Editorial: Truman administration seen forming with altered Cabinet
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Flock motor clogged – hurling, batting off
Cooperless Cards show spirit – send rookie against Gregg
By Harold C. Burr
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A Medal for Benny at the Rivoli Theater stars Dorothy Lamour, Arturo de Cordova
By Jane Corby
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The Pittsburgh Press (May 24, 1945)
Gracie Allen Reporting
By Gracie Allen
Well, as near as I can understand that Supreme Court ruling, one state can say to a couple, “You’re divorced,” and another state can say, “You’re not; you’re still married,” if it wants to.
It seems that according to this ruling, people who get one of those quick Reno divorces may find that they’re divorced when in Nevada and still married when they’re in some other state.
This can lead to a whole new cycle of popular songs. In fact, I’ve composed a few lines as a starter:
Oh, we’re free in Ol’ Nevada but still spliced in Caroline…
We are strangers up in Reno but in Texas you’re still mine.
And think what this situation could do to a man like Tommy Manville! If his divorces become valid only in Nevada, he might have to make that state his permanent home.
Eighth Army HQ (May 24, 1945)
Press Statement
For Immediate Release
May 24, 1945
Reichsfuehrer of the SS Heinrich Himmler, chief of the German police and Reichs-Minister of the Interior, was arrested by troops of the British Second Army at Bremervoerde on May 21 and taken into the field security custody on May 22.
Himmler was traveling under the name of Hizinger and was disguised, with a black patch over the right eye and had shaven off his mustache.
With him were his two adjutants – one a big burly member of the SS.
Himmler and his party arrived under escort and unrecognized at a camp near Second Army headquarters where he asked through his adjutants for an interview with the camp commandant.
When the interview was granted, Himmler announced his identity which was confirmed by the chief officer at the camp and later, beyond any doubt, by counterintelligence officers from Second Army headquarters.
Himmler was immediately confined under armed guards, stripped and medically examined to find any hidden poison. During the final stage of this examination when the medical officer attempted to examine the prisoner’s mouth, he made a quick movement of his head and bit open a small glass vial containing cyanide of potassium which was concealed in his mouth.
He died in fifteen minutes at 11:04 p.m. May 23.
The glass vial had been hidden in Himmler’s mouth for some hours.
The Evening Sun (May 24, 1945)
Himmler commits suicide
Bites concealed vial of poison during examination
PARIS, France – With Heinrich Himmler a suicide, only the whereabouts of Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop among top-ranking Nazis remained a mystery tonight.
BRITISH SECOND ARMY HQ (Reuters) – Heinrich Himmler, most hated man in Europe, committed suicide at 11:04 last night at the headquarters of the British Second Army.
On May 21, a statement tonight disclosed, Himmler traveling under the name of Hizinger, and disguised with a black patch over the right eye and moustache shaved off, was arrested at Bremervoerde by troops of the British Second Army.
With him were his two adjutants.
Tonight, the body of this architect of the horror camps, chief of Hitler’s police and Minister of the Interior, lies in the red-roofed villa which is the army headquarters.
In British Army clothing
Grey-faced, bespectacled, the thin-lipped face is turned to the ceiling. The body is collarless, clothed in a British Army shirt, army slacks and socks.
Beside the body are a bucket and a cup and some splashes of water made while British Army doctors labored for fifteen minutes to save Himmler’s life after he had taken potassium cyanide.
The former head of the Gestapo kept a grim secret to the last. Although in British hands for two days, he was able to secrete an inch-long vial of the poison behind his gums until a medical examination.
The doctor asked him to open his mouth at this examination, looked inside and appeared to be satisfied. To make sure, the doctor brought Himmler nearer to a window and when he put a finger in the mouth to make a clear examination, Himmler made a quick movement with his head and bit quickly on a black spot which proved to be the stopper of the vial.
Dies in fifteen minutes
Himmler collapsed on the floor and died fifteen minutes later.
This was the statement issued here tonight:
Reichsfuehrer of the SS Heinrich Himmler, chief of the German police and Reichs-Minister of the Interior, was arrested by troops of the British Second Army at Bremervoerde on May 21 and taken into the field security custody on May 22.
Himmler was traveling under the name of Hizinger and was disguised, with a black patch over the right eye and had shaven off his mustache.
With him were his two adjutants – one a big burly member of the SS.
Himmler and his party arrived under escort and unrecognized at a camp near Second Army headquarters where he asked through his adjutants for an interview with the camp commandant.
