Claim: Heinrich Himmler commanded the Schutzstaffel.

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler -LRB- -LSB- ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈluˑɪtˌpɔlt ˈhɪmlɐ -RSB- ; 7 October 1900 -- 23 May 1945 -RRB- was Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel -LRB- Protection Squadron ; SS -RRB- , and a leading member of the Nazi Party -LRB- NSDAP -RRB- of Germany . Nazi leader Adolf Hitler briefly appointed him a military commander and later Commander of the Replacement -LRB- Home -RRB- Army and General Plenipotentiary for the administration of the entire Third Reich -LRB- Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung -RRB- . Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and one of the people most directly responsible for the Holocaust .   As a member of a reserve battalion during World War I , Himmler did not see active service . He studied agronomy in college , and joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and the SS in 1925 . In 1929 , he was appointed Reichsführer-SS by Hitler . Over the next 16 years , he developed the SS from a mere 290-man battalion into a million-strong paramilitary group , and , following Hitler 's orders , set up and controlled the Nazi concentration camps . He was known to have good organisational skills and for selecting highly competent subordinates , such as Reinhard Heydrich in 1931 . From 1943 onwards , he was both Chief of German Police and Minister of the Interior , overseeing all internal and external police and security forces , including the Gestapo -LRB- Secret State Police -RRB- . Himmler had a lifelong interest in occultism , interpreting Germanic neopagan and Völkisch beliefs to promote the racial policy of Nazi Germany , and incorporating esoteric symbolism and rituals into the SS .   On Hitler 's behalf , Himmler formed the Einsatzgruppen and built extermination camps . As facilitator and overseer of the concentration camps , Himmler directed the killing of some six million Jews , between 200,000 and 500,000 Romani people , and other victims ; the total number of civilians killed by the regime is estimated at eleven to fourteen million people . Most of them were Polish and Soviet citizens .   Late in World War II , Hitler charged Himmler with the command of the Army Group Upper Rhine and the Army Group Vistula ; he failed to achieve his assigned objectives and Hitler replaced him in these posts . Realising that the war was lost , he attempted to open peace talks with the western Allies without Hitler 's knowledge shortly before the war ended . Hearing of this , Hitler dismissed him from all his posts in April 1945 and ordered his arrest . Himmler attempted to go into hiding , but was detained and then arrested by British forces once his identity became known . While in British custody , he committed suicide on 23 May 1945 .