Reinhard Heydrich
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Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was an SS-Obergruppenführer, chief of the Reich Security Main Office (including the Gestapo, SD and Kripo Nazi police agencies) and Reichsprotektor (Reich Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia. Adolf Hitler considered him a possible successor. When the Nazis moved the headquarters of Interpol to Berlin he was chosen as the President of that international law enforcement agency. Heydrich chaired the 1942 Wannsee conference, which finalized plans for the extermination of all European Jews in what is now referred to as the Holocaust. Heydrich was wounded in an assassination attempt in Prague on 27 May 1942 and died over a week later from complications arising from his injuries.
Early lifeHeydrich was born in Halle an der Saale to composer Richard Bruno Heydrich and his wife Elisabeth Anna Maria Amalia Kranz; Heydrich held a life-long passion for the violin. His two forenames were patriotic musical references: "Reinhard" from Amen, an opera written by his father, in a portion called "Reinhard's Crime". His first middle name, 'Tristan' stems from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. His third name probably derives from military hero Prince Eugene of Savoy, Eugen in German (the German cruiser Prinz Eugen was also named for Eugene of Savoy as was the 7th Division of the Waffen-SS). As a young boy, Heydrich was teased for his high pitched voice and his devout Catholicism in a mostly Protestant town. Although shy, Heydrich excelled physically and grew handsome and fit, excelling in fencing and swimming. Too young to have fought in World War I, he joined the quasi-military Freikorps after the war. In 1922, Heydrich joined the navy, but he was dismissed in 1931 (Bullock 1962). The dismissal never has been satisfactorily explained. Heydrich's own version was that he had intercourse with, then refused to marry, a woman whose important industrialist father was a major naval contractor, and friend of Erich Raeder, the commander-in-chief of the German Navy. The woman revealed her difficulties to her father, who took the matter to Raeder. Admiral Raeder summoned Heydrich to his office where he and the aggrieved father demanded that Heydrich marry the girl, only to be told that he already was engaged to Lina von Osten, and considered himself bound by his "honour as a naval officer" to not dissolve the engagement. At this, the appalled Raeder is supposed to have summarily cashiered Heydrich. The tale is apparently false. Intensive post-war efforts by journalists failed to identify the woman, though Heydrich's version would have her as socially prominent. Raeder himself scoffed at that tale, while refusing to disclose his reasons for sacking Heydrich. Another version was that the girl in question was upset at Heydrich's engagement to Lina von Osten because she was under the belief that he would marry her. She complained to her father who went to Raeder. During the court of inquiry summoned by Raeder, Heydrich's contemptuous answers did not help his case and though he was exonerated, the officers demanded that he be cashiered for "conduct unbecoming a naval officer". This leaves the question as to why Heydrich would have concocted a tale which clearly discredited him, and why would Lina Heydrich and others also maintain that Heydrich was contemptuous of the Nazis before his dismissal from the navy, which others of his acquaintance at the time categorically deny. One theory was submitted by Edouard Calic, namely that Heydrich was discharged once it emerged that he had been spying on the navy in the service of the Nazis. While Heydrich's lifelong socialism and fascination with espionage would make this feasible and would explain why SS chief Heinrich Himmler appointed him to head the SD immediately following his discharge, direct evidence is lacking. Nazi Party and the SSImage:Vlcsnap-5522132.png
Reinhard Heydrich (middle) together with Heinrich Himmler, Karl Wolff and an unidentified assistant at the Obersalzberg, May 1939
In 1931, Himmler began to set up a counter-intelligence division of the SS. Acting on a friend's advice, he interviewed Heydrich, and, it is alleged, 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. He would later receive a Totenkopfring from Himmler, for his service. At this time, he was relatively insignificant within the Nazi intelligence apparatus. He and his staff spent their time building up a card-file system on all people who were considered a threat to the Party, often including party officials themselves. Heydrich supported his family on a meager salary and worked in a tiny office. American journalist John Gunther, during his trip to Germany in 1934, while collecting research materials for his book Inside Europe, showed considerable knowledge of Nazi intrigues and backgrounds when he said that Himmler actually had a relatively small tolerance for butchery compared to a man like Heydrich, who was far more cruel. At this time, Heydrich was regarded as an obscure medium-ranked officer in the SS bureaucracy. In July 1932, Heydrich became the head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), an intelligence organisation wholly committed to the defence of Nazism. He built it by recruiting agents from unusual sources, some of whom were not really committed Nazis, just people Heydrich found talented or useful, from whom reports could be compiled on various aspects of life in Nazi Germany. The organisation benefitted from close cooperation with the Gestapo, which Heydrich also gained control of in 1936, as part of a combined security police force. With his first task being the suppression of all possible dissent prior and during the Olympic Games of 1936, a task he executed with a cold and systematic brutality that gained him the German Olympia Honor Badge (First Class) (Deutsches Olympiaehrenzeichen). Later, the SD and the Gestapo were united under the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) under Heydrich. Image:Reinhard Heydrich Poster.jpg
Poster depicting Reinhard Heydrich.
