Mapping Himmler's Appointment Book
Investigators
An Astounding Discovery
In 1991, researchers made an astounding discovery in the in special archives of the KGB in Moscow: Himmler's appointment book. This incredibly valuable source had remained undisturbed since the the end of World War II. It covered the years 1941-1942. A team of eminent German researchers published this book in 1999 along with a detailed collection of footnotes and annotations giving context and explaining the likely meanings behind various trips and meetings. This period of time (1941-1942) was critical to both the planning and execution of the Holocaust in the East.
Annotated page from Himmler's Dienstkalendar
The Mapping Project
Our most recent team member, Rachel Cressell, began the intensive project of beginning to analyze and code the data in this source. She began not only extracting temporal and geographic data, but also building a database of biographical data regarding who Himmler was meeting with. She has taken a break but Waitman continues work on the project. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, together we are categorizing the kinds of meetings Himmler was having.
As this database becomes more mature, it will offer the team the ability to map Himmler's movements and, by extension, those of his meeting partners. It will also allow us to see when and where he is discussing various important topics. This dynamic mapping could then be overlaid onto other datasets being created regarding the Holocaust in the East allowing yet perspective from which to view Himmler's movements and communications.
Finally, a completed analysis of this data could lead to a social network analysis of who Himmler was meeting with, how often, and on what topics. This kind of analysis could shed vital insight into who had influence in Himmler's life and who his confidants may have been based on the meeting data.
One meeting extracted from the primary source and coded
Here is a (draft) visualization of the appointments as a social network using Gephi