Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (born March 7, 1904 - died June 4, 1942) - Head of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security (1939-1942), Deputy Imperial Protector of Bohemia and Moravia (1941-1942). SS Obergruppenführer and General of Police (from 1941)
After Himmler introduced the 26-year-old Heydrich to Adolf Hitler, when they were alone, he said thoughtfully:
“He is a very capable, but also a very dangerous person.”
Strange, isn't it? And this despite the fact that there was absolutely nothing villainous in the appearance of the young SS man. Compared to the same bestial Rem, Heydrich looked like a real angel. It is noteworthy that one of Heydrich’s nicknames, which his colleagues bestowed on him, of course, behind his back, was precisely the word “angel,” albeit with the addition of the epithet “fallen.”
Death of Reinhard Heydrich
Everyone knew that Heydrich was a brave man. The last time he proved this was when he flew as a fighter pilot over the coasts of Norway, shooting down 7 British planes. And this was done by one of the most powerful people in the Reich! In Prague, the fearless Heydrich constantly drove along the same route in an open Mercedes without an escort. In addition to him, as a rule, the only person in the car was his personal, experienced driver, Willie. But on the tragic morning of June 27, another person was driving his car - Oberscharführer Klein.
The assassination attempt took place at a slow turn. A running man blocked the path of Heydrich's car. An experienced Willie would have immediately noticed the danger and put his foot on the gas pedal. But Klein is driving. He slowed down, despite Heydrich shouting: “Push it full.” The pedestrian threw off his raincoat and pointed the muzzle of the machine gun at the Mercedes, pulled the trigger, but the machine gun jammed. But then a second person runs up and throws a grenade under the car. The blast wave broke glass in nearby houses.
The criminals began to run away, but they were chased. Who took part in it? The unwounded Oberscharführer Klein runs after the first, but he does not run for long - soon he will be lying on the sidewalk with two bullets in his chest. The wounded Reinhard Heydrich himself ran after the second one, the one who threw the grenade, with a heavy “Parabellum” at the ready. He shoots as he goes and falls exhausted, having managed to wound his killer in the back.
“Inform the City,” the lying protector wheezes to the first of those who dared to approach him. These were the last words of Reinhard Heydrich, who was then only 38 years old. About a week later, on July 4, 1942, Heydrich died in one of the Prague hospitals; several operations performed did not help him - he died of blood poisoning without regaining consciousness.
Revenge for this crime was not long in coming. In search of the killers, the Germans drenched Czechoslovakia in blood and, with the help of a Czech traitor, reached the killers.
Today Reinhard Heydrich is called nothing less than the chief executioner of the Third Reich. It was Heydrich who made a huge contribution not only to the policy of extermination of Jews, but he personally fought against the internal enemies of the fascist regime. However, the successful career of an SS Obergruppenführer was short-lived. In the summer of 1942, an attempt was made on his life in Prague.
Who is Reinhard Heydrich?
In the 1920s, Reinhard Heydrich served in the navy. It cannot be said that Heydrich’s career was unsuccessful. Moreover, in order to achieve high positions, he was ready to do almost anything. However, the future SS man still made one mistake: he entered into relationships with two women at the same time. The fact of unworthy behavior was revealed, and Heydrich was dismissed. However, he was not at a loss and after a couple of months he joined the National Socialist Party and the SS.
Heydrich's promotion career ladder Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler contributed. Heydrich managed to interest Himmler with his proposals for creating an intelligence system. Since then, Reinhard began to search for and eliminate Hitler's enemies, among whom were very high-ranking Germans. Heindrich was also one of the main “inspirers” of the Holocaust.
Death after assassination attempt
2 years after German troops occupied Czechoslovakia, Reinhard Heydrich took over as Imperial Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. There Heydrich continued the work he had begun. He identified unreliable elements, closed synagogues, and opened a concentration camp. At the same time, he tried to “cajole” the Czechs working in military factories good nutrition, increased salaries and all kinds of entertainment. Therefore, Heydrich was not particularly afraid of anything. Even on the day of the assassination attempt, he was driving through the suburbs of Prague in an open car. He was accompanied only by the driver.
At about half past ten in the morning of 1942, a passer-by pulled a machine gun from his bosom and pointed it at Heydrich. However, the weapon misfired. The Obergruppenführer, of course, noticed his would-be killer and ordered the driver to slow down. Heydrich also took out a pistol and took aim, but his weapon did not work either. At this time, the second participant in the attempt threw a grenade towards the car. But it exploded next to the car. Heydrich suffered a broken rib and a wounded spleen. Both accomplices managed to escape. And Reinhard Heydrich, despite the lightness of his injuries, died on June 4, presumably from sepsis.
Operation Anthropoid and its consequences
The liquidators of one of the main executioners of the Third Reich were Czech paratroopers Josef Gabčík and Jan Kubis. The operation itself code name“Anthropoid” was prepared by the National Committee for the Liberation of Czechoslovakia and the British intelligence services. After the perpetrators of the assassination attempt managed to escape, the Germans immediately rushed on their trail. The retribution turned out to be terrible. Thus, the tragedy that resulted from the furious search for Gabčík and Kubiš remained forever in the history of the Czech Republic. The Nazis received information that some of the organizers of Heydrich's assassination may be in the village of Lidice. As a result, all its adult residents were destroyed and their houses were burned.
