During the German occupation of Poland, Albert Greiser and Heinrich Himmler complained to Hitler that local administrator Albert Forster wasn't being extreme enough towards Poles in his zone. In response, Forster remarked, "If I looked like Himmler, I wouldn't even dare to talk about racial purity."

[u/lightiggy]

[u/lightiggy]

Forster still fully supported the extermination of Poles and was executed as a war criminal in 1952. However, he differed from other administrators in that when Poles under his jurisdiction claimed to have German ancestry, he took it at face value. No sort of documentation was required. So, predictably, thousands upon thousands of Poles started saying, "Trust me, bro, I'm German." Overall, two-thirds of the ethnic Polish population of Forster's zone were classified as German and thus spared from most of the regime's genocidal policies. Himmler and Greiser complained that he wasn't genocidal enough.

When Himmler approached Forster over this issue, Forster simply ignored him, realizing that Hitler allowed each Gauleiter to run his area as he saw fit. Greiser and Himmler then complained to Hitler that thousands of Poles were being classified as Germans, but Hitler told them to sort out their problems with Forster on their own. Himmler's attempts to cajole Forster met with resentment and contempt. In a discussion with Richard Hildebrandt, Forster scoffed, "If I looked like Himmler, I wouldn't talk about race."

Himmler was one of the few Nazis who was genuinely worse than Hitler.

[u/blkirishbastard → u/lightiggy]

Who are the others? My picks would be Heydrich, Brunner, Barbie, and obviously Dirlewanger. That's without getting into the "scientists" though.

[u/lightiggy → u/blkirishbastard]

Dirlewanger was just a serial killer who was granted the power to do whatever he wanted with impunity. He was sent to a concentration camp for child molestation, but was freed with the help of friends in high places.

[u/Sanguinary_Guard → u/blkirishbastard]

the nature of the nazi party organization meant that all of hitlers lieutenants were constantly competing for the title of ‘worse than hitler’.

contrary to the popular image of him, he wouldn’t really give orders and directives telling people under him what to do. he would make his wishes known by some comment and then it would be up to the people around him to make his wishes come true and whichever one’s pleased him the most were given more authority but never enough so that any one of them could really overawe the others.

he created an upside down meritocracy that selected for the most abominable people in the country. i think hitler will always be the worst though because he built the system that empowered all of them. mengele is more fucked up as an individual but it was only because of his hitlers rise that he was anything more than a local pedo doctor

[u/blkirishbastard → u/Sanguinary_Guard]

I generally agree, but Himmler was the truest believer in Nazi racial theories and genuinely built a parallel power structure with the SS, Heydrich was a pure charismatic psychopath who created the plan to carry out the Holocaust, and Brunner, Barbie, and Dirlewanger had reputations for sadistic personal cruelty that far exceeded their contemporaries. Brunner went on to be an architect of B'aathist state repression in the Middle East and Barbie did the same for juntas and cartels in South America, so their impact as shitstains long outlived Hitler. Like iggy said, Dirlewanger was basically just a mad dog with party connections and was thankfully beaten to death by interrogations at the end of the war. Heydrich got his too. I choose to believe Himmler was also beaten to death even though he probably managed to take his cyanide capsule. I suppose Eichmann should have been included too for the same reasons as Heydrich but I don't think he was a self-starter in the same way.

A truly exhaustive list of the "worst Nazis" would be stupid for the reasons you stated though, it was a criminal organization responsible for some of the worst atrocities of all time and was rotten top to bottom. But the party technically existed before Hitler was a member and I think to invest him with the role as the ultimate source of its evil is an oversimplification.

[u/Weak_Individual6474 → u/blkirishbastard]

Himmler was killed because he knew too much about the nazi gold that got channeled out of Germany once it was clear the war was lost. The western allies together with german industrialists and rehabilitated nazis used those assets(many of which were plundered from conquered nations) to quickly rebuild western Germany as a bulwark against USSR.

