The Death of Himmler - Ep 2: The Reichsführer on the Run

[Music] at the end of the first video in this series himmler the peacemaker the reichsfuhrer ss was in a tricky situation he had exhausted avenues with both the allies who wanted nothing to do with him and grand admiral karl dernes's new nazi government in northern germany who eventually dismissed him from his offices of state on the 6th of may 1945 following hitler's earlier instructions himmler had drastically reduced his entourage from several hundred officers and men to only 14 faithful officers and ncos since the 6th of may himmler and this group were staying at a farmhouse in zatrup and himmler announced his intention to go south to bavaria the obvious question is why in the previous video we saw that himmler had plenty of opportunities to flee to neutral sweden but did not go to travel south throughout germany was extremely risky though the country was in an uproar with millions of displaced civilians and demobilized german soldiers wandering about british and u.s troops were starting to exercise control over their territories and allied patrols and checkpoints were everywhere one of their purposes was the identification and apprehension of persons of interest to the new occupiers and himmler was at the top of that long list whilst at zatrop himmler and his remaining followers changed their appearances primarily this meant removing all insignia from their uniforms and obtaining false documentation all of them including himmler would pretend to be recently demobilized german secret fuel police geheimer felt politzei himmler himself carrying papers that identified him as sergeant heinrich hitsinger lately of a special armored company attached to the secret field police demobilized on the 3rd of may 1945. the collective story was that the group were ill and making their way back home just another 15 german soldiers among millions roving the highways and byways of recently surrendered germany himmler also altered his physical appearance as he was the most recognizable among the group due to the many hours of wartime newsreel appearances thousands of photographs and public speeches he shaved off his moustache and wore a black eye patch over his left eye the choice of a secret field police unit was on the surface actually quite a good one such units were often staffed by middle-aged soldiers many unfit due to war wounds or illnesses himmler was 44 years old at the time and several others in the group were also middle-aged any allied troops should have dismissed such a shambolic group as unimportant after a cursory glance at their papers but the group had made a mistake they didn't know that members of the secret field police were subject to immediate arrests by the allies including ncos this was because the secret field police was part of the zika heidsteins the sd the ss security police himmler's cover name hanoi hitsinger was not made up hitsinger was a real person a rural policeman tried and sentenced to death for defeatism some months before his papers had been in the possession of the gestapo and appropriated for himmler's use as hitsinger apparently bought a strong resemblance to the reich's fuhrer all this suggests that himmler had been making preparations for just such an eventuality for some weeks or months himmler made his move south on the 10th of may 1945 two days after the german surrender the 15 men undoubtedly well armed with pistols and machine guns used four large van der w11 field cars much favored by himmler during his earlier visits to the front the next day the group arrived in the small village of delva a few miles southeast of friedrichstadt on the ida river the next day the convoy arrived at mana it had taken due to the confusion on the roads caused by refugees german troops and destroyed vehicles two days to travel a mere 60 miles south they were now stuck on the north bank of the elba river estuary with no way to move the cars over instead the four big field cars were abandoned and the group walked down to the riverbank at buensburto after some searching and negotiations himmler's party paid a fisherman 500 reichsmarks to ferry them across the river to the town of neuhaus the mouth of the oster river from now on himless party would be on foot whatever plan the reich's fuhrer or any other member of the party had is not known but they continued south for another five days himmler's party trudged along country lanes sleeping in farms barns or even beside the road becoming increasingly dirty and disheveled foot saw and exhausted by the 18th of may the group reached bremerverde a small town on the river oster the plan was to walk through the open countryside to avoid getting tangled up in the towns and villages between hamburg and bremerhaven which were both under full british occupation on the 18th of may the group moved into a farmhouse on valdstrasser in brahmaverda the onus having no idea at the time of the identification of the men ss stumban fura kia maya himmler's personal aid went forward to investigate the oster river bridge which was guarded by british troops for two days kia mayor tried to obtain special movement passes from the local mayor the lundrat who had been appointed to a new administration under british authority he wanted chits of paper allowing the group to pass through the checkpoint for some manufactured reason such as a group of sick german troops returning home to munich for the landrat probably realizing that kia maya represented some group of nazi fugitives and probably not keen on antagonizing his new masters refused all in treaties himmler's group hung around at the farmhouse from the 18th to the 21st of may before a decision was taken to try