I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very concise account of Himmler's position and achievements within Hitler's posse. There is nothing about his personal life included, and a good portion of the book is made up of pictures.

This biography of Heinrich Himmler allows the reader to look into the details of the life and evolution of the Holocaust driven by this acolyte of Adolf Hitler. From simple beginnings to his early membership of the Nazi party to the single-minded devotion to rid non-Aryan peoples from across Nazi occupied Europe, describes a warped mind to us in the 21st Century. This book also should be proscribed reading for all those who do not acknowledge the Holocaust and for all of us take it as a warning that this could happen on this scale again.
The factual nature of the book also lays to rest some of the pre-conceived ideas and view of how the Nazi party machine orchestrated the clearing out of population of their occupied countries to make way for incoming Germans to replace them. This was never achieved as the rapid reversals that Germany suffered in 1943 prevent the German migration but did not stop the elimination of what they termed the undesirables. A chilling read.

A book that certainly serves a purpose, only I remain ignorant of it. Certainly we do learn a little about Himmler from the text here – we get a trio of essays concerning his military career, so there's the biography of how he built the SS up and into what units and functions, then the whole Final Solution issue, etc. There's even a small bit about how Auschwitz was to have an agricultural side of things, with Himmler (an ex-chicken farmer) adamant the Lebensraum could cater for the Reich with him devising new towns, almost new garden cities if they were linked and large enough, which was all new to me. But the core of the book is just the photography – Himmler with this man, Himmler with that man, Himmler with those men – and beyond evidence of how awkward his fade haircut looked there's little more than the bland, basic documentation these images provide.

So there are images of him overlooking POWs in Minsk, and the death camps across Poland? Nobody sane denies he was there, but hey, if we need a book concerning what he looked like when he was there then this is it. I guess I should repeat my awareness of how people learn in different ways – visually, amongst them – but the fact this was a grim archive of semi-staged portraiture with slightly bland and cold military biography extracts interspersed means this fills a niche I'd been unaware of. Oh, and it's never been "the" Ukraine.

For those who have read a lot about Nazism and Nazi leaders, this book adds interesting information which is not often explored including the role of volunteers in other European countries and Himmler’s perspective on Muslims. Unfortunately, the photographs and their descriptions did not align well in kindle format so perhaps this is a book to be read in paper format.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pen&Sword/Pen&Sword Military on the arc of Himmler Hitler’s Henchman

5 star ⭐️ read : This gives you a detailed account of Himmler whom was one of Hitler’s Henchmen, Tells you all about him what he done when he rose to power of being Hitler’s Henchman and the terrible crimes he committed by putting all those innocent victims to death.. but then goes on to what happened after he fled to the south before he was caught and while being examined he commited suicide with a Cynaide pill so he didn’t have to admit to what he had done and pay the price.. cowardice

I totally recommend if your interested in WW2 non fiction as it was such a interesting read to read about one of Hitler’s henchman!

I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more story about the man in this book, but it is sold as primarily "images," so I can't complain. One the bright side, it was well written and did include images I had never seen..