Having seen Germany prosper and then disintegrate during the years between the wars, they would have felt Hitler had help make Germany strong again. This may result in small marks to the dustjacket and title page, please also bear in mind that each signature will be a little different from the one we show here. I would say this is a must read ,and could be used in schools as part of the curriculum when teaching what intolerance leads to , Fascists whichever colour , pray on ignorance and the ignorant to further their ends ,it should be noted that both the Hitler family and the Himmler family were both Catholic and much of their influences originated from that belief system , it is shown that Heinrich in particular was very pious ,although not necessarily the dominant one in his early life , he very often scolded his brothers for minor insurrections and also had an inferiority complex due to being weak due to illness ,he was also very poor at sport as a result , I think in later life he just wanted to Be Somebody ,and with the ingrained militarism and religious background of the family we all know which path he chose .

Katrin Himmler speculates that it was frustration at this and envy of his brother that led Heinrich to join the extreme right-wing Freikorps in 1919.

Impelled by a request from her father, Ms Himmler began her journey believing her family's narrative. This book is a remarkable document - it seems quite apparent that the 1939-1945 years of the family tree should have been expunged but Katrin seems to want to explain that history is what happened and this is why these three brothers took the paths they did.

While a portrait of a specific family, it shows how inculcated cultural beliefs along with the aftermath of WW1 which humiliated German pride and the political turmoil between democracy, communism, and the extreme right, provided fertile soil for the nightmare of the Nazi platform. About the Author: Katrin Himmler is the great-niece of Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, Gestapo and leading organiser of the Holocaust.The Himmler Brothers raises more questions than it answers, but that doesn't lessen in the slightest my admiration of Katrin Himmler for having written it. From these cultural imperatives, the journey to those of the National Socialists was quite logical and frighteningly brief. Fischer Verlag and in 2007 in English by Macmillan as The Himmler Brothers: A German Family History. Despite her family being told her grandfather Ernst had had no interest in politics, Katrin discovered that he was an enthusiastic Nazi who had joined the party in 1931, and was also an officer in the Schutzstaffel (SS).

Heinrich Himmler's own legitimate daughter does not seem to be ashamed of her heritage - the two illegimate children born to his mistress are wiped from the family tree so it is possible that they never took their father's name. I wanted to give my son as much information as possible, so that when he starts asking questions about my family, at least I can answer him. Her great-grandfather was a Headmaster and he and his wife look kindly German people who lived through to the 1930s where they were convinced that Hitler would be good for Germany.Katrin Himmler's book is important: in its meticulous detail, we see the enduring truth of the phrase "the banality of evil". She is the author of Die Brüder Himmler: Eine deutsche Familiengeschichte, published in English as The Himmler Brothers: A German Family History. Writing to Heinrich, Ernst dismissed his usefulness, knowing that he would then be reclassified and deported to a labour camp. It should be read not only by anyone who is interested in the history of the period but also by everyone who doesn't want to see it repeated.

Although most of us do not have war criminals in our family tree we all have one or two relatives that we neither wish to brag about or discuss. It took courage and imagination for Katrin to confront the assumptions and half-truths that had taken root in the family .

That she was able to take on the challenge of writing about a relative which most people would never admit to, and to do so in such a candid and objective manner is admirable. Katrin Himmler’s cool but meticulous examination of the Himmler story reveals – in all its dark complexity – the gulf between the ‘normality’ of bourgeois family life and the horrors perpetrated by one member.