Edit filter log

'{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2013}} {{Infobox person |name = Gudrun Burwitz |image = Margaret and Gudrun Himmler.jpg |image_size = |caption = '''Gudrun Himmler''' (now '''Gudrun Burwitz''') (right) with her mother at the [[Nuremberg Trials]], 1945. |birth_name = Gudrun Himmler |birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1929|08|08}} |birth_place = [[Munich]], [[Bavaria]], [[Weimar Republic|Germany (Weimar Republic)]] |death_date = |death_place = |death_cause = |resting_place = |resting_place_coordinates = |residence = |nationality = German |other_names = |known_for = daughter of [[Nazi]] [[Reichsführer-SS]] [[Heinrich Himmler]] and for [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazi]] organisations [[Stille Hilfe]], [[Wiking-Jugend]] |education = |alma_mater = |employer = |occupation = |home_town = |title = |salary = |networth = |height = |weight = |term = |predecessor = |successor = |party = |boards = |religion = |spouse = Wulf Dieter Burwitz |partner = |children = |parents = {{plainlist| * [[Heinrich Himmler]] (father) * [[Margarete Himmler|Margarete Siegroth]] (mother) }} |relatives = {{plainlist| * [[Gebhard Ludwig Himmler]] (uncle) * [[Ernst Hermann Himmler]] (uncle) }} |signature = |website = |footnotes = }} ''' Gudrun Burwitz''' (''née'' ''' Himmler''') (born 8 August 1929) is the daughter of [[Heinrich Himmler]], ''[[Reichsführer-SS]]'' and Chief of the [[Nazi Germany|German]] Police (and from August 1943 onward, the Minister of the Interior) and [[Margarete Himmler|Margarete Siegroth]], née Boden. Gudrun was the only child of Himmler's marriage; her parents later adopted a son. In 1940, Heinrich Himmler started an affair with the secretary [[Hedwig Potthast]] with whom he had two children.<ref>Andersen 2007:165</ref> ==Relation to father== [[File:Heinrich Himmler and Gudrun Burwitz.jpg|thumb|left|Father [[Heinrich Himmler]] (centre) and the young Gudrun, visiting a concentration camp. Immediately to the right of Himmler, looking at Gudrun, is [[Karl Wolff]] (his [[Iron Cross]] is visible).{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=467}}]] Gudrun was baptized a [[Protestant]].{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=109}} Heinrich Himmler adored his daughter and had her regularly flown to his offices in [[Berlin]] from [[Munich]] where she lived with her mother.<ref name=Helm> {{Cite news | last =Helm | first =Siegfried | date = | year =1998 | title =Himmlers Tochter hilft den alten Gefährten | periodical =Berliner Morgenpost | url =http://www.hagalil.com/archiv/98/03/ss-himmler.htm | issn = | doi = | oclc = | accessdate = 5 October 2008 }}</ref> When she was at home he telephoned her most days and wrote to her every week. He continued to call her by her childhood nickname "Püppi" throughout his life.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=468}} She accompanied her father on some official duties. Heinrich Himmler died in [[British Army|British]] captivity on 23 May 1945. She disputed that his death was a suicide from a concealed [[cyanide]] capsule, claiming that he was murdered.<ref name=Helm/><ref>{{cite book | last = Bellinger | first = Joseph | title = Himmlers Tod. Freitod oder Mord? Die letzten Tage des Reichsführers-SS (Himmler's death. Suicide or murder? The last days of the SS Reichfürher) | publisher = Arndt Verlag | year = 2005 | location = Kiel | url = http://www.arndtverlag.de/homepages/himmlers-tod/index2.htm | doi = | id = | isbn = }}</ref> After [[World War II]] she and her mother were arrested by the Americans and held in various camps in [[Italy]], [[France]] and Germany. They were brought to [[Nuremberg]] to testify at the [[Nuremberg Trials|trials]], and were released in November 1946.<ref>Katrin Himmler, ''The Himmler Brothers'', Pan Macmillan, 2012, p.275.</ref> Gudrun later bitterly referred to these years as the most difficult of her life, and said that she and her mother were treated as though they had to atone for the alleged sins of her father.<ref name=Helm/> She has never renounced the Nazi ideology and has repeatedly sought to justify the actions of her father, relative to the context of his time. People who know her say that Gudrun has created a "golden image" of her father.