Himmler Paperback – 1 Oct. 2013

One can only describe this excuse for a man as utter trash, that was totally blinded by Hitlers beliefs in his extermination of the Jews.

In the process of writing my own novels ('The City of Shadows', 'The City of Strangers', 'The City in Darkness'), which touch on WWII a great deal, I read many books, looking at all areas of the period, and I have done so throughout my life. Peter Padfield's 'Himmler' is not only a very thorough and well-written account of Himmler's life (I think the best in the way that it relates him to events in the rise of Hitler's Nazism and the Third Reich) but is, almost in passing, a fine analysis of what Nazism was and of the fundamental and essential element of racial 'cleansing' that was not merely an adjunct of Hitler's Germany, but in so many ways its true purpose, its aim, its driving spirit. Himmler, Heydrich, and the the SS state-within-a-state, were the true manifestation of that reality. It is a reality that is often touched on, but rarely given such clarity of expression as in Padfield's book. In that sense 'Himmler' is by no means just a book about Himmler, but a book that tells you more about what Nazism really was, and how it took hold of Germany, than many far more (apparently) wide-ranging accounts of the Third Reich and its emergence. It is essential reading - and will cut through a lot of the obfuscation and confusion that is piled up around Nazi Germany. A lot of it really was very simple, and as Padfield points out, no one represented the dark heart of that simplicity more than Himmler. Padfield cuts to the chase, always.

The man in the monster. The monster in the man. A bit of a slog and I was relieved to finish it.An extraordinary inhuman being.

I've read numerous books on Himmler, and this is close to the top of that list. A must read if you want to understand how man can easily stray into the murky world of immoral and dangerous ideas and behaviours.

There don't appear to be many books on Himmler - perhaps that's a good thing. My interest was for a wider project I'm working on and I wanted some insights into the character of Himmler. It's a well researched book and, by reading other reviews, better than some of the other offerings. However, I wouldn't say this was a great read, in the way that other WW2 writes such as Max Hastings and Anthony Beevor can bring a subject to life. It was a chronological trip through his rise and fall. I didn't really get much on his relationships with people like Felix Kersten, his personal masseuse, who claimed to influence Himmler's decision-making in other texts I've read. To be fair to Peter Padfield, the book is thoroughly researched, but I didn't come away feeling I'd learnt a whole heap about someone who I would say was even more evil than Hitler.

This is a scholarly work and certainly no airport read. It captures its subject, this odious and inadequate example of human detritus, well. For those potential readers who are looking for a biography of Himmler which just gives an impression of his career and personal life, look elsewhere; this surely has to be the definitive biography. It is somewhat turgid in places and goes into too much detail which loses pace, hence four rather than five stars for me.

A full biography of Himmler, which charts his origins from a boy from a upper middle class family to the Police Chief of the Nazi state. He was the only one of Hitler's paladins who had the power to overthrow him in 1944-45, but whose awe and fear of the Fuhrer prevented him from taking that step. Inevitable defeat meant an inglorious capture and suicide. A good biography.

A detailed examination that explains why a nonentity developed into a mass murderer. It tends to digress a little but is an incisive history and well worth the read.