Source: El País
be the niece of Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS and Gestapo, brand. To the point of having to delve into family secrets and tell it in a book. Katrin Himmler has. He discovered that his family supported and benefited from the position of the Nazi monster. There
"The documents prove that I found my grandfather was an accomplice of Heinrich Himmler"
"My grandmother always remembered with great affection for Heinrich Himmler"
"All we can do evil. Believe it's in your blood is what the Nazis did"
Katrin Himmler, in Political Science degree, is married to an Israeli Jewish descendant of survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto, travels frequently to Israel, must be something to see when it crosses the passport control, and attitude to the Holocaust and his famous relative, unlike some other family member does not have the slightest crack. She did not hesitate to describe his great-uncle and godfather to his father a "murderer of the century." The author has quoted me in the morning at a small cafe near his home in the quiet and modest Wedding district of Berlin in Mitte. It is difficult to reconcile the peaceful and friendly image of this Germany which offers, for example, a visit to the Memorial for the murder of Jews in Europe with 2,711 trails and underground gray painful ordeal of memories and atrocities.
When I go into the coffee Auszeit-trying not to sound perverse associations with the name-Katrin Himmler has arrived. It has a youthful, friendly and definitely nice. It has beautiful blue-gray eyes. Smile. We sat by the window in the place virtually empty and the two asked tea. Paradoxically, that is what brought me here, I can hardly begin to talk about Himmler, as if black would not want that vermin from the past to intrude on this beautiful day between this interesting woman and me.
"From a very young, my parents made me read books about the Nazis and their crimes, so I identified with the victims and I was ashamed of my name, feeling guilty of a diffuse form," says Katrin Himmler. "However, although I was very interested German history, I never had to try to find out about my own family. "
The initial impetus of the investigation that led to the book the author gave it to her father now thinks that in a much more premeditated what she thought, "when asked in 1997 to investigate the existence of records about his grandfather on open files after reunification. In reviewing the documents, discovered that the information they contained did not correspond at all with driving in the family. According the family history, the only politicized the brothers Heinrich was the black sheep (!), which hold harmless the other two apparently engaged under Nazism and the war in technical and academic affairs. It was as if the great fault of the exonerated medium.
" Documents found proved, however, that my grandfather and Gebhard were also early members of the party and the SS!, Enthusiastic Nazi Heinrich Himmler accomplices even seems that at some secret scientific project aspect technology-which largely rewarded for their services. "
Finding out that your grandfather was in the SS must be a trance, I venture. "At home he had never said anything like that, imagine!". Ernst Himmler reached the rank of SS Sturmbannfuhrer , commander, and Gebhard, that of SS Standartenführer , colonel. Heinrich reserved the unique range of modest Reichsfuehrer SS, overlord. To let fall by the familiar desktop when the three brothers were together and make a joke about Mein Kampf.
Subsequently, the researcher found more disturbing evidence stored in his parents' house. His grandparents, for example, arranged in a nice house requisitioned some Polish and Ukrainian girl forced laborers. In the SS style, Ernst grandfather gave his wife at the end of the war poison capsules if she and the children fell into the hands of the Russians.
In his book, Katrin Himmler widely and unambiguously shows that the whole family sympathized with the regime, parents and siblings were very proud of the success of Heinrich and took advantage of the privileges of the notable relative. Ernst, who was an engineer, was placed in the Reich Broadcasting bastion of Nazi propaganda for pure nepotism. For parents, the social climbing on the back of the dreaded SS chief child meant a way to feel like returning to be among the German elite, which had been dismounted traumatically after the First World War. Initially, the parent had seen with some concern the adventures of Heinrich stem in Bavaria's right-wing groups, but always father and son shared the opposition and contempt for the Weimar Republic and democracy, which links a lot. In the family became a heroic picture image holding Heinrich Reichskriegsflagge the banner of the Reich war flag, during the failed putsch 1923, an event which was also present upstart Gebhard, the largest of the brothers, who survived the war and, Katrina says, remained a piece of Nazi anti-Semitic.
