28 December 1941, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, somewhere east of Prague.
The Czechoslovak paratroopers including Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš
land in the Nazi occupied territory with one objective – to kill Reinhard Heydrich – acting
governor of the protectorate and the Nazi architect of the Holocaust.
Reinhard Heydrich was born on 7 March 1904 in Halle, then part of the German Empire into a
rich musical family of a composer and opera singer Bruno Heydrich. Reinhard had a passion
for the violin and was bullied at school for his high-pitched voice and rumored Jewish
ancestry. Although Reinhard became an expert swimmer and fencer, he was shy and insecure.
After the end of the World War 1, Heydrich’s family faced financial crisis and in 1922
Reinhard Heydrich joined the German Navy which provided him with much needed security and income.
He caught the eye of his superiors and promotions followed soon after.
Reinhard Heydrich became known as ambitious, arrogant, and having a passion for women.
After a naval court found him guilty of misconduct when he refused to marry
a woman with whom he was engaged, Heydrich was dismissed from the navy in April 1931.
Soon after he joined the Nazi Party and the SS and in December 1931 he got married.
Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS, was immediately impressed with Reinhard Heydrich who,
with his blond hair and blue eyes, had a look of a perfect Aryan. Himmler hired him immediately
and under Himmler’s mentorship, Heydrich quickly became one of the most important
figures of the Nazi regime. Reinhard Heydrich also belonged to Hitlers’ s inner circle at Berghof
which was Adolf Hitler’s vacation residence in the Bavarian Alps from 1935 until 1945 and
Hitler’s nickname for Heydrich was “the man with the iron heart”. It was a much-deserved nickname
as Heydrich became one of the darkest figures within the Nazi regime.
In 1936 Heydrich not only helped to organize the Nazi Olympics but he became one of the
most powerful men in Nazi Germany when Himmler appointed him the chief of the Gestapo which
was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and the SD which was the intelligence agency.
Heydrich was also a driving force behind Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass
which was a series of coordinated violent riots against the Jews throughout Nazi Germany
on 9–10 November 1938. The Nazi SA and German civilians ransacked Jewish homes,
businesses, synagogues, hospitals, and schools.
It is estimated that 91 Jews were murdered, and 30 thousand Jewish men were arrested and imprisoned
in the concentration camps by the Gestapo and the SS on the order of Reinhard Heydrich himself.
It was also Heydrich who organized the Wannsee Conference which was held on 20 January 1942.
The purpose of this meeting of senior government officials and the SS
was to ensure their cooperation in the implementation of the so called “ Final
Solution to the Jewish question “ which was a Nazi plan for the genocide of European Jews
during World War II. Here Reinhard Heydrich introduced his evil plan
of how to round up Jews and send them to extermination camps where they would be killed.
On 27 September 1941, Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector of the Protectorate of
Bohemia and Moravia which was the part of Czechoslovakia incorporated into the Reich
on 15 March 1939. The Reich Protector, Konstantin von Neurath, was sent on “ leave “ because of his
“soft approach” to the Czechs. After Heydrich arrived in Prague, he told his staff “ "We will
Germanize the Czech vermin." Reinhard Heydrich demanded racial classification of those who could
and could not be Germanized and he had no mercy with the Czechs. To fight the Czech resistance,
Heydrich terrorized the population. Hundreds of people were executed, and thousands were arrested.
To exact retribution for Heydrich's brutal rule
and to help confer legitimacy on the government-in-exile, Edvard Beneš - the
president of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile approved the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.
This assassination was codenamed - Operation Anthropoid.
After months of preparations, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš attacked and
wounded Heydrich when he was being driven to his headquarters in Prague on May 27, 1942.
Heydrich was in his convertible Mercedes when Gabčík tried to shoot him with his submachine gun.
However, the gun jammed. Instead of ordering his driver to accelerate, Heydrich ordered
his driver to halt and then Heydrich stood up and drew his pistol. This was a fatal error
of which the other assassin Kubiš took advantage and threw a modified anti-tank grenade at the car.
Heydrich was severely wounded. Soon after, with his face pale
and screaming in pain, Heydrich was taken to the emergency room at hospital.
Heinrich Himmler sent his personal physician Karl Gebhardt to Prague to save his loyal
evil henchman. However, Gebhardt refused to treat Heydrich with sulfonamide, which was
an early antibiotic and as a result, Heydrich contracted an infection and died 8 days later.
Reinhard Heydrich’s funeral in Berlin was attended by all the high-ranking Nazi officials
including his superior Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler himself
who spoke at the funeral and promised revenge.
The Nazis were desperately looking for the assassins and thousands of people were arrested.
Soon after the Gestapo obtained a love letter which they incorrectly linked to the village
of Lidice. The following destruction of the village and the execution of its citizens occurred
on June 9, 1942, on Hitler’s direct order. In total 340 inhabitants of Lidice were
slaughtered - 192 men, 60 women and 88 children. All the men and boys were shot and buried in one
common grave and children were murdered in gas vans at the Chełmno extermination camp.
4 pregnant women were forced to undergo abortions in the same hospital where Heydrich died.
In the end, some kind of justice was served. On 21 May, 1946 the People’s court in Prague sentenced
Karl Hermann Frank, the Nazi Minister of State for Bohemia and Moravia who was among the top
leaders responsible for the massacres in Lidice and Ležáky, to death by hanging. 7 surviving
women from Lidice sat in the front row to watch without pity as Karl Hermann Frank was hanged.
Although justice can never bring back the lives of the Lidice victims, it was only after
Heydrich’s assassination that the United Kingdom and France agreed to dissolve the Munich agreement
and return the annexed Sudetenland back to Czechoslovakia after the Nazis would be defeated.
thanks for watching the world history channel and don't miss our next videos click the subscribe
button now for more interesting clips give us a like and see you in the following episode