Himmler S Diary 1945 A Calendar Of Events Leading To Suicide

Himmler's Diary 1945: A Calendar of Events Leading to Suicide is an exceptional work with unpublished diary entries made by Himmler that shows in detail how The Third Reich fell to ruin in its final bloody year. Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler was instigator of the largest programme of racial mass murder in history. 1 January 1945 saw Heinrich Himmler at his peak in Nazi Germany, controlling the entire German police force (including the Gestapo), all SS organisations and Nazi Minister of the Interior. His powers extended into the German Army and included Commander of the Replacement Army and two Army Groups. Two field commands revealed his limitations and failure as army commander. Between January and May 1945, Heinrich Himmler vacillated, showing a lack of vision, action and decision. At least he was able to gain control of V-2 rocket production and their launch against Britain. He ordered all concentration camp inmates be shot, before rescinding the order. When his SS generals asked for instructions, Himmler ordered them to show backbone as their commands had few bounds. The Swedes and Swiss negotiated with Himmler who allowed over 10,000 concentration camp prisoners taken to safety before Hitler intervened. Himmler conducted peace feelers via the Swedes before the German surrender in May 1945, while trying to make contact with British Field Marshal Montgomery. These contacts went unanswered. Himmler was captured by the British and then committed suicide on 23 May 1945.

Himmler's Diary 1945: A Calendar of Events Leading to Suicide is an exceptional work with unpublished diary entries made by Himmler that shows in detail how The Third Reich fell to ruin in its final bloody year.

Winner of the 2018 Canadian Jewish Literary Awards - Holocaust Literature Shortlisted for the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize Longlisted for the 2018 Frank Hegyi Award for Emerging Authors Shortlisted for the 2018 Vine Awards for Jewish Literature The untold true story of the secret negotiations—by the most unlikely figures—to end the Holocaust On November 25, 1944, prisoners at Auschwitz heard a deafening explosion. Emerging from their barracks, they witnessed the crematoria and gas chambers—part of the largest killing machine in human history—come crashing down. Most assumed they had fallen victim to inmate sabotage and thousands silently cheered. However, the Final Solution's most efficient murder apparatus had not been felled by Jews, but rather by the ruthless architect of mass genocide, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. It was an edict that has puzzled historians for more than six decades. Holocaust historian and New York Times bestselling author Max Wallace—a veteran interviewer for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation—draws on an explosive cache of recently declassified documents and an account from the only living eyewitness to unravel the mystery. He uncovers an astounding story involving the secret negotiations of an unlikely trio—a former fascist President of Switzerland, a courageous Orthodox Jewish woman, and Himmler's Finnish osteopath—to end the Holocaust, aided by clandestine Swedish and American intelligence efforts. He documents their efforts to deceive Himmler, who, as Germany's defeat loomed, sought to enter an alliance with the West against the Soviet Union. By exploiting that fantasy and persuading Himmler to betray Hitler's orders, the group helped to prevent the liquidation of tens of thousands of Jews during the last months of the Second World War, and thwarted Hitler's plan to take "every last Jew" down with the Reich. Deeply researched and dramatically recounted, In the Name of Humanity is a remarkable tale of bravery and audacious tactics that will help rewrite the history of the Holocaust.

In the autumn of 1942, British Special Operations Executive agent Ronald Sydney Seth was parachuted into German-occupied Estonia, supposedly to carry out acts of sabotage against the Nazis in a plan codenamed Operation Blunderhead. Uniquely, it was Seth and not the SOE who had engineered the mission, and he had no support network on the ground. It was a failure. Captured by Estonian militia, Seth was handed over to the Germans for interrogation and was imprisoned and sentenced to death, but managed to evade execution by convincing his captors that he could be an asset.What happened between Seth’s capture and his return to England in the dying days of the war reads, at times, like a novel – inhabiting a Gestapo safe house, acting as a stool pigeon, entrusted with a mission sanctioned by Heinrich Himmler – yet much of it is true, albeit highly embellished by Seth, who was quite capable of weaving the most elaborate fantasies. He was an unlikely hero, whose survival owed more to his ability to spin a tale than to any daring qualities.Operation Blunderhead is a compelling and original account of an extraordinary episode of the Second World War – a brilliant blend of fact and fiction, contrasting material taken from SOE and MI5 files with Seth’s own fantastical story.

Winner of the Longman-History Today Book Prize: A 'profoundly moving chronicle' (Observer) that tells the story of Ravensbrück, the only concentration camp designed specifically for women, using new testimony from survivors On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 800 women - housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes - were marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded through giant gates. Whipping and kicking them were scores of German women guards. Their destination was Ravensbrück, a concentration camp designed specifically for women by Heinrich Himmler, prime architect of the Nazi genocide. For decades the story of Ravensbrück was hidden behind the Iron Curtain and today is still little known. Using testimony unearthed since the end of the Cold War, and interviews with survivors who have never spoken before, Helm has ventured into the heart of the camp, demonstrating for the reader in riveting detail how easily and quickly the unthinkable horror evolved. 'It not only fills a gap in Holocaust history but it is an utterly compelling read' Taylor Downing, History Today 'A sense of urgency infuses this history, which comes just in time to gather the testimony of the camp's survivors . . . meticulous, unblinking . . . [Helm's] book comes not a moment too soon' The Economist

On 30th April 1945 Germany is in chaos...Russian troops have reached Berlin. All over the country, people are on the move - concentration camp survivors, Allied PoWs, escaping Nazis - and the civilian population is fast running out of food. The man who orchestrated this nightmare is in his bunker beneath the capital, saying his farewells.This is the gripping story of Hitler's final hours, as seen through the eyes of those who were with him in the bunker; those fighting in the streets of Germany; and those pacing the corridors of power in Washington, London and Moscow.30th April 1945 was a day that millions had dreamed of, and millions had died for.

Previously unpublished documents in archives in Europe and the USA show how Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service showed a insensitive disregard for its former agents murdered in German concentration campsA callous disregard by recruiting the Gestapo major responsible for their deaths as a consultant in Britain’s own post-war counter espionage activities against Soviet agentsResearch that shows not only how Britain recruited Kopkow, but also protected him from prosecution as a war criminalHistorically rich in detail with photographs of many of the characters involved On 27 May 1942, SS-General Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated by Czech agents who were trained in the UK and dropped by parachute into Czechoslovakia. Heydrich succumbed to his wounds on 4 June 1942. Two days later, Gestapo Captain Horst Kopkow’s department at Reich National Security headquarters was given fresh orders. From 6 June 1942 until the end of the war, Kopkow was responsible for co-ordinating the fight against Soviet and British agents dropped in Germany or German-occupied territories. This new direction for Kopkow made his name. Within months, the ‘Rote Kapelle’ Soviet espionage ring was uncovered in Belgium whose traces went directly to Berlin and Paris. A new counter-espionage war began and agents caught would pay with their lives. In France and Holland, the Gestapo caught many SOE agents trained in Britain. By spring 1944, around 150 British agents had been deported to concentration camps. By December 1944, almost all had been murdered without trial and Kopkow was directly involved in these murders. Arrested by British forces after the war, Kopkow was extensively interrogated due to his counter-espionage experience. For the next 20 years, Kopkow was a consultant for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service. 39 black-and-white photographs