Himmler: the shameful secrets and humiliating death of Hitler's acolyte

Heinrich Himmler was not always the fearsome Reichsführer of the SS, one of the most responsible for the Holocaust and the architect of the extermination camps. There was a time when he was just a sensitive child whose stomach for eating too heavy a meal was ruining. The criminal lawyer Tania Crasnianski corroborates this in her work «Children of Nazis» , where she also defines him as a weak, short-sighted boy with a weak chin and who, as happened with many other Nazi leaders , had little to do with the Aryan ideal at the beginning of his days. What cannot be denied is that he adored order and chess and that his mother, who pampered him excessively, loved him madly.

During his childhood, Himmler's companions claimed that Himmler could not kill even an insect. Bitter nonsense knowing that he would be the conductor of Adolf Hitler during the Nazi Holocaust. In what they did hit, as the historian Peter Longerich reveals in his work "Heinrich Himmler: A Life" (OUP Oxford, 2011), is that he was obsessed with pleasing his teachers.

That desire led him to want to shine in his studies, so he abandoned sports (the foundation pillar of the future Third Reich) and accepted the task imposed by his father to spy on other students to obtain information about their families. All this caused him to earn a bad reputation that he dragged during his first years of life. In fact, Longerich dares to point out that his peers considered him almost stupid.

The report that his teachers made of him when he was just a child corroborates that, since he was old enough to go to school, his maxim was none other than studying to be well considered among his superiors: “He is a very capable student who works hard. tirelessly, has great ambition and has achieved top results in the class. His behavior is exemplary. Perhaps that idea was what led him to want to enlist in the army shortly before the end of the First World War, back in 1918.

Young Himmler dropped out of school and began his training, but was unable to fight on the front lines due to the end of the conflict. A thorn that would never be removed and that grew thicker when he was forced to work in a manure processing plant. Although that frustrated desire also left him with a great love for the martial world, the uniforms and the order that, years later (during the 1920s), would lead him to join the National Socialist German Workers' Party of Adolf Hitler and, ultimately , to be noble leader of the SS.

Abstinence

Nor was Himmler, at the time, a follower of the later theory promoted by the SS of fathering Aryan children who would become a sort of upper class that would repopulate the USSR. On the contrary, during his youth he defended sexual abstinence and avoided associating with women. The idea came to him after reading a work by Hans Wegener, "Young men like us", in which chastity was exposed as the highest virtue of man and was charged head-on against relationships outside of marriage, masturbation and prostitution . He also used to insist that his future was at stake and that he could not be distracted by a trifle like love.

That idea did not last long in his mind. After meeting Margarete Siegroth Boden, seven years his senior, Himmler gave vent to his interest in the female sex. This was corroborated by Katrin, his great-niece, in "Himmler according to correspondence with his wife": "Himmler's inexperience with women and his initial insecurity towards them soon diminished." After months of endless missives, the two married and had a little girl, Gudrun, in 1929.

Shortly after, and before the impossibility of having more children, they adopted the son of a deceased soldier of the already formed SS. However, they ended up sending him to boarding school because, as his mother wrote in her diary, he was "of a criminal nature", a liar and a thief.

Himmler in Mauthausen

At the end of the 1930s, after the rise of Nazism, little was left of that timid Himmler who advocated abstinence. After studying female sexuality, he became convinced that monogamy was a "work of Satan" invented by the Catholic Church and that it should be abolished. Consistent with his new theories, he separated from his wife informally and maintained a relationship with one of his secretaries, Hedwig Potthast. He had two children with him and, in 1942, he moved to another house with his new family. That destroyed his first wife. “This only happens to men when they become rich and famous. If not, the aging wives must help them feed and support them.

Occult and riches

According to the "United States Holocaust Memorial Museum", the rise of the SS and the faith that Hitler placed in him to orchestrate the Final Solution (the mass murder of Jews) turned him into an eccentric who saw himself as an emperor medieval. He was also carried away by his fascination for the occult arts and supported follies such as an expedition of Nazi scientists to Tibet to find the supposed origins of the Aryan race. All this, without counting his search for archaeological treasures that, he believed, had supernatural powers (some such as the Holy Grail, the Lance of Longinus or the Hammer of Thor).

The occult was his undoing. Obsessed as he was by the ancient Norse legends instilled in him by his father, Himmler acquired Wewelseburg Castle in the Paderborn region in 1934. This building, remodeled at the cost of thirteen million marks, became the spiritual center of Nazism, a kind of Camelot of the swastika.

