One of the most infamous Nazis that rose to prominence during Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich
was Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich was referred to as ‘The Blond Beast,’ or the Hangman,
and even the Butcher of Prague, such was his brutality. He is often associated with Heinrci
hHimmler, and he rose to the position as the Chief of the Reich Security Main Officer which
oversaw the Gestapo, SD and Kripo. He also was the Reichsprotector of Bohemia and Moravia,
and it was role that he ruled over the states with brutality.
He was even referred to by Adolf Hitler as ‘the man with the iron heart,’ and he
helped to inflict much suffering onto people, for example he helped organise Kristallnacht,
the orchestrated attacks on Jews and their property on the 9th and 10th November 1938.
He also tried to eliminate all opposition to the Nazis, and was responsible for the
Einsatzgruppen, the death squads that murdered more than 2 million people during World War
2. He was truly a horrific man, however the Hangman eventually met his maker, being assassinated
on the 27th May 1942. Today we look at the vengeful assassination of Reinhard Heydrich,
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Reinhard Heydrich initially rose to prominence in the German Navy, and rose through many
different positions and promotions. He was discharged from he Navy after having a number
of affairs, but the following day he joined the Nazi Party and then joined the SS. Himmler
began to set up a counterintelligence service within the SS and he needed someone to oversee
it, and after interviewing Heydrich he was so impressed that he hired him straight away.
Very quickly his salary rose, and he rose in reputation too.
The SD became a feared organisation that brought terror and intimidation to Germany, and later
Heydrich was also involved in reducing the power of the SA during the Night of the Long
Knives, in which a savage purge was instigated by Hitler to reduce the power of the brownshirts.
He continued his role in the SD to analyse the public, and then used the Gestapo to carry
out many arrests and searches. He was an incredibly brutal man, who in September 1941 was appointed
the Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, the part of Czechoslovakia that was
absorbed into the German Empire in March 1939.
The Reich protector at the time Konstantin von Neurath was the head of the state, however
he was sent away as Heydrich and Himmler along with Hitler believed he was too soft. Heydrich
stated that, ‘we will Germanise the Czech vermin,’ and he arrived in Prague to enforce
his brutal rule, and the Nazi regime. He was tasked with ending resistance, and also organising
production so that the Czech factories helped the German War effort. He looked negatively
upon the Czechs, and he began to terrorise the people there. He claimed martial law and
5 days after he arrived, he had executed over 140 people in bloody reprisals.
These people were members of the resistance, and their story was told all over the nation,
and from this Heydrich continued to terrorise, arresting around 5000 people, and further
executing another 500 people. Those who were not killed were sent to Mauthausen Concentration
camp, where only 4% of Czech prisoners survived. Even the former Czech prime minister was arrested,
and more panic continued for the Czechs. Heydrich earned the nickname the Butcher of Prague,
but he reorganised labour to increase productivity in the industrial sector. The work day was
made 12 hours long, and the workers were exploited.
Heydrich was serving as the dictator of the area, and he was a very confident man. He
was also one of the architects of the Holocaust, organising Kristallnacht and also overseeing
and forming the Einsatzgruppen death squads sent to shoot and execute Jews and civilians
after gains by the German army. These soldiers killed around 2 million people, including
1.3 million Jews.
He was also a senior officer at the Final Solution meeting, where the idea was discussed
in 1941. He discussed deporting 50,000 Jews from his area to ghettos in Riga and Minsk.
It was he who was given authorisation to ensure the implementation of the final solution in
German occupied lands. However he often paraded around the cities and areas, in an open top
car however by early October 1941 the Czech intelligence based in London took the idea
to assassinate Heydrich, and put it into action.
The operation was created by Frantisek Moravec, the head of the Czech intelligence service.
He worked alongside the British SOE, Special Operations Executive to come up with a plan
to take out Heydrich. Brigadier Colin Gubbings was briefed on the plan, and he helped to
organise the operation, which was given the codename Operation Anthropoid. Selected to
carry out the mission were around 20 promising Czech soldiers based in Britain, and they
were sent for SOE commando training in Scotland. Chosen following training was Jozef Gabcik,
and a late replacement Jan Kubis. Gabcik and Kubis along with seven soldiers were sent
then east of Prague and were dropped by parachute on the 28th December 1941. Together in Prague,
Gabcik and Kubis contacted their friends, and planned the attack.