Meanwhile, Josef Gabcsik and Jan Kubis, together with their comrades, were hiding in the Cyril and Methodius Cathedral in Prague. That's where the Germans discovered them. Realizing that there was no way out, the paratroopers decided to commit suicide. Only Jan Kubis, who was seriously wounded, did not have time to do this. He died a short time later from loss of blood.
German statesman and politician, head of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security (1939-1942), deputy imperial protector of Bohemia and Moravia (1941-1942). SS Obergruppenführer and General of Police (1941). He had NSDAP party card No. 544916, and SS card No. 10120. One of the initiators of the “final solution to the Jewish question”, coordinator of activities against the internal enemies of the Third Reich. At one time, Hitler considered his candidacy as his possible successor. Heydrich was killed in Prague by militants (ethnic Czechs and Slovaks) parachuted from a British plane.
The traditional Russian transliteration of the name Heydrich is Reinhard Tristan Eigen Heydrich. A more phonetically correct spelling is Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heidrich. Nowadays the most common intermediate variants are Reinhard Heydrich and Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich was given the name Reinhardt; in 1932 he changed the spelling to Reinhard.
Childhood and youth
Reinhard Heydrich's mother Elisabeth, née Kranz, came from a wealthy family: her father directed the royal conservatory in Dresden. Reinhard's father, Bruno Heydrich, was an opera singer and composer. Operas by Bruno Heydrich were staged in theaters in Cologne and Leipzig. In 1899 he founded in Halle music school for middle-class children, but he was never able to enter urban high society. For the townspeople, he remained a stranger, which was facilitated by rumors about his Jewish origin.
From an early age, Reinhard was brought up in the spirit of nationalism. His parents read the works of racial theorist Huston Chamberlain, devoted to the issues of “the struggle of the races.” When did the first one begin? World War Heydrich was 10 years old. The defeat of Kaiser Germany and the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II were perceived in the family as a great grief.
In 1919, at the age of 15, Heydrich, still a schoolboy, began to get involved in politics and joined the Georg Ludwig Rudolf Merker volunteer corps, a paramilitary nationalist organization. According to contemporaries, his character at this time became more and more closed. [source?] Heydrich begins to actively engage in sports, cultivating a competitive spirit.
Navy service
The economic crisis that hit post-war Germany brought Father Heydrich's music school to the brink of ruin. His musical career now did not promise any success, although Reinhard Heydrich played the violin well. The career of a chemist, which he dreamed of, also seemed financially unpromising to Heydrich.
On March 30, 1922, Heydrich entered the naval school in Kiel. The navy, with its strict code of honor, seemed to the young Heydrich to be the elite of the nation. This confidence was further reinforced by the family's frequent guest, Count Felix von Luckner. [source?] In 1926, Heydrich graduated from college and received the rank of lieutenant and was sent to serve in naval intelligence. His career begins to be promoted by the future leader of the Abwehr and the future admiral Wilhelm Canaris, at that time the senior officer on the cruiser Berlin. The Canaris family's relationship with Heydrich was very close - for example, Heydrich often played in a string quartet with Canaris's wife.
However, Heydrich's relations with his fellow soldiers were not particularly good. Like his father in his time, he was disturbed by rumors about his Jewish ancestors. While serving in the navy, Heydrich became even more active in sports, in particular pentathlon, fencing and horse riding.
Heydrich had a reputation for red tape. In December 1930, at one of the balls, Heydrich met his future wife, Lina von Osten, a village teacher, and marries her in January of the following year. According to another, more romantic version, Reinhard and a friend were boating and saw a boat with two girls capsize nearby. Of course, young people heroically came to the rescue. One of the rescued girls was Lina von Osten.
Previously, Heydrich developed an affair with another woman, the daughter of the head of the naval shipyard in Kiel (according to other sources, the daughter of the owner of the largest metallurgical holding IG Fabernim). Heydrich breaks this connection by sending by mail an announcement cut from a newspaper about his engagement to Lina. The girl's father turns to the head of the Navy, Admiral Erich Raeder, with a request to influence Heydrich. According to the Navy code of honor, Heydrich committed a grave offense by having two affairs at the same time. The behavior of the young lieutenant is examined at the court of honor, which for some reason is headed by Raeder himself. At a meeting of the court of honor, Raeder notes that the daughter of “such a man” is more worthy than a “village simpleton,” but Heydrich responded with a request not to interfere in his choice. In April 1931, Admiral Raeder dismissed Heydrich for “misbehavior.”
Admission to SS
In June 1931, Reinhard Heydrich joined the NSDAP, receiving party card No. 544,916, and the SS (ticket No. 10,120). Together with militants from the SA, Heydrich takes part in battles with the socialists and communists.
Heydrich's grave is located in the Berlin Invalidenfriedhof cemetery (German: Invalidenfriedhof) approximately in the center of zone "A". It was planned to erect a huge luxurious monument on it, but due to the war this was not carried out.
