Gudrun Burwitz, ever-loyal daughter of Nazi mastermind Heinrich Himmler, dies at 88

https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ^ | 7/1/18 | Matt Schudel

[BBell]

Gudrun Burwitz, the true-believing daughter of Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany’s highest-ranking official after Adolf Hitler, died May 24 in or near Munich. She was 88.

Her death was first reported by the German newspaper Bild, which also confirmed that Mrs. Burwitz had worked for two years in West Germany’s foreign intelligence agency. The agency’s chief historian, Bodo Hechelhammer, told the newspaper that Mrs. Burwitz worked as a secretary under an assumed name in the early 1960s. The agency does not comment on current or past employees until they have died.

Mrs. Burwitz, who was sometimes called a “Nazi princess” by supporters and detractors alike, remained unrepentant and loyal to her father to the end. Although she had visited a concentration camp, she denied the existence of the Holocaust and, in later years, helped provide money and comfort to former Nazis convicted or suspected of war crimes.

At the time of her birth in 1929, her father was consolidating power as leader of the elite Nazi paramilitary corps known as the SS. Himmler also commanded the German secret police, the Gestapo, and established the system of prison and concentration camps in which more than 6 million people — primarily Jews but also Roma (or Gypsies), homosexuals and others — would perish.

The only person who outranked Himmler in the Nazi hierarchy was Hitler himself.

Gudrun, who was Himmler’s oldest child and only legitimate daughter, was exceptionally devoted to her father. Himmler and his wife later adopted a son, and had two other children with his mistress.

Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, the bespectacled, undistinguished-looking Himmler enjoyed having Gudrun at his side, as a blond, blue-eyed symbol of Aryan youth.

[T-Bone Texan]

Jehovah’s Witnesses: The only religious group specifically singled out by Hitler for extermination.

[NativeSon]

His daughter is not responsible for the sins of her father.

I have Family that died for our survival, here, in America. And when America, called upon them to serve, to fight and die for the good of others, the Navajo Nation, the Diné, left our Dinétah, and died over there.

A spear is a responsibility to wield upon others...

[otness_e]

Look, I am disgusted with the Nazis myself, and hold Himmler in particular in utter contempt for his attempting to use humans like he did his chickens, not just with his role in the Holocaust, but also his role in the Lebensborne project, which involved the mass kidnapping and utter brainwashing of certain kids with blond hair and blue eyes (I’d even argue the Lebensborne have a lot of needless blame heaped onto them, being very much victims like the Jews). I’ll even go so far as to say that ultimately they’re no different from the Soviets in terms of atrocious behavior, not to mention other Communists. However, do we REALLY need to condemn his daughter? The only thing she might be guilty of is being defensive about her father. Unless you can provide evidence that she had played any direct and key roles in the holocaust, lebensborne, or any other Nazi crimes, we shouldn’t do a witch hunt on her or condemn her.

Sure, I would probably prefer it if she was more like Svletyana Stalin where she at least acknowledged her father was a truly monstrous individual, but she still hasn’t actually done anything bad beyond defending her father who happened to be a monster (which, BTW, one of the Commandments of the Bible literally demands we honor our mother and father). I thought “Sins of the Father” was something we are past now.

[otness_e]

Technically, what you’re proposing regarding her is more like Luke deciding to kill Vader despite knowing he’s his father and heeding Obi-Wan’s statement of killing him, and THEN turning to the dark side anyways. Remember, speaking out against your father =/= being a good guy. In fact, Citizen Louis voted against his own brother for the death penalty, and I don’t think many people would call HIM good.

[otness_e]

Can you stop implying that the Nazis and the CIA were responsible for JFK’s assassination? That was Soviet disinformation made during the Cold War, literally a day after that event in fact, under the codename Operation Dragon (and I’d know about this because Ion Mihai Pacepa was the one who revealed this). If anything, it’s the Soviets who were responsible for JFK’s assassination. Blame the Soviets, in other words.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Unfortunately there are lots of people today who would do exactly the same as Heinrich Himmler, but we can’t just round them all up and hang them, can we? I know some of them personally. They’re deluded and pissed off about something that’s a total lie. They can’t be reasoned with. I can only pray that God will some day save them from their own foolishness.

[otness_e]

Oh, I agree with you, there are a whole lot of people who are the types to do what Himmler did (heck, you could even argue Marx was like that, since one of the reasons he formed such a sick ideology as Communism was specifically so he’d make a gorier remake of Robespierre’s Reign of Terror). The problem is we can’t do anything against them unless they make the first move. And in her case, AFAIK, despite defending that monster of a man (even if said monster of a man IS her father), she never seemed to try to continue his disgusting work in any significant way (and believe me, she had plenty of chances to do so, like I don’t know, starting up her own Neo-Nazi organization, or even running into politics under a similar platform, whatever she puts her mind to. Heck, she didn’t even travel to America to participate in that Neo-Nazi march on that Jewish neighborhood that the ACLU defended a while back AFAIK.).