A German priest, who specialises in couples' counselling, has learned that he is the grandson of Nazi Heinrich Himmler, who was the chief architect of the Holocaust.
Henrik Lenkeit, 48, made the discovery after watching a documentary about Himmler's role in the Nazi regime.
Interested in what he had watched, he continued his own research into Himmler online and came across a photograph of his mistress that bore a striking resemblance to his own grandmother. The woman, Hedwig Potthast, also shared the same dates of birth and death as Lenkeit’s grandmother.
Over several months, Lenkeit traced his family history and found that Himmler had formally acknowledged himself as the father of Lenkeit’s mother, Nanette-Dorothea, on her birth certificate.
Potthast, who worked as Himmler’s secretary and later his personal assistant, gave birth to two of his children during the Second World War.
Lenkeit told Der Spiegel: “I was completely shocked. Am I really that guy’s grandson?”
“If you could bring people back from the dead, I’d grab my grandfather and give him a good hiding," he said.
After Himmler’s suicide in 1945, Potthast married Hans Georg Adolf Staeck, who gave his surname to her children. Lenkeit had been told as a boy that Staeck was his grandfather.
Potthast died in 1994 and Nanette-Dorothea Lenkeit passed away in 2019, leaving unanswered questions about why the family’s past was concealed.
Lenkeit is no longer in contact with extended relatives on his mother's side of the family, who have also declined to speak to press.