Announces identity
The official statement continued:
When the interview was granted, Himmler announced his identity which was confirmed by the chief officer at the camp and later, beyond any doubt, by counterintelligence officers from Second Army headquarters.
Himmler was immediately confined under armed guards, stripped and medically examined to find any hidden poison. During the final stage of this examination when the medical officer attempted to examine the prisoner’s mouth, he made a quick movement of his head and bit open a small glass vial containing cyanide of potassium which was concealed in his mouth.
He died in fifteen minutes at 11:04 p.m. May 23.
The glass vial had been hidden in Himmler’s mouth for some hours.
Col. Gordushin, Lt. Col. Levlev and Capt. Cutchin, commissioners of Marshal Zhukov, for the control of fulfilment of the terms of the German surrender, saw the body at 6:15 p.m. today, and have been given the relevant photographs and reports, the statement concluded.
Officer tells of arrest
The senior intelligence officer at Gen. Sir Miles Dempsey’s headquarters, who conducted correspondents to the body of Himmler, told the story of how Himmler was taken.
Shortly before 9 o’clock last night, he said, officers from a nearby camp telephoned to say that they had Himmler under arrest.
The intelligence officer hardly believed the report, but he motored at once eight miles down the road and found what was undoubtedly Himmler with two adjutant officers.
Himmler was sitting at a table being questioned by British officers the two adjutants. One of them, a typical roughneck of the SS, sat at his side.
Military policemen who stopped them when they were crossing a bridge at Bremervoerde had no idea that they had collared the most hunted man in Europe.
Himmler’s disguise was most effective, but as he produced suspicious looking papers the British police decided he should be questioned further and passed him over to a field security detachment.
Himmler and the other two men were then taken to a British camp where important personages requiring interrogation are detained.
Still unrecognized, he was again questioned and but by for still further questioning.
Asks for interview
Last evening the trio arrived at a camp near Gen. Dempsey’s headquarters. It was on arrival that Himmler asked for an interview with the camp commander.
Taking off the black patch over his eye, but still wearing his glasses he said, “I am Heinrich Himmler.”
When a senior intelligence officer reached the house where the men were detained Himmler was stripped, although he objected and was offered as clothing a British battledress or alternatively a pair of trousers, a vest and shirt and blankets to cover himself.
Himmler chose the trousers and blankets after some hesitation, was separated from his two adjutants for some time and then taken into the intelligence officers’ car to be driven to Second Army headquarters.
Throughout this time, he was not seen to put anything in his mouth, although on the way a colonel who was sitting with him in the back of biting his nails and rubbing his check.
Gives location to British
After the car had traveled several miles the chief intelligence officer took the wrong turn in a village and turned round to ask the colonel in the back where they were.
Himmler appeared quite at ease and answered, “You are on the road to Lueneburg.”
Himmler was brought to the villa and was again stripped for the fourth time, in order to make quite certain he was not concealing poison on his person.
The medical officer examined his toes, fingers, hair, ears, armpits and every part of the body where poison could possibly be hidden and then asked Himmler to open his mouth.
It was then that Himmler bit the poison vial.
The Gestapo chief was unconscious within a minute and dropped a huddled mass on the floor.
Stomach pumps are useless
Stomach pumps were immediately brought into action and Himmler was held face downward over a bucket but to no avail.
The poison had paralyzed the nerve centers instantaneously and in a quarter of an hour Himmler was dead.
Kärntner Nachrichten (May 25, 1945)
Himmler verübt Selbstmord
Nach der Gefangennahme durch die britische 2. Armee
Heinrich Himmler, der ehemalige deutsche Reichsführer und Chef der Gestapo, der persönlich verantwortlich war für den Tod durch Erschießung, Folterungen, Vergiftungen oder Hunger von Millionen Männern, Frauen und Kindern aus allen Ländern Europas, hat Selbstmord verübt.
Soldaten der englischen 2. Armee hatten ihn auf einer Landstraße gefangengenommen. Er war verkleidet und trug eine schwarze Binde über einem Auge. Die Soldaten brachten ihn in das Hauptquartier. Als er dort untersucht wurde, gelang es ihm, eine kleine Phiole mit Blausäure zu zerbeißen. Trotz allen sofort unternommenen ärztlichen Bemühungen starb Himmler 15 Minuten später.
