The Himmler Brothers

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I commend her for moving forward and telling the back story to Himmler that no one other then a relative could possibly tell.

As she grew older, Katrin gave her family history a wide berth, but married to an Israeli whose family was confined to the Warsaw Ghetto and with a young, half-Jewish son, she realizes that she cannot evade the past so easily. Heinrich Himmler's own legitimate daughter does not seem to be ashamed of her heritage - the two illegimate children born to his mistress are wiped from the family tree so it is possible that they never took their father's name. Fischer Verlag and in 2007 in English by Macmillan as The Himmler Brothers: A German Family History.It should be read not only by anyone who is interested in the history of the period but also by everyone who doesn't want to see it repeated. It seems a metaphoric turning of her back on the dark heritage she can never escape from - but she and her partner have agreed that they are determined to make their child understand where he comes from. When Katrin Himmler, Heinrich's great-niece, was fifteen, one of her school mates asked during a history lesson if she was related to the Himmler.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. While a portrait of a specific family, it shows how inculcated cultural beliefs along with the aftermath of WW1 which humiliated German pride and the political turmoil between democracy, communism, and the extreme right, provided fertile soil for the nightmare of the Nazi platform. That she was able to take on the challenge of writing about a relative which most people would never admit to, and to do so in such a candid and objective manner is admirable. It took courage and imagination for Katrin to confront the assumptions and half-truths that had taken root in the family .

Katrin Himmler's cool but meticulous examination of the Himmler story reveals - in all its dark complexity - the gulf between the 'normality' of bourgeois family life and the horrors perpetrated by one member and a more nuanced portrait of Heinrich himself emerges - not a lone evil executioner, but a middle-class family man, loved and fully supported by his respectable German family. It is not the authoritative book on Heinrich Himmler but does lend context and perspective on the man. From these cultural imperatives, the journey to those of the National Socialists was quite logical and frighteningly brief. Despite the opportunity to take her spouse's surname, she chose to keep the name Himmler, rather than deny her heritage. Doug Johnstone wrote in The List: "Katrin's book is admirably level-headed, a meticulous memoir of an extraordinary family, and the author never resorts to histrionics, preferring to let the facts speak for themselves.

I would say this is a must read ,and could be used in schools as part of the curriculum when teaching what intolerance leads to , Fascists whichever colour , pray on ignorance and the ignorant to further their ends ,it should be noted that both the Hitler family and the Himmler family were both Catholic and much of their influences originated from that belief system , it is shown that Heinrich in particular was very pious ,although not necessarily the dominant one in his early life , he very often scolded his brothers for minor insurrections and also had an inferiority complex due to being weak due to illness ,he was also very poor at sport as a result , I think in later life he just wanted to Be Somebody ,and with the ingrained militarism and religious background of the family we all know which path he chose . This book is a remarkable document - it seems quite apparent that the 1939-1945 years of the family tree should have been expunged but Katrin seems to want to explain that history is what happened and this is why these three brothers took the paths they did. Having seen Germany prosper and then disintegrate during the years between the wars, they would have felt Hitler had help make Germany strong again.Her grandfather had joined the Nazi Party in November 1931, well before Heinrich became eminent enough to inspire or bully his brothers into signing on. What was surprising was the intense nationalism and militarism which permeated German culture as well as the intense pride Germans held for their past. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.