Himmler Special Collection

David Irving amassed one of the largest private research collections on Heinrich Himmler, drawing from archives in Moscow, Washington, London, Munich, and Stanford. His legal battles mostly behind him, Irving resumed work on a comprehensive biography — writing 2,000 pages of handwritten draft, including pages composed in an Austrian prison ring-binder. The FPP website hosted 34 specialized subdirectories of Himmler material. This page indexes the collection.

Diaries of Heinrich Himmler

Among the most significant items in the collection are transcriptions and PDFs of Himmler’s private diaries and those of his wife Marga, spanning from 1919 to 1945.

The Himmler Decodes

A 100-page selection by David Irving of secret messages passed from 1941 to 1945 between Heinrich Himmler, his headquarters, and local police and SS commanders (in German; as decoded by British Intelligence). These intercepts are among the most important primary sources for understanding the chain of command during the Holocaust period.

Death of Heinrich Himmler

A major sub-collection documenting the circumstances of Himmler’s capture and death in May 1945, including:

• Original typed dispatches by Selkirk Panton of the Daily Express who witnessed the events after Himmler’s death (from Australian archives)
• Statements by Captain Donald McPherson, Colonel Michael Murphy, and Sergeant Britton
• David Irving’s investigation of faked documents planted in British archives purporting to “prove” that the British Secret Service liquidated Himmler after his capture
• Pathé newsreel

  footage of the death scene

• Churchill’s message to the First Sea Lord on April 13, 1945, that he was “inclined to spare Himmler’s life”

Interrogations

Officers and prisoners talking in Allied captivity about Himmler and the SS, secretly recorded by British intelligence. Includes the intelligence dossier on SS Obergruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chef RSHA (PDF, 3.5MB).

Himmler and the “Final Solution”

Key documents in the collection relating to Himmler’s role:

• Heinrich Himmler orders Heydrich “no liquidation” of Berlin trainload of Jews, November 30, 1941
• British codebreakers intercepted December 1, 1941 code messages from Himmler ordering the SS murderer Jeckeln to report to headquarters, to be reprimanded for overstepping guidelines in liquidating thousands of German Jews at Riga
• Hitler authorises Himmler to sell off Jews for foreign currency, December 10, 1942
• Himmler

  writes to Finance Ministry, August 17, 1942, about plan to transport French Jews via Auschwitz to the Reich

• Notes on Richard Korherr, Himmler’s statistician
• Wannsee conference dossier (note: Himmler, Hitler were not present)
• David Irving’s 1971 interview with Himmler’s brother Gebhard: the word “Holocaust” was not used at that time

Family and Personal Papers

• Marga Himmler — Dossier on Himmler’s wife; Nuremberg lawyer’s questioning of her
• Gudrun Himmler — Letters from Himmler’s daughter, 1941
• Brother Gebhard — David Irving’s 1971 interview
• Family Letters — Transcription of early (1919–1923) diaries and family letters, from originals at the Hoover Institution, Stanford
• Parents’ Correspondence — December

  1918 field post letters from Himmler’s father; 1920 letters from farm life on the German/Austrian border; 1931 report to parents

Documents by Period

Full Collection Map (34 Subdirectories)

Source: Original FPP website Himmler dossier. Research collection assembled by David Irving from archives worldwide. Photo caption: “Himmler visits the Peenemünde rocket research site in 1943. From David Irving: The Mare’s Nest (London, 1965), and Deutsches Museum Munich, Peenemünde archives.” © Focal Point Publications 2003–2010.