Flirtation, romance, and hatred of ‘Jewish scum’ – the love letters of Heinrich Himmler

Correspondence between Hitler's right-hand man and his wife was revealed by German daily Die Welt.

Heinrich Himmler (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Heinrich Himmler
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The contents of some of the love letters written by Heinrich Himmler, the man who orchestrated the most heinous crime in the annals of human history, were revealed in all their gory details by the German newspaper Die Welt on Sunday.
Hundreds of love letters between Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man and his wife are finally being exhibited after spending years hidden in Tel Aviv.
The letters between Himmler, the Reichsfuhrer-SS who coordinated the activities of the Nazi killing apparatus and its network of concentration camps, and his wife, Margareth, were at first kept in a private collection belonging to an Israeli citizen and were eventually moved to a bank vault in Tel Aviv. The collection includes letters written starting in 1927 and up until Himmler’s death in 1945.
There are also photographs and recipe books.
“I’m heading to  Auschwitz,” he wrote in one missive. “Sending you kisses. Your Heini.”
In one particular letter, Himmler apologizes to his wife for forgetting to call on their wedding anniversary, seeing as how he was deep in preparations for Operation Barbarossa, the Nazis’ ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union.
“I apologize that I forgot our wedding anniversary,” he wrote to her on July 7, 1941, four days after the two were to mark the big day. “A lot of things have been happening these past few days.”
As the campaign escalated in the east, Himmler shared his concern over the fate of his troops.
“The fighting is very difficult, particularly for the SS,” he wrote.
The letters also reveal a flirtatious side to Himmler, whose marriage was apparently one of flirtatious playfulness.
“I’m so lucky to have such a bad husband who loves his bad wife just like she loves him,” his wife, Marga, wrote to him teasingly.
The letters also reveal the couple’s loathing for Jews. Prior to their marriage, Margaret sold her stake in a Berlin medical clinic to her Jewish partner.
In a letter dated January 9, 1928, she wrote to her husband of her disdain for “Jewish scum.”
Writing back, Himmler said: “My poor beloved, you need to deal with those miserable Jews because of money.”
“A Jew will always remain a Jew,” he wrote. “The Jew pack has much dread of you.”
“Don’t get angry about the Jews, good woman, I can help you,” Himmler wrote.