Here we are back at the question of Himmler’s concealed doubts and anxieties. For on the one hand he could observe at close quarters Hitler’s swings of mood. These veered between extreme depression and withdrawal after Stalingrad – causing Morell to announce that the Führer was suffering a manic–depressive illness and to advise a three-month rest – and what Speer described as unreasonable optimism, and Hitler’s valet as periods of high optimism despite increasingly grim reports, interspersed with periods of depression.[43] On the other hand Himmler was very aware that the ‘defeatism’ in
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