and get past the checkpoint and continue their journey himmler and his two adjutants grotman and maka would hold back while the rest of the group attempted to cross the bridge at 3 pm kia mayer and himmler's personal doctor gephardt went to the bridge apparently not realizing that there was an unguarded forward some distance down the river where everyone could have crossed without any problems kia maya and gephardt intended to cross the bridge and if there were no problems come back and fetch the others at 4 pm the two germans were stopped on the bridge by sergeant ken bayes brown of 1003 field security reserve detachment the british army's intelligence corps he examined the men's demobilization passes and knew immediately that a secret feel police they must be arrested but keeping this to himself bayes brown quickly learned from dr gephardt that he was but the vanguard of a much larger group of sick ex-secret field police baze brown quickly organized two army trucks and an escort to bring in the rest of gephardt's comrades bayes brown using lozer's mill on the river as an office informed his commander staff sergeant john hogg that a party of secret field police were shortly to arrive the trucks duly returned with gephardt and the rest of the group but minus three men these being himmler and his adjutants another nco sergeant arthur britton who was actually dutch born examined the germans documents they all bore secret field police stamps dated the first or third of may 1945 with smudged sd stamps some of the germans now denied being members of the group the youngest german was taken into the mill and interrogated by britain and baze brown he quickly confessed that the secret field police stamp was from sd headquarters and they all belonged in one group at 6 pm everyone was arrested and trucks drove them to the civilian internment camp at vestatimka near saven however sergeant hogg retained dr gephardt and together they drove to the farm to collect the three remaining men but on arrival himmler and his cohorts had made themselves scarce british intelligence was alerted to three secret field police suspects on the run in the area himmler's little group assumed that kia maya and gephard's group had successfully crossed the bridge checkpoint they waited and then tried themselves on the 22nd of may the trio walked through the streets of bremerverder grotman and maka wore long ss officers raincoats minus insignia and walked either side of the much shorter himmler who wore bits of german army uniform a blue raincoat and an eye patch before they reached the bridge a british patrol stopped them and escorted them to the mill for questioning sergeant britain received them and reported their arrival by phone to staff sergeant hogg heinrich himmler was now in allied hands but for the time being his real identity was not known to them he was just another low-ranking german soldier to be processed into a holding camp because of his unit's world war ii role himmler spent his first night in british captivity with grotman and maca sleeping on the floor of the mill using grain sacks as mattresses the important point was that if himmler's false identity continued to hold up he could expect to be released after a few weeks or months perhaps earlier enabling him to continue with his plan as he had told dernitz's foreign minister count schwerin von krosig in early may 1945 during which he said that the allies would never find him that he would lie low and await political developments when questioned himmler and his companions all claim to be sergeants and the secret field police but this smudged sd stamps on their papers were suspicious when the british examined himmler's baggage they confiscated a large magnifying glass embossed with nazi eagle wings but apparently thought little of it the rest of himmler's personal items some of them inscribed with his monogram hh or even his title rfss had been hidden at the farm and would be found much later by intelligence core ncos at 7 00 am on the 23rd of may himmler and his companions were driven to vesta timka camp fired saven headquarters the 45th field security station of the british army arriving around 9 00 am after processing himmler and his adjutants were next driven 45 miles southeast to kolkhagen a special interrogation camp near the village of baangstet arriving after several stops around 6 30 pm himmler was immediately recognized by some of the prisoners standing by the wire watching new arrivals despite his shaved off moustache and black eye patch particularly by prisoner karl kaufman the former gaul lighter of hamburg who had met himmler on multiple occasions kaufman said that himmler didn't recognize him or at least pretended not to do so and shortly afterwards removed his eye patch before long most of the prisoners knew that himmler was in residence it appears that himmler now knew that the game was up sooner or later the british would be informed by a prisoner regarding his identity but himmler still had some aces up his sleeve he was after all the most senior nazi in allied captivity and privy to a vast amount of secret information that he might use in his favor including information embarrassing to the british perhaps thought himmler he might yet be able to make a deal of some kind in any case he could expect months or even years of questioning by allied intelligence and war crimes investigators before he would ever be brought to trial and what he knew of hidden treasures secret bank accounts even more secret deals and of soviet intelligence operations plus the vast ss spy networks which still existed were surely of immense value to his captors who were at that moment combing germany for men useful to them in