Chapter 167 Chapter XXVII "With the Beasts of Men" (3)

"Cruelty also has a heart" Among the top figures of the National Socialist Party, there is probably no more conflicted figure than Heinrich Himmler.His charm, his courteousness, and his modesty and sense of reason in meetings made a deep impression on many minds.He was described by diplomats as a figure of cool judgment; colleagues in the Resistance saw him as the only leader in the Nazi leadership who could have brought Hitler to an end.In the eyes of General Horsbach, he was the Führer's evil elf, calm and calculating, "the most brazen figure in the Third Reich."Mex Ammann believed that he was "Robespierre or Jesuits with a passion for witchcraft".Karl Burckhardt, the former senior governor of the League of Nations in Danzig, felt that Himmler became a criminal because of "his ability to concentrate on small things, to deceive others, and to have an inhuman methodology. ; he's kind of like a robot".In the eyes of his youngest daughter, Gudrun, he is a loving father. "No matter what people say about my father," she said not long ago, "no matter what people say about him, or what they will say about him--he is my father, the best father. I loved him and still love him. he."

Most of Himmler's subordinates felt that he was a warm, thoughtful leader with a deep sense of nationality.He played cards with his secretaries and football with his adjutants.Once, he even invited more than a dozen female handymen to his birthday dinner, and asked the officers to choose them at will to sit with them.The officers were somewhat reluctant; Himmler himself took their foreman away. His character was like a mystery, why he could not find the answer in his youth.Born into a well-to-do middle-class family in Bavaria, he was named after his father's most famous protégé, Prince Heinrich von Wittelsbach.Himmler in his youth was no more anti-Semitic than the average Bavarian youth of his class.As can be seen from his comments about Jews in his diary, he is a fanatic, not a racist, and he wants to treat Jews fairly.

He has stubborn beliefs about sex.This was not out of the ordinary in his day.All in all, he seemed to be the product of a predictable, Bavarian education and training—a promising young bureaucrat, serious and orderly. In 1922, the 22-year-old Himmler became a typical nationalist full of anti-Semitic thoughts.He also aspired to a military career with romantic eyes.That year, he wrote a poem on the title page of his diary, revealing his dream of dedicating himself to a certain cause: Though they may stab you to death, But fight, resist, stand up! You yourself can be wiped out, Raise the flag high!

No wonder, then, that a youth of this will and determination should be drawn to the theory of National Socialism and its charming leader.His training for office and his instinct for loyalty made him perfect as a professional Nazi.As he rose through the ranks of the party, he became a victim of his own ideological struggle.He was a Bavarian, but he worshiped Prussian kings like Frederick the Great, and he constantly praised the simplicity and hard work of the Prussians.He himself was dark, of medium build, and somewhat oriental in appearance.He was madly convinced that the ideal Germanic man was a Nordic man.At the same time, like his master, he likes to have blond, blue-eyed, tall subordinates around him.Himmler made up his mind to breed black Germans within 100 years by mating standard black Germans (like himself and Hitler) with blond women.In order to promote his racial policy, he established an SS maternal and child health organization called "Fountain of Life", whose main role is to serve the childless families in the SS to adopt racially suitable children and help racially Appropriate unmarried mothers and their children.In the occupied territories, thousands of children were abducted and brought up in special SS facilities. "All the good blood in the world," Himmler told the SS generals, "all the Germanic blood that is not on the side of the Reich may one day destroy us. So...everyone who can be brought The Germans with the best bloodlines who returned to Germany trained him to be a self-conscious descendant of Germans. For us, they are all fighters, and the other party has one less person. Bringing back all the people with Germanic bloodlines in the world, I There really was such an idea; steal if you can, and grab if you can.” After the war there were some horrific legends that the Fountain of Life was a “stall farm” where SS men mated with suitable young women , to breed the best of the nation.Himmler's program, while not preventing illegitimate births, has no evidence that he promoted unclean sex, nor that child abductions were carried out on a large scale.Across all Fountain of Life facilities, there are only 700 employees.This fact casts doubt on these claims.