They were in contact with the Czech resistance who helped their preparations. The big worry
with assassinating Heydrich was the fact that the Czechs worried about reprisals to their
people, as they feared that an attack on Heydrich would be paid back with the executions of
thousands. The order to attack was issued, and the initial plan was to kill him on a
train, but then this was passed over as it would have been too difficult. The second
idea was to take him out on a forest road near to his home in Prague, and the two would
pull over a cable to create a diversion to attempt to get Heydrich to stop his car, and
then after this they would gun him down, however this not happen. The next plan was to assassinate
Heydrich in Prague.
Every day he travelled from his home 9 miles north of Prague to his HQ at Prague Castle.
This was the same art 10:30 on the 27th May 1942, and he was driven by his SS driver Johannes
Klein. Now on his commute was a tramp stop near to a junction in a road which had a tight
curve in it. When Heydrich’s car approached the corner it was forced to slow down, however
at the tram stop opposite was Gabcik and Kubis, and a lookout was positioned around 100m’s
north to spot Heydrich’s car.
As expected Heydrich’s green Mercedes which was open topped came to the curve in the road.
As it slowed down to navigate the corner, Gabcik who was holding a sten machine gun
under his coat, dropped his raincoat and then aimed his gun at Heydrich, trying to shoot
him. However the big problem was that the Sten gun jammed. However Heydrich made a big
error. Seeing this attempted assassination, he could easily have driven off, but he wanted
to confront the assassins, and got his driver to stop.
Heydrich drew his Luger Pistol, ready to shoot Gabcik, however he had not seen the other
assassin Kubis, who then threw an anti tank grenade inside a briefcase near the car. This
missed, and landed against the back wheel and the bomb exploded wounding Heydrich as
the fragments and shrapnel ripped through him, embedding into his body and also into
the car. Heydrich was left seriously inured with damage to his lungs, spleen, ribs and
diaphragm. The explosion was so big that it even took out windows on the approaching tram.
Heydrich and his driver then jumped out of the car with their weapons ready, and Klein
chased after Kubis and Heydrich went after Gabcik. Klein fired his pistol at Kubis, however
startled by the explosion he missed and his gun jammed. Heydrich was stumbling all over
there road, and Gahcik then left his sten and went for his bicycle however he then took
cover behind a tree as Heydrich approached and he fired at the German Officer with his
pistol. Heydrich returned fire and then collapsed next to some railings, in severe pain.
He pointed towards the assassins and shouted ‘Get that bastard,’ however they fled
and managed to evade capture. They believed that the assassination attempt had failed,
however Heydrich was then placed in a delivery van and was taken to hospital. He went into
surgery to remove the shrapnel and he had a lot of different procedures, reinflating
his collapsed lung, removing part of his fractured rib, repairing the diaphragm, removing his
spleen and much more. Himmler even sent his own doctor to try and help, and as it appeared
that Heydrich’s life was saved things went wrong.
On the 3rd June he was seen sitting eating his midday meal, however he collapsed and
his body went into shock before he fell into a coma and never would recover. He died around
4:30am on the 4th June, a week after the attack had taken place. His death was seen as a major
loss for the Nazis, and different theories have emerged about his death, including possible
poisoning.
One of the sickest effects of Heydrich’s death however was how the people of the area
were treated. Around 13,000 people were arrested, and it’s estimated that 5000 were murdered
in bloody reprisals. Massacres occurred in Czech villages, and a hunt was on for the
assassins. However we’ll cover this in another video.
As anticipated the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich inflicted a huge degree of pain back
on the Czech people, however in allied nations his death was seen as a major coup. The Nazis
clearly valued Heydrich massively, and his presence inside of the Third Reich was a noticeable
one. He was the Butcher of Prague, the man who ruled over the area with such brutality
that history has shown him to have been one of the biggest villains of the whole of the
Second World War.
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