Operation Retaliation
The assassination attempt on Heydrich made a deep impression on the Reich leadership. The investigative measures were poorly organized at first, so Heydrich’s killers managed to hide. However, the Nazis subsequently began a campaign of mass terror against the Czech population. It was announced that anyone who knew the whereabouts of the protector’s killers and who did not hand them over would be shot along with his entire family. Mass searches were carried out in Prague, during which other members of the Resistance, Jews, communists and other persecuted categories of citizens were identified hiding in houses and apartments. Although the vast majority of these people had nothing to do with the assassination attempt on Heydrich, many of them were shot.
The village of Lidice was destroyed. Its entire male population over 16 years of age was exterminated, 172 women were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, the children were taken to the Central Office for Migrants of the city of Litzmannstadt (German: Umwandererzentralstelle Litzmannstadt), where traces of most of them are lost. The reason given for this operation was an alleged connection between the assassination attempt and the population of the village. In total, about 5,000 Czechs were killed as part of retaliation operations for the death of Heydrich.
Place where British agents were hiding (crypt cathedral Saints Cyril and Methodius of the Czech Orthodox Church in Prague), was betrayed by a traitor named Karel Churda. After a long battle with the SS men, the agents were forced to shoot themselves. The priest and members of the church clergy who sheltered Heydrich's killers were arrested. Gorazd, the Orthodox Bishop of Prague, who was in Berlin at that time and knew nothing about these events, arrived in the Czech Republic and declared that he was ready to share the punishment that his subordinates would suffer. He was shot on September 4, 1942. Together with him, the priests of the cathedral, Vaclav Czykl and Vladimir Petrzyk, as well as the head of the temple, Jan Sonnewend, were executed. Czech Orthodox Church was banned, its property was confiscated, churches were closed, the clergy were arrested and imprisoned. After the liberation of the Czech Republic in May 1945, the Czech Orthodox Church was restored, and on September 28 of the same year, its executed clerics were posthumously awarded the “In memoriam” cross. Squares and streets in Prague, Olomouc, Brno and other cities are named after Saint Gorazd. In 1987, the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church canonized Bishop Gorazd as a saint.
Heydrich's personality
Heydrich had many stereotypically Nordic qualities: tall, thin, blond with an icy calm. In contrast to this image, Heydrich had a very high voice, for which he received the nickname “goat” from his friends. This is probably why few recordings of his speeches have survived. Heydrich was a keen athlete and a gifted musician.
He was able to become for his boss Himmler a good helper(Heydrich held leadership positions in SD from the age of 29; he headed the RSHA at the age of 35). For example, he did almost all the work of integrating the political police into the party apparatus. A joke is attributed to Hermann Goering: German. HHHH, Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich, “H. H.H.H. - Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich.” Soon after Heydrich's death, Himmler confiscated all the documents from his personal safe.
From his youth, Heydrich was surrounded by rumors that he was of Jewish origin, and this information was subsequently used by his political enemies to fight him. In 1932, one of the leaders of the NSDAP, Gregor Strasser, ordered the Gauleiter of Halle, Rudolf Jordan, to investigate this information. At first, the information was in favor of rumors: Heydrich's father, Bruno Heydrich, appeared in the Riemann Encyclopedia of Music for 1916 as “Bruno Heydrich, real name Suess” and Suess was a very popular Jewish surname. Further investigation showed that the information about the surname Suess is unfounded, which means that Heydrich has no Jewish roots on his father’s side. Rumors about the Jewish origin of Heydrich’s mother were also not confirmed.
Heydrich's personal file, including his family tree, was under the personal control of Martin Bormann and was preserved intact. However, the family tree reflects only one generation on the maternal side, and there is also no information about Heydrich’s maternal grandmother, although this information was required even for obtaining the rank of SS private.
However, “excavations” of the past of the elite of the Third Reich (in relation to Heydrich, Himmler, Hitler) regarding “Jewish roots” were generally widespread in the 30s among less fortunate colleagues in the NSDAP. Such “archeology” has been and remains a favorite topic of modern near-historical journalism.
At the same time, the hypothesis about Heydrich's Jewish origin was the subject of serious scientific research. Israeli historian Shlomo Aronson, while working on his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Heydrich and the period of formation of the Gestapo and SD” (published in 1966), built family tree Heydrich on his father's side until 1738, and on his mother's side until 1688, and no Jews were found among his ancestors.
From his marriage to Lina von Osten, Heydrich had four children: sons Klaus and Haider, daughters Silke (Silke) and Martha (Martha was born on July 23, 1942, almost two months after her father’s death). Lina, who inherited a castle in the Czech Republic after her husband, tried to play an independent political role and developed plans in the 1940s to create a National Socialist land-cultivating commune (the idea of Himmler himself), which, however, did not meet with Himmler’s support. In the 1970s, she wrote an interesting memoir, published under the title “Life with a War Criminal,” which contains important information about her husband’s relationship with Himmler and Canaris.