<ref name=Sanai>{{Cite news | last =Sanai | first =Darius | date = | year =1999 | title =The sins of my father | periodical =The Independent (London) | url =http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19990201/ai_n14214264/pg_2?tag=artBody;col1 | issn = | doi = | oclc = | accessdate = 5 October 2008}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=RjwilmsiBot}}</ref> ==Nazi sympathies== She married the [[journalist]] and author Wulf Dieter Burwitz and had two children. She has remained active in the Nazi community ([[Neo-Nazism]]), and has since 1951 been a member of ''[[Stille Hilfe]]'', an organisation providing support to arrested, condemned or fugitive former SS-members.<ref name = "mail">''[[The Daily Mail]]'' [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004873/Himmlers-daughter-81-She-works-neo-Nazis-SS-officers.html Himmler's daughter aged 81: She works with neo-Nazis and helps SS officers evade justice], 17 June 2011</ref> To place Gudrun's affiliation with this organization into additional context, ''Stille Hilfe'' assisted [[Klaus Barbie]] of the Lyon Gestapo, [[Martin Sommer]], otherwise known as the 'Hangman of [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]]' and "continues to support a Protestant old people's home in Pullach, near Munich".<ref>David Wingeate Pike, ''Spaniards in the Holocaust: Mauthausen, the Horror on the Danube'' (London: Routledge, 2000), 380.</ref> In 1952, Gudrun helped to found [[Wiking-Jugend]] which was organised after the [[Hitler Youth]] model. She was a longtime friend of [[Florentine Rost van Tonningen]] (died in 2007), who was known in the [[Netherlands]] as "the black widow" and who was active in Nazi circles after the war. For decades Gudrun Burwitz has been a prominent public figure in ''Stille Hilfe''. At various meetings, for instance the annual [[Ulrichsberg gathering]] in [[Austria]], she receives the status of both a star and an authority. Oliver Schröm, author of a book about ''Stille Hilfe'', has described her as a "flamboyant Nazi princess" ("schillernde Nazi-Prinzessin").<ref>Fabian Leber: [http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/gudrun-burwitz-und-die-stille-hilfe-die-schillernde-nazi-prinzessin/233116.html ''Gudrun Burwitz und die „Stille Hilfe“: Die schillernde Nazi-Prinzessin'']; in: [[Der Tagesspiegel]] vom 10. Juni 2001 (In German)</ref> Gudrun Burwitz has intensified the support for alleged Nazi [[war criminal]]s in recent years.<ref name=Sanai/><ref name = "mail"/> This was particularly evident in the case of [[Anton Malloth]], a supervisor of [[Theresienstadt concentration camp]], who was extradited to Germany in 1988 and after a prolonged public trial was sentenced in 2001 to life in prison. She arranged his stay at a [[nursing home]] in [[Pullach]] at the southern outskirts of [[Munich]] from 1988 to 2001. == Himmler family tree == {{Himmler family tree}} --~~~~==See also== *[[Diana Mitford]] {{Commons category|Gudrun Burwitz}} '''''Bold text''--~~~~'''Bold text''''''butt ==Notes== {{Reflist}} ==References== * Andersen, Dan H. ''Nazimyter&mdash;blodreligion og dødskult i Det Tredje Rige''. Aschehoug 2007, ISBN 978-87-11-11847-4 (in Danish) * Lebert, Norbert, and Stephan. ''Denn Du trägst meinen Namen: das schwere Erbe der prominenten Nazi-Kinder''. Goldmann Verlag 2002, ISBN 3-442-15188-0 (in German) * Lebert, Norbert, and Stephan. ''My Father's Keeper: Children of Nazi Leadership: An Intimate History of Damage and Denial'', translated by Julian Evans. New York: Little, Brown, 2001. ISBN 0-316-51929-4 * {{cite book| last = Longerich| first = Peter| authorlink = Peter Longerich| year = 2012| title = Heinrich Himmler: A Life| publisher = Oxford University Press| location = Oxford; New York| isbn = 978-0-19-959232-6| ref = harv}} * Pike, David Wingeate. ''Spaniards in the Holocaust: Mauthausen, the Horror on the Danube''. London: Routledge, 2000. * Schröm, Oliver and Andrea Röpke. ''Stille Hilfe für braune Kameraden''. Christoph Links Verlag 2001, ISBN 3-86153-231-X (in German) {{Heinrich Himmler}} {{Persondata | NAME = Burwitz, Gudrun | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = German Neo-Nazi and daughter of SS chief Heinrich Himmler | DATE OF BIRTH = 8 August 1929 | PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Munich]], [[Bavaria]], [[Germany]] | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Burwitz, Gudrun}} [[Category:1929 births]] [[Category:People from Munich]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:German neo-Nazis]] [[Category:Himmler family]] [[Category:German anti-communists]]'