Editing Heinrich Himmler (section)

== Rise in the SS ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146II-783, Heinrich Himmler.jpg|thumb|upright|Himmler in 1929]]
Upon the resignation of SS commander [[Erhard Heiden]] in January 1929, Himmler assumed the position of ''Reichsführer-SS'' with Hitler's approval;{{sfn|McNab|2009|p=18}}{{sfn|Weale|2010|p=47}}{{efn|name=note}} he still carried out his duties at propaganda headquarters. One of his first responsibilities was to organise SS participants at the [[Nuremberg Rally]] that September.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=113–114}} Over the next year, Himmler grew the SS from a force of about 290 men to about 3,000. By 1930 Himmler had persuaded Hitler to run the SS as a separate organisation, although it was officially still subordinate to the SA.{{sfn|Evans|2003|pp=228–229}}{{sfn|McNab|2009|pp=17, 19–21}}

To gain political power, the Nazi Party took advantage of the economic downturn during the [[Great Depression]]. The coalition government of the [[Weimar Republic]] was unable to improve the economy, so many voters turned to the political extreme, which included the Nazi Party.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=9}} Hitler used [[populism|populist]] rhetoric, including blaming scapegoats—particularly the Jews—for the economic hardships.{{sfn|Bullock|1999|p=376}} In September 1930, Himmler was first elected as a deputy to the ''[[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]''.{{sfn|Williams|2015|p=565}} In the 1932 election, the Nazis won 37.3 percent of the vote and 230 seats in the Reichstag.{{sfn|Kolb|2005|pp=224–225}} Hitler was appointed [[Chancellor of Germany]] by President [[Paul von Hindenburg]] on 30 January 1933, heading a short-lived coalition of his Nazis and the [[German National People's Party]]. The new cabinet initially included only three members of the Nazi Party: Hitler, [[Hermann Göring]] as [[minister without portfolio]] and Minister of the Interior for [[Prussia]], and [[Wilhelm Frick]] as [[Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany)|Reich Interior Minister]].{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|p=92}}{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=184}} Less than a month later, the [[Reichstag fire|Reichstag building was set on fire]]. Hitler took advantage of this event, forcing Hindenburg to sign the [[Reichstag Fire Decree]], which suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=192}} The [[Enabling Act of 1933|Enabling Act]], passed by the Reichstag on 23 March 1933, gave the Cabinet—in practice, Hitler—full legislative powers, and the country became a de facto dictatorship.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=199}} On 1 August 1934, Hitler's cabinet passed a law which stipulated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. Hindenburg died the next morning, and Hitler became both head of state and head of government under the title ''Führer und Reichskanzler'' (leader and chancellor).{{sfn|Shirer|1960|pp=226–227}}

The Nazi Party's rise to power provided Himmler and the SS an unfettered opportunity to thrive. By 1933, the SS numbered 52,000 members.{{sfn|McNab|2009|pp=20, 22}} Strict membership requirements ensured that all members were of Hitler's [[Aryan race|Aryan]] ''[[Herrenvolk]]'' ("Aryan master race"). Applicants were vetted for Nordic qualities—in Himmler's words, "like a nursery gardener trying to reproduce a good old strain which has been adulterated and debased; we started from the principles of plant selection and then proceeded quite unashamedly to weed out the men whom we did not think we could use for the build-up of the SS."{{sfn|Pringle|2006|p=41}} Few dared mention that by his own standards, Himmler did not meet his own ideals.{{sfn|Pringle|2006|p=52}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 152-08-35, Dachau, Konzentrationslager, Besuch Himmlers.jpg|thumb|upright=1|left|Himmler and [[Rudolf Hess]] in 1936, viewing a scale model of [[Dachau concentration camp]] ]]