Heydrich in fiction and film
The assassination of Heydrich became the subject of a feature film a year after the event: it was the American film “Executioners Also Die” (eng. Hangmen Also Die, 1943, in the role of Heydrich Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), directed and written by German anti-fascists - Fritz Lang and Bertolt Brecht. Two more feature films about the Prague assassination attempt were released: the Czechoslovakian “Assassination” (Atentát, 1964, in the role of Heydrich Siegfried Loyd, GDR) and the American “Operation Daybreak” (1975, in the role of Heydrich Anton Diffring, Germany) - based on the book by Alan Burgess (eng. Alan Burgess) “Seven Men At Daybreak”. The assassination attempt on Heydrich was also depicted in the film Sokolovo (1974) by Czechoslovakian director Otakar Vavra - the second film in the trilogy about Czechoslovakia during the war. The role of Heydrich was played by the actor from the GDR Hanno Hasse. It was also performed by actors Don Costello, John Carradine, David Warner and others.
Heydrich plays a key role in Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy.
American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick wrote an alternative history novel, The Man in the High Castle. The Man in the High Castle). The novel takes place in the 1960s in the victorious Third Reich; Heydrich seeks to take over the post of Reich Chancellor after the death of Hitler and his immediate successor Bormann.
The most famous Soviet film about Nazi Germany, Seventeen Moments of Spring, takes place after the death of Heydrich, but the film includes documentary footage of his funeral. Stirlitz recalls this event, after which Kaltenbrunner headed the RSHA, in the film.
The book on which the film was based, Seventeen Moments of Spring, highlights some aspects of Heydrich's origins (see above) and his relationship with Schellenberg. Apparently, they are taken from the memoirs of Schellenberg, who wrote them after the war.
The assassination attempt on Heydrich was planned by the Czechoslovak “government in exile” of Edward Benes with the participation of the British Special Operations Executive. The assassination of Heydrich was planned to simultaneously raise the prestige of the Resistance and provoke punitive actions by the Germans, which, in turn, would push the local population to actively resist the occupiers. The direct executors of the operation, called “Anthropoid,” were British-trained agents Josef Gabcsik and Jan Kubis.
May 27, 1942. Mercedes of Reinhard Heydrich.
The delivery of Gabčík and Kubiš took place on the night of December 28–29, 1941. The RAF Handley Page Halifax took off from Sussex at 10 p.m. and dropped off Gabcik and Kubis at 2:12 a.m. Due to a navigation error, the saboteurs were landed not near Pilsen, as planned, but in the Prague suburb of Negvizdy. Then two more groups of Czech saboteurs were dropped, three and two people respectively. Gabcik and Kubis were equipped with Colt revolvers, Mills hand grenades, bombs of various types and forged documents. The saboteurs hid their equipment and, following the instructions received before departure, reached Pilsen, where they stayed in predetermined apartments with resistance members Vaclav Kral and Vaclav Stelik. Subsequently, they established contacts with many other active underground figures.
Josef Gabcik
The assassination attempt took place on the morning of May 27, 1942, at a turn in the Prague suburb of Liben on the way from Heydrich’s country residence Jungfern Breshan to the center of Prague. When Heydrich in an open-top car (besides the SS-Obergruppenführer himself there was only a driver - Heydrich preferred to drive without any security at all) was passing a turn at 10:32, Gabchik pulled out a STEN submachine gun and tried to shoot Heydrich at point-blank range, but the cartridge stuck. Heydrich ordered the driver to stop the car and pulled out his service pistol.
Mercedes of Reinhard Heydrich. after the assassination attempt on May 27, 1942
At that moment, Kubis threw a bomb, but missed, so the bomb exploded behind the right rear wheel of the car.
Jan Kubis
Heydrich, who suffered a broken rib and a shrapnel wound to the spleen, which was hit by metal parts of the car's upholstery and a piece of his uniform, got out of the car, but immediately fell nearby. He was taken to the Bulovka hospital in a truck, which was stopped by a Czech policeman who happened to be at the scene of the assassination attempt.
Crime scene with damaged car.
Around noon Heydrich was operated on. The surgeon removed the damaged spleen. On May 27, Himmler’s personal physician, Karl Gebhardt, arrived at the hospital. He prescribed large doses of morphine to the patient. On the morning of June 3, Heydrich's condition improved, but around noon he fell into a coma and died the next day. The cause of death was given as infection internal organs weakened due to the removal of the spleen.
Until the late evening of June 5, 1942, the coffin with the body of Reinhard Heydrich was in a guarded room at the Bulovka hospital.
Immediately after Heydrich's death, Himmler received great amount telegrams of condolences, both from senior officials of the Reich and military leaders from the Soviet-German front, and from representatives of satellite countries (including Italian and Bulgarian police) and even from Ukrainian nationalists.
On the night of June 5-6, 1942, the coffin was transported on a gun carriage from the Bulovka Hospital to Prague Castle.
In Prague, national flags were flown at half-mast after the death of Reinhard Heydrich
After a two-day farewell to the body in Prague, the coffin was delivered to Berlin.
On June 7, 1942, from the very early morning, tens of thousands of Germans and Czechs came to the courtyard of Prague Castle to say goodbye to the deceased
June 7, 1942. Removal of the coffin from Prague Castle
June 7, 1942. Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, family members and leading government officials
June 7, 1942. Heinrich Himmler with two sons at the coffin in the courtyard of Prague Castle
June 7, 1942. Funeral procession marches through Prague to the train station
June 7, 1942. From the Prague railway station, the coffin with the deceased was loaded onto a special train to Berlin. The next day, June 8, 1942, the train arrived at 12.00 o'clock at the Berlin station
The funeral took place on June 9. The entire top of the country took part in the burial ceremony. Adolf Hitler himself gave a farewell speech, calling Heydrich “a man with an iron heart.”