In his work "Heinrich Himmler", the journalist Willi Frischauer (a witness to what happened in Hitler's Germany) stated that "no two months were the same" in the whole place, that he hired "the best artisans to make fine tapestries" or "Curtains of heavy brocade" and that "the doors were lined with precious stones and metals."

Himmler in Dachau

Himmler quickly got used to a life of luxury. This is clear, for example, in the correspondence he sent with his wife. While the rest of the Germans went through all kinds of deprivation, they enjoyed foie or caviar.

"My dear! Last night when I arrived, Mr. Baumert arrived at the same time with your beautiful roses and coffee, thank you very much. Also Mr. Wolff. Today we had a wonderful time, hopefully "they" [the English drivers] will not visit us again. Little doll got very hard at school. It is also a shame that she does not find a real friend at school. […] We still have a lot of caviar, shouldn't I give it? I don't have any boots of yours to give to the boot collection. Can't we send you something? A thousand hugs and greetings from the bottom of the heart, your M ».

Unworthy ending

After assuring his men that, when the time came, he would take responsibility for the actions perpetrated by the SS, he preferred to betray the Reich and tried to make a pact with the British and Americans behind Hitler's back. He was convinced that, with their help, a kind of transitional government could be created in Germany. But it did not help anything. In the end, the same hierarch who had orchestrated the systematic murder of millions of Jews and confirmed that he would never abandon the "Führer", tried by all means to save his life.

On May 10, 1945, after the Soviet takeover of Berlin, he left Flensburg with his henchmen disguised as a sergeant of the Geheime Feldpolizei (the secret police of the Wehrmacht).

Shortly after, on the 21st of that same month, the Allies captured him on a bridge located between Hamburg and Bremen. Trapped, he was just as cowardly as he had been in life. At first he tried to hide behind his new false identity. When the British discovered that he was the leader of the SS, they sent an intelligence colonel from headquarters to question him. Montgomery's subordinate Michael Murphy decided to humiliate him and put his sins in front of him. All this, after they had explored its cavities. On the 23rd, the officer showed him photographs of the concentration camp prisoners and beat him. Shortly after, and after realizing that there was no way out, Himmler bit into a cyanide capsule and committed suicide.

Perhaps the best way to define Himmler is the words used by Albert Speer, the Reich's minister of armaments: "Half schoolmaster, half nutty." A school teacher, because of his appearance and because, in addition to being methodical, he was extremely organized (two virtues that greatly captivated Hitler). Crazy, for everything else, which was a lot.

Meet the rare luxury Citroën 2CV

We’re not joking!
The idea of a luxury Citroën 2CV seems incongruous, but it’s what we have here.
Not only that, but we’re talking of a model that was only made for a matter of months – making it a sought-after rarity.

Farmyard fashion?
Why, though, did Citroën decide to doll-up the ‘Deuche’ with a sparkle of glamour so at odds with the car’s utilitarian image?
The answer isn’t hard to find.

Chasing the competition
In October 1961, Renault had introduced its R4. In its first full year, sales came within a whisker of those of the 2CV – and in 1963 they would pull ahead.
The notion that Renault sold its small cars – 4CV and Dauphine – to townies and left the rural market to the 2CV was brusquely knocked on its head.
Not only that, but the new Renault had a dual town-and-country appeal thanks not just to its better performance, but also to its availability in more luxurious forms.

Affordable luxury
Citroën had to react, and in March 1963 it came out with the AZAM – an AZ (a 425cc 2CV, in other words) that had been améliorée or ‘improved’.
Mechanically the car was unchanged, meaning that the air-cooled flat-twin still developed 18bhp, and remained mated to a four-speed gearbox with the option of a centrifugal clutch.
But the equipment list was long – and that was the point of the new model.

Sparkle and polish
Outside there were Ami 6 hubcaps, stainless-steel front window frames, bright trim for the windscreen and the rear-door windows, a polished aluminium bonnet strip, stainless looped overriders, half-moon doorhandles, and chromed headlamp rims and wiper arms.
Marvel of marvels, there was even a second brake light for the first time on a 2CV.

Are you sitting comfortably?
Inside, the key changes were better-upholstered Ami-like seating, with a sliding front bench (the car pictured has the optional separate front seats), plus a more styled Quillery steering wheel and a rear parcel ‘trench’.
Other details were black plastic lock handles, an interior light, a passenger sunvisor (with mirror), and a column indicator stalk.

