As head of the SS chief of police ' Reichskommissar for the Consolidation of Germanness' & Reich Interior Minister Heinrich Himmler enjoyed a position of almost unparalleled power & responsibility in Nazi Germany. Perhaps more than any other single Nazi leader aside from Hitler his name has become a byword for the terror persecution & destruction that characterized the Third Reich. His wide-ranging powers meant that he bore equal responsibility for the repression of the German people on the home front & the atrocities perpetrated by the SS in the East. Yet in spite of his central role in the crimes of the Nazi regime until now Himmler has remained a colourless & elusive figure in the history of the period. In this the first-ever comprehensive biography of the SS-Reichsfuhrer leading German historian Peter Longerich puts every aspect of Himmler's life under the microscope. Masterfully interweaving the story of Himmler's personal life & political career with the wider history of the Nazi dictatorship Longerich shows how skilfully he exploited & manipulated his disparate roles in the pursuit of his far-reaching & grandiose objectives. In the process he illuminates the extraordinary degree to which Himmler's own personal prejudices idiosyncrasies & predilections made their mark on the organizations for which he was responsible
- especially the SS which in so many ways bore the characteristic hallmarks of its leader & whose history remains both incomplete & incomprehensible without a detailed & intimate knowledge of its deeply sinister commander-in-chief.