Himmler's organised, bookish intellect served him well as he began setting up different SS departments. In 1931 he appointed [[Reinhard Heydrich]] chief of the new Ic Service (intelligence service), which was renamed the ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'' (SD: Security Service) in 1932. He later officially appointed Heydrich his deputy.{{sfn|McNab|2009|pp=17, 23, 151}} The two men had a good working relationship and a mutual respect.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2007|pp=24, 27}} In 1933, they began to remove the SS from SA control. Along with Interior Minister Frick, they hoped to create a unified German police force. In March 1933, Reich Governor of Bavaria [[Franz Ritter von Epp]] appointed Himmler chief of the Munich Police. Himmler appointed Heydrich commander of Department IV, the [[Bavarian Political Police|political police]].{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=149}} Thereafter, Himmler and Heydrich took over the political police of state after state; soon only Prussia was controlled by Göring.{{sfn|Flaherty|2004|p=66}} Effective 1 January 1933, Hitler promoted Himmler to the rank of SS-''[[Obergruppenführer]]'', equal in rank to the senior SA commanders.{{sfn|McNab|2009|p=29}} On 2 June Himmler, along with the heads of the other two Nazi paramilitary organizations, the SA and the [[Hitler Youth]], was named a ''[[Reichsleiter]]'', the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party. On 10 July, he was named to the [[Prussian State Council (Nazi Germany)|Prussian State Council]].{{sfn|Williams|2015|p=565}} On 2 October 1933, he became a founding member of [[Hans Frank]]'s [[Academy for German Law]] at its inaugural meeting.{{sfn|Frank|1933–1934|p=254}}

Himmler further established the [[SS Race and Settlement Main Office]] (''Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt'' or RuSHA). He appointed Darré as its first chief, with the rank of SS-''[[Gruppenführer]]''. The department implemented racial policies and monitored the "racial integrity" of the SS membership.{{sfn|McNab|2009|pp=23, 36}} SS men were carefully vetted for their racial background. {{Anchor|marriageorder}}On 31 December 1931, Himmler introduced the "marriage order", which required SS men wishing to marry to produce family trees proving that both families were of Aryan descent to 1800.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=127, 353}} If any non-Aryan forebears were found in either family tree during the racial investigation, the person concerned was excluded from the SS.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=302}} Each man was issued a ''[[Sippenbuch]]'', a genealogical record detailing his genetic history.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2007|pp=22–23}} Himmler expected that each SS marriage should produce at least four children, thus creating a pool of genetically superior prospective SS members. The programme had disappointing results; less than 40 per cent of SS men married and each produced only about one child.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=378}}

In March 1933, less than three months after the Nazis came to power, Himmler set up the first official [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camp]] at [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]].{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=344}} Hitler had stated that he did not want it to be just another prison or detention camp. Himmler appointed [[Theodor Eicke]], a convicted felon and ardent Nazi, to run the camp in June 1933.{{sfn|McNab|2009|pp=136, 137}} Eicke devised a system that was used as a model for future camps throughout Germany.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=84}} Its features included isolation of victims from the outside world, elaborate roll calls and work details, the use of force and executions to exact obedience, and a strict disciplinary code for the guards. Uniforms were issued for prisoners and guards alike; the guards' uniforms had a special ''Totenkopf'' insignia on their collars. By the end of 1934, Himmler took control of the camps under the aegis of the SS, creating a separate division, the ''[[SS-Totenkopfverbände]]''.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=151–153}}{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=84–85}}

Initially the camps housed political opponents; over time, undesirable members of German society—criminals, vagrants, deviants—were placed in the camps as well. In 1936 Himmler wrote in the pamphlet "The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organization" that the SS were to fight against the "Jewish-Bolshevik revolution of subhumans".{{sfn|Himmler|1936}} A Hitler decree issued in December 1937 allowed for the incarceration of anyone deemed by the regime to be an undesirable member of society.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=87}} This included Jews, [[Romani people|Gypsies]], communists, and those persons of any other cultural, [[Race (classification of human beings)|racial]], political, or religious affiliation deemed by the Nazis to be ''[[Untermensch]]'' (sub-human). Thus, the camps became a mechanism for social and racial engineering. By the outbreak of World War II in autumn 1939, there were six camps housing some 27,000 inmates. Death tolls were high.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=86–90}}

