Auschwitz II – Birkenau was designated by the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, Germany's Minister of the Interior, as the place of the " final solution of the Jewish question in Europe ".

The new Volkssturm was also to become a nation-wide organization, with Heinrich Himmler, as Replacement Army Commander, responsible for armament and training.

Heinrich Himmler was the chief architect of the plan, and the German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler termed it " the final solution of the Jewish question " ().

Adolf Eichmann and Heinrich Himmler knew Gemma was Fiorello's sister and ordered her held as a political prisoner.

Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of SS national leader, Heinrich Himmler who in 1936 was appointed Chief of German Police ( Chef der Deutschen Polizei ) by Hitler.

In this, he ran into conflict with Heinrich Himmler, who was police chief of the second most powerful German state, Bavaria.

Göring, concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to use the Gestapo effectively to counteract the power of the Sturmabteilung ( SA ), handed over its control to Himmler on 20 April 1934.

In this role, Himmler was still nominally subordinate to Frick, but the de facto power was now in the hands of Himmler, who as Reichsführer-SS, answered only to Hitler.

After Heydrich's 1942 assassination, Himmler assumed the leadership of the RSHA, but in January 1943 Ernst Kaltenbrunner was appointed Chief of the RSHA.

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945 ) was Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel ( SS ), a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party ( NSDAP ) of Nazi Germany.

Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and one of the persons most directly responsible for the Holocaust.

Upon realizing that the war was lost, Himmler attempted to go into hiding.

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was born in Munich on 7 October 1900 to a conservative Roman Catholic middle-class family.

His father was Gebhard Himmler, a teacher, and his mother was Anna Maria Himmler ( née Heyder ), a devout Roman Catholic.

Heinrich was named after his godfather, Prince Heinrich of Bavaria of the royal family of Bavaria, who was tutored by Gebhard Himmler.

In November 1918 — while Himmler was still in training — the war ended with Germany's defeat, denying him the opportunity to become an officer or see combat.

Himmler was antisemitic by the time he went to university, but not exceptionally so ; students at his school would avoid their Jewish classmates.

Himmler was not a member of Hitler's inner circle ; the two men were not very close, and rarely saw each other socially.

Himmler kept the control of the program close to him but delegated the work to Globocnik.

Also, commentators on the memoirs have pronounced it likely that Speer himself came close to being assassinated by Himmler after he unwittingly put himself in the care of an SS doctor.

Himmler, who had always been jealous of Hitler's close friends from the early days of the Party, and especially of the lack of control he had over Hitler's inner bodyguards, was delighted.

Udo von Woyrsch had a close friendship with Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, and was on Himmler's personal staff.

In 1942, the Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler ordered the Lublin District SS-und Polizeiführer Odilo Globocnik to build the first extermination camps during Aktion Reinhard ( 1941 – 43 ), the operation to annihilate every Jew in the General Government ( occupied Poland ).

In March 1933, less than three months after the Nazis seized power, Himmler set up the first official concentration camp at Dachau.

There are indications that Heinrich Himmler saw himself as the reincarnation of the first king of Germany.

50 stills from the filming in Krün near Mittenwald were later found and from these, surviving prisoners were able to identify 29 camp inmates who worked for Riefenstahl and were then deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the first weeks of March 1943 following Himmler ’ s December 1942 decree.

The Gestapo, which would eventually become a semi-integrated part of the SS security forces, was at first a large " thorn in the side " to Himmler as the group was originally the Prussian state political police under the control of Hermann Göring and commanded by his protege Rudolf Diels.

The SD was one of the oldest security organizations of the SS and was first formed in 1931 as the Ic-Dienst, operating out of a single apartment and reporting directly to Heinrich Himmler.

On the other hand, Tresckow and the inner circle of plotters had no intention of removing Hitler just to see him replaced by the dreaded and ruthless SS chief, and the plan was to kill them both if possible – to the extent that Stauffenberg's first attempt on 11 July was aborted because Himmler was not present.

In the first edition of Hitler's War, Irving footnotes, " I cannot accept the view … there exists no document signed by Hitler, Himmler or Heydrich speaking of the extermination of the Jews ".

On 13 October 1941, Heinrich Himmler gave SS and Police Leader Lublin, SS Brigadeführer Odilo Globocnik, two orders which were closely connected with each other: to start Germanizing the area around Zamość and to start work on the first German Nazi extermination camp in the General Government near Bełżec.

Equipped with a shiny bald head and a quiet but intense voice to go with his trademark penetrating gaze, he specialised in portraying insane or evil characters, including the violent alcoholic Doc Tydon in Wake in Fright ( 1971 ), the mad Doctor in the Bud Spencer-Terence Hill film Watch Out, We're Mad ( 1974 ), Heinrich Himmler in The Eagle Has Landed ( 1976 ), and the Bond arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice ( 1967 ), the first film in which the villain's face is clearly seen.

On 13 October 1941, SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik ( headquarters in Lublin ) received a verbal order from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler to start immediate construction work on the first Aktion Reinhard camp at Bełżec, in the General Government, Poland ( operational March 1942 ).

Himmler visited the Wewelsburg for the first time on 3 November 1933.

The vault allegedly dubbed the Himmler Crypt, was ( allegedly ) dedicated to Heinrich I, founder and first king of the medieval German state ( see East Francia ), of whom Himmler reportedly believed himself to be the reincarnation, and where he hoped to be interred after his death.

Heinrich Himmler, then Chief of Police of Munich, officially described the camp as " the first concentration camp for political prisoners.

Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Police of Munich, officially described the camp as " the first concentration camp for political prisoners.

Also during the same month, Himmler set up the first official concentration camp at Dachau.

" Höss first met Himmler in 1929.

The first attempt was in March 1943, when both Hitler and Heinrich Himmler were coming to the front to participate in a strategy meeting with Kluge's troops.

The first transport arrived a few weeks later, and Greiser sought and received permission from Himmler to kill 100, 000 Jews in his area.

Heinrich Himmler, then Chief of Police of Munich, officially described the camp as " the first concentration camp for political prisoners.

On October 13, 1941, Globocnik received a verbal order from Himmler to start immediate construction work on Belzec extermination camp, the first labor camp in the General Government.

Himmler was one of the first SS officers appointed to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer, and held the rank while simultaneously serving as the Reichsführer-SS.

In 1929, under new Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, the SS codified its first uniform regulations: the signature black color was extended to breeches, boots, armband edges, and belt and crossbelt ; the shirt collar was edged in black-and-white twist cord except for those of senior leaders, which were trimmed in silver.