ISBN Heinrich Himmler book 1056 pages

As head of the SS chief of police 'Reichskommissar for the Consolidation of Germanness' and Reich Interior Minister Heinrich Himmler enjoyed a position of almost unparalleled power and responsibility in Nazi Germany. Perhaps more than any other single Nazi leader aside from Hitler his name has become a byword for the terror persecution and destruction that characterized the Third Reich. His wide-ranging powers meant that he bore equal responsibility for the repression of the German people on the home front and the atrocities perpetrated by the SS in the East. Yet in spite of his central role in the crimes of the Nazi regime until now Himmler has remained a colourless and elusive figure in the history of the period. In this the first-ever comprehensive biography of the SS-Reichsführer leading German historian Peter Longerich puts every aspect of Himmler's life under the microscope. Masterfully interweaving the story of Himmler's personal life and political career with the wider history of the Nazi dictatorship Longerich shows how skilfully he exploited and manipulated his disparate roles in the pursuit of his far-reaching and grandiose objectives. In the process he illuminates the extraordinary degree to which Himmler's own personal prejudices idiosyncrasies and predilections made their mark on the organizations for which he was responsible - especially the SS which in so many ways bore the characteristic hallmarks of its leader and whose history remains both incomplete and incomprehensible without a detailed and intimate knowledge of its deeply sinister commander-in-chief.