Felix Kersten

Eduard Alexander Felix Kersten (30 September 1898 – 16 April 1960) was the personal physical therapist of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.

Kersten was born in a Baltic German family in Dorpat, Imperial Russia, now Tartu, in Estonia. During the First World War he fought in the German Army and arrived in Finland in April 1918 with the German forces that intervened in the Finnish Civil War. Kersten served for a while in the Suojeluskunta, was granted Finnish citizenship in 1920, and in September 1921 was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant (vänrikki) in the Finnish Army.

After his return to civilian life, Kersten remained in Helsinki, where he studied therapy with the specialist Dr Colander, and after two years was awarded a certificate in physical therapy. He then left for Berlin, where he continued his studies and eventually became the pupil of a notable Chinese therapeutic masseur, Dr Ko, whom he had met at a dinner party. In 1925, Ko told Kersten "You have learned all I can teach you." He then turned his practice over to Kersten and retired to Tibet.

Kersten had a number of influential patients, among them Prince Hendrik of the Netherlands (after 1928) and Benito Mussolini's son-in-law, the Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano. Kersten accepted Heinrich Himmler's request to become his personal physical therapist, writing later that he feared for his safety if he had refused.

He was able to alleviate Himmler's severe stomach pains with his skills and gained his trust. Kersten used this trust to obtain pardons and the release of underground prisoners, labor camp inmates, homosexuals and others.

During the Second World War, Kersten was involved in organizing Himmler's visit to Finland in August 1942. During the visit, Himmler would have demanded that all Finnish Jews be extradited to the Gestapo, according to Kersten. Risto Ryti, the President of Finland, summed up in his diary that Himmler was “an extremely steep anti-semite”. Kersten, for his part, told Ryti about the situation of Jews in Germany: “Jews are sent a lot out of Germany to Latvia and Poland, where they are massacred in cold blood,” and talked about “human slaughter”. This was possibly the first time President Ryti had heard of the massacre of Jews. Kersten also provided information to Abrams S. Hewitt of the Stockholm desk of the OSS, predecessor of the CIA.

Towards the end of the war, Kersten arranged a meeting between Himmler and Norbert Masur, a member of the Swedish branch of the World Jewish Congress, in Hartzwalde, a few miles from Ravensbrück concentration camp. As a result, Himmler agreed to spare the lives of the remaining 60,000 Jews left in Nazi concentration camps days before their liberation by the Allies.

In December 1945, the World Jewish Congress presented Kersten with a letter thanking him for helping to save Jewish concentration camp victims.