One of history’s most evil men, who answered only to Hitler

As one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and the head of Hitler’s SS, Heinrich Himmler set up and oversaw Hitler’s concentration camps, securing his place as one of history’s most evil men.

Head of the Gestapo, Himmler joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and in 1929 was appointed as the man in charge of the infamous SS, where he transformed the mere 290-man battalion into a paramilitary force of one million strong.

Himmler directed the killing of some six million Jews, the total number of civilians killed by the regime number between 11 million and 14 million.

By the late 1930s, Himmler had grown in power to a point where he only answered to Hitler himself.

Realising the war was lost and his part as a failed commander in the closing days of the war, Hitler demanded his capture and Himmler left his long-time superior in Berlin to try and save himself.

Rejected by his former comrades and hunted by the Allies, with a small band of companions and without a final destination in mind, he was eventually captured by British forces.

After a routine interrogation he revealed his true identity, but as a doctor attempted to examine him, Himmler jerked away and bit down on a cyanide capsule.

He was dead within minutes.

He was buried in an unmarked grave, the location of which remains unknown. 15