the regime considered to be an undesirable member of society. This included Communists, Jews, Gypsies, and those people of cultural, racial, political or religious affiliation who were considered by the Nazis as Untermensch ( subhumans ). Hence, the camps became a mechanism for social and racial engineering. At the beginning of World War II, in the fall of 1939 there were six concentration camps in which 27,000 were held. Mortality rates were very high. ⁶⁶

Power consolidation

At the beginning of 1934, Hitler and other Nazi leaders began to be worried about the possibility that Röhm was planning a coup d’etat. ⁶⁷ Röhm had populist and other socialist views, and he believed that the real revolution had not yet begun. It ended up realizing that the SA - whose members now surpassed the three millions of troops, very far from the small German army then - could become the new Army, absorbing the SA to the old armed forces, under its leadership. Röhm pressed Hitler to appoint him Defense Minister, a position held by conservative General Werner von Blomberg . ⁶⁸

Meanwhile, Himmler continued to increase his power. Göring had created in Prussia a secret police force , the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo , and had named to Rudolf Diels like its director. However Göring, Diels was concerned that not being effective enough to use all the effectiveness of the Gestapo and reduce the power of the SA, ended up ceding control of it to Himmler on 20 April 1934. ⁶⁹ Also that same Day Hitler named Himmler chief of all German police forces, with the sole exception of Prussia, which remained uncontrolled. This was a radical change from the longstanding tradition that the police in Germany was a local and / or federal issue. Heydrich, who was appointed by Himmler’s new chief of the Gestapo on April 22, 1934, continued as head of the SD. ⁷⁰

Hitler decided on June 21 that Röhm and the other leaders of the SA should be eliminated. On 29 June he sent Göring to Berlin to meet Himmler and Heydrich, and to plan the action. Hitler took charge of the situation in Munich, where Röhm was arrested; Gave Röhm the option of committing suicide or execution. As Röhm refused to commit suicide, he was killed by two SS officers. From 85 to 200 members of the SA leadership and other political opponents of the Nazis, such as Gregor Strasser, were murdered between June 30 and July 2, 1934 during these events, later known in historiography as the Night of The long knives . ^{71 72} With the now neutralized SA, the SS became an independent organization that since July 20, 1934 answered only to Hitler. The title of Himmler, Reichsführer-SS , formally became the highest rank of the SS, equivalent to the Field Marshal of the Army. ⁷³ The SA continued to exist, but in contrast to the past, they were no more than a mere sports and training organization. ⁷⁴

On September 15, 1935, Hitler introduced two new laws - known as the Nuremberg Laws - to the Reichstag. The laws prohibited marriage between non-Jews and Jews, and also prohibited the employment of non-Jewish women under 45 years of age in Jewish homes. In addition, the laws deprived the so-called “non-Aryans” of the benefits of German citizenship. ⁷⁵

Himmler and Heydrich wanted to continue to extend the power of the SS; Therefore, urged Hitler to create a national police force supervised by the SS, to protect Nazi Germany from its many real and / or imaginary enemies. ⁷⁶ Interior Minister Frick also wanted to have a national police force, but one controlled by him, with Kurt Daluege as chief of police. ⁷⁷ Hitler left the matter to Himmler and Heydrich to arrange the details with Frick. Himmler and Heydrich had greater bargaining power, since they were allied with Frick’s old enemy, Göring. Heydrich drew up a series of proposals and Himmler sent him to join Frick. An angry Frick then consulted with Hitler, who agreed with the proposals. Finally, Frick had to compromise, and on June 17, 1936 Hitler decreed the unification of all police forces in the Reich, and appointed Himmler chief of the German Police (under the official title of Reichsführer SS und Chef der Deutschen Polizei ). ⁷⁷ In this role, Himmler was nominally subordinate to Frick still and the Ministry of Interior of the Reich. In practice, however, the police had fallen into the area of ​​influence of the SS, and was not under the control of Frick. This movement gave Himmler operational control over the entire force of German police commissioners and investigators. ^{78 79} This also allowed him to have authority over the uniformed police forces, which in June 1936 were grouped in the new Ordnungspolizei (OrPo) under the leadership of Daluege. ⁷⁷

