She could be anyone’s lovable granny, waving goodbye on a sunny
afternoon to her children who have been visiting to brighten up her
day. But her arm raised high in farewell could also be seen in a more
sinister light.
For in her heart Gudrun Burwitz remains Gudrun Himmler, the beloved
daughter of Nazi Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler, the lord of death in
the Third Reich who ran the Gestapo, the SS and the entire
extermination programme which murdered six million Jews.
It is 70 years since her beloved “Papi” killed himself with a cyanide
tablet hidden in his mouth, after being captured by British troops.
In his last week, one of Adolf Hitler’s most senior lieutenants was on
the run, hiking around northern Germany disguised as a soldier, his
moustache shaved off and a patch on one eye.
Many children of Nazi monsters – Rudolf Hess, Hans Frank, the brutal
governor of Poland, Martin Bormann – turned their backs on their
fathers and their sins when adulthood made them aware of their crimes.
But Gudrun is different.
She has preserved and nurtured the memory of her father, believing him
to be a good and worthy man.
She was 14 when he died and, far from disowning her father, she
remained as fiercely devoted to him as he was to Hitler, keeping a
scrapbook of every newspaper picture she could find of him.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/my-father-heinrich-himmler-not-5745296
To Gudrun Burwitz, her father was her hero. How few children can say
their father was near the pinnacle of power. She has reason to be
proud.