Felix Kersten

Felix Kersten (30 September 1898 – 16 April 1960) was before and during World War II the personal physical therapist of Heinrich Himmler. Kersten used his contacts with Himmler to help people persecuted by Nazi Germany.

Kersten was born in a Baltic German family in Tartu (Dorpat), Imperial Russia, now called 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 Suojeluskunta, was granted Finnish citizenship in 1920, and in September 1921 was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant (vänrikki) into 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 phsyical 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 phsyical therapist, writing later that he feared for his safety if he had refused.

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