Project Nazi: Himmler's Empire of Terror Full History Documentary
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Adolf Hitler is determined to fight to the end, even if it costs millions of Germans their lives. He refuses any retreat, putting his faith in German scientists to create advanced weapons, including the first ever ballistic missile.
May, 1945. Germany is in ruins. The Nazis have been defeated. German soldiers are surrendering to the British Army to avoid capture by vengeful Russians. But the British know that Nazi criminals are hiding among them. They notice a short, middle-aged man wearing an eye patch behaving suspiciously. His identity papers say he is Sergeant Heinrich Hitzinger. When they confront him, he makes an extraordinary revelation.
He takes off his eye patch, replaces it with spectacles and announces his real name: Heinrich Himmler. For the people who captured Himmler, he's almost as big as Hitler himself. He's one of the most famous/infamous Nazis of them all. Himmler was totally committed to Hitler's plans for world domination. Himmler was someone Hitler always trusted. He knew that Himmler would always be loyal to him. He commanded the most evil organization in history: the SS.
It sent millions of people to their deaths. This is the man who has been in charge of the network of terror, the tentacles of terror. Starting as Hitler's bodyguard, Himmler grew the SS into a vast organization, a model for a future Nazi state. And he would stop at nothing to create it. The SS was the central pillar of the Nazi regime in the Third Reich. It was the most violent organization.
They carried out the mass crimes. They planned the mass crimes. Without the SS, the Holocaust couldn't have been carried out. 1923. Munich, in southern Germany. Armed right-wing nationalists are making a dramatic attempt to seize power, led by Adolf Hitler. One of them is Heinrich Himmler. He's carrying the Nazi flag at the head of Hitler's troops. This is the Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazis' first attempt to overthrow democracy.
For Himmler, who fantasizes about being a great military leader, it's the most exciting moment of his life. Himmler starts out as a minor figure in the Third Reich. He actually is from a very conservative, comfortable Bavarian family. So for Himmler to be taking part in a street, kind-of paramilitary putsch in 1923 is a real quantum shift from anything he's done previously in his career.
He missed out on being involved in the First World War, because he was still in training. This is a real moment. He announces himself in the public sphere and starts to live up to some of these masculine fantasies of being a soldier. But the Nazis are stopped right here in front of an old war memorial by the police. Bullets fly. Sixteen of Hitler's men are killed. Himmler is no hero.
He flees, dropping the flag on the ground, where it's soaked in the blood of the Nazi dead. By chance, Himmler is linked to the Nazi Party's most sacred icon: the Blood Flag. Martyrdom was really the essence of a lot of what the Nazis were doing with their rituals. For example, the ritual of the Blood Flag at Nuremberg, where Hitler carries the flag, and he baptizes every flag of the Storm Troopers with the Blood Flag.
So it's a kind of transmission of divine essence. Himmler's connection with the Blood Flag is a crucial factor in his rise to power. He joins the Storm Troopers, the Nazi Party's paramilitaries. Their job is to take on Hitler's political enemies in the streets. Himmler joins in, but he's out of place among so many hardened brawlers. When Hitler creates a totally new force, he has a chance to make his mark.
The SS roots are in 1923 when Hitler first forms a personal bodyguard to look after him in public, because his appearances are causing increasing agitation on the Munich scene. Its from this point onwards that you start to see the trajectory of the SS that Himmler picks up with and accelerates. The new unit is simply called the "protection squad," Schutzstaffel in German. The SS is born.
The SS was the central pillar of the Third Reich and the Nazi regime. It was the most violent organization. It was the brain and the tool for all the mass crimes. Or in other words, without the SS, the Holocaust couldn't have happened. Heinrich Himmler's body was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in northern Germany. All trace of it has been lost. His millions of victims, however, should never be forgotten. Date: 2024-02-05
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