So entging Himmler der Zukunft, die ihn erwartete. Was wäre sein Schicksal gewesen? Vor einem alliierten Gerichtshof wäre ein Verbrechen nach dem anderen enthüllt worden, die er angeordnet hate und die den Abscheu der gesamten zivilisierten Welt erregt hatten. Auf ihn wartete ein sicherer Tod auf dem Galgen oder vor einem Kommando.
Niemand auf der ganzen Welt wird um Himmler trauern. Er besaß keine Freunde. Er hatte mehr erbitterte Feinde als irgendwer in der Weltgeschichte. Viele Menschen aller Nationen, deren Angehörige, Freunde oder Kameraden auf Himmlers Befehl in unsagbarer Weise starben, mögen versucht sein, zu bedauern, dass er einen so schnellen und leichten Tod gehabt hat. Aber Rachegelüste angesichts eines Leichnams sind gemein und sinnlos. Das Beste für die Menschen ist, Himmler zu vergessen. Und jeder möge seinerseits sein Bestes tun, um in seiner eigenen Seele und in der Gemeinschaft, der er angehört, das Böse zu zerstören, das Heinrich Himmler verkörpert hat.
Churchill bildet eine neue Regierung
Im Juli Neuwahlen in England
Winston Churchill hat König Georg VI. seine Demission als Ministerpräsident, Schatzkanzler und Verteidigungsminister der Koalitionsregierung angeboten. Dem Kabinett gehörten Mitglieder der drei großen englischen politischen Parteien, der Konservativen, der Liberalen und der Arbeiterpartei, an.
Der König hat Churchill beauftragt, eine neue Regierung zu bilden. Das neue Kabinett wird wahrscheinlich in der Hauptsache aus Mitgliedern der Konservativen Partei bestehen, deren Chef Churchill ist. Einzelpersonen, und Gruppen, die Churchills Politik billigen, können jedoch ebenfalls in der neuen Regierung vertreten sein. Die allgemeinen Neuwahlen in Großbritannien werden am 5. Juli stattfinden. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt wird das Parlament aufgelöst werden.
Alle englischen Soldaten, ebenso wie die englischen Frauen, die in der Armee dienen, ganz gleichgültig ob in England oder in Übersee, werden bei den kommenden Wahlen ihre Stimme abgeben. können. Sie werden, gemäß dem demokratischen Brauch, in geheimer Wahl abstimmen. Die Endergebnisse der Neuwahlen werden erst drei Wochen nach dem Wahltag bekanntgegeben werden, um die Auszahlung aller Stimmzettel, die von den Soldaten aus Übersee eingesandt werden, zu ermöglichen.
Die Führer der beiden anderen großen Parteien sind Major Clement Attlee, Stellvertretender Ministerpräsident in der Koalitionsregierung und Chef, der Arbeiterpartei, und Sir Archibald Sinclair, Luftfahrtminister in, der Koalitionsregierung und Chef der Liberalen Partei.
Im Unterhaus ist zurzeit nach den Konservativen die Arbeiterpartei die stärkste Gruppe. Mitglieder der Arbeiterpartei, die der Koalitionsregierung angehörten, waren außer Major Attlee der Innenminister Herbert Morrison, der Arbeitsminister Bevin und der Erste Lord der britischen Admiralität, Alexander.
Das englische Wahlsystem
Fast zweitausend Kandidaten aller Parteien werden sich um die 640 Sitze, die das Unterhaus umfasst, bewerben. Die Wahl unterscheidet sich von der Wahl im demokratischen Österreich vor dem Anschluss. In Österreich, in der Weimarer Republik und in anderen europäischen Staaten wurde nicht für Einzelpersonen, sondern für eine Parteiliste gestimmt. Dagegen wählt in Großbritannien die Bevölkerung jeder Stadt, jedes Kreises oder Bezirkes ihren eigenen Vertreter. Jede politische Partei stellt in dieser besonderen Landeseinheit einen einzigen Kandidaten auf. Man stimmt für eine Person, aber nicht für eine Partei.
Im Vergleich zu dem Wahlsystem im Vor-Nazi-Europa hat das englische System gewisse Vor- und Nachteile. Der Hauptnachteil ist der, dass unter gewissen Umständen eine Partei im Unterhaus zu viel oder zu Wenig Sitze haben kann, im Vergleich zur Zahl ihrer Anhänger im Lande. Wenn beispielsweise eine Partei 51 Prozent der Stimmen in 51 Wahlkreisen empfinge, so würde sie Regierungspartei werden, selbst wenn sie vielleicht in den anderen 49 Wahlkreisen überhaupt keine Stimmen erhalten hätte.
