Heinrich Himmler was head of the SS from 1929 and head of the German police, including the Gestapo, from 1936. He was also Minister of the Interior from 1943 and was in ultimate command of the ‘final solution’, supervising and Heydrich and Eichmann.
He was born in 1900 and served in WW1. He took part in the Munich Beer Hall putsch in 1923.
He argued for surrender in 1945 and Hitler ordered him to be arrested. He fled from Berlin but was captured by the British, committing suicide before he could be put on trial.
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich became head of the SD in 1932, Himmler’s deputy in 1933 and both head of the Reich Central office for Jewish Emigration and head of the Reich Security Head Office in 1939. He was responsible for the deportation of Jews and for briefing the Einsatzgruppen, the killing squads on the Eastern Front. In 1941 he was given overall responsibility for the ‘final solution’.
He was born in 1904 and joined the navy after WW1. He was involved in the Freikorps and joined the Nazi Party and the SS in 1931.
He was assassinated by the Czech resistance in 1942.
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann was the SS officer responsible for organising the deportation of Jews and implementing the ‘final solution’. He was head of Jewish affairs in the Reich Security Head Office.
He was born in Austria in 1906, joined the Austrian Nazi Party in 1932 but moved to Berlin in 1933 when it was banned. In 1934 he joined the Nazi’s SD and became head of the Office for Jewish Emigration in 1935. He was put in charge of implementing the ‘final solution’ following the Wannsee Conference in 1942.
He was captured at the end of the war but escaped to Argentina where he lived until he was kidnapped by Israeli agents. He was tried in Israel in 1962 for ‘crimes against humanity’, found guilty and executed.