Evening star., 1944-07-30
Sinister Shadow Falls
Across Germun Reich
Himmler's Mild Appearance
Masks Infinite Cruelty
BIZ Joseph H. Baird.

By Joseph II. Baird.
A mild-appearing, bespectacled former
school teacher today is the most sinis-
ter and, next to Adolf Hitler. the most
powerful man in the German Reich.
For many years Heinrich Himmler has
been name to inspire abject terror
in all German-occupied countries as we'll
as in the minds Of all Germans who
were not loyal NaziS. As a result of
the enlarged powers with which Hitler
recently endowed him, no one in the
Reich can feel safe from his gunmen
and concentration camps.
If the reader can imagine a situation
in which j. Edgar Hoover had control
not only of the FBI, but also the Sc
cret Service. all State police, county
sherif1s, local constables and, finally, all
officers and men of the Army within
the territorial United States, he will
gain some rough idea of Himmlers
powers.
Even then the comparison would be
far from complete, not only because of
the total dissimilarity in the character of
the two men but also because of the laws
under which they operate. Herr Hmm
Ter. unlike Mr.. Hoover, serves not only
a government but also--to an infinitely
greater degree Of loyalty-a political
party. AS chief Of the Gestapo, he is
beyond the law. He may order the
arrest of any one, outside the immediate
Hitler clique, and hold him without war
rant or court action. Habeas corpus in
Germany is dead.
The uprising of the German generals
against Hitler brought Himmler to the
peak OF power which has grown con-
slstently year by year since the middle
l920s. There Is now no limit-save that
which Hitler personally may impose
to the authority of the man whose only
guideposts have been utter ruthlessness,
the methodicity of bookkeeper in pill
ing dossier on dossier, and loyalty to
the Fuehrer.
Hlmmler was born on October 6,
1S00-prophetically enough-in Munich.
the lair Of Naziism. In 1917 he Joined
the army and served during the latter
part of the World War.
Born to an obscure family, he had
an elementary education before enter
ing the army, plus a brief term in the
Munich Technical Institute later, taught
school for while and toyed with the
Idea OF raising poultry. Probably he
would have become village schoolmas-
tor ia N Sta of
feared inquisitor had he not happened
to run afoul of Adolf Hitler.
He became an ardent convert to
Naziism and was in the small group
around the future Fuehrer at the time
OF the Munich putsch in 1928 At first,
1t seems, he was merely one OF the
nameless rabble who followed Hitler.
and his first emergence TO prominence
in Nazi party history was as one Of the
leaders in the political section of the
s. A. Brown Shirt troops in Bavaria.
According to rumor however, he early
manifested an uncanny ability to piece
together scraps of evil or embarrassing
information about every one with whom
he came in contact and to file these
tidbits methodically so that they might
be brought out at a propitious moment.
Himmler came into his first real
prominence in 1929 when Hitler made
him chief of the S. S. Elite Guard
tblack Shirts, an organiza ton orig
lnally formed as the Fuehrer's personal
bodyguard on which he could rely
should the S. A. falter in its alle-
glance.
From that time on the history of
Himmler is one Of increasing power and
terror which Europe had not known
since the days OF the Spanish Inoui-
s1tion. Blood-curdling tales of torture
and death in his prisons and concen-
tration camps-a terror practced at
first against Jews and Communists and
later against any one whom the Nazis
considered dangerous - became the
everyday lore of German life.
From 1929 on the tentacles of Hmm
ler's power spread in all directions. In
1884 he became deputy chief of the
PruSSlan police and chief of all other
provincial police. In 1896 he was placed
in complete authority of all police in
the German Reich, finally gaining COM
plete control even over those of Prus-
STA, the last frontier outside his total
domination.
About the same time he organized the
Gestapo-State political poice-in it's
present form. And 1t is upon this lat
ter creation that Himmlers most abso-
lutte power is based. The regular state
police could only enforce the law and
turn those it arrested over to the courts.
The Gestapo has been under no similar
restraint. 1t may take any one under
custody upon the mere allegation that
they are or might become dangerous to
the state, and hold them indefinitely,
A case in point is Pastor Martin Nei-
muller, accused of sedition but ACQUITTED
py German court. AS he was leaving
the courtroom he was taken into Gus
tody by the Gestapo and has been in
concentration camp since.
Little is known of Himmler's personal
life. He Is married and has one child.
He lives comfortably in a well-guarded
villa IN Dahlen, suburb of Berlin. If
he has any interests beyond his blood
hunts and concentration camps. they
are not generally known. His whole ca
reer Is bound up in a fanatical devotion
to Hitler and the terrorizing of all
who might oppose him.
Such is the man into whose clutches
National Socialism has lad ~. c.rn,.r