Dagegen hat das englische System den großen Vorteil, kleine Gruppen ohne starke Anhängerschaft im Lande vom Wahlkampf und von der Bildung von Splitterparteien abzuhalten. Diese Splitterparteien waren es, die in vielen europäischen Ländern ständige politische Verwirrung verursachten, häufig zu Intrigen und Korruption führten und zu guter Letzt Nazi-Deutschland ermöglichten, diese Länder zu unterminieren, zu zersetzen und schließlich zu erobern.
OKW und Dönitz-Regierung kriegsgefangen
Selbstmord des Generaladmirals Friedeburg
Aus dem Alliierten Hauptquartier im Westen wird gemeldet:
Alle Mitglieder des OKW und der sogenannten Dönitz-Regierung in Flensburg wurden als Kriegsgefangene in Gewahrsam genommen. Es handelte sich um 300 Offiziere und eine große Anzahl Zivilpersonen. Unter den Verhafteten, die zunächst auf das Kriegsschiff Patria gebracht wurden, befanden sich Großadmiral Dönitz, General Jodl sowie die ehemaligen Reichsminister Schwerin-Krosigk und Speer. Als später alliierte Offiziere Dönitz und die anderen Gefangenen zum Flugplatz begleiteten, von wo der Abtransport erfolgte, benutzte Generaladmiral Friedeberg einen unbewachten Augenblick. um in einem Waschraum Selbstmord durch Vergiften zu verüben.
In ihren Gesprächen mit Vertretern der alliierten Militärbehörden gaben Großadmiral Dönitz und General Jodl zu, sie hätten Himmler geraten, sich der Verhaftung durch die Flucht zu entziehen. Sie erklärten, nicht zu wissen, wo sich Himmler gegenwärtig befindet. Dönitz hat Himmler zuletzt am 6. Mai in Flensburg gesehen, als er ihm riet, schleunigst zu flüchten. Jodl sprach mit ihm am 4. und 5. Mai und gab ihm den Rat, nach Süddeutschland zu gehen. Wenn er in Norddeutschland bleibe und mit der Dönitz-Regierung Beziehung aufrechterhalte, würde er sie kompromittieren.
In diplomatischen Kreisen wird erklärt:
Das deutsche OKW und der Generalstab sind von Rechts wegen seit der Kapitulation als Kriegsgefangene zu betrachten. Sie wurden lediglich dazu verwendet, bei der Auslieferung der deutschen Truppen mitzuhelfen. Es ist möglich, dass Dönitz gehofft hatte, aus dieser Situation Kapital zu schlagen. Er hat seine Verwaltung als Regierung bezeichnet. Diese Hoffnungen waren selbstverständlich illusorisch. Das deutsche OKW ist jetzt endgültig aufgelöst werden.
Neues Österreich (May 25, 1945)
Julius Streicher gefangen
London, 24. Mai – Der berüchtigte Hetzer und Herausgeber der antisemitischen und pornographischen Zeitung Der Stürmer und ehemalige Gauleiter von Franken, Julius Streicher, wurde auf einem Bauernhof in der Nähe von Berchtesgaden gefangengenommen.
Der frühere Statthalter von Bayern, Ritter von Epp, ist ebenfalls in alliierter Hand.
Das Schicksal von einigen wenigen führenden Mitarbeitern Hitlers ist noch unbekannt, und zwar von Himmler, Ribbentrop, Reichsjustizminister Thierack, Reichsarbeitsführer Hierl, Bevollmächtigter für den Arbeitseinsatz Sauckel, Reichsjugendführer Axmann, Stabschef der SA Schepmann, und von Bohle, dem Gauleiter für die Auslandsdeutschen.
Amerikanische Meldung über Hitlers Tod
Neuyork, 24, Mai – Ein im Verband der Alliierten Kontrollkommission befindlicher russischer General berichtete, Hitler sei am 1. Mai nach einer tödlichen Injektion gestorben. Hitlers Leiche sei verbrannt werden.
US-Missionen noch London und Moskau
Neuyork, 24. Mai – Präsident Truman entsendet eine Sondermission nach Großbritannien und der Sowjetunion. Harry Hopkins, der persönliche Berater Präsident Roosevelts, ist bereits nach Moskau abgereist.
Er wird, mit Marschall Stalin Besprechungen haben über die zwischen der russischen Regierung und der Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten zur Diskussion stehenden Probleme. Der ehemalige amerikanische. Botschafter am Kreml, Joseph Davis, wird nach London abreisen, um mit Churchill Besprechungen zu führen.
