Himmler (Peter Padfield's Second World War)

by Peter Padfield

After his fanatic edicts and rhetoric of fighting to the last man, Dönitz’s sudden conversion to reason came as such a surprise that some naval officers suspected that the enemy had penetrated the code and sent a fake signal. For Himmler, the cease-fire in the north marked the end of the road. His life’s work was finished; as he had told Kersten, only ruins remained. He had lost his Führer, thus the clear guiding principle – above all he had lost his Führer’s trust. The mystical symbol of authority had passed to Dönitz. There is ample testimony to his confusion in the weeks leading up to this moment, but surrounded by his entourage and the realities of title, uniform and power he had played up to the part expected of him. Now that Dönitz had given up the struggle against the west there was no more he could do. Hitler was no longer there to give him the ultimate backing he had always expected in crises. Moreover the oath which all members of the armed forces had pledged to the Führer was now due to Dönitz as his legitimate successor. Dönitz had claimed it in his first address to the armed forces immediately after his accession on 1 May. That was the trump card, and it was the card played by Himmler’s enemies, and all those around Dönitz desperate to avoid charges of war crimes by shifting the odium on to the SS and the person of the Reichsführer.