It is safe to say that Himmler did plan for this campaign on a large scale, but the Fountain of Life never lived up to its potential due to the urgent need to resettle and exterminate Jews.He envied physical perfection and athleticism, but suffered from constant stomach cramps himself; his skiing and swimming form was uncanny.Once, he broke down and tried for a junior bronze medal in the mile. In Germany, except for Hitler, no one has as much personal power as him, but he is still so humble and hardworking.Born a Catholic, he now relentlessly attacked the Catholic Church, while he, according to one of his close collaborators, struggled to rebuild its SS on Jesuit principles—he diligently copied "Ignatius Deus Lorra (*Spanish monk, father of the Jesuits—translation note) prescribed prayer instructions and methods of spiritual exercise".

Feared by millions, he trembled in the presence of the Führer.He once admitted to a subordinate that when he saw the Führer he felt like a schoolboy who hadn't done his homework.Like the Führer, Himmler was indifferent to material comforts; unlike Goering and others, he never used his status for personal gain.His life was very simple and thrifty; he ate very simple, drank very little, and smoked only two cigars a day.He made a home in Tegernsey for his wife and daughter, and another near Koenigsee for his private secretary, Hertwig Podasht (who bore him a son and a daughter) .He was a responsible man, and he made every home comfortable--so that there was not much money left for himself to spend.

Some of his teachings were so outlandish that even his most loyal followers found them unacceptable: glacial cosmology, magnetism, poison against poison, hypnotism, natural eugenics, clairvoyance, faith healing, and witchcraft Wait.He initiated experiments in watering coal to extract kerosene and in extracting gold from gold-bearing ore. All his power came from Hitler, but the Führer personally wanted nothing to do with him. "I need such policemen," he told Schab (Himmler had begged him to arrange an invitation to the Berghof for him), "but I don't like them." Hitler even ordered his personal aide-de-camp to the SS Lieutenant Schultz, don't tell his nominal chief about the daily military discussions.

At the same time, he gave Himmler full authority to complete the task hidden in his heart-the "Final Solution".In some respects, the task suited him.From the very beginning, Himmler bowed his head to Hitler and completely became Hitler's man, his disciple, and his subject.Furthermore, Himmler was the epitome of National Socialism because, precisely because he was a hard-working party worker, he was able to overcome his own problems.He was the Führer's right-hand man; despite vomiting at the sight of blood or beatings, he became a remote-controlled mass murderer, an efficient professional murderer.

On the one hand he does this, but on the other hand he remains sentimental. "I often kill a deer," he said privately to his doctor, "but every time I see its dead eye, it breaks my conscience." Not long ago, at the risk of himself, he joined Field Marshal Milch plotted to save the lives of 14,000 skilled Jewish laborers in the Netherlands.He also freed the mother of an air force colonel imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp - she refused to renounce her faith as a "Jehovah's Witness". (*Among Hitler's victims, these were some of the toughest. There was a long-standing rule in the prison that anyone who renounced his faith would be free. But most of the prisoners refused to do so .) He did this because Milch had threatened not to speak to him again; he also wanted to be seen as a "good guy."

If people approached him diplomatically for forgiveness, he found it very difficult to refuse, as long as the request was reasonable.He once freed a deserter; he forgave an official who wrote a scathing article criticizing the SS's mistreatment of Poles.However, his sense of honor did not allow him to forgive his relatives.He had a nephew, an SS officer, accused of sodomy.After the lawsuit came to him, he immediately signed an order sending him to a punishment camp.While in captivity, the young man committed sodomy again and again; Himmler ordered his execution.SS judge Rolf Wieser interceded for him and asked for clemency, which Himmler refused. "I don't want others to accuse me of saying that he is my nephew, so I forgive him." Later, Hitler came forward in person to cancel the death sentence.

