SS 1: The Unlikely Death of Heinrich Himmler. - Review - book review

Contemporary Review, June, 2001

SS 1: The Unlikely Death of Heinrich Himmler. Hugh Thomas. Fourth Estate. [pound]18.99. 276 pages. ISBN 1-84115-306-0. Himmler is remembered as the head of Hitler's infamous SS who, after capture, escaped conviction at the Nuremberg Trials by committing suicide. In this book the author, now known as a writer of historical exposes, challenges this and argues that Himmler did not commit suicide and that the body buried in a secret grave was not his.

Instead, Himmler is supposed to have escaped justice as part of an understanding with Allied secret service intelligence officers based on Himmler's secret negotiations to end the war. The whole affair, concludes the author, is another British 'cover-up'. Of necessity, in the shadow-land of writing on 'secret' history, we are left clutching at straws, truths, rumours and half-truths. Mr Thomas does not know what happened to Himmler. assuming he did not commit suicide but he has no doubt that the SS chief did not kill himself.