Hedwig Potthast

Hedwig Potthast (5 February 1912 – 22 September 1994) was the private secretary and mistress of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, with whom she had two children.

Born in 1912, Potthast began as Himmler's secretary in 1936 and by 1938 she had become his lover. She resigned from her duties in 1941, and subsequently had two children with Himmler, a boy and a girl. After World War II, Potthast married and lived the rest of her life outside the public eye. In post-war interviews, she refrained from answering questions about Himmler's involvement in war crimes committed by the Nazis or about her own knowledge of them. She died in 1994.