Aus Washington wird gemeldet, dass diese Besprechungen als vorläufiger Ersatz für ein Zusammentreffen Churchill-Truman-Stalin angesehen werden. Sie sollen unter anderem die Probleme Polen, Osterreich und Jugoslawien einer Lösung näherbringen.
Schwerer Luftangriff auf Tokio
London, 24. Mai – Tokio hatte heute früh seinen bisher schwersten Luftangriff. Mehr als 550 Superfestungen belegten den dicht bebauten Industriebezirk Schingawa mit 4.500 Tonnen Brandbomben. In diesem Stadtteil, in dem sich die größten Werke der japanischen Kriegsindustrie befinden, wüten riesige Brände. Angriffsziel waren auch die Rangierbahnhöfe, von denen aus einem Drittel des gesamten Eisenbahnverkehrs in Japan geleitet wird.
L’Aube (May 25, 1945)
Churchill entend former une équipe capable de garder le pouvoir jusqu’à la fin du Japon
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Himmler s’est suicidé
Heinrich Himmler, ancien chef de la Gestapo et maitre de fait de la politique allemande au moment de l’invasion du Reich par les Alliés, s’est donné la mort.
Arrêté le 21 mai à Bremervoerde, où il se trouvait sous le nom de Hizinger, Himmler a été conduit au Quartier Général de la 2e armée britannique. C’est là qu’il s’est suicidé mercredi à 23 h. 04, en avalant du cyanure de potassium. Il est mort en moins d’un quart d’heure.
Le corps de Himmler a été présenté jeudi à 18 h. 50 aux représentants du maréchal Joukov. Des documents et des photographies relatifs à la mort du Reichsführer des SS leur ont été remis.
Le suicide de l’amiral Friedeburg est confirmé
Le suicide de l’amiral Friedeburg, annoncé mercredi par la radio américaine, est officiellement confirmé. Friedeburg a absorbé du cyanure de potassium peu de temps après son arrestation par les Alliés.
St. Petersburg Times (May 25, 1945)
Hangman Himmler dies by poison to cheat Allies
LONDON, England (UP) – Heinrich Himmler, chief of the Gestapo and symbol of all that was bestial in Nazism, committed suicide by poison Wednesday night in a villa at Lueneburg in northwestern Germany where he had been held secretly since his capture by British troops at Bremervoerde Monday.
Himmler died wearing only his socks. He had been stripped for examination. The examining doctor, looking for concealed poison, put his finger in Himmler’s mouth. Himmler jerked back and bit on a tiny vial of cyanide of potassium he had concealed in his mouth.
British Second Army headquarters announced Himmler’s death and Supreme Allied Headquarters confirmed it.
The death of German war criminal No. 2, second only to Adolf Hitler, left only Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop at large among the top-ranking Nazis, assuming that Hitler and Paul Joseph Goebbels died in Berlin.
Dispatches from Second Army headquarters said Himmler and his two adjutants were captured at Bremervoerde, west of Hamburg and northeast of Bremen, by a British detachment.
Himmler was disguised and was using the name of Hizinger, dispatches said. He was wearing pearl-colored horn-rimmed eyeglasses instead of his usual nose glasses. He had shaved off his little mustache and wore a black patch over one eye.
Apparently, Himmler since his arrest had concealed in his mouth, when others were around, a tiny vial of cyanide of potassium.
Himmler was taken to Lueneburg, southeast of Hamburg, and held at a villa in greatest secrecy, dispatches said.
Wednesday night, it was said, a physician examined Himmler and asked him to open his mouth.
The doctor wanted to be sure Himmler had no poison. He looked into Himmler’s mouth and appeared to be satisfied, dispatches said. But on second thought he asked Himmler to get nearer a light. The doctor put his finger in Himmler’s mouth to make a closer examination. Himmler jerked back his head, bit on the vial, dropped to the floor and died 15 minutes later at 11:04 p.m. despite the doctor’s efforts to save him, it was said.
Yesterday, Himmler’s body lay on the floor of the villa, at British Second Army headquarters in Lueneburg, half covered by a blanket, according to dispatches.
Sgt. Maj. Edward Austin saw Himmler die. He told his story to a BBC correspondent:
Before I arrived, I didn’t know it was Himmler. I was told only that I was to guard an important Quisling. He came into the room – not the arrogant figure we all used to know. He wore an army shirt and a pair of drawers and had a blanket wrapped around him. I recognized him immediately. I pointed to a couch and said in German: “That’s your bed. Get on to it.”
