Heinrich Himmler photograph collection

Heinrich Himmler was born on October 7, 1900 in Munich, Germany to a conservative Catholic family. He served as an officer cadet in the Eleventh Bavarian Regiment at the end of World War I, though the war ended before he graduated. He studied agriculture at the Technical University in Munich, graduating in August 1922. In August 1923, he joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party), and shortly after, marched with other Nazi leaders in the Beer Hall Putsch as an attempt to overthrow the German government. On January 6, 1929, Himmler was appointed Reichsführer of the SS. He immediately began expanding the SS, which reached a membership of more than 50,000 by 1933. In April 1934, Himmler was appointed assistant chief of the Gestapo. He masterminded the Night of the Long Knives, the purge of Adolf Hitler’s rival Nazi leaders on June 30, 1934. Under Himmler, the SS acquired vast police powers in Germany and the territories it occupied, and gained primary responsibilities in the areas of security, intelligence gathering, and espionage. Himmler oversaw the deployment of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) in the massacre of Jews and other victims during the early war years. He also organized the extermination camps in German-occupied Poland where millions of Jews were murdered. In April 1945, Himmler transmitted an offer of German surrender to the Allies. When Hitler learned of the offer, he stripped Himmler of his authority and ordered his arrest. After the German surrender on May 7, Himmler was captured by Soviet soldiers on May 20. On May 23, 1945, Heinrich Himmler committed suicide at age 44.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of James and Catherine Blevins

James and Catherine Blevins donated the photograph albums to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003.