Editing Heinrich Himmler (section)

== Historical assessment ==
Peter Longerich observes that Himmler's ability to consolidate his ever-increasing powers and responsibilities into a coherent system under the auspices of the SS led him to become one of the most powerful men in the Third Reich.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=747}} Historian Wolfgang Sauer says that "although he was pedantic, dogmatic, and dull, Himmler emerged under Hitler as second in actual power. His strength lay in a combination of unusual shrewdness, burning ambition, and servile loyalty to Hitler."{{sfn|Sauer, Wolfgang}} In 2008, the German news magazine {{lang|de|[[Der Spiegel]]}} described Himmler as one of the most brutal mass murderers in history and the architect of the Holocaust.{{sfn|Von Wiegrefe|2008}}

Historian [[John Toland (author)|John Toland]] relates a story by Günter Syrup, a subordinate of Heydrich. Heydrich showed him a picture of Himmler and said: "The top half is the teacher, but the lower half is the sadist."{{sfn|Toland|1977|p=812}} Historian [[Adrian Weale]] comments that Himmler and the SS followed Hitler's policies without question or ethical considerations. Himmler accepted Hitler and Nazi ideology and saw the SS as a chivalric Teutonic order of new Germans. Himmler adopted the doctrine of {{lang|de|[[Auftragstaktik]]}} ("mission command"), whereby orders were given as broad directives, with authority delegated downward to the appropriate level to carry them out in a timely and efficient manner. Weale states that the SS ideology gave the men a doctrinal framework, and the mission command tactics allowed the junior officers leeway to act on their own initiative to obtain the desired results.{{sfn|Weale|2010|pp=3, 4}}