Under Himmler's supervision, by the autumn of 1943, the slaughter center was at its peak.In Auschwitz, those who were chosen to be executed paraded past the flute orchestra, made up of prisoners and conducted by the Jewish violinist Alma Rose.The situation with Treblinka, however, was quite different.Before the execution, the imprisoned Jews usually knew that they were about to die, and they often yelled or laughed because of the stimulation, and the angry guards beat them with whips; when the jailer shaved the heads of the mothers, the babies often got in the way, He was caught and thrown against a wall to his death.At the slightest resistance, guards and model prisoners whipped naked victims onto trucks bound for the gas chambers. The idea of ​​refusing to carry out the killing order never crossed the minds of the executioners. "All I can say is 'Yes!'" Hoss, the commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp, later confessed, "It never occurred to me that I was responsible. You know, in Germany, everyone understands that if something When things go wrong, only those who call the shots can be held accountable." The execution team never asked the Jews if they deserved to die. "Don't you understand, we SS men can't think about these things; Carry out the orders. Anyway, if I don't do it, someone else will." In addition, everyone involved in the extermination operation has received rigorous training. "He would have shot his brother if he had been ordered to. Orders are above all else." (* Stanley Milgram has done many experiments in the United States, proving that blind obedience is not only German. In In the experiment, Milgram found that only 35% of the subjects who were tested refused to do things that caused pain to others. Most people only blindly followed the voice of authority. The results of these experiments in 1960 were in the Vietnam battlefield In fact, and to some extent, in the Watergate incident, it was confirmed. The above situation is described in Milgram's Obedience to Power.) Some executioners also appreciate their work , but these people are sadists who risk punishment from their superiors for doing so.Years earlier, Himmler had banned anyone in the SS from acting alone against Jews. "The commander of the SS must be tough, but not ruthless," he instructed the captain of the special operations team. You intervene immediately." Not long ago, he had issued similar instructions to the SS legal department in connection with the unauthorized shooting of Jews. "If the motive is selfishness, cruelty, or sex, the penalty shall be murder or manslaughter, as the case may be." This, no doubt, was why he authorized Morgan to bring the Buchenwald commander on trial. It was indeed a difficult task for Himmler to train his men to be strong without being ruthless.To this end, Himmler tried to turn the SS into warriors with the slogan "Loyalty is Honor".Therefore, he not only instilled a sense of racial superiority in the SS, but also instilled various moral concepts such as loyalty to the monarch, patriotism, camaraderie, devotion to duty, loyalty and loyalty, hard work, and warrior sentiment.His SS was the "essence" of the party, the "essence" of the German people, and thus the "essence" of the world.Having established the organizational system that instilled his ideals in the SS, he hoped to raise a new generation, "much better and more valuable than the world had hitherto seen".He personally addressed the SS, admonishing them to be polite and educated. "Whether there is a dinner party or a parade, as long as there are guests, I ask you to pay attention to even the smallest details, because I want to make the SS a model of politeness, so that they are polite to all German compatriots. Courteous." The SS should also be a model of neatness and cleanliness. "I don't want to see even the smallest stain on a white shirt." Besides, drink like a gentleman and don't drink too much, "Otherwise, I'll send you a pistol and tell you It worked out." In fact, no matter how murderous their tasks, they should be gentlemen. It was with this in mind that Himmler summoned the SS generals to Posen on October 4, 1943.The basic purpose of this summons was to expand the scope of those who knew about the extermination of the Jews.Morgan's recent revelations, and the steady stream of rumors about the horrors of the concentration camps, had caused fear and a sudden change in the Führer's most loyal followers.Now, now that the secret was out, Hitler decided to involve the party and the military in the "Final Solution."Thus, in effect, by making them accomplices, he could force them to fight to the end.The war may have been lost; it would have given him time to achieve his main goal.In the worst case, he could bring millions of Jews to die with him. Address to the SS, the first in a series of speeches after Himmler.Through these speeches, Himmler involved many civilian leaders and army officers.In a sense, the first speech was the most