born Oct. 7, 1900, Munich, Ger.
died May 23, 1945, Lüneburg
German Nazi police administrator who became the second most powerful man in the Third Reich.
He joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and rose to become head of SS . He was put in command of most German police units after 1933, taking charge of the Gestapo in 1934, and established the Third Reich's first concentration camp, at Dachau . He soon built the SS into a powerful network of state terror, and by 1936 he commanded all the Reich's police forces. In World War II he expanded the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) until it rivaled the army; after 1941 he organized the death camps in eastern Europe. Shunted aside by Hitler's entourage, Himmler, hoping to succeed Hitler, had negotiations with the Allies in the final months of the war over Germany's surrender or its alliance with the Western Allies against the Soviet Union. Hitler ordered his arrest, but when he attempted to escape he was captured by the British and committed suicide by taking poison.
Himmler.
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