sonal dedication,
157
and published various contributions, for example to the
SS Guidance Booklets and to Das schwarze Korps, in which he praised the SS
and its leader in the most elevated poetic language.
158
Himmler responded to Johst’s effusions in his more reserved manner, but
he did repeatedly make efforts to show appropriate appreciation of the
outpourings of emotion that he inspired. Himmler also revered Johst, as
the writer possessed abilities he himself lacked. In March 1942 Himmler
assured Johst how important their correspondence was to him: ‘You may be
confident that your letters are always precious to me. They are like emis-
saries from a world I greatly love but which, because fate has chosen to put
me where I am, remains closed to me for most of my time and most of my
life. I am all the more delighted to receive regular salutations from the
intellectual world of our blood, which you embody as one of Germany’s
finest.’
159
Though each wrote in his own typical manner, the friends
exchanged what can almost be called love-letters.
Another, and very close, relationship of Himmler’s is noteworthy. From
1939 onwards the Reichsfu
¨
hrer was a patient of the celebrity masseur Felix
Kersten, a Baltic German who after the First World War had acquired
Finnish nationality. Through intensive massages Kersten was capable of
relieving Himmler’s physical pains, at least for a time. Under the hands of
the masseur, who, two years older than Himmler and with a massive frame,
exuded an atmosphere of calm, Himmler relaxed generally, and Kersten
took advantage of the treatments to build up a relationship of trust with the
Reichsfu
¨
hrer.
160
Whether Himmler really allowed him access to his more
intimate thoughts, as Kersten asserted in his memoirs, or whether Kersten
made up these conversations after the war must remain in doubt; at any rate,
Kersten was to take on an important role, particularly in the final phase of
the war, in setting up foreign contacts for Himmler.
It is evident that the more Himmler established his position as Reichsfu
¨
hrer-
SS and extended his power, the more the boundaries between his own family
and personal life and his official function became blurred. While on the one
hand he made his brothers, his closest friends, and even his favourite writer SS
leaders, on the other he treated SS members in many respects like members of
an extended family. Adopting the pose of a strict and solicitous father, he
educated, commended, punished, admonished, and pardoned his men. The
rigid notions he held, and prescribed for his men, about marriage partners,
sexual morality, and family planning reflected strongly his experiences as an
individual, including the shortcomings he saw in his own marriage. A certain
the ss family 381