The news of Adolf Hitler’s death reached Heinrich Himmler with a jolt he had not expected. For months, the Reichsführer SS had maneuvered behind the Führer’s back, opening secret channels to the Western Allies, positioning himself as the man who could end the war and take control of what remained of Germany. He had believed, with all the conviction of a man who had spent years accumulating power, that Hitler had named him successor. Instead, the announcement came that Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz would lead the remnants of the Third Reich.
Himmler had been passed over, and the shock of that betrayal, the knowledge that Hitler had seen through his schemes, sat on him like a weight. But Himmler was not finished. He packed his bitterness away and drove to Plön to meet the new Führer. Dönitz was a realist, a naval officer who understood that the war was lost and that his primary duty now was to save as many Germans as possible from the Soviet advance.
He did not trust Himmler, and he wanted him gone. Yet the Reichsführer still commanded the loyalty of thousands of SS troops scattered across Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark, the occupied Netherlands, and Norway. Dönitz knew that Himmler had the muscle to remove him by force if he chose. So the Grand Admiral trod carefully, humoring the man he despised.
Himmler pushed his way into the new government’s deliberations as if he belonged at the center of power. He demanded that Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, one of his old enemies, be dismissed, and he pressed Dönitz to replace him with Count von Krosigk. Dönitz, wary of provoking the SS, conceded. Himmler believed that Dönitz had no real understanding of the political game he had been playing with the West.
For months, through intermediaries and secret channels, Himmler had been angling for a negotiated surrender that would leave him in charge of Germany under Western protection. He believed the British might still take him seriously. Indeed, in London, Winston Churchill was watching those channels closely. On the first of May, 1945, the Prime Minister sent a top secret telegram to Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, the Allied Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean.
Churchill reported that he had intelligence from Sir Stewart Menzies, the head of MI6, suggesting the Germans might be only a day or two from surrendering on all fronts through Himmler. The British were still uncertain which man would deliver the capitulation they so badly wanted. Himmler, meanwhile, continued to issue orders as if he still held real authority. That same day, SS-Obergruppenführer Hans Prützmann, the man responsible for organizing the Werewolf guerrilla campaign inside Germany, arrived at Dönitz’s headquarters as Himmler’s personal representative.
Himmler was also focused on the Alpine region of Bavaria and Austria. He radioed SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger, who commanded the remnants of the 13th SS Army Corps there, with a direct order: gather the SS units under your command, take charge yourself, and defend the entrances to the Alps for me. That order made sense in light of what Himmler would do in the days ahead. The mountainous region, the so-called Alpine Redoubt, was meant to be a last refuge for the SS, a fortress that would be a nightmare for the Americans to capture.
In reality, it was largely a propaganda construction, but Himmler still treated it as a place of escape. The next day he contacted General August von Ringel, commanding Army Group Ostmark in Austria and western Czechoslovakia, with the same exhortation. He insisted he had remained faithful and loyal throughout, and dismissed the suggestion that he had betrayed the Führer. It had all been intrigue, he claimed, by Martin Bormann in Berlin.
Dönitz had his own reasons for keeping the war going, if only briefly. His focus was Operation Hannibal, the naval evacuation of German soldiers and civilians trapped on the Baltic coast, desperate to escape the Soviets. He was prepared to negotiate a surrender, but he intended to buy time. At a meeting on the second of May he stated plainly that the military situation was hopeless and that the main objective of the government must be to save as many German people as possible from annihilation by the Bolsheviks.
That morning, at 11:50, Dönitz met with von Krosigk, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, and Himmler. The situation in Schleswig-Holstein was still rated as good, with supplies and munitions enough to last several weeks. In the early afternoon, Himmler brought news that the Gauleiter of Hamburg, Karl Kaufmann, was asking permission to declare the city open and surrender it to the British, sparing the population. Dönitz and Himmler agreed.