In addition to these changes, Himmler created the Kriminalpolizei (KriPo) as a police organization that grouped together all the criminal investigation agencies that existed in Germany. Subsequently, the Kripo would be unified with the Gestapo in the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo), under the control of Heydrich. ⁸⁰ In September 1939, shortly after the beginning of World War II, Himmler formed the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA, or “Reich Main Security Office”). The new agency was in charge of coordinating all the police and security forces of the German Reich, so that the RSAP integrated SiPo (which at that time included the Gestapo and Kripo) and SD. As he had done on previous occasions, Himmler put Heydrich at the head of the new organism. ⁸¹

Under Himmler’s leadership, the SS developed their own military branch, the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), which later evolved into the Waffen-SS . Nominally under the exclusive authority of Himmler, the Waffen-SS developed a fully militarized command and operations structure. Created initially on the basis of three regiments, during World War II it grew to reach 38 divisions, serving next to Heer (Army), but never being part of it. ⁸²

In addition to his military ambitions, Himmler established the beginnings of a parallel economy under the umbrella of the SS structure. ⁸³ For this purpose, the administrator Oswald Pohl established the Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe (German Economic Enterprises) in 1940. Under the auspices of the SS Central Office of Economy and Administration, this holding owned housing cooperatives, factories, and publishing houses. ⁸⁴ Pohl proved to be unscrupulous and quickly exploited the companies in order to obtain personal benefits. On the contrary, Himmler was more honest in matters of money and business. ⁸⁵

In 1938, as part of the preparations for the war, Hitler ended the German Alliance with China, and entered into an alliance with the most modern and aggressive Japan. That same year, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany during the so-called Anschluss , and a few months later, the Munich accords gave Germany control over Sudetenland , which was part of Czechoslovakia . ⁸⁶ The main reasons for Hitler to go to war included more Lebensraum ( “living space”) for the Germanic peoples, who were considered racially superior by Nazi ideology . ⁸⁷ A second objective was the elimination of those who were considered racially inferior, especially Jews and Slavs, the territories of the Reich . Between 1933 and 1938, hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrated to the United States, Palestine, Great Britain, etc. Some converted to Christianity. ⁸⁸

On 31 August, Himmler signed an agreement with the Minister of Public Order of Francoist Spain , Severiano Martínez Anido , which established the mutual extradition of “political offenders” who were detained in both countries. ^{89 90} The agreement also allowed the installation of a network of Sicherheitsdienst agents under the supervision of the head of the Gestapo in Spain, Paul Winzer .

Anti-Church campaign

Himmler regarded as one of the main objectives of the SS to act as a vanguard in overcoming Christianity and restoring the ‘Germanic’ lifestyle as part of the preparations for the conflict between ‘human and subhuman’. ⁹¹ biographer Himmler Peter Longerich notes that while the Nazi movement in general was launched against the communists and Jews, Himmler, “by linking dechristianization with the re - Germanisation, provided the SS a goal and a purpose for All yours “. ⁹¹ Himmler was vehemently opposed to the Christian sexual morality and the “principle of Christian piety , ” two principles he saw as a dangerous obstacle to their plans to fight the “subhuman”. ⁹¹ In 1937, Himmler declared:

We live in the time of the last conflict with Christianity. It is part of the duty of the SS to give the German people during the next half century the non-Christian ideological bases on which to direct and shape their lives. This task does not consist only in overcoming an ideological opponent, but a process that must be accompanied at every step by a positive impulse: in this case it means the reconstruction of the German inheritance in the broadest and most complete sense. ⁹²

World War II

When Hitler and his generals sought a pretext to carry out the invasion of Poland in 1939, Himmler, Heydrich, and Heinrich Müller developed and carried out a false flag operation that was called Operation Himmler . German soldiers dressed in Polish uniforms carried out various border skirmishes that deceptively suggested a Polish aggression against Germany. The incidents were used by Nazi Propaganda to justify the invasion of Poland, which marked the beginning of World War II . ⁹³ At the beginning of the war with Poland, Hitler authorized the murder of Polish civilians, which included both Jews and ethnic Poles. The Einsatzgruppen (special units of the SS) had been formed originally by Heydrich to secure the documentation and the government offices in the territories that Germany conquered before the Second World War. ⁹⁴ With the authorization of Hitler, and under the direction of Himmler and Heydrich, the Einsatzgruppen -now reoriented as death squads followed the Heer (Army) in its advance through Poland, and by the end of 1939 had already killed about 65,000 Jews, intellectuals, and other Polish civil groups. The militias and Heer units also took part in these murders. ^{95 96} Under orders from Himmler through the RSHA, these squads were also responsible for bringing Jews and other victims for shipment to ghettos or concentration camps.

