Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Himmler by Peter Padfield Himmler by Peter Padfield
Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Himmler by Peter Padfield Himmler by Peter Padfield. Anthony Storr in Dimensions , vol.6, No 2. Padfield writes clearly, and, judging from Himmler 's reference notes and bibliography, it is apparent that his research is thorough and his knowledge of his subject encyclopedic. The reader can be assured that this book contains all the facts that he could possibly want to know about Himmler, who was one of the four or five most powerful men in the Third Reich. In June 1936, Hitler promoted Himmler to the position of Chief of the German Police. Himmler's combined offices gave him unrivaled power, second only to that of Hitler. He could now proceed with his acknowledged aim of ridding the Reich of its enemies: 'Jews, Bolsheviks, priests, homosexuals'. Padfield calls this operation 'the cleansing of the German nation', and there can be little doubt that Himmler's anal-sadistic character structure inclined him to look upon mass murder as a purge, a way of clearing out the poisonous filth which had accumulated in the bowels of the German nation. The story of the decline and fall of the Third Reich, of the von Stauffenberg plot against Hitler, of Germany's final defeat, and of Hitler's suicide has often been told, but never, perhaps, more competently than in these pages. Padfield, for the most, stays with the facts and declines speculation. He has a gift for narrative, and his account of Himmler's capture by the Allies is riveting. Yet Himmler was not essentially different from many people whom we daily encounter.
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