Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (sometimes incorrectly spelled as Reinhardt, March 7, 1904 - June 4, 1942) was an Obergruppenführer in the Nazi German paramilitary corps - the SS led by Heinrich Himmler. He was nicknamed The Butcher of Prague, The Blond Beast and Der Henker (German for the hangman).

He was born in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt. His father and mother were both very heavily musically involved, and Heydrich developed a passion for the violin, which was to continue throughout his life. His father was virulently anti-semitic. Although Heydrich was a shy boy, he excelled physically and grew up to be handsome and fit. He was an impressive athlete, excelling in fencing and swimming. However, young Heydrich was often taunted for his family's Roman Catholicism within a mainly Protestant community, and for unfounded rumors of a Jewish ancestry - something that was to haunt him personally and politically for much of his life.

Heydrich had early fascinations with the extreme right and racialist ideology, participating in the freikorps when he was young. In 1922 he joined the navy, however he was later dismissed when he had a brief liaison with a shipyard director's daughter, and subsequently became engaged to a young woman, Lina von Osten. The daughter told her father of her anger over the incident, and he was subsequently charged with "conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman". His behavior in court was apparently so disdainful that the court also rebuked him for insubordination. Heydrich was left with no career prospects. However, he remained engaged to von Osten, whom he married in 1931.

1931 was to be a turning point for Heydrich in another, far more important way. Himmler wished to set up a counter-intelligence division of the SS. Acting on a friend's advice, he interviewed Heydrich, and after a twenty minute test whereby Heydrich had to outline plans for the new division, Himmler hired him on the spot. In doing so Himmler also effectively recruited Heydrich into the Nazi Party.

For a while his was but a small, insignificant role within the Nazi Intelligence, for although he headed the Sicherheitsdienst, he was still relatively powerless, and he and his staff spent their time building up a card-file system on all persons who were considered a threat to the Party, including, often, party officials themselves. Heydrich supported his family on a meagre salary and worked in a tiny office. However, this was soon to change.

Heydrich soon built up a fearsome reputation within the party, and in July 1932 his division took on the title of Sicherheitsdienst (SD). Heydrich soon built up a mutually beneficial partnership with Himmler, with each benefiting politically. Later he became the boss of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) of which the SD, the Gestapo and the Einsatzgruppen were parts.

Upon the establishment of the Third Reich, Heydrich helped Adolf Hitler 'dig up dirt' on many political opponents, keeping an impressive filing system listing individuals and organizations opposing the party and the regime. Heydrich was also instrumental in establishing the false 'attack' by Poland on German national radio at Gleiwitz, which was to be the beginning of World War II.

Heydrich became one of the main architects of the Holocaust during the first years of World War II and chaired the Wannsee conference at which plans for the deportation of the Jews to extermination camps were discussed.

In September 1941 he was appointed Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, replacing Konstantin von Neurath whom Hitler considered insufficently harsh. During role as de facto dictator of Bohemia and Moravia, Heydrich often drove around alone in a car with an open roof- a show of confidence in the occupational forces and their repressive measures in subduing the population.

On May 27, 1942 he was assassinated by a team of British-trained agents of the Czechoslovak government in exile in London. The team comprised of Adolf Opalka (the leader), Josef Valcik, Jan Kubis and Josef Gabchik. Heydrich's car, driven by SS-Oberscharführer Klein, had to slow down to take a sharp bend where the Czech team waited. As the car approached, Gabchik took aim and pulled the trigger of his Sten, but the gun failed and did not fire. Klein, believing Gabchik to be alone, stopped to shoot at him. Kubis then threw an anti-tank grenade at the car. This exploded and severely wounded Heydrich, forcing horse hair from his car seat into his spleen. Research shows that had Heydrich remained seated, his life may have been spared. The Czech agents were pursued by occupation forces to a nearby church and committed suicide to avoid capture.

Despite Himmler sending his best doctors, Heydrich died in agony in a Prague hospital at 4:30am on June 4 at the age of 38. Although the exact cause of death has not been definitively established, the autopsy states that Heydrich's death was most likely caused by bacteria and toxins from the bomb splinters. A highly elaborate funeral was staged for him in Berlin, with Hitler attending. Hitler himself perhaps encapsulated Heydrich's general attitude best, in his acknowledgment that Heydrich was partly to blame for his own death through his arrogance and blasé attitude:

"Since it is the opportunity which makes not only the thief but also the assassin, such heroic gestures as driving in an open, unarmoured vehicle or walking about the streets unguarded are just damned stupidity, which serves the Fatherland not one whit. That a man as irreplaceable as Heydrich should expose himself to unnecessary danger, I can only condemn as stupid and idiotic."

Lina Heydrich later stated that she believed Heydrich had expected a young death, saying that she saw his frequent unnecessary risk-taking (such as his valiant adventures in his Luftwaffe Me 109) as an attempt to ensure that, should he die, his would be a dramatic death.

The retaliation from the Nazis was savage, a stark warning to potential copycats. On June 10 all males over the age of 16 in the village of Lidice, 22 km north-west of Prague, were murdered a day after the town was burned. Heydrich's eventual replacement was Ernst Kaltenbrunner.

After Heydrich's death, the first three "trial" death camps were constructed and put into operation at Treblinka, Sobibór, and Belzec. The project was named Operation Reinhard in Heydrich's honor.

The plot to kill Heydrich is central to the plot of the novel As Time Goes By, a sequel to the movie Casablanca, written by Michael Walsh.

Reference

The Killing of Reinhard Heydrich: The SS "Butcher of Prague", by Callum McDonald. ISBN 0306808609

Assassination : operation Anthropoid 1941-1942, by Michael Burian. Prague: Avis, 2002.

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