Heydrich chaired the notorious Wannsee Conference (January 20, 1942), whose participants discussed the logistics of the final solution.. As Heydrich's car slowed, Gabk took aim with a Sten submachine gun, but it jammed and failed to fire. In the WVHA "Central Inmate File", as in many camp files, these prisoners would be given a special "covert prisoner" code, as opposed to the code for POW, Felon, Jew, Gypsy, etc. [133] Heydrich reconciled himself to his fate on 2 June, during a visit by Himmler, by reciting one of his father's operas:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, The world is just a barrel-organ which the Lord God turns Himself. top Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich opened in The attacks were carried out by SA stormtroopers and civilians and presaged the Holocaust. Acting on the advice of his associate Karl von Eberstein, a friend of the Heydrich family, Himmler agreed to interview Heydrich, but cancelled their appointment at the last minute. In late February 1919, civil unrestincluding strikes and clashes between communist and anti-communist groupstook place in Heydrich's home town of Halle. With the promotion came greater recognition. [4], In 1931, he was charged with "conduct unbecoming to an officer and gentleman" for breaking an engagement promise to a woman he had known for six months before the engagement to Lina. Edit your search or learn more. He drove from the castle on the morning of May 27, 1942, to Prague, where his car was ambushed. While still chief of the Halle was not spared. "[91], Heydrich came to Prague to enforce policy, fight resistance to the Nazi regime, and keep up production quotas of Czech motors and arms that were "extremely important to the German war effort". [56] At Hitler's direction, Heydrich, Himmler, Gring, and Viktor Lutze drew up lists of those who should be killed, starting with seven top SA officials and including many more. [126], On 27 May 1942, Heydrich planned to meet Hitler in Berlin. In December 1930 he attended a rowing-club ball and met Lina von Osten. [119] The officers attending also discussed taking 5,000 Jews from Prague "in the next few weeks" and handing them over to the Einsatzgruppen commanders Arthur Nebe and Otto Rasch. He died June 4 in a Prague hospital. [165], On 20 July 1941, without seeking authorization from Himmler, Heydrich rejoined Jagdgeschwader 77 during Operation Barbarossa, arriving at Yampil, Vinnytsia Oblast in a borrowed Me 109. [63] Himmler immediately reorganised the police into two groups: the Ordnungspolizei (Order Police; Orpo), consisting of both the national uniformed police and the municipal police, and the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police; SiPo), consisting of the Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police; Gestapo) and Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police; Kripo). TRBS Host Ralph Bailey talks about the 2001 war film Conspiracy & how the film depicts the actions of Adolf Eichmann & Reinhard Heydrich at the beginning of the Holocaust. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The project was named Operation Reinhard after Heydrich. Nazi intelligence falsely linked the Czech and Slovak soldiers and resistance partisans to the villages of Lidice and Leky. Gestapo officials retaliated for his death by executing hundreds of Czechs and wiping out the entire village of Lidice. He helped organise Kristallnacht, a series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 910 November 1938. chapter 59: return to the capital - Wattpad By 1921, few townspeople there could afford a musical education at Bruno Heydrich's conservatory. This led to a financial crisis for the Heydrich family. Those who worked Heydrich feared him, as did those who were unfortunate enough to be under his control. The junction in the Prague suburb of Libe was well suited for the attack because motorists have to slow for a hairpin bend. [137] Although Heydrich's death was employed for pro-Reich propaganda, Hitler privately blamed Heydrich for his own death, through carelessness: Since it is 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. Unemployment insurance was established for the first time. By December 1941, Czechs could be called to work anywhere within the Reich. Prague church that defied Nazi rule Klaus died from his injuries later that afternoon and his body was buried in the garden of the estate. Heydrich, pictured above on the left, was assassinated in 1942 by Czech commandos trained by Britain as he drove to Prague. [140], Heydrich's widow Lina won the right to a pension following a series of court cases against the West German government in 1956 and 1959. [16] Manninen died in September 1969. Historians regard Heydrich as the most fearsome member of the Nazi elite. Hitler's personal doctor Theodor Morell suggested the use of the new antibacterial drug sulfonamide, but Gebhardt thought that Heydrich would recover and declined the suggestion. During his 11 years with the SS Heydrich "rose from the ranks" and was appointed to every rank from private to full general. [142] Hitler planned for Heydrich to have a monumental tomb (designed by sculptor Arno Breker and architect Wilhelm Kreis) but, due to Germany's declining fortunes, it was never built. Reinhard Heydrich He was also a major in the Luftwaffe, flying nearly 100 combat missions until 22 July 1941, when his plane was hit by Soviet anti-aircraft fire. [39] At first he had to share an office and typewriter with a colleague, but by 1932 Heydrich was earning 290 Reichsmarks a month (equivalent to 1,191 in 2021), a salary he described as "comfortable". He was promoted to SS-Obergruppenfhrer und General der Polizei on 24 September 1941. With this appointment by Hitler, Himmler and his deputy, Heydrich, became two of the most powerful men in the internal administration of Germany. 