Margarete Himmler - the betrayed wife of the Reichsführer SS. Part two of three.
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Published 2024-04-05
As soon as the war started, she moved to Berlin in order to work in a hospital – Hospital number 106. From her diary we can see that she immediately annoyed the other doctors, although she naturally claims that it was them – even though they are SS, they have to be shown how to do everything. In charge was one Dr Becker, whom she described as pretentious. She claimed that he did not want her there, although he said nothing of the sort, and this is her excuse to give up on the job which she did.
From the beginning of December 1939 she supervised the DRK hospitals in Military District III (Berlin-Brandenburg). As part of this activity, she also carried out business trips to countries occupied by the Wehrmacht . On 3 March 1940, during a business trip to German-occupied Poland, she noted :
“I was recently in Poznan, Lodz and Warsaw. This pack of Jews, the pollaks, most of them don't look like people at all, and the indescribable dirt. It is an unheard of task to create order there.”
After this she travelled to her native Bydgoszcz and noted that the Polish people did not die so easily from infectious diseases as they are immune. Bydgoszcz was however pretty bleak.
In her diary she complained that her husband never came home when she was in Berlin. Probably through loneliness in her private life and bitterness at the people she worked with in the Red Cross, she gave up Berlin and her war work and returned home. Nonetheless she would keep returning to Berlin to the Red Cross for stints of a few weeks throughout the war. I wonder why the staff at the Red Cross put up with her tantrums, the only response I can think of is because of who she was.
Most historians believe that by February 1941 at the latest, she found out about her husband's relationship with his private secretary Hedwig Potthast. I believe that it was much earlier than this. I think that it would have been natural that she might have known some of the people on his close staff, he probably brought them back home with him from time to time. Margarete Himmler sent doilies and sweets for the young secretary for Christmas 1937. The following Christmas, however, Fraulein Potthas was no longer on the presents’ list. “What I experienced this year,” Marga wrote in her diary on New Year’s Eve 1938, was “unimaginable.” I therefore suspect that she already knew.We can imagine how she must have felt, Hedwig Potthast was 19 years younger than she was – young enough to be her daughter. Furthermore Margarethe Himmler could not longer have children – the operation she had when their daughter was born made that impossible and in any case she was now well into her forties. Unlike the wife of Martin Borrman who seems to have been happy that her husband had found a mistress who could bear him sons, Margarethe Himmler was humiliated and, quite naturally, bitter. It had been the money of her family which had allowed him to set up in business in the 1920s and fund his party work. Now he had made it, he had more or less dumped her. Her diary reveals that she wanted to be with him but he clearly did not want to be with her for anything other than a short time. Heinrich Himmler continued to visit his wife and daughter at their shared residence in Gmund, especially to maintain his close relationship with his daughter. Himmler had a kind of “second marriage” with Potthast , which he saw as legitimized by the fathering of children. The couple had two children. Both his wife and his lover “stood by him unswervingly until the end”.
In the run up to the Nazi invasion of the USSR on 22 June 1941, there was a ban on leave. Heinrich Himmler, cancelled this ban on leave, although only for one person, himself. He gave himself a 36 hour pass. Perhaps he felt that as the panzers fell on the Red Army and his Einsatzgruppen fell on unarmed civilians, he would be too busy to see his wife and daughter.
All Comments (17)
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Part one is here : https://youtu.be/wWePEZgGJRM Part two is here : youtu.be/lVcX-LpUMZ4 Part three is here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA0cKr4EwgQ
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Very interesting, Alan! I'm beginning to think that she and her husband deserved each other.
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Himmler knew much, also about Hess. He truly was the "black emenance" Spiritually and in deed. He was well placed to negotiate with National Socialist fellow travellers from exotic religions. Thumbs up for this excellent Himmler family series Alan. I believe Hedwig's children were not of good health and were her life's work after the War. 👍👍👍🙏🇦🇺
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More than likely he knew of the plot! He was hoping that it would succeed and he had the real potential of replacing Hitler!
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She knew what her husband was doing. She accepted it for money and fame
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Very very interesting. It’s unique to hear history beside a biographical account of a secondary person. And the narrator has a very easy voice ⭐️
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Fascinatingly researched video.
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Himmler's derogatory nickname was "the farmer", not so much because of the farm but because of his secondary school degree....which was in this agricultural activity--- Minute 8: 37 Himmler walks and to the right of the photo walks Karl Wolf, who will always be on the lookout for his position, never achieved it, but if he betrayed his boss, when he negotiated with Allan Dulles in Berne the surrender of the German troops in Northern Italy, he also negotiated "something else" with the Allies. Westerners (only the US and England) Among the "other negotiations" the SS was required to have future control of Germany by certain people...many SS and people from the Nazi Party...Wolf very haughtily asked to be the Minister of Culture, he was lucky he kept his head in its place....This "jump to authority" by his boss caused his boss (Himmler) to commit suicide...."someone" had beaten him to being the head of the negotiations ....the direct consequence was Himmler's suicide. Today his (Himmler's) great-grandson married to von Alvensleben's great-granddaughter continue to operate Stille Hilfe from Chile. I don't know what activity or purpose they pursue, but I do know that they have all the files of all the foundations opened by this group during the control of Gudrum Burwitz or Gudrum Boden or simply Gudrum Himmler, his daughter. Which he organized from the 502 K office of Reihard Gehlen's BND after the war.
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Excellent video, as always.
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It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about Himmlers wife's biography. Video shared by an amazing ( history on YouTube) .video introduced by 🙏 Sir Alan. Thanks for sharing
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I really liked the suggestion you made abought Himmler Knowing of the plot I'm sure he got input from the SD and RHCS....Hope you share with us in a video your info...so glad i subscribed to your channell!😊
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Something I have been wondering about is did Himmlers daughter Gudren have any children ? I can totally understand if she does and they want to remain anonymous. That is certainly their right.
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Wow.. Himmler knew about the 'POLT'??
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👍 great content as always. What a nice lady...
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Are you able to do a video on war world 2 trials in Poland? I heard they were somewhat a kangaroo court problem...not sure if this is a biased take on war crimes trials in Poland as opposed to the Nuremberg ones.
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