How did the family of the true extent of the criminal work of the head of the SS? "They knew about the concentration camps, no doubt some, there are many letters from people asking them to intercede to help inmates. The father, my grandfather, died in 1936, but then it worked Dachau, and Hitler's policy with respect to the opposition and Jews was no secret. Of course, none of the family never considered that what Himmler was doing wrong. "
" They learned from the Holocaust? "I have no proof. They must know at least the brothers, who had very good contact with Heinrich. In addition, the brother-Gebhard, Richard WebDL, was governor of Krakow when Jews were deported from the city. If you did not know it was because they would not. Like many in Germany. Jews soon disappeared from American life, it was easy to forget where they were. Racist laws imposed in view of everyone. The physical elimination was only one last step. In my heart I believe that yes, they did. There was a lot of confidence among the three brothers. "
all seems so quiet here. And yet, something seems hopelessly thicken around us. There is one episode of his grandfather, the letter ... Ernst Himmler reported to his brother reichführer political reliability of his colleagues and he also carried out intelligence work. "Schmidt's case, yes. Was Jewish, but had been ignored because it their technical utility. My grandfather questioned in a letter that utility, knowing what would probably mean a death sentence. It was very cruel. "Katrin Himmler
herself appears in his book, conducting his research, breaking down taboos, expressing their thoughts, their pain." It was the only way to go, very personal. I always thought it was important to be inside. I'm not a professional historian, so I had to be a family history. Writing this book changed my life. "The historical value of the work is proof that Peter Longerich himself quoted a source in his monumental biography of Himmler (RBA, 2009). Katrin
not know, of course, his great-uncle Heinrich, who committed suicide long before she was born, when the Allies seized him at the end of World War II. Nor was her grandfather. "He fought, when mobilized Broadcasting in the ranks of the Volkssturm, the desperate militia during the Battle of Berlin and disappeared April 45." Like his brother Heinrich, Ernst had a poison capsule hidden in the mouth so no one be caught alive. The bit, accidentally, as witnesses said, the trip while fleeing the city in rubble. "It sounds weird, right?". Euphemistic.
Then Himmler's grand-niece continues: "My grandfather was very ambitious, in the SS and the party did not relate only to Heinrich, but with the entire hierarchy, the entire network. Among his good friends was her neighbor general casualty Hermann Behrends , the SD, Heydrich's confidant and associate of Eichmann executed after the war ...".
A good person who did know Katrin Himmler was his grandmother Paula. Once I asked the man dressed in black uniform that was a witness at his wedding photo. She began to mourn with sadness for Heini, as familiarly called. "My grandmother always remembered with great affection for Heinrich Himmler."
One of the highlights most terrible Katrin research was to discover the relationship of deep friendship of her grandmother's family not only Behrends, but with the SS Obergruppenfuehrer -general-Oswald Pohl, stuck to the hilt in the Holocaust. "Yes, I made a great impression that my beloved grandmother sympathize with this criminal and support as he did when he was sentenced to death in 1947. It's true that many Germans, even people from the high politics of war, had the same attitude. It is something repulsive. Then I was more sympathetic to her because she was apart, somewhat modified his views, he left Margaret, the widow of Heinrich Himmler, and daughter, Gudrun. Even with a neighbor saw the series Holocaust on TV and crying. "
A kind of redemption." Yes, my grandmother was perhaps naive in its relationship with Pohl, considered him a victim, and herself, too. After the war, a woman like her, with his name, it was difficult, as the rest of the family survive without the support contact and other Nazis. Approach also helped them psychologically to avoid its own responsibility. Was sidelined, went through the denazification could not work for long. But what hurt him most was the reaction of society, how many Germans projected on it and the family the feeling of having been betrayed by Hitler, who promised everything to the Germans and only brought destruction, of cities, but also the hopes and dreams. "
Katrin I ask if she has suffered also by last name. In his book explains the silence in the classroom of the school when a student asked him in the middle of class if he was related to "that Himmler" and how the teacher pretended and threw balls out. "In fact it I have suffered too, for my generation, far from all that. My parents, yes, very much. Were cursed and attacked. My father lived the hostility of the people, and sometimes it was worse, the admiration of they said: 'Your father was a great man, and your uncle, too. " In the family never talked about it. "
Nazis
Other children have had serious identity issues." To many, his legacy has left footprints terrible, has become psychologically sick. "Niklas Frank, the son of Hans Frank The governor of Poland criminal trial at Nuremberg and hanged publicly stated that he masturbated every 16 October, the date of execution, compared to a photo of his father, whom he detested. Another son, Michael, committed suicide by drinking milk until burst. And another, Norman, decided not to have children to clear the name Frank in the face of the earth. "Of the generation My father are few who had children, did not know how to deal with it. "
Last January, Martin Bormann junior, who had tried to avert his small inheritance, he taught furniture made with human remains, becoming a priest, missionary in the Congo and preacher against the Holocaust, was charged with violence and sexual abuse during his time as a school teacher in the Hearts of Jesus of Salzburg in the sixties.'s grandson Andreas Wolf Rudolf Hess was fined in 2002 for denying the existence of gas chambers at the website that has devoted to his grandfather.
