Himmler's last reckoning

In the Nazi regime few people were more infamous than Heinrich Himmler. He was largely responsible for the concentration and death camp system and was the leading organizer of the Holocaust. In the final days of the war, he was captured in Bremen and brought to British headquarters in Lueneburg. He was take to the house above on 31A Uelzener Strasse (street). It is a non-descript house that I walk past often on my way to and from the university. The British were apparenlty questioning and holding Himmler at this house on May 24, 1945. At some point, he swallowed a cyanide capsule and thus killed himself.

Some historians have suggested that he was killed by the British so that he would not talk about diplomatic contacts he had had with British officials. For the most part, these ideas have been thoroughly discredited.