‘knowledge of history’. And then Margarete noted a small victory: ‘Thanks
to the kindness of the police we were able to go for a drive in the Vatican
park in our car with the SS pennant.’
71
On 17 November they went on to Naples. Unfortunately, Himmler had
‘a stomach upset’. Neverthless, the following day they visited Herculaneum
and Pompeii, where—and that was naturally particularly interesting—‘mo-
saic floors with a swastika’ had been excavated. Margarete Himmler noted
her impressions of the country and its people without any inhibitions.
‘In Italy they take cooking very seriously. Apparently there are no drunkards
here; they are used to drinking wine.’ ‘One comes across children every-
where; what a blessed country it is.’
72
On 19 November she continued her tour of Naples in the company of
Eugen Dollmann. Dollmann, a historian who had been living in Italy since
1928, had come into contact with leading Nazis, including Himmler,
through his acquaintanceship with the Hitler Youth leader Baldur von
Schirach. He acted as Himmler’s interpreter during his trips to Italy. In
fact Dollmann had a special place among Himmler’s representatives abroad.
Attached to the German embassy, he was not answerable to the police
liaison officer, Herbert Kappler. In future his reports would keep Himmler
up to date with developments in Italy.
73
In the meantime, Himmler had spent a very disagreeable day—according
to Margarete, he had ‘driven up Vesuvius, where it rained and was very
windy’. In the afternoon they went on to Cosenza in Calabria, a trip of 350
kilometres involving several breakdowns, arriving after midnight. On the
following day the Himmlers visited the fortress that dated back to the
Hohenstaufens and then went on to Taormina in Sicily. And here they
began a fortnight’s holiday, reading, playing bridge, and bathing. Himmler
played a lot of tennis. They also made trips, for example to Syracuse, where
they visited the ‘catacombs with a Franciscan guide. He was a sly one who
didn’t answer any of H’s questions.’ At the beginning of December they
went on to Palermo, where Himmler, always on the lookout for ‘Germanic’
remains, bought some antiquities.
On 4 December the Himmlers flew to Libya and, on the following day,
visited the archaeological sites in Leptis Magna, a city which, Margarete
noted, ‘the Romans had built with infinite greatness, richness, and nobility’.
‘I keep thinking,’ she asked herself, ‘why are these people now so poor?
Perhaps because there are no longer any slaves.’ In view of the pomp with
which his host, the governor Italo Balbo, celebrated their visit, Himmler’s
396 war preparations and expansion