June 9, 1942. The Fuhrer says goodbye to the body of the late Reinhard Heydrich
June 9, 1942. The Fuhrer speaks words of consolation to the sons of Reinhard Heydrich
Himmler later called Heydrich a “shining great man” and emphasized that he “made a sacrificial contribution to the struggle for freedom” of the German people, “felt the worldview of Adolf Hitler in the depths of his heart and his blood, understood it and implemented it.” The London Times newspaper quipped that one of the most dangerous men of the Third Reich was given a “gangster funeral.” Hitler posthumously awarded Heydrich the "German Order", a rare award reserved for senior party functionaries (most awards of this order were also posthumous). The Ahnenerbe Society issued a mourning booklet in memory of Heydrich.
June 9, 1942. The Fuhrer posthumously awarded Heydrich the "German Order"
After the death of Heydrich, the leadership of the RSHA was initially assumed personally by Himmler, but on January 30, 1943, he transferred it to Ernst Kaltenbrunner. The post of Imperial Protector of Bohemia and Moravia was given to SS Oberstgruppenführer, Colonel General of Police Kurt Daluge.
June 9, 1942. The coffin with Heydrich's body in the courtyard of the New Reich Chancellery after the official ceremony
Honor guard on Wilhelmstrasse in front of the New Imperial Chancellery.
The coffin with the body of the deceased is loaded onto a carriage
June 9, 1942. Funeral procession in the courtyard of the New Reich Chancellery after the official ceremony
June 9, 1942. A funeral procession led by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler marches through Berlin.
Heydrich's grave is located in the Berlin Invalidenfriedhof cemetery, approximately in the center of zone "A". After the end of the war, the tombstone was destroyed to prevent the grave from becoming a place of worship for neo-Nazis, and now the exact location of the burial is unknown.
June 9, 1942. Cemetery of the Invalids. Funeral guard on both sides of the grave.
June 9, 1942. Cemetery of the Invalids. Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler throws flowers on the coffin.
June 9, 1942. Cemetery of the Invalids. Heinrich Himmler pays his last respects to the deceased
June 9, 1942. Cemetery of the Invalids. Reinhard Heydrich's coffin strewn with flowers.
Model of Heydrich's Tomb. The tomb was supposed to become a monument in honor of those who fell for Germany
On the first anniversary of Heydrich’s death, his bust was erected at the site of the assassination attempt, which was destroyed by the Soviet troops that liberated Prague. On May 27, 2009, in Prague, at the site of the assassination attempt, a monument to the heroes of the Resistance who executed Heydrich was unveiled.
A bust of Reinhard Heydrich was erected at the murder site in Prague
From his marriage to Lina von Osten, Heydrich had four children: sons Klaus and Haider, daughters Silke and Martha (Martha was born on July 23, 1942, almost two months after her father’s death). Lina, who inherited a castle in the Czech Republic after her husband, tried to play an independent political role and developed plans in the 1940s to create a National Socialist land-cultivating commune, which, however, did not meet with the support of Himmler, who was the author of this idea. In the 1970s, she wrote an interesting memoir, published under the title “Life with a War Criminal,” which contains important information about her husband’s relationship with Himmler and Canaris.
Lina Heydrich as a representative of the Imperial Department at the ceremony conferring the title of honorary citizen of Brno on Reinhard Heydrich. September 21, 1942
Lina Heydrich in 1943 with her children, Klaus Haider, Silke and Martha
After breakfast, the SS Obergruppenführer stretched and stood up. He read the newspapers before breakfast. They were delivered from Prague in the mornings. I went to the window. A large dark Mercedes was already parked in front of the main entrance of the castle. An SS Oberscharführer was fiddling around next to the car. Johannes Klein . Today he replaced the regular driver.
Sports spirit
Klein straightened the mascot, blew away invisible specks of dust from the emblem and once again wiped the radiator lining shining in the sun with flannel. The day was expected to be warm and sunny. Therefore, the boss expressed a desire to drive a convertible.
Heydrich has three official cars. But this one is my favorite. And the newest one. Sports cabriolet - “Mercedes-Benz 320” - W142 body. A miracle, not a machine. Not exactly the most luxurious of the Mercedes line. But there was a sporting spirit in her. And Heydrich loved speed. The convertible, weighing under two tons, easily accelerated to 130 kilometers per hour. The engine is a 78-horsepower inline six. The Mercedes was manufactured to special order eight months ago - one of 18 cars of this brand that left the factory gates in Sindelfingen in 1941. Cost 9,900 Reichsmarks. For a man of Heydrich’s stature, this is a very modest acquisition. His party comrades drove around the German capital in Mercedes and Maybachs worth under 40 thousand... But for the imperial protector of Bohemia and Moravia, moderation in everything is a life credo. A staunch socialist...
