So, busy old history day today, following in the last footsteps of one of the most repulsive specimens of humanity ever: Heinrich Himmler. To provide a little context I'm attaching a timeline of his movements in May 1945 together with a basic map (to make @guywalters happy).
This is the timeline.
This is the map. It's broadly accurate and is the best I could do using Google maps. It shows his journey from leaving Doenitz in Flensburg on May 6 to his cowardly suicide in Lueneburg on May 23.
Here are the principal members of Himmler's entourage. The two in red are the ones who were arrested with him on May 22, 1945.
On May 18, 1945 the Himmler entourage housed itself in a farmhouse on the edge of Bremervoerde belonging to a Herr Dankers. Himmler spent his last four nights of freedom here. The B&W image is from 1976. The colour one from today. It has changed little over the years.
On May 22, Himmler accompanied by his aides Grothmann and Macher, left the farmhouse and walked the few km's to Bremervoerde proper, along this main street towards the Oste river, where there was a British checkpoint they thought they could bluff their way through. Wrong!
The other members of the party had already been arrested on May 21. All were posing as members of the Geheime Feldpolizei (Secret Field Police) which had been listed as a criminal organisation by the Allies; its members subject to automatic arrest. So, not much of an escape plan.
This is the rather unconvincing set of fake ID papers used by Himmler which caused the British to arrest him.
Himmler and the other two were taken to the flour mill near where he was arrested, which was situated on an island in the middle of two sides of the Oste River. This image shows how it looked in 1945. Himmler was taken the the building far left. Interrogated but unrecognised.
The mill was demolished some time ago. On its site is an hotel where I am staying and typing these very words to you.
in the early morning of May 23, 1945 Himmler (still unrecognised: had shaved of moustache, removed glasses and was wearing an eye-patch) and his two aides taken to Civil Internment Camp at Westertimke.
Westertimke - where Himmler was registered - had been used to house British POW's. The B&W image shows them when they were liberated by the Scots Guards on April 27, 1945. The colour image is from today. the site is now an industrial estate.
After this, he was further transported and eventually ended up on the evening of May 23, 1945 at Civil Interrogation Camp 031 at Barnstedt. B&W pic is of the intake hut in 1976 (used as private house). That has now gone and a new house stands in its place. No mention of the camp.
It was here that Himmler decided the game was up & he announced his real identity to an astonished camp commander, Capt. Selvester around 19:00 that evening. No pics of that sadly, but here are his two surly aides in front of the intake hut (the day after their boss's suicide).
At 21:45 Col. Murphy, intelligence chief 2nd British Army, arrives to take charge of prisoner. They leave on the short drive to interrogation HQ in Lueneburg at 22:40. Himmler was taken to the room behind the octagonal window.
While being searched by military medic Dr C J Wells for the poison the British suspected Himmler still had on him, he crunched on a glass pial of cyanide in his mouth and - despite best efforts to revive him - died within minutes at around 23:14. Good f***king riddance.
On the morning of May 26, 1945 (after viewing by US & Soviet representatives and an autopsy), Himmler's body was taken from the back of interrogation HQ in Lueneburg (on the right in this image from today).
It was placed in a grey blanket and camouflage netting and driven in a lorry through these gates onto the road and past the house where he had died. In the truck were two British army sergeants. Col. Murphy was in a jeep with the fierce-looking CSM Austin (pictured) by his side.
Where it went, nobody now knows. Or cares. It's fitting that the sadistic murdering b***ard is rotting in an unmarked grave, like so make of his countless victims. But a part of me is sorry he avoided the hangman's noose.
These two men could have told us. They are former Sergeants Weston and Ottery, who drove the truck and dug his shallow grave. They are pictured here in 1976 on their one and only return to the area after the war. And they took the secret of the location to their graves.
And that's it. I hope you have found this thread interesting. I love walking the land where significant moments of history have taken place. That there is no mention of Himmler at any of these sites is the best testament that democratic, modern Germany could make.
END.
Point 8 should obviously read 'Himmler.' What a typo!
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