By eight that evening, with British forces approaching Plön, Dönitz began evacuating his headquarters to the Naval Academy at Flensburg-Mürwik, near the Danish border. Himmler made his own arrangements. His 600-man guard battalion had been committed to the fighting in Berlin, so his adjutant, Heinz Macher, was ordered to pick fifteen hand-picked SS men to serve as Himmler’s personal protection detail. His headquarters staff numbered around 150 SS men.
Before Dönitz left Plön, Himmler spoke with him at length about the possibility of an armistice with the Western Allies, the thing he had always wanted, and whether he should remain part of the new government. Dönitz wanted him out, but again he humored him, fearing the consequences of a coup. Later that day, Himmler was seen sitting in the Führer’s car in the market square of Bramstedt, reviewing the 12th SS Panzergrenadier Training and Replacement Battalion of the Hitler Youth Division. Dönitz may have been the head of the government, but Himmler was still a shadow over it.
On the night of the second to third of May, Himmler drove to Flensburg, dodging Allied air attacks along the way. He gave a lift to SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Werner Best, the civil administrator of occupied Denmark. During the long journey, Himmler spoke openly.
He said the Führer had not been the same in recent times, that he had changed, and that Bormann and the Armed Forces High Command had turned their influence against him. He said to Best, if I could just talk to Eisenhower for two hours, then I would convince him that together we need to go against the Russians. Best watched him carefully as they drove. He found Himmler nervous, absent-minded, moody, and despondent, a man who had been through an exhausting ordeal and could see no clear job ahead of him.
Best was certain that if they had been surprised by enemy troops that night, Himmler would have taken poison by his side. But by the end of the journey, his nerves had settled somewhat. Himmler set up his new headquarters at a requisitioned farm near Flensburg, the Lorenzen farm, about ten kilometers southeast of the town. He would remain there until roughly the seventh of May.
The place would later become the focus of an intensive British search after Himmler’s death, because one of his bodyguards, Wilhelm Walter, told his interrogators that this farm was where Himmler had buried files. What files, no one ever established, but they were evidently important enough to hide, perhaps as some kind of insurance policy. The farmer and his daughter were interrogated at length by the British, but the documents had apparently been moved, and the searches came up empty. On the third of May, Himmler convened meetings with senior SS officials.
He met with SS Standartenführer Hans Hinch, the police president of Flensburg, to discuss the situation in Schleswig-Holstein. Also present was the chief of the Order Police, Obergruppenführer Alfred Wünnenberg, who admitted that any defense of the region was now futile. At 9:30 that morning Himmler arrived at Dönitz’s headquarters for a meeting with Dönitz, von Krosigk, Keitel, Generaloberst Alfred Jodl, and Albert Speer. The discussion touched on the Bohemia question, the part of western Czechoslovakia still in German hands, and it became clear that Himmler was interested in transferring the government there.
That evening, at 6:30, Himmler gatecrashed a meeting between Dönitz and the German leaders in Norway, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven and General Franz Böhme. He brought his intelligence chief, Walter Schellenberg. Böhme reported that Norway, home to a 350,000-man garrison and several operational U-boat bases, remained quiet. Schellenberg suggested that Dönitz offer to surrender Norway to Sweden and allow the occupation force to enter Sweden and go into internment camps.
Himmler told the meeting he had already discussed this with Sweden through Count Bernadotte, and that the Swedes were willing. Dönitz was suspicious, believing Sweden would not act without British approval. Schellenberg was asked to find out. At eight that night, Himmler met privately with Dönitz.
Negotiations to surrender German forces in northwest Europe to the British were underway, and at 11:00, Generaladmiral von Friedeburg, the new head of the German navy, returned from talks at Field Marshal Montgomery’s headquarters to report on progress. Afterward, Himmler sent orders for the remaining leaders of the concentration camp inspectorate to report to him at Flensburg. Among those who came was Rudolf Höss, the former commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Himmler arrived from a government meeting and greeted him warmly.