Got cloggedin convulsions
Klein started the engine to warm it up and test it before the upcoming trip. He always did this - he doesn't need surprises. The car started up easily, but then the revs dropped and the engine began to sputter. Blue smoke streamed from the exhaust pipe. Klein pressed harder on the gas. The engine convulsed...
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Ugh! - Klein swore.- The candles are flooded again!
He sinned on the distributor. But there is no time to deal with the ignition. I wish I had time to replace the spark plugs before leaving...
“What is it with Klein again? - Heydrich looked out the window and winced with displeasure.“It’s already past ten...”
The castle of Jungfern Breshan was surrounded by ancient trees. There was still dew on the grass. The spring sun gently warmed.
Heydrich went down the stairs. Klein stood up straight and, wiping his oily hands with a rag, reported that they needed another fifteen minutes.
Geese cackling could be heard from the village. The rooster crowed in unison.
Well, they just staged a concert here... - Heydrich grinned.
He remembered how the night before, on May 26, he and his wife Lina opened a music festival in Prague, which should become traditional. The works of his father, the composer, were performed at the concert at Wallenstein Palace Bruno Heydrich .
Documentationfor Hitler
The Mercedes is ready to go. The clock above the castle balustrade struck ten. Usually by this time he is already on his way. Or even in Prague Castle.
Heydrich sits down next to the driver. The car starts moving smoothly.
The sentry at the gate takes “guard duty.” A sharp left turn and they reach the road.
Beyond the grove there are fields.
Klein is silent and carefully watches the road. Heydrich also has no desire to talk. He opens his briefcase and goes through the documents.
We're late.
Klein nods.
The tree trunks merge into a gray stripe, the foliage into green. The speedometer needle jumped around the “eighty” mark.
The clock shows fifteen minutes past ten.
Indistinguishable road signs flash by.
Heydrich looks at the sky with pleasure. Mentally he is already in flight.
Probably goes here to last time. The Fuehrer hinted that he intended to send him to another place, perhaps to France. Well, he will restore order there too. Today everything will be known for sure...
Terrorist in a raincoat
The Mercedes entered Prague.
Klein knows this road down to the last detail. A little more and she will turn sharply to the right. You have to slow down before turning...
We overtook a tram, a car looms ahead, and nowhere else, no one and nothing. Only a guy is standing under a tree, scratching himself and making sunbeams with a small mirror. Here comes the turn.
The driver notices men on the sidewalk to the right. One of them suddenly steps onto the pavement and begins to cross the road.
Damn you, - Klein slams on the brakes and presses on the horn,- Couldn’t figure it out before?
The man opens his cloak. Something flashed in his hands. Weapon!
Klein convulsively squeezes the steering wheel. Eh, why don’t they tell him what to do? A split second passes. The terrorist raises his machine gun.
Heydrich clearly sees that the barrel is pointed directly at him. Assassination!
It smells like lilac. Klein opened his mouth idiotically. Ten hours thirty-one minutes, maybe thirty-two. But what does time matter if they're aiming right at your chest?
Josef Gabcik presses the trigger.
SecretBenes plan
The secret operation to eliminate the protector of Bohemia and Moravia, SS Obergruppenführer Heydrich, was finally planned in October 1940. At this time the Czechoslovak government Edward Benes was in London - negotiated with the heads of countries anti-Hitler coalition. Beneš wanted to annul the Munich Agreement of 1939, after which Czechoslovakia ceased to exist as a state.
But how to raise the prestige of your exile government? Moreover, the population did not openly oppose the Germans. Where partisan detachments? What about the underground workers? One name, not resistance...
And Heydrich, as luck would have it, began to pursue a completely different policy in the protectorate. Hosted delegations of farmers and factory workers. The standards for bread and meat were raised to the level of the standards in the pre-war Reich. He raised wages for workers and introduced rest homes and sanatoriums for them. In a word, a socialist...
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For the bourgeois government of Benes, this was tantamount to spitting in the face. In general, they decided to kill Heydrich. And time the action to coincide with October 8 - Independence Day of Czechoslovakia. However, in the ranks of the “home” Czech resistance, the plan was met with hostility. It is clear that the death of such a prominent Nazi will cause a wave of repression throughout the country.
But this was only to Benes' advantage...
Shot down three planes
So who is he, this “socialist Heydrich”?
“The hope and support of the Czech workers,” the chief of the Prague police spoke of him Karl Frank .
In the Soviet tradition, the method of depicting a fascist was caricature. The fascist was vile, stupid, cowardly and unclean. In Soviet cinema, there was only once an attempt to create the image of Heydrich - in the Brezhnev-era film “Soldiers of Freedom”. But the flat character’s human features were completely absent and he turned out to be unconvincing.
So, Reinhard Tristan Heydrich. In 1942 he turned 38 years old. As they say, a true Aryan, merciless to the enemies of the Reich, with a Nordic character and a Nordic appearance. He even received a nickname - “blond beast”. An excellent athlete - fencer, swimmer, shooter, he received training as a military pilot and personally shot down three enemy aircraft. Born in the city of Halle near Leipzig, into a family of musicians. His father is an opera singer, composer, founder and director of the conservatory, his mother is a pianist. That conservatory also had children's classes. Gifted children of poor parents could study for free.
