(4/5) Timewatch Himmler, Hitler and the End of the Reich

World War II Second World War Videos
By the spring of 1945, Himmler had lost faith in German victory. He came to the realization that if the Nazi regime was to have any chance of survival, it would need to seek peace with Britain and the United States. Toward this end, he contacted Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden at Lübeck, near the Danish border, and began negotiations.
When Hitler discovered this, Himmler was declared a traitor and stripped of all his titles and ranks the day before Hitler committed suicide. Hitler's successor as Chancellor of Germany was Joseph Goebbels. At the time of Himmler's denunciation, he held the positions of Commanding General of the SS, Chief of the German Police, Realm Commissioner of German Nationhood, Realm Minister of the Interior, Supreme Commander of the People's Storm (Volkssturm), and Supreme Commander of the Home Army.
Unfortunately for Himmler, his negotiations with Count Bernadotte failed. Since he could not return to Berlin, he joined Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, who by then was commanding all the German forces within the northern part of the western front, in nearby Plön. Dönitz immediately sent Himmler away, explaining that there was no place for him in the German government.
Himmler next turned to the Americans as a defector, contacting the headquarters of General Dwight Eisenhower and proclaiming he would surrender all of Germany to the Allies if he was spared from prosecution as a Nazi leader. Eisenhower refused to have anything to do with Himmler, who was subsequently declared a major war criminal.
Unwanted by his former colleagues and hunted by the Allies, Himmler wandered for several days near the Danish border, around Flensburg, the capital of the Dönitz government. Attempting to evade arrest, he disguised himself as a sergeant-major of the Secret Military Police, using the name Heinrich Hitzinger, shaving his mustache and donning an eye patch over his left eye, in the hope that he could return to Bavaria. He had equipped himself with a full set of false documents, but someone whose papers were wholly "in order" was so unusual that it aroused the suspicions of a British Army unit in Bremen. He was arrested on May 22, and, in captivity, was soon recognized.
Himmler was scheduled to stand trial with other German leaders as a major war criminal at Nuremberg, but committed suicide in Lüneburg by swallowing a potassium cyanide capsule before interrogation could begin. His last words were "Ich bin Heinrich Himmler!" ("I am Heinrich Himmler!"). Shortly afterward, Himmler's body was secretly buried in an unmarked grave on the Lüneburg Heath. The precise location of Himmler's grave remains unknown.

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Education

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• Heinrich
• Himmler
• Adolf
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• Goebbels
• Grand
• Admiral
• Karl
• Dönitz

[SaveSoaps]

@KodOdessa The topic of Muslim soldiers in the Waffen-SS is greatly exaggerated, there were less than 30,000 of them out of a total fighting force of 1 million men.

[australastar]

@TheRawke Opportunist??? What! You may of left out COLD BLOODED KILLER!!! Power has nothing to do with it! He served himself and no one else.

[KodOdessa]

and promises them heaven if they fight and are killed in action; a very practical and attractive religion for soldiers!"

[KodOdessa]

Himmler stated to Joseph Goebbels that he had "nothing against Islam because it educates the men in this Division for me

[KodOdessa]

Himmler stated to Joseph Goebbels that he had "nothing against Islam because it educates the men in this Division for me and promises them heaven if they fight and are killed in action; a very practical and attractive religion for soldiers.

[HoustonGD]

Hitler was know doubt an intense individual with brutal theories. Level headed, and a cunning strategist, at the beginning, his drug problem or problems began to rule his thinking. The July 20th plot turned him into a lunatic.

[TheRawke]

Himmler's always been more of an opportunist than a fanatical Nazi. He saw the opportuniy to gain enormous power in the Nazi regime so he joined. He did what in his eyes needed to be done to rise in the ranks of the Nazis. When it was obvious that Germany was going to loose the war, he again tried to get out of hthe firing line by undermining Hitler and trying to negotiate with the Allies. He surely was a Nazi, but his priority has always been his personal carreer and survival.

[2bn442RCT]

I having difficulty locating several episodes. Let me know if you find anything out.

[childrenoftheauroras]

Isn't it? I love these series!!!

[Mopar21277]

That propaganda film is sick stuff; the children singing sounds like "Charlie Brown's Christmas" play! It is strange to say, but Himmler is no wheres near as much of a madman as Hitler; he at least had a little sense of reality.