Though he was nearsighted, unathletic and rather unattractive, Heinrich Himmler was fascinated with the idea of Nordic racial purity. He found "inspiration" in the bloodthirsty side of conqueror Genghis Khan. Because of the research of historian Richard Breit-man, Himmler has become a little less of a mystery.
Himmler was Reich Fuhrer of the SS. He was the man who took Adolf Hitler's death wish for Jews and created the blueprint for genocide. Richard Breitman is professor of history at American University in Washington, D.C., and keynote speaker for this year's "Days of Remembrance" activities."Some don't want to remember and some won't learn the lessons of the past," Breitman said during a recent telephone interview from Maryland.
While volumes have been written about the charismatic Third
Reich leaders, Hitler, Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goring, the bland bureaucrat Himmler remains out-of-focus. Breitman's book, "Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Fi
nal Solution," sharpens the view.
Breitman warns that Himmler is easy to underestimate, partly because of his short, pudgy physique. He writes in his book, "Contemporaries who looked at this flabby, balding man could see nothing of the Nordic ideal to which he was so devoted. One of the Nazi Party Gauleiter once wisecracked: `If I looked like him, I would not speak of race at all.' "
Breitman said that out of the circle of Hitler intimates, only Himmler's deputy, Reinhard Heydrich, fit the Nordic ideal of the "perfect" Aryan.
"There was a certain suppressed feeling of inferiority that helps explain their devotion to Nordic purity. There was a constant pushing of oneself, because by his own standards, Himmler didn't fit," he noted.
Breitman learned to become an archival detective. A mother lode of information was found in the American Historical Association - National Archives Guides to the Captured German Records. While Himmler never wrote about the actual killing (Breitman says he was always careful to write "de-lousing unit/crematorium" as if it were dead lice he was burning,) he was a voluminous documentor.
Breitman is the first historian to turn up the odd Nazi infatuation with Genghis Khan.
"Himmler kept so many notes and I kept finding references to a Genghis Khan book. There were even speeches by Hitler," Breit-man said.
Indeed, Breitman found in a 1939 speech to the commanders of the armed services, Hitler said, "Genghis Khan had millions of women and children killed by his own will and with a gay heart . . . I have sent to the East only my `Death's Head Units' with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need."
A close friend of Himmler's asserted that Hitler borrowed the idea from Genghis Khan that bloodshed bound warriors together. Hitler coined a new word for this concept: blutkitt, which means "blood cement" or "blood that serves as a bond."
When Breitman speaks Thursday, April 30, on "Hitler's Holocaust" he will attempt to explain how educated Germans allowed Hitler's atrocities.
Asked how the Nazis came to power when Hitler had spelled out death to Jews by poison gas in the book he wrote in 1923, "Mein Kampf," Breitman replied, "They thought, `This is nonsensical! Why should we take it too seriously? If Hitler ever gets into a position of power, he'll learn to be more mature.' "
The people were wrong.
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Days of Remembrance
- Monday, April 27, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Rabbi Daniel Landes of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles will speak at a luncheon at Hill Air Force Base. Call Sgt. Dervin, Hill AFB at 1-777-2700.
At 3 p.m. Monday, Rabbi Landes will speak on "Nazism and Neo-Nazism in Europe and the United States," at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at Orson Spencer Hall, Room 255.
- Tuesday, April 28, 7:30 p.m. Music from Eastern Europe by Cantor Laurence Loeb at the Jewish Community Center, 2416 E. 1700 South.
- Wednesday, April 29, 1-5 p.m. at the JCC, Workshop on the Holocaust by Ronald M. Smelser, U. professor of history. Public invited; for university credit contact Division of Continuing Education, 581-8113.
At 7 p.m. at the Art Barn, a panel discussion with Richard Breitman, Ron Smelser and artist Helene Elbein will focus on "Revisionist History and Universalism."
- Thursday, April 30, noon at the Utah State Capitol Rotunda: The Annual Holocaust Memorial Services. Gov. Norm Bangerter will make a Days of Remembrance proclamation joined by Mayor Deedee Corradini, Jewish leaders and other clergy. Holocaust survivor Dr. Michael Schafir will light a memorial candle.
At 7 p.m. Thursday evening, keynote speaker Richard Breitman will discuss "Hitler's Holocaust" in room 112 of the Social and Behavioral Science Building.
- Art exhibition by Helene Elbein, "Who Will Tell Our Story?" at the Art Barn through May 8. The film "The Architecture of Doom" will be playing at the Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 South, at 7:15 p.m. nightly May 15-17.