When Heinrich Himmler writhed in pain, conventional medicine capitulated. The Reichsführer SS suffered from relentless abdominal cramps, and German doctors threw up their hands helplessly. In 1940, Felix Kersten entered the game – a physiotherapist with Baltic roots whose hands would change the fate of tens of thousands of people.
From Dorpat to the Salons
Felix Kersten is a figure who still stirs controversy among historians today. He was born on September 30, 1898, in Dorpat, an Estonian city known today as Tartu, into a family of Baltic Germans inhabiting the territories of the Russian Empire.
His life path led through the uniform of the German army during World War I, then he went to Finland with German intervention forces. There he received Finnish citizenship and in 1921 served in the Finnish army as a second lieutenant.
After completing his military duties, he settled in Helsinki, where he began studying physiotherapy under Dr. Colander. He then moved to Berlin to continue his education with a Chinese massage master, Dr. Ko.
By 1925, Kersten was already running a recognized practice, receiving prominent patients from all over Europe. Among his clients were Dutch Prince Hendrik and Count Galeazzo Ciano, Benito Mussolini’s son-in-law.
Masseur in the Service of the SS
In 1940, after Germany invaded the Netherlands, Kersten began work as Heinrich Himmler’s personal therapist. The Reichsführer SS suffered from chronic, severe abdominal pain that conventional medicine could not handle.
Kersten used a technique sometimes called Tibetan massage or nerve therapy, which brought relief where other doctors failed. Himmler, who was superstitious and susceptible to all kinds of unconventional healing methods, almost immediately trusted Kersten and included him in his closest circle of associates.
This exceptional position became a tool for Kersten to exert influence on Himmler’s decisions. According to his own accounts, he stopped charging fees for his medical services, and instead, during each therapy session, presented Himmler with lists of people who should be released from concentration camps and forced labor factories.
On these lists were members of the resistance movement, people of Jewish origin, and prisoners held because of their sexual orientation. Himmler agreed to these requests, treating them as a kind of payment for the treatment he received.
Intervention Regarding Finnish Jews
In August 1942, Kersten accompanied Himmler during an official visit to Finland. The Reichsführer SS then demanded that the Finnish government hand over all Finnish Jews to the Gestapo.
Kersten used his private contacts with Finnish President Risto Ryti and during a personal conversation provided him with detailed information about the fate of the Jewish community in the General Government and in Latvia, where the Germans were conducting mass executions. This account was one of the first official pieces of information to reach Finnish decision-makers about the actual scale of the Holocaust.
At the same time, Kersten cooperated with American intelligence, contacting Abram S. Hewitt, an OSS representative operating in Stockholm. He passed on information regarding the situation in the Third Reich and the fate of prisoners held in German camps.
The Final Weeks of War
The most significant episode of Kersten’s activity was his role in the final weeks of World War II. He then organized a meeting between Himmler and Norbert Masur, a representative of the World Jewish Congress. The meeting took place in Hartzwalde near Berlin, as the Third Reich was collapsing.
Thanks to this conversation, Himmler agreed to halt further executions and issued an order prohibiting mass shootings of prisoners of Jewish origin until the arrival of Allied troops. As a result of these actions, approximately sixty thousand concentration camp prisoners lived to see liberation by British and American armies.
For his actions during the war, Kersten received the Order of Orange-Nassau awarded by the Dutch royal house, and the World Jewish Congress in December 1945 sent him official thanks for saving thousands of people.
Life After the War and Controversies
After the war ended, Kersten settled in Sweden, where in 1953 he received Swedish citizenship. He described his wartime activities in memoirs published in 1947 and 1956. He died on April 16, 1960, in the German city of Hamm during one of his trips.
However, Kersten’s role in saving victims of the Third Reich remains a subject of historical debate to this day. Many researchers believe that in his memoirs he significantly exaggerated the scale of his involvement. Dutch historian Louis de Jong conducted a detailed analysis of documents presented by Kersten as evidence of his activities and demonstrated that at least some of them were forged. Particularly controversial is his role in saving all of the Netherlands from deportation, which according to de Jong was greatly exaggerated.
His participation in the so-called White Buses operation, organized by the Swedish Red Cross, also raises doubts. Although Kersten undoubtedly played the role of mediator between Himmler and Count Folke Bernadotte, he was not the main organizer of this rescue operation.
Despite these controversies, archival materials confirm that Kersten truly possessed real influence over Heinrich Himmler and knew how to use this position to save human lives. At the same time, the fact that part of his memoirs is questioned by historians means that his biography remains the subject of lively scholarly discussion.
