The Mystery of Heinrich Müller: New Materials from the CIA

• Published in: Holocaust and genocide studies 2001-12, Vol.15 (3), p.453-467
• Main Authors: Naftali, Timothy, Goda, Norman, Breitman, Richard, Wolfe, Robert
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 8756-6583; 1476-7937
• DOI: 10.1093/hgs/15.3.453

In April 2001, the National Archives released twenty Central Intelligence Agency “Name Files” as part of the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. Many more such releases will follow. While all of the files contain items of interest to students of the Nazi period and the Cold War, the file for Hitler's Gestapo Chief, Heinrich Müller, is most interesting for what it does not contain. While it is impossible to say for certain how or even whether Müller died in Berlin in the war's final days, the strongest possibility is that such was indeed his fate. What seems very clear is that Müller wasnever recruited or even found—dead or alive—by any United States authority. The analysis below, written by historical consultants to the Interagency Working Group charged with implementing the 1998 Act, is not intended as a riposte to recent media speculation that U.S. intelligence protected Müller after 1945. On the other hand, the authors feel that such claims cannot withstand historical scrutiny.