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sticking it out, he was proudly speaking as one of them. Although his preoccupation with headquarters business made it unnecessary for him to be present at the massacres he was compelled to order, he was not one to ask others to do what he would not do himself; and in the very early days of the Russian campaign, in August, 1941, at Minsk, visiting one of Heydrich’s Action Groups (it was the one, incidentally, commanded by Artur Nebe, the friend of Hans Bernd Gisevius, whom we shall shortly encounter), he ordered Nebe to bring out a hundred prisoners for a sample execution in his presence. S.S. Lieutenant General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, Higher S.S. and Police Leader for the Central Russian front, was also there. In an affidavit he described how he watched Himmler closely and saw him stagger at the first volley and almost fall to the ground in a faint. When the execution squad failed to kill two Jewish women outright Himmler could not control himself and cried out—so that afterwards Bach-Zelewski had to reproach his chief for upsetting the firing squad and ruining its nerve. But, althought upset, Himmler, like his generals, had stuck it out. This was Himmler the hero and stoic.
    Himmler was also interested in power. Many people have queried Himmler’s capacity, unable to believe that a man so colorless and dreary should have either the will or the strength for power. It is also pointed out that for many years he was Hitler’s most devoted slave. But while some men are born to achieve power, others develop the taste for it as it is thrust upon them. It is improbable that Himmler, as a chicken farmer, dreamed of ruling Germany—as Hitler in his equal obscurity most certainly dreamed. It is improbable that when he took over the S.S. with its membership of three hundred professional thugs he saw in this modest institution the future janissaries of the New Order. It is improbable that when he created the Waffen S.S. to fight with the Reichswehr that he looked forward to the day when he would be virtual commander-in-chief under Hitler. But quite early in his political career he must have discovered that he was a born administrator with a marked capacity for intrigue.
    He was, in fact, one of those intriguers, not energetic and demonstrative, who, with a fixed idea, are ready to let affairs take their course until the moment to strike presents itself. In his later years he let many things take their course, including an active conspiracy against Hitler conducted in part by his own subordinates. He profited by them invariably, until the very end, when, as Commander-in-Chief of the Home Armies, he sought to assume the leadership of the Reich and make peace with the Western Allies. Then Hitler in his Bunker in Berlin, discovering the treachery of
treuer Heinrich
, finally broke him, as his last act. Then, too, Himmler rounded off his character, which had no center, by regarding himself unquestioningly and in all innocence as the sort of man the Western Allies would be prepared to do a deal with.
    As for his physicial appearance, it is familiar enough from photographs. It gave him great pain because it accorded so ill with the standard laid down for the knights of the S.S. But he had to put up with it; and, indeed, it served him well. It served others well, too. With very few exceptions surviving members of the S.S. have expressed pained surprise that Himmler should have done such terrible things. He was so benevolent, so diffident, so mild. They simply had no idea … though what passed through their minds when this old woman of a man spoke to them coldly of mass destruction, as at Posen, is not recorded. The best contemporary description so far comes from Major General Walter Dornberger, who did not belong to the S.S. but was responsible for the development of the V-2 at Peenemuende. Himmler visited the station, and afterwards made himself a great trouble:
    â€œHe looked to me like an intelligent