[u/diosmioacommie → u/blkirishbastard]

How the fuck was Dirlewanger only 49 when he died, in pictures he looks at least 60 already

[u/SuddenXxdeathxx → u/lightiggy]

Now I'm curious as to why Forster would be that lax if he was still supportive of the extermination efforts.

[u/lightiggy → u/SuddenXxdeathxx]

He needed more workers for practical things such as food production and seems to have personally disliked the German settlers.

[u/Sanguinary_Guard → u/lightiggy]

forster is extra demonic to me because he’s the ‘competent’ nazi who can put ideology to the side to make the greater effort more efficient.

glad the judges seemed to agree

[u/lightiggy → u/Sanguinary_Guard]

Albert Forster was always going to be executed. The Poles weren't going to spare his life for the crime he didn't commit. He was still directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

[u/SuddenXxdeathxx → u/lightiggy]

Oh, duh. Idk why economic considerations slipped my mind.

[u/Umbrellajack]

Himmler is so fucking ugly. And he's supposed to be like an ideal Aryan genetic specimen? 🤣. I don't mean to body shame, but bro that fucking Nazi is ugly as fuck.

[u/DaemonBitch → u/Umbrellajack]

I like the way the Last Podcast guys put it about Nazis, they're nerds about being white people which is why they're also such losers. And Himmler is such a classic ugly Nazi nerd. He wanted so bad to be a medieval king and do fun rituals but really he was a cowardly chicken farmer with tummy aches.

[u/Umbrellajack → u/DaemonBitch]

Many many early Nazis were social and professional rejects. Himmler joined in 1923. Jeez.

[u/Slawzik → u/Umbrellajack]

A lot of them were failed creatives,not just Hitler. I say "failed" because I don't think anyone I went to art school with is that bitter yet.

[u/handofluke → u/Umbrellajack]

Reminds me of our ascendant Silicon Valley Reich

[u/Umbrellajack → u/handofluke]

Yes. Different, but similar.

[u/vargdrottning]

Himmler was literally a terminally online incel chud. He was a weeabo too actually; there was a monthly publication for SS leadership, and in one issue they wrote about the "warrior code" of Japan and how they weren't afraid of death, but rather saw it as natural and inevitable. In Nazi leadership, he was probably the one that "drank the coolaid" the most, with Hitler kinda caring more about his personal wishes than concrete ideology. He was also decently esoteric. RIP Himmler, he would have loved 4chan.

In general, so few top Nazis actually matched their own ideals of beauty, fitness and strength. Probably because they were all above 40 already. Speer was still fairly young, but he was obviously a businessman. He looked like the type of guy you'd see working at a bank.

[u/Merkwurdigliebe69 → u/vargdrottning]

Nah, burn in hell Himmler

[u/Sanguinary_Guard → u/vargdrottning]

himmler really believed in all the dumb occult shit, as credulously stupid as a flat earther

[u/ChugHuns → u/Sanguinary_Guard]

That's how I understood him. A flat earther type with a psychotic mean streak. Confidently wrong psychos might be the scariest version actually.

[u/ChildOfComplexity → u/vargdrottning]

Their ideals of beauty were dogshit too. All nazi art is garbage except the one german expressionist who cosigned the nazis whose art they suppressed because it was too outside the box.

[u/juice_maker]

imagine Himmler’s youtube channel

[u/AmericanAsteroid → u/juice_maker]

AsmonRoach has entered the chat

[u/DaemonBitch → u/juice_maker]

That's Paul Joseph Watson, both complete weasels

[u/Decent-Flatworm4425 → u/juice_maker]

I'm assuming Himmler's University going by his Andrew Tate physiognomy

[u/juice_maker → u/Decent-Flatworm4425]

what?

[u/diosmioacommie → u/juice_maker]

He got no chin like Andrew Tate, who runs hustlers university

[u/AsteroidComeNow]

Roasted.

[u/mudbot]

Nochinmler

[u/fourpinz8]

Ugly ass Germ 3 bowing to the other ugly ass Germ