While Heydrich's abilities were never doubted by superiors and subordinates alike, his constant sarcasm, occasionally boorish behaviour, extreme oversensitivity to being underestimated (in contrast to Himmler who preferred to be underestimated by would-be opponents) and aggressiveness won him few loyalists, while his propensity for rash actions such as the arrest of a Kreisleiter in 1935, or telling Göring and the council of ministers in 1940 that the security police would exercise limitless powers whether they granted them or not, was an ever present annoyance for Himmler, who had to clean up the messes. Himmler would occasionally lose his patience with Heydrich, berating and abusing him, sometimes calling him "Genghis Khan". Although Himmler thought Heydrich was at times exasperating, he generally found him indispensable. Upon the establishment of the Third Reich, Heydrich helped Adolf Hitler gather information on many political opponents, keeping an impressive filing system listing individuals and organizations who opposed the party and the regime. He is believed to be the creator of the forged documents of Russian correspondence with the German High Command. While it is now known that the Stalinist Great Purge of the Soviet military officer corps was at most tangentially related to these forgeries, at the time it was widely believed to have resulted from Heydrich's actions, enormously adding to his prestige. He was also instrumental in establishing the false 'attack' by Poland on German national radio at Gleiwitz, intended to provide the Nazi justification for the beginning of World War II, though this failed miserably and only came to light post-war when allied investigators began researching the captured German documents, since the station selected was merely a relay station for Radio Breslau whose stronger signal drowned out the fake `Polish propaganda` emanating from Gleiwitz. Heydrich was one of the main architects of the Holocaust during the first years of World War II. He had initially gained some control over Jewish policy, when in November 1938, Göring assigned him as head of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration following the Kristallnacht. In this position, he worked tirelessly both to coordinate various initiatives for the Final Solution, and to assert SS dominance over Jewish policy. Most famously in this respect, on 20 January 1942, Heydrich chaired the Wannsee Conference, at which he presented to the heads of a number of German Government departments a plan approved by Hitler for the deportation of the Jews of Europe to German-occupied parts of the Soviet Union, where the Jews fit for labour would be used for building roads. (That plan was not implemented in full, and instead most of the Jews under German control were later sent to extermination camps or concentration camps). Heydrich was one of the very few prominent Nazi leaders to actually serve in combat, as he flew 97 missions in a Messerschmitt Bf 109E fighter and won two Iron Crosses (first and second class) for his bravery. In fact, Heydrich was actually shot down over Russia but was rescued by German forces. He was ordered by Hitler to stop flying combat missions.
Assassination in Prague
On 27 September 1941 Heydrich was appointed acting Reichsprotektor in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (the part of Czechoslovakia incorporated into the Reich on March 15, 1939). He replaced Konstantin von Neurath whom Hitler considered ineffective. (Neurath remained titular Protector until 20 August 1943). Neurath's policy as Protector was based on giving privileges to the nobility and upper classes. This led to passive resentment among ordinary people, mainly workers. The Protectorate was a vital weapons and war material producer for the Third Reich. During Neurath's service as Protector, war production substantially dropped. Heydrich came to Prague to restore production quotas. As the governor of Bohemia and Moravia, Heydrich applied "carrot-and-stick" methods. The black market was suppressed, food rations and pensions were increased, and unemployment insurance was established for the first time. Those associated with the resistance movement or black market were tortured or executed. Under Heydrich, Prague and the rest of the Czech lands became quite pacified and industrial output went up. Because of his success in Prague, Hitler was considering making Heydrich the governor of Paris. When British intelligence heard this, they wanted to stop this at all costs. They would not let a man who butchered the Czechs and Jews of Prague to do the same to the French Resistance.[citation needed] While virtual military governor of Bohemia and Moravia, exercising real executive power above the President and Prime Minister of the so called Protectorate, Heydrich often drove alone in a car with an open roof — a show of confidence in the occupation forces and the effectiveness of his government (See Czech resistance to Nazi occupation). Image:Heydrich's car.jpg
The car in which Heydrich was assassinated (currently in the Military History Museum in Prague).
Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík were Czechoslovak soldiers who fled the country earlier in 1941. After receiving training from the British, they returned by parachute in December. On 27 May, 1942 they ambushed Heydrich while he rode in his open car in the Prague suburb of Kobylisy. As the car slowed to take a hairpin bend in the road, Gabčík took aim with a Sten sub-machine gun but it failed to fire. At that very moment, instead of ordering his driver to speed away Heydrich called his car to a halt in an attempt to take on the two attackers. Kubiš then immediately threw a bomb (a converted anti-tank mine) at the rear of the car. The explosion wounded Heydrich and also Kubiš himself. Image:Reinhard Heydrich-NARA.jpg
Reinhard Heydrich in SS-Brigadeführer uniform
Heydrich appeared not to be injured seriously. He gave chase and tried to return fire but his pistol was not loaded. After running some distance, he became weak from shock, and sent his driver Klein on foot to chase Gabčík. In the ensuing firefight, Gabčík shot Klein in the leg and escaped. The bomb explosion drove fragments from the car seats into Heydrich's body, including bits of springs and dirty upholstery. This led to massive infections of his internal organs. Despite Himmler sending his best doctors, Heydrich died in a Prague hospital eight days later. The autopsy stated that Heydrich's death was the result of septicemia. The Nazi retaliation was brutal: a clear warning against any further armed resistance. About 13,000 people were arrested, deported, imprisoned or killed. On 10 June all males over the age of 16 in the village of Lidice, 22 km north-west of Prague, and another village, Ležáky, were murdered. The towns were burned and the ruins leveled. There is a special memorial to both the assassins and the dead of Lidice and Lezaky in Jephson Gardens, Royal Leamington Spa, UK. This was the town where the Czech forces were stationed during the war, and where their training took place. The memorial fountain is in the form of a parachute, with water running over the centre fold. Planted around the fountain is the special white Lidice Rose, grown in commemoration of the dead. This memorial is believed to be the only place outside of Czechoslovakia where the special rose is grown. The fountain was designed and is maintained by Warwick district council. An elaborate funeral was conducted for Heydrich in Prague and Berlin, with Hitler attending (and placing Heydrich's decorations on his funeral pillow, the highest grade of the German Order and the Blood Order Medal). Although Heydrich's death was employed as pro-Reich propaganda, Hitler seemed privately to blame Heydrich for his own death, through carelessness:
Lina Heydrich later stated that she believed Heydrich had expected an early death, saying that she saw his frequent unnecessary risk-taking (such as his recklessness during his stint as a fighter pilot) as an attempt to ensure that, should he die, his would be a dramatic death.[citation needed] Heydrich was buried in Berlin's Invalidenfriedhof, which had the misfortune to be on the border between West and East Berlin. His plot was between those of two famous German war heroes, Oven[citation needed] and Scharnhorst.[2]. In 1945, however, his headstone and grave marker were removed by the Allies, who feared his tomb would become a rallying point for Neo-Nazis. During the time when the Berlin Wall was standing, the grave was part of the so-called "death strip" between the two Berlins and inaccessible to the public. Heydrich's eventual replacements were Ernst Kaltenbrunner as the chief of RSHA, and Karl Hermann Frank 27 - 28 May 1942 and Kurt Daluege 28 May 1942 - 14 October 1943 as the new acting Reichsprotektors. After Heydrich's death, his legacy lived on; 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. It is said that when told of Heydrich's death, Odilo Globocnik said, "Thank God that sow's gone to the butcher." Summary of SS careerDates of rank
The earliest official photographs of Heydrich wearing an SS uniform are from 1933 when he held the rank of SS-Oberführer. Some private photographs exist showing him as an SS-Standartenführer from 1932, but there are no known pictures of Heydrich wearing a junior SS rank from before this time. Service history
Heydrich's decorations
Additional service as fighter pilotReinhard Heydrich also served as Reserve Hauptmann, then Major in the Luftwaffe. Some sources claim that he served in the Invasion of Poland as a bomber gunner, but this is not confirmed. Then, despite his advanced age, he completed a fighter pilot course in 1940, probably due to his ambition. Heydrich wanted to set an example and show that the SS were not "asphalt" soldiers behind the front lines, but the elite of the Third Reich. In April 1940 he flew a Bf 110 in the Fighter Group II./JG 77 "Herz As"[3] in Norway. The planes flown by Heydrich had an ancient Germanic runic character S for Sieg -- "victory" painted on the side of the fuselage. On May 13 1940 he crashed his plane during take-off and was injured. For a short time in May, he flew patrol flights over North Germany and the Netherlands. Then, after another accident, he returned to Berlin. In mid-June 1941, before the German attack on the USSR, he resumed flying, ignoring Himmler's orders. He flew his personal Bf 109E-7 again with Group II./JG 77 from Bălţi, Romania on the southern