In all photographs, he always looks the same: smoothly combed, wearing pince-nez, with a small brush of mustache and a contemptuous smile frozen in the corners of his thin lips - looking more like a school teacher than an executioner. Throughout his life, he demonstrated amazing resourcefulness and diplomatic cunning, which allowed him to make a career. His rise in the Third Reich was not a coincidence. Himmler consciously sought to become the “Grand Inquisitor.” This book is not about what crimes Himmler committed. Only one question remains open: how did Himmler become a war criminal? How did a pious boy from an educated and prosperous Bavarian family become a political attacker whose name struck terror throughout Europe? How did a dreamy young man, dreaming of exploits and glory, turn into an executioner ready to destroy thousands and millions of innocent people? How was it possible to travel this terrible path in just a few years?..