=== Consolidation of power ===
In early 1934, Hitler and other Nazi leaders became concerned that Röhm was planning a coup d'état.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=306–309}} Röhm had socialist and populist views and believed that the real revolution had not yet begun. He felt that the SA—now numbering some three million men, far dwarfing the army—should become the sole arms-bearing corps of the state, and that the army should be absorbed into the SA under his leadership. Röhm [[lobbying|lobbied]] Hitler to appoint him [[defence minister|Minister of Defence]], a position held by conservative General [[Werner von Blomberg]].{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=24}}

Göring had created a Prussian [[secret police]] force, the ''Geheime Staatspolizei'' or [[Gestapo]] in 1933 and appointed [[Rudolf Diels]] as its head. Göring, concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to use the Gestapo effectively to counteract the power of the SA, handed over its control to Himmler on 20 April 1934.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=54}} Also on that date, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of all German police outside Prussia. This was a radical departure from long-standing German practice that law enforcement was a state and local matter. Heydrich, named chief of the Gestapo by Himmler on 22 April 1934, also continued as head of the SD.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=61}}

Hitler decided on 21 June that Röhm and the SA leadership had to be eliminated. He sent Göring to Berlin on 29 June, to meet with Himmler and Heydrich to plan the action. Hitler took charge in Munich, where Röhm was arrested; he gave Röhm the choice to commit suicide or be shot. When Röhm refused to kill himself, he was shot dead by two SS officers. Between 85 and 200 members of the SA leadership and other political adversaries, including Gregor Strasser, were killed between 30 June and 2 July 1934 in these actions, known as the [[Night of the Long Knives]].{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=308–314}}{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=31–35, 39}} With the SA thus neutralised, the SS became an independent organisation answerable only to Hitler on 20 July 1934. Himmler's title of ''Reichsführer-SS'' became the highest formal SS rank, equivalent to a [[field marshal]] in the army.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=316}} The SA was converted into a sports and training organisation.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=313}}

On 15 September 1935, Hitler presented two laws—known as the [[Nuremberg Laws]]—to the Reichstag. The laws banned marriage between non-Jewish and Jewish Germans and forbade the employment of non-Jewish women under the age of 45 in Jewish households. The laws also deprived so-called "non-Aryans" of the benefits of German citizenship.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=543–545}} These laws were among the first race-based measures instituted by the Third Reich.

Himmler and Heydrich wanted to extend the power of the SS; thus, they urged Hitler to form a national police force overseen by the SS, to guard Nazi Germany against its many enemies at the time—real and imagined.{{sfn|Gerwarth|2011|pp=86, 87}} Interior Minister Frick also wanted a national police force, but one controlled by him, with [[Kurt Daluege]] as his police chief.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=77}} Hitler left it to Himmler and Heydrich to work out the arrangements with Frick. Himmler and Heydrich had greater bargaining power, as they were allied with Frick's old enemy, Göring. Heydrich drew up a set of proposals and Himmler sent him to meet with Frick. An angry Frick then consulted with Hitler, who told him to agree to the proposals. Frick acquiesced, and on 17 June 1936 Hitler decreed the unification of all police forces in the Reich and named Himmler Chief of German Police and a State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=77}} In this role, Himmler was still nominally subordinate to Frick. In practice, however, the police were now effectively a division of the SS, and hence independent of Frick's control. This move gave Himmler operational control over Germany's entire detective force.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=77}}{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=204}} He also gained authority over all of Germany's uniformed law enforcement agencies, which were amalgamated into the new ''[[Ordnungspolizei]]'' (Orpo: "order police"), which became a branch of the SS under Daluege.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=77}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-45534-0005, Kz Mauthausen, Besuch Heinrich Himmler, Franz Ziereis.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.55|Himmler, [[Ernst Kaltenbrunner]], and other SS officials visiting [[Mauthausen concentration camp]] in 1941]]

