Katrin Himmler was born in 1967. After her first education as a physiotherapist she read political science at Berlin’s Free University and graduated in 1997. During her studies she took part in the conception and development of the guided tour ‘ZeitSchritte’ (‘time steps’) to the former Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp. Later she trained in interviewing and biographic writing. She was an academic participant in a Berlin Free University seminar about ‘The Impact of the Nazi Legacy on the Third Generation of Germans’. Her son was born in 1999.

Her first book “Die Brüder Himmler” was published in 2005 and translated into English in 2007, ‘The Himmler Brothers’ (Pan Macmillan). Translations into more than ten languages have been accompanied by worldwide media interest, e.g. reviews in the Times, Independent, Daily Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Ha’aretz, El País and many others. – read here

She has taken part in several documentary films, like ‘Heinrich Himmler – Portrait of a Mass Murderer’ by Michael Kloft, Germany 2008; ‘Love History’ by Klub Zwei (Simone Bader and Jo Schmeiser), Austria 2010; and ‘Hitler’s Children’ by Chanoch Ze’evi, Israel 2011.

In 2013, with Christoph Schindler, she published the biography „Christfried Jakob. Eine deutsch-argentinische Lebensgeschichte“ (Basilisken-Presse 2013).

In 2014, with Michael Wildt, she published „Himmler privat. Briefe eines Massenmörders“ (Piper) and, at the same time, „Heinrich Himmler d’après sa correspondance avec sa femme 1927-1945“ (Plon). Translations into several languages, the English edition of ‚The private Himmler. Letters of a Mass Murderer‘ came out in 2016 (St. Martin’s).
This edition of private Himmler documents found in Israel was made in close cooperation with the filmmaker Vanessa Lapa. Based on the same material, Lapa made her documentary ‚The Decent One‘ (Der Anständige), which was first shown at Berlinale 2014 – read more  or  watch here

In recent years Katrin Himmler has been a freelance author, holding readings and lectures in Germany and abroad, e.g. in Oxford, Edinburgh, Stockholm, Paris, Mexico City etc. As well, she advised and supported people doing archival research about their own families during the Nazi time and she taught several workshops on doing family research.