He looked at me and at an interpreter and said: “He doesn’t know who I am.”
“Yes, I do,” I said. “You are Heinrich Himmler. But, still, that’s your bed. Get undressed.”
He tried to stare me down but I stared back and eventually he looked down.
He started to take off his drawers and went to the couch.
A doctor and a colonel came in and started a routine inspection, looking for poison which we suspected he had on him. We looked in his clothes, all over his body, under his arms, in his ears, behind his ears, in his hair. At last we asked him to open his mouth.
He opened his mouth and rolled his tongue around his teeth. The doctor wasn’t satisfied. He asked Himmler to come near the light and open his mouth. The doctor put two fingers in his mouth and had a good look inside. Himmler clamped down his jaws on the doctor’s fingers and crushed a vial he had held in his mouth for hours.
The colonel and I instinctively jumped to him. The doctor hauled him onto the couch and tried to make him spit out the poison, and the colonel and I held him. We worked on him 15 minutes, trying all methods of artificial respiration. He died and we threw a blanket over him.
A senior intelligence officer at the headquarters of Gen. Sir Miles Dempsey, commanding the Second Army, told the story of Himmler’s arrest.
Two British soldiers were guarding a bridge at Bremervoerde. They were engaged in a security check on passing civilians. The soldiers stopped three men in civilian clothing – “Herr Hizinger” and his two thug-like companions, really bodyguards. “Hizinger” produced papers which aroused the suspicion of the soldiers.
The papers identified “Hizinger” as a discharged member of the German Army field security police. There he made a fatal mistake. The guards knew discharge papers were no longer being issued to German troops. But for the papers, Himmler might have escaped.
The three men were put under close arrest. They were passed on to British field security police. At the camp to which they were taken, Himmler remained unrecognized. He was held for interrogation. Through one of his “adjutants,” he asked for an interview with the camp commandant. The commandant consented.
He arrived at the detention place and “Herr Hitzinger,” stepping up to him, announced: “I am Heinrich Himmler.”
The chief counter-intelligence officer was called. He confirmed that the man was Himmler and his decision was checked as correct by counter-intelligence officers from Dempsey’s headquarters.
Himmler was stripped, much against his will, and searched thoroughly – it was thought. No other civilian clothes were available and Himmler was given his choice of remaining stripped, wearing British battledress or wrapping himself in blankets. He chose the blankets. He was separated from his hard-looking “adjutants.”
Himmler was taken in an intelligence officer’s car to Lueneburg, where a house was set aside for him.
Last night, a doctor was called to make another and more thorough examination – the fourth since Himmler’s arrest, dispatches said.
He had lived a little more than four hours after he disclosed his identity, an Allied headquarters dispatch said.
Two Red Army aides of Marshal Georgy K. Zhukov, commanding the First White Russian Army, examined Himmler’s body tonight. They were given photographs of him and a full report of his capture and death.
Himmler was 45, a pasty-faced man of clerkish appearance except for his cruel mouth. He was called Hitler’s hatchet man and Hangman Himmler. Of all the Nazis, he was one of the most cold-blooded and ruthless. It had been reported often that he was a rival of Hitler for power, but the best reports indicated that he was a loyal follower.
Himmler joined the German Army in the last war, in 1917, and was made a lieutenant. After the war, he studied agriculture and political economy. He was a pioneer Nazi and in 1920 he started a little black book, which| he kept up carefully, listing his enemies and those of the Nazis, as well as prominent men all over Europe.
The list grew longer and with the years Himmler accumulated a voluminous file of information on thousands of men and women.
Himmler was an inconspicuous little man, round-faced, with a little mustache and wearing nose glasses which gave him the appearance of a shop clerk. But he was a terrible enemy, cold, cruel, merciless. He and his SS troops and Gestapo operatives led the blood purge of 1934, in which the Nazis murdered hundreds of their own leading men.
Himmler had succeeded in remaining in hiding for 15 days before the British got him. He was last reported at Flensburg, in the Schleswig-Holstein isthmus leading to Denmark, May 6. A high command delegation was leaving to sign the Reims surrender next day. It was over for Himmler. He asked high command leaders what to do. They advised him to fly to the south and try to join the Germans who were expected to continue resistance in the mountains. He disappeared from Flensburg at that time.