At the end of WWII the Nazis were fleeing the attention of the allied forces. Heinrich Himmler head of the SS and the Gestapo tried to escape using fake ID documents.
As one of the masterminds behind the holocaust he was one of the most wanted members of Hitler’s team.
Himmler had managed to evade recognition on several occasions until he was finally caught trying to cross through Meinstedt in Bremervörde, northern Germany, on May 22, 1945.
Himmler’s fake documents identified him as a sergeant named Heinrich Hizinger. Key to his capture was the fact that his documents displayed a unique stamp that British military intelligence has been briefed to look out for.
This stamp identified him as being an escaping member of the SS. Anybody using this type of document was to face immediate arrest.
MI5 officers were called to interrogate Himmler. An army medic tried to remove a cyanide capsule from Himmler’s mouth, but Himmler chewed the capsule resulting in instant death.
One of the interrogation team is thought to have been a Lt Col Sidney Noakes, a former lawyer before being seconded by MI5 in 1943.
Noakes’ superiors allowed him to keep the fake documents. Himmler’s braces and personal effects were kept by other MI5 officers.
75 years later, the fake ID has been donated to the Military Intelligence Museum at RAF Chicksands, Shefford, by Colonel Noakes’ great niece.
The documents will go on public display when the museum reopens later this year.
Chicksands is now the home of British Army Intelligence Corps.
