Heinrich Himmler
He was the “worst of the worst” and a truly robotic human being. It seemed as if he had willfully removed both logic and emotions out of his head to justify the killings of millions. Even though, Heinrich Himmler wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger, his mass murder schemes and deep hatred for Jews was the main reason behind their extermination.
Born in 1900, Heinrich Himmler was one of Hitler’s closest confidantes and was in on each and every state policy. Himmler served as the founder & head of SS, Hitler’s personal bodyguards and can be thought of as a pillar of Nazism. From the very beginning, Himmler was interested in creating the master race and preserving its racial integrity. He was appointed as the head of the Gestapo on 1934 and thus became the most feared man in Germany. He was tasked with a simple job: to eliminate all threats to the Nazi party. He succeeded in doing so by successfully implementing the “Night of the Lon Knives” plan, which neutralized all threats to Hitler within the party.
After this operation, Himmler was considered untouchable and given charge of cleansing Germany of any opposition. He set up the first concentration camp in 1933 at Dachau, which spelled doom for the Jews. As evil he was, he brilliantly organized these camps and each year, came up with some new scheme to quicken the gassings. By the time the war broke out, he became the most dangerous man in Germany and occupied Europe as it was he who had final judgement.
He was the prime facilitator for all anti-Jewish activities in Europe from the Auschwitz Death Camp to the uprooting of settlements. All in all, he was responsible for killing almost 6 million Jews and 700,000 people of other cultures. By the time Himmler was captured, it was found that he had directed the killings of almost 11 – 14 million civilians! He tried to make his way out of imprisonment, surprised that he was being tried for war crimes and committed suicide like many other Nazi leaders by ingesting cyanide.