In the 1920s, Heydrich served in navy Germany. His career was promoted by the future head of the Abwehr and the future admiral Wilhelm Canaris , at that time - senior officer on the cruiser Berlin. The Canaris family's relationship with Heydrich was very close. The young promising officer often played in a string quartet with Canaris's wife - he was an excellent violinist.
The violinist and the Jews
One day, Heydrich and a friend were relaxing on the lake and saw a boat with two girls capsize nearby. Of course, young people heroically came to their aid. One of those rescued was Lina von Osten , who later became his wife. Previously, Heydrich met with another fraulein - the daughter of the owner of the largest metallurgical holding IG Fabernim. The loving officer broke this connection by mailing an announcement cut from a newspaper about his engagement to Lina. The father of the deceived girl turned to the head of the Navy - admiral Erich Raeder , with a request to influence the Don Juan. According to the Navy code of honor, Heydrich committed a serious offense by having two affairs at the same time. The behavior of the young lieutenant was examined at the court of honor, which for some reason was headed by the head of the Navy himself. The admiral noted that “... the daughter of such a man is more worthy than a village simpleton...” But the young officer asked not to interfere in his personal life.
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In April 1931, Admiral Raeder dismissed Lieutenant Heydrich for “misconduct.” And he was demoted to the rank and file.
Out of grief, the violinist joined the NSDAP. And in just four years he made a stunning career (only in the Third Reich this is possible!) - became a lieutenant general of police.
In 1941, the “socialist” Heydrich developed a plan for the “final solution of the Jewish question,” the essence of which was the extermination of 11 million Jews.
Scoutand the monkey
The operation to eliminate Heydrich was called "Anthropoid" (translated from Greek - anthropoid ape). It was developed by a Czechoslovak intelligence officer Frantisek Moravec . In 1941, he was already working hard for the British Ministry of Defense...
Moravec was personally involved in bringing saboteurs into the territory of the protectorate. By the way, he also came up with the name of the operation. And Benes approved. Whom the career intelligence officer considered a “human ape” was left behind the scenes. Historians believe that he did not see much difference between the Nazi Heydrich and “his” Benes. Like all the other participants in “Anthropoid,” the knight of the cloak and dagger worked for money.
Moravec selected two strong guys - Josef Gabcik And Karela Svoboda , who completed a training course near Manchester. During a training jump from the Svoboda balloon, he suffered a head injury. It was replaced by Jana Kubisa . The timing of the operation has been postponed. Then the Gestapo arrested the previously abandoned radio operator Frantisek Pavelcu (he was executed in a Berlin prison in 1943). The deadlines have moved again...
Late in the evening of December 28, 1941, a RAF Halifax aircraft with Gabčík and Kubiš on board headed for Czechoslovakia. A Polish pilot was at the helm. Having flown a good hundred kilometers further than necessary, in the darkness he mistook Prague for Pilsen. The paratroopers landed in the suburbs of Prague. The saboteurs almost fell into the clutches of the police. Then two more groups of Czech militants were dropped and they began preparations.
Truth serum
The conspirators week after week studied Heydrich’s route and his habits. They scrupulously examined the streets of Prague and calculated where it would be best to carry out a terrorist attack.
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Heydrich's Mercedes immediately after the assassination attempt. The streets are cordoned off by police, investigators are collecting evidence |
But the details are interesting here. No wonder they say: the devil is in the details.
And some aspects of this case raise downright huge questions.
The main one is: why did they go to work like that? Could you get there, for example, by car, leaving it on a nearby street with the engine running? Or on a motorcycle, hiding it in the gateway. On a moped, at worst. But they came on foot. Or rather, two on foot, two on bicycles. That is, in the event of unforeseen circumstances, they would not have been able to leave the scene of the assassination attempt very quickly. This means there is a great chance of falling into the hands of the Gestapo. And in the Gestapo, anyone will talk. With their rich arsenal of all sorts of gizmos such as dental instruments and ampoules with truth serum. And the fate of the entire Czechoslovak underground would immediately be in mortal danger. Why consciously take such a risk? Even the partisans, together with the legendary intelligence officer Siebert-Kuznetsov, went to work in a Mercedes.
Looking ahead, we can say that it was the “withdrawal” that was the most weak point throughout the entire operation. Although not only waste...
Briefcase with hay
The terrorists were supplied with weapons and bombs in the British region. A submachine gun of the English “Sten” system is not the most reliable thing in such a matter. And capricious. Misfires when shooting are not uncommon. If the magazine is fully loaded, the last 32nd cartridge jams very often. Did our saboteurs know about this? Moreover, before the operation itself, the barrel had to be assembled - the disassembled “Sten” lay at the bottom of the briefcase. And the top was covered with hay. It is difficult to say for what reasons Gabchik did this. Like, so that the weapon won’t be found if the patrol suddenly stops. Just imagine the picture: at eight in the morning the Germans stop a well-dressed young man. Open your briefcase! Opens. And then what? Books? Notebooks? Documentation? Birch broom with soap and towel? No. There is hay in a leather briefcase. All in all, an interesting plan...