Höss later recalled that Himmler was hale and hearty, in the best of humor. He shook each man’s hand and gave his orders: the senior camp officers were to disguise themselves as army NCOs and cross into Denmark that night as military stragglers. All future concentration camp matters would be handled by Standartenführer Hinch. Höss had the impression that Himmler intended to go into hiding, perhaps in Sweden.
To Richard Glücks, one of the principal organizers of the Holocaust, and Gerhard Maurer, Himmler said he was getting in touch with Montgomery to arrange an armistice with the West so the war could continue against Russia. He advised them to go into hiding for a few weeks, by which time, he said, all grievances would be forgotten. The men obtained fake papers and went their separate ways. On the fourth of May, Generalfeldmarschall Ernst Busch, commanding Army Group Northwest, set up his headquarters at a farm in the village of Kollerup with 350 personnel, and the village was sealed off.
Himmler visited him immediately. Incredibly, during their conversation, Himmler asked Busch for an army paybook he could use. Busch refused. It was clear Himmler was already thinking about fleeing.
At 12:25 that day, Dönitz, Himmler, von Krosigk, and Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the Reichskommissar of the Netherlands, discussed the ongoing surrender negotiations with Montgomery. Albert Speer was also present, and he noted that despite the British advance threatening Flensburg, Dönitz refused to leave. Speer also observed that Himmler was thinking about flying to Prague, where he still had a power base in the German-held Czech areas. Indeed, Himmler’s Focke-Wulf Condor was being held ready for him at Neumünster Airfield.
At 6:30 that evening, Generaladmiral von Friedeburg signed the surrender document in a tent at Montgomery’s headquarters on Lüneburg Heath. The surrendering generals included Johannes Blaskowitz in the Netherlands, Busch in the Netherlands and northwestern Germany, and Generaloberst Georg Lindemann commanding all troops in Denmark. What remained of the Third Reich was now reduced to Schleswig-Holstein, Norway, parts of Czechoslovakia, a slice of Bavaria and Austria, the Channel Islands, a few Atlantic ports, the Heiligenbeil pocket in East Prussia, the Hel Peninsula, the besieged city of Breslau, and the islands of Crete and Rhodes. The surrender came into effect at 8:00 on the morning of the fifth of May.
That day, Himmler met General Böhme, the military commander in Norway. He told Böhme that he had retained all his offices of state, contrary to reports that Hitler had formally stripped him of them on the twenty-eighth of April. As Reichsführer SS, Himmler said, he had also taken over responsibility for the maintenance of law and order. A government reshuffle was undertaken in Flensburg.
Walter Schellenberg was appointed envoy with plenary powers to conduct peace negotiations, specifically his mission to Sweden regarding the internment of the German garrison in Norway. At Bletchley Park, the British decoding center intercepted a radio message from Field Marshal Keitel concerning the treatment of prisoners. It stated that, in agreement with Himmler, all prisoners of war, foreign workers, and concentration camp inmates were to be handed over to the enemy under a small guard. The fifth of May also saw Himmler’s last conference with his Obergruppenführers, his inner circle of SS lieutenant generals.
Thirteen were present. Himmler told them that Martin Bormann had admonished him for initiating peace talks with the Western powers without the Führer’s authority. His intention, he said, was to establish a reformed government in Schleswig-Holstein, where it could negotiate with the West on its own territory. Those present were unanimous in their opinion that Himmler was unduly optimistic.
Maximilian von Herff, chief of the SS personnel office, later recalled that Himmler seemed very positive that Schleswig-Holstein would remain a refuge where the government could work in a small area, and that the SS should be used as a police force to show the English what they were made of. Hans Jüttner, head of the SS Leadership Office, remembered that Himmler declared he had no intention of ending his own life or being killed, that he was full of vitality, and that all he wanted now was an interview with Montgomery. Jüttner and others got the impression that Himmler intended to strike some sort of bargain with the Western Allies to save his own skin, and they were struck by his absolute confidence that he would succeed. Around this time, a document appeared that has been much discussed: Himmler’s letter to Field Marshal Montgomery.
