A German man has revealed the shocking truth that he is the direct descendant of one of history's most notorious war criminals, Heinrich Himmler, the principal architect of the Holocaust.
A Life-Changing Discovery in 2024
For Henrik Lenkeit, the year 2024 brought a revelation that shattered his understanding of his own identity. Then aged 47, he was watching an online documentary about the Nazis when a casual search led him to a website. There, he saw a photograph of his maternal grandmother, Hedwig Potthast. The caption beneath it read: "Himmler's mistress."
Further investigation confirmed the unthinkable: Himmler was his mother's biological father, making the feared SS chief and orchestrator of the Final Solution Henrik's grandfather. "How do you process that you're related to one of the biggest criminals in history?" Henrik was asked during an interview in Berlin. His reply was swift and stark: "You don't."
Confronting a Family Secret
The discovery prompted a torrent of painful questions. "Who am I? Who was I? Why wasn't I told the truth for 47 years?" he said, adding that his life suddenly felt "like a lie." He believes his parents deliberately shielded him from this devastating truth to protect him.
Opening a family photo album, Henrik showed images of Hedwig Potthast from 1935, a young woman with a slight smile. She had met Himmler while working as his private secretary at the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin. By 1938, they had confessed their love and begun an affair.
"She was a friendly person," said Henrik, who used to call her "Mutti." "I've never thought she could be the mistress of a mass murderer. Knowing that, of course, was a shock." He firmly rejects any notion that she was naive, stating, "She knew. I think she knew everything... They were lovers. Monster lovers."
Living with a Toxic Inheritance
Love letters from Himmler to Potthast, dated between 1940 and 1942, show him affectionately calling her "bunny" and signing off with "endless fond thoughts." Despite being married to another woman, Himmler had his name added to the birth certificate when Potthast became pregnant, believing he was spreading the "master race." This document confirms Henrik's blood tie in black and white.
When asked if this genetic link frightens him, Henrik replied, "Of course. You ask yourself, 'What is my inheritance from that?'" He now describes his grandfather with words like "mass murderer," "devil," and "demon."
While he cannot change his heritage, Henrik Lenkeit's mission is clear: to ask forgiveness from Himmler's victims and to utterly divorce himself from his grandfather's dark past. "He is my grandfather. I can't do anything about that," he said, slowly accepting the unbearable weight of history now placed upon his shoulders.
