Katrin Himmler was asked at 15 by a fellow student at her Berlin school during history class if she was any relation to Heinrich Himmler, a key Holocaust architect and Hitler’s SS head. When she told them that she was his great-niece the entire class became silent and the teacher continued with the lesson as if nothing happened.
Ms. Himmler told those at Edinburgh International Book Festival that it was embarrassed to be asked that in front of her class. She said that at the same time it was also a lost chance because the teacher didn’t take the time to discuss the topic with them. She said she believed her teacher did want to protect her, but asking her about it and starting a discuss would have been fine.
At age 40, Ms. Himmler who had become a political scientist, would also those questions herself not only about her uncle and his terrible crimes but about the rest of her family as well. During the research process for her book, which she called The Himmler Brothers: A German Family History, she learned that Heinrich Himmler was far from being the family outcast, but instead was well-respected. This was the man that referred to the Jewish extermination as a “small matter”.
A German author, Katrin Himmler, who was born in 1967 is the granddaughter of Ernst Himmler, who lived from 1905-1945. He was the younger brother of Heinrich. Her book was published as Die Bruder Himmler: Eine Deutsche Familiengeschichte in Germany in 2007. The book details the lives of the three Himmler brothers, who were the sons of a respected Munich school headmaster. Gebhard, the eldest, served during World War I with the German Army. Heinrich, who was 18, was an officer cadet still at the war’s conclusion and was too young to serve on the frontline. Katrin believes that it was Heinrich’s frustration and envy of his brother that led him to enlist in 1919 with the extreme right-wing Freikorps. While in the Freikorps, he served under Ernst Rohm and was led to the Nazi Party.
While Katrin had been told that her grandfather had no political interests, she found that he was enthusiastic having joined the Nazi Party in 1931 and was an officer in the SS. He was killed in the fighting in Berlin during April 1945. She said during her research she often found it hard to go on because everything that was revealed was worse and more shocking. The descendants were left without any doubt of Heinrich’s actions. His actions had cast a large shadow on the rest of the family.
Katrin’s most disturbing discovery was that her grandfather had directly caused the deportation and later death of Major Schmidt, a Jewish engineer, who was the deputy manager of an engineering firm who had been protected because of his skill and expertise and skill. Ernst dismissed his usefulness when he wrote to Heinrich with the knowledge that he would be reclassified and sent to a camp for extermination.
Reviewing the Katrin’s book for The Daily Telegraph, Justin Cartwright said that it would have been possible for Ernst to have supported Schmidt without endangering himself because he was the Reichsfuhrer’s brother. She saw this as a turning point because she realised that her grandfather and great-uncle Gebhard were tied to the radical murderous policies of Himmler.
Personal Life
Ms. Himmler was born in Dinslaken and married an Israeli. She chose to keep her own surname rather than deny her heritage. She said that she wrote and researched the book to allow her son to have a complete understanding of the family history. She said that when she and her husband had their son it became clear that she had to break the family tradition of not talking about the past. She wanted to give her son as much information about his heritage as possible, so she can answer any questions that he may have about their family.