Heinz Macher saw it on the fifth or sixth of May. Himmler ordered that it be handed to Keitel or Jodl for delivery by military courier to Montgomery. Macher recalled its general contents: Himmler recognized that he was defeated and Montgomery was the victor, but there remained many things to be done in re-establishing order in Germany, and in view of the help Himmler could give, a meeting was suggested. Werner Grothmann, Himmler’s other adjutant, added that Himmler wanted to place the Waffen SS at Montgomery’s disposal for the fight against the Soviet Union.
On the sixth of May, Bletchley intercepted a radio message from Himmler to Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the head of the Reich Main Security Office, ordering that the King of the Belgians, who had been held hostage, be driven to the Swiss frontier and released. It was another gesture toward the Allies. At 5:00 that afternoon, Dönitz formally dispensed with Himmler’s services. He was no longer recognized as Minister of the Interior, Chief of the Replacement Army, or Head of the Police.
The surrender was imminent, and Dönitz felt confident enough to end the charade of humoring him. Otto Ohlendorf, an Obergruppenführer present at the time, said that Himmler gave the impression he wanted to disappear and go underground, though he still had his 150-man headquarters staff, four large fuel cars, a radio truck, and traveled with many armed guards and aides. That afternoon, Generaloberst Jodl arrived at Eisenhower’s headquarters in Reims to sign the capitulation documents for all German armed forces in Europe. Before he left, Himmler had asked his advice about what to do next, whether he should fly south to where substantial SS troops remained under arms.
Wilhelm Walter later told his interrogators that Himmler had given 24 members of his staff instructions to go to Bavaria and Austria. Himmler transferred his headquarters to another farm near Satrup, just south of Flensburg, closer to Busch’s headquarters. His staff made frequent trips to Flensburg in search of news. At 2:21 on the morning of the seventh of May, Jodl signed the unconditional surrender at Eisenhower’s headquarters.
It would become effective the following day. On the eighth, Dönitz made a radio address to the German people announcing the end of the war. Himmler signed an order to all troops under his command on the western front to surrender. He retained an escort of about twelve officers and men under Standartenführer Josef Kiermaier, and four large cars.
At 11:01 that night, the total German surrender became effective. At some point, Himmler had given his letter to Montgomery to Jodl for delivery to the German liaison officer at Montgomery’s headquarters, General Eberhard Kinzel. Albert Speer later said at Nuremberg that the letter included a plea for safe conduct for the proposed meeting, and that if Himmler were taken prisoner, he expected to be treated as a high-ranking general, since he had commanded Army Group Vistula on the Eastern Front. But the letter was never delivered.
Jodl later admitted he had torn it up. Himmler had no idea. His plan was to go into hiding while he waited for a reply. On the ninth or tenth of May, Macher received orders to accompany him to the Harz Mountains as a bodyguard.
On the tenth, Himmler’s party, just over a dozen officers and men, extremely well armed, drove south in four large fuel cars. Grothmann said that since no reply had come from Montgomery, Himmler had decided to move in order to remain at liberty, to be able to talk to Montgomery as a free man, not as a captive. He stayed in contact with his men in the Flensburg area and checked daily for a reply that never came. Grothmann was explicit about where Himmler was heading: the isolated Harz Mountains of central Germany, where the group could remain safely hidden for a considerable time.
Himmler had a large stash of gold coins and foreign currency hidden in a local bank, enough to finance his evasion south if needed. According to Grothmann, if Montgomery refused to reply, Himmler would eventually move down to the Alps, determined to stay out of Allied hands as long as possible. Himmler had arranged another hidden cache of money in the Alps for just such an eventuality, a detail almost unknown to historians. He was, as always, a master of organization and planning, a man absolutely determined to survive.
On the tenth of May, he left his last headquarters at Satrup and headed south, into the weeks that would lead to his capture and his very mysterious end in British custody on the twenty-third of May.