Naziism can only be understood as a cultural movement with a political arm. The Nazis were innovators in art and cinema, and they revered modernized folk art like Wagner’s Ring. They also innovated the use of logos (an innovation so powerful their main logo is still banned in Germany).
Inspiring themselves from ancient barbarian practices was one more way to distinguish themselves from the cultural mores of Christian-Aristocratic German tradition.
Germanic laws rotated around two principles.
The first rotated around blood feud, called faida: the old “an eye for an eye” also cited in the Bible. It was of course a most primitive principle and not exclusively Germanic.
The second, and most famous, was weregild, or “price for a man”. It was one of the greatest achievements of the Germanic civilization and it reigned supreme until the Carolingian era. It replaced the custom of “legalized vengeance” with a system of money reparations for blood crimes. Of course it didn’t apply to slaves (being considered property their slaying was to be compensated like any other case of property damage) and not all men were equal. among some people women were worth more than men of similar rank and among others clergymen were worth more than noblemen of similar rank . Some weregilds were incredibly elaborate: for example the Edict of Rothari, the great Lombard King, even specified particular reparation if a man was hurt or slain while riding a horse.
Having said that Himmler probably just applied to the old custom of blood feud: you hurt my fuhrer, I’ll hurt your family. An eye for an eye, it’s as simple as that. Himmler’s beliefs were invariably confused and included a mish-mash of XIX century Germanic renaissance, astrology and various brands of occultism. After his SS wiped out Ernst Rohm’s SA in the Night of Long Knives, his previously second-level movement was showered with money and he spent fortunes in pursue of obscure esoteric and historical secrets. His passion for both the occult and ancient Germanic history has perhaps been exagerated by post-war propaganda but it’s well known Hitler himself (a well known materialist and skeptic) often angrily rebuked him for wasting time and money on such things as astrologers and useless historical research.
himler used a term but i can’t find it now. it means punishing of family members of the criminal.