Hitler, impressed with Dachau, authorized Himmler to establish an entire system of concentration camps. The first prisoners of Dachau consisted of communists, social democrats, and other political opponents to the Nazi regime. Initially, concentration camps were made for the purpose of housing political prisoners. In 1933, Himmler established the Nazi’s first concentration camp in an abandoned munitions factory at Dachau. Within the history of World War II, Himmler is best known for his role in the implementation of the Nazi concentration camp system and the Holocaust. Himmler’s atrocities did not stop in the Soviet Union. In total, at least 1.5 million Holocaust victims died in mass shootings or gas vans in Soviet territory. One of the most well-known Aktions occurred at Babi Yar, a ravine in Kiev, where 33,771 Jews were shot and buried in mass graves. Victims were stripped of their clothes and valuables, placed before the mass grave, and shot. All Aktions generally followed the same method. If mass graves were not already dug, the victims would be forced to dig the graves themselves. Known as Aktions, members of the Einsatzgruppen, with the help of Waffen SS and collaborative police units, rounded up victims and marched them to a killing site. In the Soviet Union, Einsatzgruppen units would follow army groups to secure territory following a battle. Courtesy of Yad Vashem.Įinsatzgruppen activity increased with the invasion of the Soviet Union. Himmler visiting a site near Minsk, Belorussia where he observed an Einsatzgruppen Aktion and witnessed the mass murder of local Jews. Five years later, in September 1939, Himmler fused the SD with the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA.) In 1934, the SD was distinguished as the sole political intelligence agency for Germany. In 1931, Himmler established the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service, or SD) to gather intelligence and monitor opponents within the Nazi Party, leaders of other political parties, and government officials. Himmler inducted two new functions for the SS-internal security and guardianship over racial purity. By the time the Nazis came to power in 1933, Himmler had grown the SS to 52,000. As the newly appointed leader of the SS, Himmler sought to develop an elite faction of the Nazi Party.

In 1929, Hitler appointed Himmler Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (SS.) At the time, the SS served as bodyguards for Hitler and other top Nazi leaders. Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Himmler, pictured with Nazi leader Adolph Hitler as he salutes passing SS troops. He gave many speeches that followed themes of the German race, the need for German expansion, and the struggle against enemies of Germany. The failed coup placed Hitler temporarily in jail, and Himmler found work building his reputation within the Nazi Party. On November 9, 1923, Himmler marched alongside Hitler, Ernst Röhm, Hermann Göring, and other Nazi leaders in the Beer Hall Putsch. Idolizing the party’s leader, Adolph Hitler, Himmler quit his job and devoted his career to the party. In August 1923, Himmler joined the Nazi Party. By the time Himmler obtained his degree in 1922, he was a fanatic nationalist. Due to the political climate of the interwar years, such material was popular among right-wing radical Germans. While attending the university, Himmler joined a German-nationalist student group where he began to read racist and nationalistic literature. Instead, Himmler turned his focus to agriculture, and began studying for his degree at the Technical University of Munich. But World War I ended soon after he came of age to join the military, and restrictions placed on the German army in the Treaty of Versailles dismissed any chance of a military career. In his early life, he had a strong desire to join the army. Heinrich Himmler was born on Octoto a middle-class family in Munich, Germany. Courtesy of the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Jew with hitler stache