Heinrich Himmler has a strong claim to be Adolf Hitler's most powerful subordinate. He was certainly the main architect of the Holocaust. Appointed Reichsfuhrer-SS in 1929 he built the SS into a million strong paramilitary force and took control of the Nazi concentration camps system. From 1943 he became Chief of German Police and Minister of the Interior with command of the Gestapo as well as the Einsatzgruppen, who committed appalling atrocities and murder in occupied Eastern Europe and Russia. Despite his lack of military experience in the closing stages of the War he was appointed by Hitler as Commander of Army Group Vistula. Realising the war was lost, Himmler attempted to open peace talks with the Allies. Learning of this, Hitler dismissed him of all his posts in April 1945. Detained and arrested by British forces, he committed suicide on 22 May 1945. The wartime career of this cruel and capable man is captured brilliantly with contemporary fully captioned images in this Images of War series work.

Ian Baxter is a much-published author and photographic collector whose books draw an increasing following. Among his many previous titles in the Images of War Series are Hitler's Boy Soldiers, Nazi Concentration Camp Commandants, The Ghettos of Nazi Occupied Poland, German Army on the Eastern Front - The Advance, German Army on the Eastern Front - The Retreat, The Crushing of Army Group (North) and the SS Waffen Division series including SS Leibstandarte Division, SS Totenkopf Division At War, Waffen SS of the Baltic States, Waffen SS at Arnhem and Waffen SS in the Ardennes. He lives near Chelmsford, Essex