Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich and Karl Wolff together at a ceremony, location and date unknown (Prague ?).  Hitler was SS membership #1, and the ultimate authority for all SS actions.  Himmler was Reichfuhrer-SS; all SS personnel were responsible to him, and he was responsible to Hitler alone in relation to SS actions.  Wolff was longtime head of the SS personnel service, and effective controller of SS administration generally.  From 1943, he served as Supreme SS and Police Leader in Italy.  Heydrich, well, was Heydrich, "Hitler's Hangman" according to one recent biographer, creator and chief of the German secret police and security services up to the time of his assassination in Prague.  Following an attack by British-trained Czechoslovak commandos in Prague on 27 May, 1942, he died of his wounds on 4 June, 1942.  Best regards, JR.

The men who ran the SS ...

Hitler, Goebbels and Magda Goebbels (identifiable from her big hat !) at a prewar reception, occasion and location unknown.  I wonder to whom it is that they are listening so intently.  The Fuhrer exhibits serious concentration and Goebbels seems to be receiving a revelation.  Can't help thinking that Magda looks a bit bored ... 

Magda, of course, was one of the few women who was highly respected by Hitler; she returned fanatical devotion to her Fuhrer.  When Goebbels indulged in a particularly intense extramarital affair (with Czechoslovak actress Lidá Baarova, Hitler intervened personally to sort out the mess and save Magda's marriage, at the expense of some disruption in the Propaganda Ministry and some behind-the-scenes humiliation for Goebbels.  Best regards, JR.

Pleasures of the Table ...

Lida Baarová, Czechooslovak actress, who conducted a two-year affair with Joseph Goebbels, Propaganda Minister of the Third Reich.  

Goebbels was a serious womanizer but, in most cases, his engagements were opportunistic and less than serious - on his side at least.  The Baarová affair was different, proceeding by 1938 to a point that Magda Goebbels sought permission from Hitler to divorce Goebbels.  Hitler - who had great regard for Magda (probably greater than his regard for Goebbels, at least personally) - intervened to save the Goebbels marriage, forcing Baarová to leave Germany and desist from relations with Goebbels.  A side-effect was the removal of Karl Hanke, Goebbels' State Secretary (Junior Minister) from his post at the Propaganda Ministry; Hanke was a particular friend of Magda, and was rumored to have had an affair with her (in revenge, it was assumed, for the Goebbels-Baarová affair).  Baarová went on to feature in a number of Czechoslovak and Italian movies prior to the end of the war, but was imprisoned and subjected to a difficult investigation as to her pro-Nazi activities by the new Czechoslovak authorities thereafter.  Charges were eventually dropped due to lack of evidence.  Beyond that, her future career did not prosper, although she did achieve a sort of "rehabilitation" after the fall of east European Communism.  

Karl Hanke went on the serve with distinction as a panzer commander with the 7th Paozer Division in France and, subsequently, served as a Gauleiter (following a falling-out with fellow Goebbels protégé, Divisional commander Erwin Rommel).  He ended up as the fifth (and last) Reichfuhrer-SS and a recipient of the "Dead Heroes" German Order in his lifetime - a rare distinction.  Hanke was killed when attempting to escape Czechoslovak captivity as the Third Reich disintegrated.  Best regards, JR.+