Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (listen ; 7 October 1900–23 May 1945) was the commander of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany by being second in power to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi hierarchy. As Reichsführer-SS he controlled the SS and the Gestapo. As founder and officer-in-charge of the Nazi concentration camps and the Einsatzgruppen death squads, Himmler held final command responsibility for annihilating "subhumans" who were deemed unworthy to live. Shortly before the end of the war, he offered to surrender all of Germany to the Allies if he was spared from prosecution as a Nazi leader. Later in 1945, Himmler committed suicide with cyanide when he became a captive of the British Army after Germany had lost World War II.