Katrin Himmler Does relationship with other descendants of leaders of the Third Reich? "I had enough when the book appeared in the original German edition. Now there are generally regular contacts, but I see some. I met Bettina Goering, grandniece of the marshal, she and her brother decided to be sterilized so as not to move to another blood generation Hitler's sidekick. I do not understand, is so similar to what the Nazis themselves, the idea of \u200b\u200bbad blood, the racial theory. terrifies me. " Katrin Himmler hugged herself.
a couple of years ago, I explain, I interviewed the daughter of Count von Stauffenberg, the author of Hitler's attack on July 20, 1944. I look with renewed interest. Constance von Stauffenberg remember how hard it was to be the daughter of his father in postwar Germany. More or less that of Himmler? "I do not know, I think it was easier for the children of the resistant parents showed that there were other Germans, good Germans."
Returning to the children of Nazis, what about your aunt Gudrun (1929), daughter of reichführer and that, unlike Katrina, he has devoted his life to clear the name of his father, even at the expense of mixing with neo-Nazis? "We still live, I've seen in any family gathering, is very striking views, as you know, I tried to contact her for the book, but did not answer. Is not amused. Think I'm a traitor. "And the rest of the family?" There are some who have decided not to talk about me because I have cast shadows, in her opinion, the ancestors. I do not care. "
I point out Katrin Himmler, to cheer, it is very brave and has an appreciable sense of humor." I hope so. This is a very dark story. I am a very optimistic person, do not know why, but I am. Then you can deal with this past. What happens when you immerse yourself in the documents of the time is that you either get depressed and you sink into the dark and do not go as in years, or try to understand the past so that help you understand today. "I listen in silence." Taking that's been good, is not there. No longer you remain a kind of conspiratorial lies transmitted from generation to generation. My father was so afraid ... He was horrified by what his father could have done. Know what he did was really cathartic. What did my grandfather was very bad, but my father feared something worse. The vague feeling of guilt is overwhelming. "
As we have good friends, I dare to ask if it perceives Katrin physical resemblance to his uncle saved. To my surprise, not only not annoying, but it recognizes that yes. Matiza Heinrich Himmler had no eyes the same color, but remember one believes a glacial blue eyes. "No, no, he was brown." She says it is more like his father. How does it feel to look in the mirror, she is assaulted by a strange thought? "There are dark things, of course. But to think that the wrong or being a Nazi is genetic, hereditary, is stupid. All we can do evil, for this you need apellidarte Himmler. To believe otherwise, it's in your blood, I insist is what the Nazis did. Sometimes, as I said, I observe, but there's nothing scary, no black spirit. "
Katrin I tell you it's funny how in every family there is always someone who deals to pass bills on the collective memory. "True, a member of the family often flip through the secrets, to exorcise ghosts. Is someone who feels a special way the weight of that inheritance. In German we have the word symptomträger, that disease burden in this case riddles, failures, sins of the family. In a way I am, of course. My father tried to deal with it many years ago, but ended up putting me on the track. I would give details to find things. To me it was easier to distance himself from the facts, but did not stop hurting me finds the letter from my grandmother, Pohl. Identify with my beloved grandmother Nazi grandmother was not easy. It was horrible. "
Marry a Jew was a conscious decision? I mean, thinking of his uncle, in his name, in a repair?" No, of course not. Just happened. It was before everything started, and we knew before. "Katrin has a child under 11 years of marriage. What does he know about the circumstances of your family?" I question things now, I have seen in TV interviews by the book. He did not explain much, just enough. I have experience of the weight of having too much information too soon, when you can not assume it. One day my son will deal with the fact that parts of his family tried to exterminate the other. In any case, I'm glad he did not have to do the same process as me, because I've done it before him, I cleaned for him. I can answer your questions and explain with accuracy and without fear the guilt of my ancestors. "
Katrin and her husband Daniel, an appropriate name for a Jew who gets into the den of the family traveled to Krakow Himmler during courtship. Did you visit Auschwitz? "No, heavens, was a romantic trip." And then? "I have visited other areas, however, have never been to Auschwitz." I take, then, to explain things in the field, as the unusual height of the grass, fertility land, for the payment of so much ash, of course. Listen to me staring at me. Auschwitz was the apple of the eyes of Himmler's concentration camp universe. No place so associated with his name as the inferno. Katrin has turned white. But it is recharged. And she says to herself, firmly: "I will go."
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