Heinrich Himmler

Reichsleiter

Himmler

### Friends

Adolf Hitler, Gray Mann, General No-Fun, Gray Gravel.Co, and the Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell

### Enemies

Z-Tech.Ind, Crazy Dave, Dr.Zomboss, Carlos Pardo, Lawrence Dye, United American Resistance, Plants, Zombies, and Splatoon Earth

### Abilities

Leadership
Knowledge of black arts

### Role

Nazi Member

**Heinrich Luitpold Himmler** (born 7th October 1900) is *Reichsführer* of the *Schutzstaffel* (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of the Holocaust. Himmler is also the leader of the SS State of Burgundy, in an attempt to avoid a led SS coup.

As a member of a reserve battalion during World War I, Himmler did not see active service, and did not fight. He studied agriculture in university, and joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and the SS in 1925. In 1929, he was appointed *Reichsführer-SS* by Adolf Hitler. Over the next 16 years, he developed the SS from a 290-man battalion into a million-strong paramilitary group, and set up and controlled the Nazi concentration camps. He was known for 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 (Secret State Police). He controlled the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS. Himmler held an interest in varieties of occultism and *Völkisch* topics, and he employed elements of these beliefs to develop the racial policy of Nazi Germany and incorporated esoteric symbolism and rituals into the SS.

Himmler formed the *Einsatzgruppen* and built extermination camps. As overseer of the Nazi genocidal programs, Himmler directed the killing of some six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Romanis, and other victims. The total number of civilians killed by the regime is estimated at 11 to 14 million people. Most of them were Polish and Soviet citizens.

## History

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was born in Munich on October 7th, 1900 into a conservative middle-class Roman Catholic family. He attended a grammar school in Landshut, where his father was deputy principal. In 1915, he began training with the Landshut Cadet Corps. His father used his connections with the royal family to get Himmler accepted as an officer candidate, and he enlisted with the reserve battalion of the 11th Bavarian Regiment in December 1917. In November 1918, while Himmler was still in training, the war ended with Germany's defeat, denying him the opportunity to become an officer or see combat. After his discharge on December 18th, he returned to Landshut to complete his grammar-school education.

Although many regulations that discriminated against non-Christians—including Jews and other minority groups—had been eliminated during the unification of Germany in 1871, antisemitism continued to thrive in Germany as well as other parts of Europe. Himmler maintained a polite demeanor with him and with other Jewish members of the fraternity, in spite of his growing antisemitism. During his second year at university, Himmler redoubled his attempts to pursue a military career. Although he was not successful, he was able to extend his involvement in the paramilitary scene in Munich. It was at this time that he first met Ernst Röhm, an early member of the Nazi Party and co-founder of the Sturmabteilung ("Storm Battalion"; SA). Himmler admired Röhm because he was a decorated combat soldier, and at his suggestion, Himmler joined his antisemitic nationalist group, the Bund Reichskriegsflagge (Imperial War Flag Society).

In 1922, Himmler became more interested in the "Jewish question", with his diary entries containing an increasing number of antisemitic remarks and recording a number of discussions about Jews with his classmates. His reading lists, as recorded in his diary, were dominated by antisemitic pamphlets, German myths, and occult tracts. After the murder of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau on 24 June, Himmler's political views veered towards the radical right, and he took part in demonstrations against the Treaty of Versailles. Hyperinflation was raging, and his parents could no longer afford to educate all three sons. Disappointed by his failure to make a career in the military and his parents' inability to finance his doctoral studies, he was forced to take a low-paying office job after obtaining his agricultural diploma.

It was in 1923 that Himmler joined the National Socialist German Worker's Party, also known as the Nazi Party. He eventually developed a great deal of personal loyalty and admiration for the party's leader, Adolf Hitler. In 1929, Hitler appointed him commander of the small Schutzstaffel paramilitary organization. Over the next few years, Himmler drastically increased the size of the organization from a few hundred to several thousand. When the Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933, Himmler's SS grew even more powerful, even supplanting their former mother organization, the SA.

As chief of the SS, Himmler became one of the most powerful men in the Reich and one of Hitler's most valuable agents. He was charged with enforcing the party's will on the populace, conducting military/intelligence operations, and overseeing the Nazis' concentration and extermination camps.