'He offered to help gain money for it, for instance, via the European Union. Conditions in Prague and the rest of the Czech lands were relatively peaceful under Heydrich, and industrial output increased. A Gestapo report stated that Lidice, 22 kilometres (14mi) north-west of Prague, was suspected as the assailants' hiding place because several Czech army officers, then in England, had come from there; additionally, the Gestapo had found a resistance radio transmitter in Leky. In early 1936, Heydrich left the Catholic Church in favour of the Gottglubig movement. That same year he joined the SS. [69] In February 1938 when the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg resisted Hitler's proposed merger with Germany, Heydrich intensified the pressure on Austria by organising Nazi demonstrations and distributing propaganda in Vienna emphasising the common Germanic blood of the two countries. Reinhard Heydrich "armdn generl in memoriam Alois Eli", "Pohnut Osudy: Alois Eli. Text at the top reads "Lina, Reinhart Heydrich, and their children," which is contradictory to the sole child appearing in the image. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Heydrich [38] Heydrich's counterintelligence service grew into an effective machine of terror and intimidation. Rather than surrender, the soldiers killed themselves. [3] He was also a friend of Lina Heydrich, Reinhard Heydrich's wife. [117] In May 1941 Heydrich drew up regulations with Quartermaster general Eduard Wagner for the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union, which ensured that the Einsatzgruppen and army would co-operate in murdering Soviet Jews. WebFamily portrait of Reinhard Heydrich, his wife Lina, and their daughter Silke, all of whom sit on the floor. Quora Reinhard Heydrich detested Nazi leader sparks outrage after announcing While Heydrich believed they had deluded Stalin into executing or dismissing 35,000 of his officer corps, the importance of Heydrich's part is a matter of conjecture. To counteract these rumors, Heydrich told people he had joined several antisemitic and nationalist organizations, such as the Deutschvlkischer Schutz und Trutzbund. [10] Two of his forenames were musical references: "Reinhard" referred to the hero from his father's opera Amen, and "Tristan" stems from Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Reinhard Heydrich Biography By Lisette Allen 1st September 2017 The killing of Reinhard Heydrich, a key architect of the Final Solution, was one of the greatest acts of wartime resistance in occupied Europe. [79] The Great Purge of the Red Army followed on Stalin's orders. the planned total measures are to be kept strictly secret the first prerequisite for the final aim ("Endziel") is the concentration of the Jews from the countryside into the larger cities. Even by the low standards of high-ranking Nazi officials, Heydrich was a monstrous human being. He was ambushed by a team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to kill the Reich-Protector; the team was trained by the British Special Operations Executive. [87][88] Among the 100,000 people murdered in the Intelligenzaktion operations in 19391940, approximately 61,000 were members of the Polish intelligentsia: scholars, clergy, former officers, and others, whom the Germans identified as political targets in the Special Prosecution Book-Poland, compiled before the war began in September 1939. They were born into a wealthy and cultured household. Heydrich's family held social standing and substantial financial means. 1942), The History Learning Site - Biography of Reinhard Heydrich, Spartacus Educational - Biography of Reinhard Heydrich, Reinhard Heydrich - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Rhm was shot without trial, along with the leadership of the SA. [94] Heydrich's brutal policies during that time quickly earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Prague". According to Heydrich's estimate, between 4,000 and 5,000 people were arrested[94] and between 400 and 500 were executed by February 1942. Coordinating the Destruction of an Entire People: The Wannsee On 30 June 1934 the SS and Gestapo acted in coordinated mass arrests that continued for two days. She was declared entitled to a substantial pension as her husband was a German general killed in action. The exact number of people who vanished under it has never been positively established, but it is estimated to be 7,000. [44] To mark the occasion of Heydrich's December wedding, Himmler promoted him to the rank of SS-Sturmbannfhrer (major). Nazi high official and deputy head of the SS (19041942), "Heydrich" redirects here. [114] Historian Raul Hilberg estimates that between 1941 and 1945 the Einsatzgruppen and related auxiliary troops murdered more than two million people, including 1.3million Jews. [64] At that point, Heydrich was head of the SiPo and SD. Known as "The Hangman" and "The Blond Beast," Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) was the chief lieutenant of the German secret police during the Nazi regime. [121] In 1941 Himmler named Heydrich as "responsible for implementing" the forced movement of 60,000 Jews from Germany and Czechoslovakia to the d (Litzmannstadt) Ghetto in Poland. The son was only ten years old when he left Panenske Brezany at the end of World War Two, so he did not know what war was then.'.