 London, April 8 2001
[All images and
captions added by this
website] UNITED STATES Nazi
mystery: prisoners at Buchenwald were said
to have been executed on orders from
Müller US
may have used Gestapo chief as cold war
warrior Nick Fielding Right:
Heydrich and Gestapo-
chief Müller (Irving
collection)  THE
disappearance of Heinrich
Müller, Germany's Gestapo chief,
may be explained by newly released
documents from a military archive more
than 50 years after he fled
Hitler's bunker during the dying
hours of the Nazi regime.
Historians regard Müller's fate as
one of the great mysteries of the second
world war. It was assumed that he died
dodging the allies advancing on Berlin, or
that he escaped to start afresh under a
false name in the Soviet Union, the Middle
East or South America. Documents in the national archives in
Washington, however, suggest that
Müller was held by the Americans in
an internment camp in Germany for at least
a month at the end of 1945. Several
hundred other pages due to become
available in the next few weeks are
expected by some historians to show he was
then used by the American security
services, possibly in an undercover cold
war role against the Soviet Union. The clues were in 135 pages from the
American army's intelligence command. The
material was released a year ago but the
significance of three small typed record
cards has only now been realised after
research by Ralf Piechowiak, a
journalist from Germany's ZDF television
channel. "I have spent
months checking out these documents and
it is impossible to escape the
conclusion that Müller was held by
the Americans," Piechowiak said. The
cards have been authenticated by
George Chalou, chief archivist
at the US National Archives and Records
Administration. The first card, dated December 26,
1945, describes how a Heinrich Müller
was moved from a civilian internment
enclosure in Altenstadt, in Bavaria, to an
American-controlled holding camp at
Ilmenau in northwestern Germany.
Müller disappeared as Berlin fell and
may have been recruited by the US Another
said he was "Wanted as to war crimes List
No 7 for Murder" and sought by "CIC War
Crimes Branch". The Central Intelligence
Command CIC) was the CIA's forerunner. The cards refer to Müller's early
work with the Gestapo in Munich, where he
was "specially concerned with communists".
They give details of his appearance:
"Height: 5ft 3in. Thin dark hair, lively
black eyes, pleasing face, very active,
gives the impression of great
intelligence." One card says he was interrogated and
the information obtained was passed to US
Army Command and the CIC. However, the
last record ends with the sentence: "Case
closed January 29, 1946." It does not
explain why the case was closed or what
Müller did next.  "Gestapo
Müller", as he has become known, was
born in Munich in 1900 and became a highly
decorated fighter pilot during the first
world war. After the war ended, he joined
the police force and by the late 1920s was
one of its authorities on the German
Communist party. The reports he wrote on
its activities brought him to the
attention of Heinrich Himmler, head
of the SS, the Nazi party's ruthless elite
corps, and the Gestapo.
During the 1930s Müller was
rapidly promoted in the SS and his power
continued to grow until he assumed
operational command of the Gestapo. He
took part in the planning of the
"final
solution", the policy that resulted in
the murder of 6m Jews in extermination
camps between 1942 and 1945. Later
Müller played an important role in
investigating the failed plot by German
officers to kill Hitler in 1944. He
remained loyal to the Führer to the
end, organising the rounding-up of
thousands of Jews in the Netherlands,
Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia for
deportation to Auschwitz. Another recently released American
government document says he ordered he
execution of prisoners at Buchenwald
concentration camp. The last confirmed
sighting of Müller was in the bunker
on the day before the end of the war.
"Defend Berlin to the last man, the last
bullet," was his final order. 
Buchenwald
camp: child survivors file out of the
main gate with US soldiers, April 27,
1945. Note that the ubiquitous
Eli
Wiesel claims to
appear
as the fourth child in the left
column.
There were unconfirmed reports later
that he had escaped to Egypt or the Soviet
Union, and worked for Nazis who went to
South America. In 1963 a grave said to
hold his remains was found to contain the
skull of a man aged 30 - 15 years younger
than Müller would have been at the
end of he war. Rabbi Marvin Hier, director of
the Simon
Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles,
described the claim that the Americans had
detained Müller as "absolutely
extraordinary". Lord Janner, secretary of the
all-party war crimes group and a former
war crimes investigator, said the
Americans should now reveal all they knew.
Janner suggested that rather than
releasing him by mistake, the Americans
were more likely to have employed him: "It
is beginning to look as if he sold his
knowledge about Soviet secrets in exchange
for his life." Related
items on this website:
| 
write to David
Irving