SS 1: The Unlikely Death of Heinrich Himmler Book

Hugh Thomas paints a vivid picture of the Nuremberg trial of the leading Nazis. The court's heating system had not been repaired by the time it started its sessions, in the winter of 1945-1946. As a consequence, learned lawyers traipsed the aisles in ski boots, and one of the British counsel for the prosecution, Anthony Marecco, wore mittens as well as two pairs of tights. It is this kind of detail that brings history to life. However, most of this book about that most monstrous of the Nazis, Heinrich Himmler, is inevitably short of amusing details. It is a grim read but a fascinating one. The key question that Hugh Thomas asks from the outset, is how could an inveterate plotter and schemer, an evil intelligence, an organisational genius like Himmler, allow himself to be captured so easily by the Allies at the end of the war? Was it really Himmler who was captured? Was it really him who took the poison capsule to evade questioning, and was later buried in mysterious secrecy on the Luneberg Heath? Among the first doubters of the official account of Himmler's death and interment was one Kim Philby--it makes for a dark and compelling read. Thomas' previous works include Hess; A Tale of Two Murders, which led to a six-month enquiry by Scotland Yard and the immediate suppression of its concluding report. This new book is likely to stir up a similar hornet's nest. It would be unfair to give away Thomas' conclusion, but given the facts, one is left wondering uncomfortably about the truth of the affair. Why all the secrecy? There is "a hundred-year ban on material relating to Himmler's death, an absence of post-mortem evidence, a paltry identification procedure, unacceptable photographic evidence, and inconsistent and occasionally false accounts of his death." It all adds up to a mystery as dark as anything in the dark annals of the Nazi years. --Christopher HartRead More