Subsequently, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway , the Netherlands , and France , and began bombing Britain in preparation for a future invasion. ⁹⁷ On June 21, 1941, one day before the invasion of the Soviet Union , Himmler instructed his collaborators preparation called Generalplan Ost (General Plan East); The plan was finalized in July 1942 and envisaged that the Baltic States, Poland, Western Ukraine and Belarus would be conquered and repopulated by ten million German citizens. The native inhabitants of these areas - about 31 million people - would be expelled to the East, killed by famine, or employed as forced labor. The plan would have extended the border of Germany a thousand miles to the east, deep inside Soviet territory. Himmler estimated that it would take 20 or 30 years to complete this plan, at a cost of 67 billion Reichsmark . ⁹⁸ In this regard, Himmler openly declared: “It is a question of existence, so it will be a racial struggle relentless severity in the course of which between 20 and 30 million Slavs and Jews perish through military action and Consequent crisis in the food supply “. ⁹⁹

Himmler later declared that the war against the Soviet Union was a pan-European crusade that sought to defend the traditional values ​​of the old Europe against the ” atheist Bolshevik hordes “; This statement attracted many volunteers from all over Europe who enlisted in the Waffen-SS. ¹⁰⁰ Initially they selected recruits from northern and western Europe - Scandinavia, Luxembourg, Flanders, the Netherlands and Switzerland - whom Himmler regarded as inhabitants of “nations with a related existence.” The Spain Franco and fascist Italy , both close to Nazi Germany states, also provided men for units of the Waffen-SS. ¹⁰¹ Among Western countries the number of volunteers could vary greatly, from 25,000 from the Netherlands to 300 from Sweden and Switzerland. In Eastern Europe the largest number of volunteers came from Lithuania (50,000) while Bulgaria was the one that provided the least volunteers (600). ¹⁰² After 1943 many of the troops of the Waffen-SS from Eastern Europe were actually recruits. The performance of the eastern units of the Waffen-SS was, as a whole, below the standard. ¹⁰³

In late 1941, Hitler appointed Heydrich as the deputy protector of the Reich for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . Heydrich began to classify racially the Czechs, deporting many of them to the concentration camps; Many members of the increasingly strong Czechoslovak resistance were killed by the Germans. All this led to Heydrich earning the nickname “The Butcher of Prague”. ¹⁰⁴ This appointment strengthened the collaboration between Himmler and Heydrich, Himmler and the SS was proud to have authority over all the German state. Despite having direct access to Hitler, Heydrich’s loyalty to Himmler remained firm. ¹⁰⁵ With the approval of Hitler, Himmler reestablished the Einsatzgruppen in the pre-planned invasion of the Soviet Union period. In March 1941, Hitler addressed his Army leaders, detailing his intention to break the Soviet empire and in turn to destroy the intelligentsia and Bolshevik leaders. ¹⁰⁶ His special directive no. 21, better known as Operation Barbarossa , read: “In the area of ​​operations of the Army, the SS Reichsführer has been given special tasks on the Fiihrer’s orders, in order to prepare the In the framework of these tasks, the Reichsführer-SS acts independently and under its own responsibility. ” ¹⁰⁷ Unlike previous occasions, this time Hitler did this to avoid internal frictions such as had already occurred in Poland in 1939, when some generals of the German Army protested and attempted to try the Einsatzgruppen leaders for the mass murders they carried out . ¹⁰⁷

Following the Army’s advance in the Soviet Union, the Einsatzgruppen detained and murdered thousands of communists, Jews and all those who were considered undesirable by the Nazi state. ¹⁰⁸ Hitler received numerous reports of these actions. About 2.8 million Soviet prisoners of war died of hunger, ill-treatment or murder during the eight months following the German invasion, until early 1942. ¹⁰⁹ About 500,000 Soviet prisoners of war died in concentration camps for the remainder Of the contest; Most of them died shot or executed in gas chambers. By the spring of 1941, following the Himmler orders, ten concentration camps were built in which the inmates were destined to perform forced labor. ¹¹⁰ Jews from Germany and the occupied territories were deported to the ghettos, or locked up in concentration camps. In December 1941 the Germans were rejected in Moscow , which meant that the invasion of the Soviet Union had failed; Hitler and other Nazi leaders realized that the planned mass deportations to the east would no longer be possible. As a result, instead of being deported, many European Jews were destined to be killed. ¹¹¹