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.