Pictured: Grandad, Gran Isa & Dad
As always links are in BLUE
MY GRANDAD CAPTURED HIMMLER!
He was in fact, the Camp Commandant that Himmler revealed his identity to!
Captain Thomas Selvester handed Himmler over to MI6 Agent Glynn Faithfull
Now, there are a lot of theories surrounding Himmler’s death. Mine comes with a wee bit of ‘insider’ knowledge as it were
According to what my grandad said, Himmler and two other blokes were brought before him and Himmler removed his eye patch and introduced himself! Himmler was then strip searched. Grandad, knowing Himmler could be hiding a cyanide capsule, gave the order NOT to check his mouth, just incase. Instead he ordered a cuppa and a door stopper sandwich for himself and Himmler! They chatted while eating! Meanwhile, Grandad was watching how Himmler was chewing & according to him, Himmler showed no sign of any capsule & was happily chewing on both sides of his mouth, favouring neither front nor back etc..
My Grandad said, Himmler came across as intelligent, polite, shy and scared.
Hours later, having spent entire time alone with Himmler, Grandad handed him over ALIVE & WELL to the newly arrived Interrogation officers (MI6, Glynn Faithfull & Co) Shortly after which, Himmler was dead.
The impression i got was that my Grandad believed Himmler DID NOT have any capsule in his mouth.
Grandad’s 80th Birthday, 25 yrs ago. (Good God i’m getting old!)
Thomas Selvester
Extract from The Herald (Kenneth is my Dad)
Apr 3, 2005
The day we captured Himmler. MAY 22, 1945 REMEMBERED; Scots soldier tells how he helped catch leading Nazi and ended up with his watch.
THE thin man dressed as a postman and wearing an eyepatch hardly drew a second glance from the Scots troops guarding the crossing point. It was his two strapping companions who stood out among the under-fed refugees streaming over the bridge.
Soldiers stopped the trio and although they didn’t know it yet, they had just captured the second most powerful Nazi after Hitler – Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler.
Himmler was chief of German police, minister of the interior and commander in chief of the home forces. He was also the monster behind the mass murder of more than six million Jews in concentration camps such as Auschwitz.
Almost 60 years after the Nazi was caught trying to flee Germany on May 22, 1945, one of the Scots soldiers who was present when he was detained recalled his capture.
Dr Tom Renouf, 79, of Edinburgh, was a 19-year-old private in the 5th Black Watch Batallion at the time.
He said: ‘The capture of Himmler didn’t seem particularly important after losing so many comrades and surviving the horrors following D-Day.
‘Looking back now, it was probably one of the most significant things our batallion did.’
Dr Renouf’s batallion was with the 51st Highland Division when they became the first Allied troops on German territory after playing a key role in crossing the Rhine.
The soldiers were stationed at Bremervorde, an important crossing point over the River Weser, to watch the flow of refugees, check identity papers and detain anyone suspicious.
Dr Renouf said: ‘I had just come on watch and was patrolling the bridge while Himmler was in the guard room. We had no idea it was him. We just knew three men had been apprehended on the bridge because they stood out. After the war the bridge was a crossing point of human misery, full of starving refugees, German soldiers on crutches and forced labourers all trying to make their way home. The two, tall, strapping, blond men looked in so much better shape than everyone else. But with so many people swarming over the bridge it was amazing we were able to pull them out. They were taken away by the Field Security Police for questioning at division headquarters.’
The disguised Himmler was taken to Luneburg, a British Army base south of Hamburg, for interrogation.
He asked to see the officer in charge and as he stood before Captain Tom Selvester, the prisoner removed his eye patch, put on his spectacles and said: ‘Don’t you know who I am? I’m Heinrich Himmler.’
Captain Selvester called the British Army HQ to tell them but initially nobody believed Himmler could have escaped the Nazi bunker in Berlin and avoided the Red Army to get so far. The next day, Field Security Police told Dr Renouf and his comrades the men they captured were important.
The Nazi died on the same day after swallowing cyanide from a poison capsule hidden in his mouth.
Two months later, in Steyerberg – a country village where the soldiers were readjusting to life after the war – Dr Renouf traded 300 cigarettes for Himmler’s watch.
He said: ‘My friend Sergeant Nick Nicholson was desperate for cigarettes and wanted to buy some off me. I had quite a few because I didn’t smoke.
‘Money was pretty useless at the time but I thought he had rather a good watch. We agreed to exchange watches and I handed over 300 cigarettes. A few days later he told me he had taken the watch from Himmler.
‘It was common practice to remove valuables from prisoners. If you didn’t, the next person to get them would.
‘I immediately examined the watch to see if it had a mark but Nick laughed and said it would have been 500 cigarettes if it had been engraved.’
As captain of the Pioneer Corps, Selvester, then 36, was in charge of interrogating civilians and was with Himmler until he was led away for a medical examination.
When the Nazi was searched, Captain Selvester found a small glass vial, which Himmler claimed contained medicine for stomach cramps.
There was another, similar case which was empty, leading the officers to conclude Himmler had hidden it in his mouth. He was offered food to see if he would remove it and officers even contemplated knocking him out with a sandbag so they could get it out.
But the Colonel in charge opted for a medical examination.
As Dr Clement Wells put his finger inside Himmler’s mouth he bit down hard, breaking the poison capsule.
Despite efforts to drain out the cyanide by holding Himmler upside down, he died and was buried in a hidden grave near Luneburg.
Before his death in 1998, Captain Selvester told Dr Renouf he thought Himmler’s death was an accident.
The Government will not release papers on the subject until 2045, so this cannot yet be proved.
Dr Renouf said: ‘Tom didn’t believe Himmler committed suicide. He thought he crunched on the cyanide by accident. He had spoken to those who were with Himmler at the time of his death and suicide was not the evidence which came out. Tom was an excellent officer of great integrity who everyone respected. He was not the sort of man to say something unless he had reason to believe it was true.’
In a report of events of May 23, 1945, written by Captain Selvester for Roger Manvell’s biography of Himmler, he said: ‘During the time Himmler was in my custody he behaved perfectly correctly and gave the impression that he realised events had caught up with him. I was rather surprised when I heard of his death so soon after leaving my camp. I did gain the impression he was quite prepared to talk and indeed at times appeared almost jovial.’
Himmler’s capture was an important contribution to the war effort by the Scots.
In the lead up to the 60th anniversary of VE Day, those heroic Scots veterans are making plans for their final meeting.
On May 14, former members of the 51st Highland Division are invited to join a celebration parade in Perth, where they will get the opportunity to march alongside old comrades and current forces.
Any 51st Highland veterans who would like to attend should write to Dr Renouf, Secretary of the 51st Highland Veterans Association, care of The Sunday Mail, One Central Quay,
YAY! Can’t believe I found that!!
Extract from book below or HERE
Glynn Faithfull, father to Marianne, was an MI6 spy, who interrogated Himmler
MORE INFO
- Marianne Faithfull, MI6, Himmler, S&M & My Grandad!!
- Telegram Kept But Then Destroyed
- Himmler’s Death: Report
- Himmler’s Last Days