Hitler's Women - Women In Hitler’s Inner Circle

Margarete Himmler

Margarete was a nurse who was divorced from her first husband when she met Heinrich Himmler. She was also seven years older than him. But these weren’t the main objections Himmler’s family had when he told them he wanted to marry her. Margarete was also a Protestant.Characterized by her in-laws as something of cold fish who preferred being a housewife, Margarete still dutifully fulfilled her social obligations as the wife of an important figure in the regime. However, the wives of the SS officials didn’t warm to Margarete, with whom she was often antagonistic. Lina Heydrich and Margarete loathed each other. After the war, Margarete was arrested along with her daughter, Gudrun, and held at various internment camps. Her interrogators soon realized that she knew little of her husband’s work, and the two were eventually released. Margarete resumed her life in Munich with her family. Despite her protestations that she was ignorant of the Nazis’ plans to exterminate the Jewish people, she nevertheless remained a committed National Socialist.