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Summary: Breitman's Heindrich Himmler
Review: A common misconception regarding "The Final Solution" is that it was constructed and sought out under the leadership of one man, Adolph Hitler. Richard Breitman, in his well written book, clearly shows his readers the involvement of several brilliant minds that eventually created the horrific answer to the Jewish question. Breitman goes through the progressive steps of Heinrich Himmler's ideas as well as his involvement in the "Final Solution" while keeping his readers full attention. Unlike many authors writing about this issue, Breitman seemed as if he, through his work, was attempting to see Himmler's view points instead of labeling him simply as a "sadist barbarian" as many would do. His ability to put aside the atrocities performed by the Nazi's and give his reader's an alternate route of understanding is just one of the reasons why I consider this book a success and a pleasure to read.
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Summary: Superior biography of Himmler
Review: Heinrich Himmler, one of the most reviled personalities in modern history comes fully to light in this insightful study. What is it that makes a person evil? That is at the heart of Breitman's absorbing book. Unlike a devilish Faustian caricature, the narrative shows the SS Reichsfuehrer, a mundane, pedantic organizer who came terrifyingly close to translating Hitler's vision of of a "racially-pure" Europe into reality. Heinrich Himmler may be the personification of Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil." A man who fawned over children, stopped to pick flowers and was every thoughtful with those under him, quietly and efficiently produced the machinery to send millions to their death. (...) Breitman's book is not a "popular biography" in the modern sense, but rather a scholarly and academic treatment. However, this is a weighty subject and the author accomplishes much more with this approach through a fascinating narrative that assures the reader that this is an exquisititely researched picture of one of the most dispised personalities of modern time. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Shows Himmler as a most gruesome crusader.
Review: Not a biography of the Reichsfuhrer, but a carefully researched and annotated analysis of his role in the final solution. Himmler's own office logs and appointment books, where extant, are convincingly used. The most thorough account to date of the so called Madagscar proposal which preoccupied the nazis in the late 1930s as a way of exiling Jews. Himmler's often mutually suspicious dealings with underlings such as Heydrich and Eichmann are particularly well portrayed, although his relationship with Hitler is sometimes sketchy. The years 1944 and 1945 are treated rather briefly, presumably because Himmler's initiatives were mainly restricted to trying to arrange coverup of the atrocities. But Breitman has done a first rate job in showing us how Himmler's bureaucratic mind ticked. The book illustrates that you don't need to be a personal sadist to organize murder on a massive scale.
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