Heinrich Himmler
(dpa files) - Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi police administrator of the SS Schutzstaffel (protection squad) stands with senior members of his staff at Hitler's Fuehrer (leader) headquarters in Germany (undated filer). Himmler was the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and rose to become head of Hitler's SS. Put in command of most German police units after 1933, he also took charge of the Gestapo in 1934 and established the Third Reich's first concentration camp at Dachau. He soon built the SS into a powerful network of state terror and by 1936 he commanded all the Reich's police forces. In World War II he expanded the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) until it rivaled the army, after 1941 he organized the death camps in Eastern Europe. In the war's final months he intrigued to surrender Germany to the Allies, Hitler ordered his arrest, but when he attempted to escape he was captured by the British and committed suicide by taking poison