Eastern Front, which put the wing commander under pressure due to Heydrich's position and lack of experience. On July 22 1941, his plane was badly damaged over Yampil by Soviet AA artillery. Heydrich managed to crash-land in no-man's land, and run back to the German lines. After this, he was forbidden to fly once more, as it was realized that Heydrich's capture as a POW would be a major security breach for Germany, and he never again returned to active flying. Heydrich was really too old and too inexperienced to be a fighter pilot and he lacked the necessary free time for training flights. But despite his lack of experience, he was decorated with the Iron Cross Second (1940) and First (1941) Classes. The number of missions flown by Heydrich is not known, but he was awarded the Frontflugspange (Front Pilot Badge) in silver, which usually was awarded after 60 combat missions. According to Alan Wykes in Heydrich (War Leader book #22 as part of Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century 1973), Heydrich flew 97 missions in a Me-110 twin engine fighter. FamilyIn December 1930 Heydrich met Lina Mathilde von Osten (14 June 1911 - 14 August 1985). She was the daughter of Jürgen von Osten, a minor German aristocrat. They were married on 26 December 1931 in Großenbrode. The couple had four children. According to historian Jaroslav Čvančara, Heydrich had an additional child with a mistress, a leader of League of German Girls (BDM).[4] Heydrich's younger brother Heinz Siegfried (September 29 1905 in Halle/S), though initially as fanatical a Nazi as his brother, gradually became disenchanted with Nazism and even became involved in obtaining false identification documents for Jews to save them from persecution. When his activities were uncovered by the Gestapo he was given the choice of committing suicide rather than face trial with the attendant hardships for his family (and embarrassment to the regime). He shot himself on November 19, 1944.[citation needed] Heydrich's wife Lina lived as a restaurant keeper on the island of Fehmarn. During a holiday trip to Finland, she fell in love with the Finnish theatre director and poet Mauno Manninen (1915-1969) who was not reputed to have been a Nazi; they got married in 1965. She passed away in 1985, claiming till the end that she had known nothing about the atrocities committed and ordered by her first husband. FictionThe events of the Wannsee conference are recreated in the 1984 TV Movie Wannseekonferenz (The Wannsee Conference)[1] directed by Heinz Schirk, and remade in 2001 under the title Conspiracy [2], with Kenneth Branagh playing Reinhard Heydrich. The Conference was also the subject of a 1992 English language documentary film entitled The Wannsee Conference directed by Dutch director Willy Lindwer [3]. The plan to kill Heydrich is central to the plot of the 1998 novel As Time Goes By, a sequel to the movie Casablanca, written by Michael Walsh. (ISBN 0-446-51900-6). The assassination itself has been dramatised in the 1943 Fritz Lang film Hangmen Also Die (written by Bertolt Brecht) [4], the 1964 Czechoslovak film Atentát [5] and the 1975 film Operation Daybreak, starring Anthony Andrews (Jozef Gabcik), Timothy Bottoms (Jan Kubis), Martin Shaw (Karel Curda) and Anton Diffring (Heydrich) [6]. As another instance of Heydrich's courting of disaster, this film shows him risking death by wearing the Crown of Bohemia which was historically fatal to anyone unentitled to do so. Heydrich, as the "Reich's Crown Prince of Terror", plays a leading role in March Violets and The Pale Criminal, the first two novels in Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy (ISBN 0-14-023170-6), in which Bernie Gunther, a Berlin private eye in the tradition of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe who left the Berlin police when the Nazis came to power, finds his investigations embroiling him in the internal feuding of the Nazi High Command. Heydrich and the events of the Wannsee conference are also the subjects of Robert Harris's novel Fatherland. The book portrays an alternate history where Heydrich is promoted to the rank of Reichsführer-SS (4-star General) after the death of Himmler. For a brief three seconds at movie's end (an ending in direct contradiction to that in the novel) he is shown standing with two other officials while the evidence of the Holocaust is given to U.S. President Joseph P. Kennedy. The Man in the High Castle, an alternate-history novel by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick set in the 1960s describes Heydrich as head of the SS and maneuvering to become Reich Chancellor after Hitler and his immediate successor, Martin Bormann, are dead. In the Robert Ludlum novel, The Tristan Betrayal, Heydrich plays a small but pivotal role. In this World War II thriller Heydrich is the master and father figure to a German assassin, Kleist, who serves as one of the antagonists of the novel. The book portrays Heydrich as a cruel, calculating man (nothing new) who had utmost respect from his fellow Nazi officials (debatable). Heydrich also plays a pivotal role in William Harrington's novel "The English Lady". "The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich" is a short story by Jim Shepard which explores the plot to assassinate Heydrich from the conspirators' perspective. Heydrich in popular culture
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