Shortly thereafter, Himmler created the ''[[Kriminalpolizei]]'' (Kripo: criminal police) as an umbrella organisation for all criminal investigation agencies in Germany. The Kripo was merged with the Gestapo into the ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'' (SiPo: security police), under Heydrich's command.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=201}} In September 1939, following the outbreak of World War II, Himmler formed the ''[[SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt]]'' (RSHA: Reich Security Main Office) to bring the SiPo (which included the Gestapo and Kripo) and the SD together under one umbrella. He again placed Heydrich in command.{{sfn|Gerwarth|2011|p=163}}

Under Himmler's leadership, the SS developed its own military branch, the ''[[SS-Verfügungstruppe]]'' (SS-VT), which later evolved into the [[Waffen-SS]]. Nominally under the authority of Himmler, the Waffen-SS developed a fully militarised structure of command and operations. It grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, serving alongside the ''[[German Army (Wehrmacht)|Heer]]'' (army), but never being formally part of it.{{sfn|McNab|2009|pp=56, 57, 66}}

In addition to his military ambitions, Himmler established the beginnings of a parallel economy under the umbrella of the SS.{{sfn|Sereny|1996|pp=323, 329}} To this end, administrator [[Oswald Pohl]] set up the ''[[Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe]]'' (German Economic Enterprise) in 1940. Under the auspices of the SS Economy and Administration Head Office, this holding company owned housing corporations, factories, and publishing houses.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=343}} Pohl was unscrupulous and quickly exploited the companies for personal gain. In contrast, Himmler was honest in matters of money and business.{{sfn|Flaherty|2004|p=120}}

In 1938, as part of his preparations for war, Hitler ended the [[Sino-German cooperation until 1941|German alliance with China]] and entered into an agreement with the more modern [[Empire of Japan|Japan]]. That same year, Austria was unified with Nazi Germany in the [[Anschluss]], and the [[Munich Agreement]] gave Nazi Germany control over the [[Sudetenland]], part of [[Czechoslovakia]].{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=641, 653, 674}} Hitler's primary motivations for war included obtaining additional ''[[Lebensraum]]'' ("living space") for the Germanic peoples, who were considered racially superior according to [[Nazism|Nazi ideology]].{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=34}} A second goal was the elimination of those considered racially inferior, particularly the Jews and [[Slavs]], from territories controlled by the Reich. From 1933 to 1938, hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrated to the United States, [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]], the United Kingdom, and other countries. Some converted to Christianity.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=554–558}}

=== Anti-church struggle ===
{{Main|Kirchenkampf|Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church}}

According to Himmler biographer [[Peter Longerich]], Himmler believed that a major task of the SS should be "acting as the vanguard in overcoming Christianity and restoring a 'Germanic' way of living" as part of preparations for the coming conflict between "humans and subhumans".{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=265}} Longerich wrote that, while the Nazi movement as a whole launched itself against Jews and Communists, "by linking de-Christianisation with re-Germanization, Himmler had provided the SS with a goal and purpose all of its own".{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=265}} Himmler was vehemently opposed to Christian sexual morality and the "principle of Christian mercy", both of which he saw as dangerous obstacles to his planned battle with "subhumans".{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=265}} In 1937, Himmler declared:

{{blockquote|We live in an era of the ultimate conflict with Christianity. It is part of the mission of the SS to give the German people in the next half century the non-Christian ideological foundations on which to lead and shape their lives. This task does not consist solely in overcoming an ideological opponent but must be accompanied at every step by a positive impetus: in this case that means the reconstruction of the German heritage in the widest and most comprehensive sense.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=270}}}}

In early 1937, Himmler had his personal staff work with academics to create a framework to replace Christianity within the Germanic cultural heritage. The project gave rise to the Deutschrechtliches Institut, headed by Professor Karl Eckhardt, at the [[University of Bonn]].{{sfn|Padfield|1990|p=170}}