When World War II ended in 1945, the world turned its attention to the Nazi leaders responsible for unimaginable crimes—many of whom were captured, tried at Nuremberg, or committed suicide. But left behind in the ruins of a fallen regime were their families—including their children.
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For many of these sons and daughters, life after the war was a complicated and often traumatic journey of reckoning with a legacy of horror they did not choose.
The children of high-ranking Nazis like Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, and Joseph Goebbels faced a burden no child should carry: the knowledge that their parents had helped orchestrate the Holocaust, world war, and widespread devastation.
Some were just infants when the war ended. Others were teenagers, old enough to remember the privileges they had during the Third Reich—and the collapse that followed.
Denial, Shame, and Silence
In post-war Germany and Austria, many of these children grew up in silence or denial. Families often avoided talking about their Nazi past, trying to blend into society as the country began its process of denazification and rebuilding.
But as they grew older, some children began to confront the truth—and made vastly different choices about how to deal with their legacy.
Paths of Atonement and Rejection
Some descendants rejected their family legacies entirely:
Rainer Höss, the grandson of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, became an outspoken critic of his family's history. He visited concentration camps, spoke to students about the Holocaust, and disavowed his grandfather’s actions.
Niklas Frank, son of Hans Frank—the “Butcher of Poland”—wrote a scathing book titled In the Shadow of the Reich, in which he condemned his father and expressed deep disgust for the crimes he committed.
These individuals publicly confronted their family pasts, often enduring harsh backlash from neo-Nazi groups and even estranged relatives.
Others Embraced or Defended Their Parents
Not all descendants rejected the Nazi ideology. Some, like Gudrun Himmler, daughter of SS chief Heinrich Himmler, remained loyal to her father’s memory. She reportedly supported neo-Nazi causes and maintained close ties to former SS members until her death in 2018.
This stark contrast among Nazi descendants highlights how differently individuals responded to the inherited weight of their family’s crimes.