important, since he had to convince the SS that the fulfillment of this unsavory task was not inconsistent with the execution of their organization's highest principles.He said there was something very serious he wanted to talk to them about. "Inside us, I'm going to bring it up openly, but we'll never talk about it publicly." He seemed a little hesitant, but finally spoke up: "I mean the issue of the Jewish evacuation, the extermination of the Jewish race." Question. It's easy to say - 'The Jewish race is being wiped out,' says one party member, it's obvious, our program says - wipe out the Jews, we're doing it, exterminating them." Despite the unwelcome skepticism raised by Morgan and Kurt Gerstein, after years of chanting rhetoric and slogans, these unabashed language is shocking.Even more shocking is Himmler's condemnation of those who have been profiting from the Final Solution. "There are some SS members - though few in number - who live up to expectations and deserve to die. We have the moral right, the duty of our people, to exterminate this race - when they would exterminate us. But we have no Right to get rich, even if it's just a fur coat, a watch, a mark, or a cigarette or something. Because we kill a germ, we don't want to end up getting infected or dying from it. I won't allow it Corruption is here and let it take root, and wherever it is, it is held accountable. Yet we can at last say that we have accomplished the most difficult task of all, and that we have earned the love of our people. And we None of our spirits, our souls, our characters, etc., have been harmed by it." Two days later, Himmler spoke in the same spirit to a group of Reich and magistrates. "'The Jews must be exterminated', this sentence, just a few words, is easy to utter. However, what this sentence requires of those who implement it is the most difficult and most difficult thing to do Yes." It was clear to the audience that what they were about to hear was what they had been deaf to for months. "What I want to say is only for this range of people to listen to, and only to listen to, and never to discuss. When people ask such a question, 'What should be done with women and children', I have also decided to take a clear approach here. The solution. I see no reason why I should exterminate the Jews, that is, kill them or allow them to be killed, and have their children grow up to take revenge on our sons and grandchildren. There must be a strong decision - this people must be wiped off the face of the earth." He said it was the heaviest task the SS had ever had to undertake. "On this mission - may I say this - our men, our leaders, suffered not even the slightest injury, either mentally or in the depths of their souls. Even with the massacre, they were still warriors. "There was no sound in the hall.Nildur von Schirach recalled: "When he talked about the slaughter of men, women and children, he was very cold and ruthless, like a merchant talking about his goods for comparison. It's exactly the same inside." After talking about the difficulties of carrying out this gruesome task, Himmler ended the subject. "Now, you all know the truth, you must keep it secret, and you must not tell others. Perhaps, after a long time, we will consider whether to tell the German people about this. However, in order to take responsibility for our people ( responsible for this idea and action), we had better carry this secret to the grave.” He, like Brutus, forced his colleague’s hand to plunge into Caesar’s blood. (*Brutus, the leader of the ancient Roman republican faction, assassinated the members of Caesar's regiment-translation annotation) The "final solution" is no longer the burden of Hitler and Himmler, but their burden-this burden They had no choice but to pick and choose. After Bowman announced the end of the meeting, everyone was invited to have lunch in the isolation hall.During the meal, Hillah and the other officers were silent and avoided eye contact.Most have guessed that Himmler leaked the truth to them in order to turn them into accomplices.That night, they drank so much that many of them had to be supported by others to get on the train—the train bound for "Wolf's Lair".Albert Speer, who had addressed the same audience before Himmler's speech, was disgusted by the drunken spectacle.The next day he went so far as to urge Hitler to lecture the party leaders on self-restraint. (*Speer still claims to this day that he knew nothing about the "Final Solution". Some scholars accuse him of attending Himmler's lectures, because during the meeting some of Himmler's words were It was for him. Speer insisted that he went to Rastenburg as soon as he had finished speaking. Field Marshal Milch confirmed this. Even if Speer had not been there, it would be difficult to believe that he would have The extermination camps knew nothing. From Himmler’s speeches, it is clear that he thought he was addressing Speer directly—and that he was one of the high-ranking accomplices.)