Himmler (Peter Padfield's Second World War)

by Peter Padfield

German troops were met with joyous demonstrations as they marched in, and he and Wolff had no difficulty in joining Hitler before he made an emotional home-coming to his boyhood town, Linz. To be with his Führer at this momentous time was important to Himmler. Although an ‘old fighter’ from the ‘time of struggle’, he was not in Hitler’s intimate circle, and needed to bring himself to attention at every opportunity. Emotionally, he needed to drink at the fountainhead of power; politically, in the Byzantine atmosphere which Hitler created around himself, he needed to impress the leader with his contribution, and especially in this case when he had personally penetrated the hostile citadel ahead of the Army, and left it in the charge of his officers. He wore field-grey, and his chief rival, Göring, was in Berlin.