Better to drive, too
In December 1964, the 2CV’s rear-hinged ‘suicide’ front doors gave way to front-hinged items, to conform with French legislation, and in September 1965 the AZAM, in common with other 2CVs, gained the familiar six-light body style with its revised radiator grille.
More significantly, driveshafts with constant-velocity joints became standard on the AZAM, eliminating the snatch when pulling away under lock that previously blighted drivability.
In this form the model lasted until April 1967, when it was replaced by the AZAM Export.

More go to match the show
All the while, the engine remained at 425cc – whereas from January 1965 the Belgian assembly plant savvily offered an AZAM 6 with the 602cc engine of the Ami 6, along with 12V electrics and CV-jointed driveshafts.
The Spanish factory in Vigo would later list a similar model, lasting until 1972. Quite why the French were never offered a 602cc AZAM remains a mystery.

Did it make the difference?
If we’re honest, all this stuff was pretty much smoke and mirrors. A few strips of brightwork didn’t make for a better car.
The standard 2CV ‘hammock’ seats were perfectly comfortable, and the CV-joint driveshafts could be specified on lesser 2CVs.

Ready to move on?
Members of the press were unmoved. Period French road tests of the six-light AZAM didn’t deem the supposed enhancements of the model even worth mentioning.
The 2CV was a car whose time had passed; that was the message. The Citroën was judged crude, poorly finished and above all miserable to drive, due to its lack of performance.
It was time to put it out of its agony.

Sales success
The public thought differently: there was enough loyalty to keep sales stable, with even the odd tick upwards.
But the R4 was powering ahead: in 1967, 321,079 were produced, against 201,679 of the 2CV family, Ami 6 excluded.
The answer was to emerge with the announcement of the Dyane in autumn 1967, ahead of which the AZAM Export was deleted from the price list in August.

A new lease of life
The ‘new 2CV’ was initially just a crisp, fresh suit of clothes over the old mechanicals. But once it was given the option of the 602cc engine, in January 1968, the hatchback Dyane answered many of the criticisms aimed at the 2CV, which it came briefly to outsell by almost two-to-one.
It was only with the availability of the same unit from February 1970 that the 2CV came bouncing back, forming a successful double act with its supposed replacement – which it ended up outlasting.

Ticking the boxes
The 1970-on 2CV6 included some items of AZAM equipment, but above all it had an engine that gave the car the modern-day usability it had previously lacked.
That 602cc powerplant was the real game-changer. An output of 28.5bhp constituted a 58% increase on the AZAM’s 18bhp – no small matter.
In retrospect, the AZAM was low-cost marketing flim-flam that achieved very little.

A 2020 perspective
Today, of course, we look at the model with different eyes, appreciating it for its unique quirks of presentation – especially in the case of the Export, whose owners will proudly point out, for example, the chrome ring on the ex-Ami gearknob.
Good survivors of this five-month wonder are scarce, and rare are those that have original upholstery in presentable order and a full set of undamaged ‘Gala’ wheeltrims.
The AZAM Export of Hervé Chauvin was bought in June 1967 by his grandmother, whose only previous car had been a more basic AZL, and passed to Hervé and brother Francis in 1995.
With just 70,000km on the clock, it has its original hood and seats, which in the front are the optional separate type.

Better than the average
It had a respray in the correct Gris Rosé in 2004, and can be regarded as a fine, untampered-with specimen of the breed. And, yes, it does look smarter than a bread-and-dripping standard 2CV.
Those bits of brightwork give it a lift, the orangey-red upholstery looks plush, and the dashboard less as if it’s been ripped from a passing tractor. There really is a bit of jauntiness to the old girl.
And to drive? Here there are no surprises.
“It’s a bit limited in speed. It’s fine for Sunday pottering but not really suitable for everyday use,” cautions Chauvin as I sink – slump? – into the softly upholstered driving seat and the car gently keels over. Yup, it’s a 2CV all right.

 

You’ve got to roll with it
There’s the usual lolloping ride – even though for 1966 the 2CV had been given telescopic dampers at the rear, while retaining its inertia and friction dampers up front.
Until you’ve got the hang of it, profiting from the centrifugal clutch demands concentration, but it allows you to trickle along or pull away from below 1000rpm without touching the pedal.
Performance is leisurely, to put it kindly. You really do need to keep the engine on the boil – that usual 2CV combat-driving technique.
But the brakes are fine and so is the steering, now there’s no fight through the driveshafts.
I’d still vote for a later 602cc 2CV, but I can see the appeal of a ’60s model that tries – ever so gamely, but not totally convincingly – to be lipstick-smart rather than boots-and-pitchfork rustic.
As for Chauvin, would he ever sell his family AZAM? “No. Absolutely not!”