Figure 1.--This is the Himmler family at the Reich Führerr's hunting lodge in Valepp, Bavaria during 1935. The sanpshot shows Himmler with his wife Marga. Their only legitimate child is Gudrun, the little blond girl with pigtails. The boy is their adopted son, Gerhard von der Ahé. Himmler took no interest in him. The other girl is a friend of Gudrun. Himmler was nt a very imposing person, certainly not the imposing image of Geramn manhoodthe regime projected. artly as a result, he loved to appear in public with his blond, blue-eyed daugter. He even tooj her to narby Dacahau. Gerhard survived the War, being just young enough to avoid combat. He seemsto have been inducted into the SS at the end of the War. We do noy know the circumstances. He lived a normal, quiet life in West Germany. Unlike Gudrun, he did not becime a NAZI appologist.

After the NAZIs seized power, Himmler as Reuch-Führer SS, the Himmlers were able to live a confortable family life. Himmler family snapshots were not widely published during the NAZI years. American soldiers found a trove of family snapshots inside a safe in Himmler's Bavarian home at the end of the War (May 1945). The images have bounced around since, finally winding up in the hands in the Israeli film director Vanessa Lapa. She has prepared a documentar shown at the Berlin International Film Festival. The photographa and letters provide insights into Himmler's family life. More than 700 letters and notes. The letters reveal not only intimacies, but that Frau Himmler shared a deep seated anti-Semitism with her husband. He refers to Margarete as 'my sweet, beloved litte woman'. Amid the tender words are jarring anti-Semitic comments. Both Himmler and Margarette were staunch anti-Semites. The snapshots depict an idyllic family life. There are outings out to the country. We see Hitler tenderly holding his wife's hand and his blond, pig-tailed daughter is picking flowers. We see the Reich Führee feeding a fawn. One snapshot shows hin tebderly hilding Margarete hand while blond, pigtailed Gudrun picks flowers. Other photographs show him feeding a fawn and bathing in Lake Tegernsee located near their home. [Welt am Sonntag] Happy family scenes like this were reported over and over again in NAZI Germany. Less so with the Himmler family. One obsever desribes how "The private writings with his family enable us to compare between somene who lives a seemingly normal life in private, while at the same time he is a mass murderer in public life." [Gertner] And as in some other cases, it does not sem to have bothered his beloved Gudrun.

Sources

Gertner, Haim. Director of Yad Vashem Archives Division.

Welt am Sonntag These photographs and a range of paper and letters were found by U.S. Army soldiers in asafe in Himmler's home afer the War (May 1945). They were never before published. They were eventually obtained by Vanessa Lapa. She has used them for a 2014 documentary.

Created: 3:46 AM 8/26/2019
Last edited: 3:46 AM 8/26/2019