the new cold war that was in its opening stages with self-preservation in mind himmler now demanded to see the camp commandant captain thomas sylvester and after some argument with british ncos he was duly granted an interview at 7 pm himmler led the trio into sylvester's office the british officer described himmler as small ill-looking and shabbily dressed his companions looked different evidently military men by their tall erect bearing and severe haircuts sylvester ordered grotman and maka removed from his office and kept under close guard himmler now put on a pair of glasses sylvester asked him his name to which the prisoner replied quietly here heinrich himmler sylvester immediately phoned british second army headquarters at luneburg speaking to major rice an intelligence officer who initially didn't believe him however after a slightly muddled conversation major rice announced that he was starting out for coke hagen immediately while sylvester waited for help he ordered himmler to strip and ncos carefully examined his clothing a brass capsule container was found containing a glass ampoule evidently a cyanide capsule sylvester asked himmler what it was he replied that is my medicine it cures stomach cramp a second brass container was found this one was empty sylvester ordered a full body search but did not search himmler's mouth fearful that himmler had the glass ampule of cyanide in his mouth ready to kill himself with here things become a bit bizarre himmler dressed and sylvester ordered tea and thick british army sandwiches and himmler tucked into both if as was later claimed himmler had concealed a glass ampoule of cyanide in his mouth measuring 35 by nine millimeters how could he have eaten thick sandwiches and drunken tea clearly nothing was in his mouth at the time and the missing ampoule was not on his person or in his clothing which had been thoroughly searched either that or the afternoon tea scenario was invented by sylvester for some reason it appears though sylvester later denied it that himmler was allowed to shave and freshen up due to the growth of stubble reported on his corpse a short time later expressly against regulations concerning war crime suspects major rice and his team of intelligence officers arrived at kolkagan about 7 30 pm rice carried with him a photograph of himmler in his black algamine ss uniform plus a short biography that included both his date of birth his nazi and ss membership numbers and a copy of his signature however rice didn't have any details of himmler's weight height or any other personal information like this or a set of fingerprints rice's task was simple establish himmler's identity beyond a reasonable doubt himmler gave a vague answer when asked for his nsdap membership number and an equally imprecise though reasonably accurate ss number he gave his correct days of birth asked to provide a signature himmler agreed on the strange condition that it be destroyed immediately afterwards the signature matched the specimen rice had brought with him and himmler was formally identified as the reich's fuhrer ss himmler was very chatty and mentioned a letter he had written to field martial suburn of montgomery on the 8th of may and even told rice that his intention had been to lie low for a few weeks until things in germany had calmed down and as he said circumstances were more favorable for an interview he told rice that the soviet union was the greater enemy predicting war between the allies very soon overall himmler tried to cultivate a cooperative demeanor with his captors the exact opposite in fact of a man preparing to commit suicide rice telephoned luneburg and spoke with his boss colonel michael murphy chief of intelligence british second army murphy now set out to take charge of himmler the prize prisoner murphy was at the time rather out of sorts suffering the effects of a string of victory parties he got a lift to culk hargen in the car of colonel mac osborne gs01 general staff officer 1 military intelligence operations second army they arrived at the camp at 9 45 pm rice and murphy conferred then murphy ordered himmler to strip for a second time which he refused to do murphy threatened him with being forcibly stripped and himmler reluctantly complied afterwards himmler refused to don british battle dress and wore only a grey german army shirt his underpants and socks his original uniform being retained by the british an army blanket was handed to him in lieu of a coat murphy was according to his later statements concerned about the missing cyanide ampule he decided to have a doctor conduct a body cavity search not at the camp but at a requisitioned house in luneburg ominously called the house for special purposes located at 31a oznastrassa a doctor was to meet them at the house this again is rather strange why didn't murphy order the camp doctor to simply conduct the body cavity search allowing himmler to go for a nice drive and a car of course would give him the opportunity once again to kill himself at 10 40 pm himmler got into a car sitting in the back between murphy's second in command and a guard murphy in the front passenger seat himmler even offered driving directions when murphy became lost on the way to luneburg he would prove to be himmler's last journey as we shall see in the next episode when we examine what exactly occurred at 31a ulsnastrassa that resulted in the reichsfuhrer's death [Music] thanks for watching please subscribe and 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Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 2,140,110

Keywords: Mark Felton, Himmler

Id: MyWspZnxagA

Length: 19min 8sec (1148 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 03 2022