The man with the bombs, aka Jan Kubis, was supposed to provide insurance for the first one with the hay and briefcase. There were nine bombs in total. We decided to take two with us. They were made by some craftsman in England. Cylindrical shape. Black color. The size is like a large can of stew. No one knows what was inside. But, as experience has shown, this thing did not have much destructive power. So, firecracker... An ordinary lemon grenade would be much more useful.
Sunny bunny
But all this was later... In the meantime, the clock shows 10 o'clock in the morning. Kobylisy area. Vyhovatelna intersection. Here Heydrich's car had to make a very sharp turn to the right in order to get to the Castle along the shortest route.
The conspirators had long since taken their starting positions. Kubis and Gabchik - on one side. Across the road - Valchik . From there he should have seen Heydrich's approaching Mercedes. And use the mirror to give a signal - to let in a sunbeam. The plan is strange. Smells like cheap vaudeville. What if the sun disappeared behind a cloud? Or the view would be blocked by a large van or tram.
There was a fourth terrorist - Adolf Opalka . But he was far away. And I just watched the development of events. But at the decisive moment, if everything did not go according to plan, he was ordered to intervene.
At 10:30 a.m. Valchik gave a signal that the Mercedes was approaching. And that’s right, no escort cars full of security. And there were no policemen rushing ahead with flashing lights. There was not even an escort of motorcyclists to ensure the unimpeded passage of the first man of the protectorate. Nowadays, it is simply impossible to imagine such a thing.
Under the cloak thrown over his arm, Gabchik assembled his “Sten” by touch.
Here Heydrich's car rolls up to the intersection. At the same time, tram number 3 approached the stop located there.
True Aryan
Gabchik presses the trigger. More and more. Instead of shots - only dry clicks. “Sten” failed at the most inopportune moment. That's the damned hay! The weapon jammed, most likely due to some debris getting into the bolt mechanism. Or maybe because of the notorious 32nd cartridge...
In general, at this moment, according to the law of the genre, Gabchik would have to grab a pistol from his belt and empty the entire clip into his enemy. If the gun had misfired, the gunman simply had to rush at Heydrich, strangle him and cut his throat.
This, in fact, is where all the heroism of the events of May 27 ends and turns into an absurd tragic farce. Because then something strange happens. Our pro (six months in an English special school) throws his jammed weapon to the ground, like some deserter on the Eastern Front, and runs away.
The people in the Mercedes quickly came to their senses. Heydrich and Klein drew their pistols. They, as if hypnotized, did not take their eyes off the fleeing would-be terrorist. Okay, there's Heydrich, a true Aryan and a wonderful athlete! But the driver-security guard Klein? He violated all the instructions that ordered him to take off and give full throttle. But precious seconds were lost - as if out of the ground, a second terrorist grew up near the car.
Splinterbombs
According to the plan, Jan Kubis was only supposed to insure his comrade if something went wrong. And then take the documents from the portfolio of the executed Heydrich.
Kubis swung and threw a bomb. He aimed so that she would fall into the car, right at Heydrich’s feet. But either the hand trembled or something else...
In general, the bomb flew in the wrong direction. It ricocheted, bounced off and rolled under the rear right wheel. There she rushed. Only one fragment flew through the side wall of the Mercedes and the back of the seat. Heydrich was wounded by it and splinters from this seat. The rest of the fragments were mangled bottom part body, smashed the running board to smithereens and tore the tire. The side windows were cracked. Driver Klein was also caught.
The Butcher and “Walter”
For some reason, Heydrich and Klein did not pay attention to the bomb thrower. As if spellbound, they continued to look at the fleeing Gabchik.
What could happen next? Option one. The Obergruppenführer orders the driver: “Get to the hospital! I injured!" - the car, although with a broken wheel, is still running. Option two. The SS man hides far away until help arrives. But Heydrich was not one of those who would hide from his enemies. He is a hero!
Despite being wounded, the Protector of Bohemia and Moravia gets out of the car and tries to pursue the terrorist. Following him, the “Walter” empties its clip. But then Heydrich lost his strength...
Klein continues the chase. Although he is wounded by the bomb explosion, he catches up. Gabchik runs away. Along the way, he drops into the butcher shop of a certain Brauner. But Brauner is one of those Czechs who sympathizes with the regime. Therefore, he runs out into the street screaming and shows Klein where the terrorist is hiding. A shootout ensues. Gabchik manages to wound the SS man in the leg (leaving him disabled). Then he slips out of the store and runs away. Klein hands his “Walter” to the butcher and demands to continue the chase. But the specialist in tenderloins and blood sausage is in no hurry to shed his blood. It’s one thing to sympathize with the authorities, another thing to expose yourself to bullets. In general, Gabchik manages to escape. As they say, in an unknown direction.
Ladies bike
Jan Kubis also suffered from the explosion of his own bomb. Cut by shrapnel and covered in blood, the terrorist ran to the bicycle abandoned (for some reason) on the opposite side of the street.
What about tram passengers? Random passers-by? Drivers of passing cars?
Well, judge for yourself what the law-abiding, hardworking and civilized Czechs should have done? Seeing how the main German in Prague, their, so to speak, leader and benefactor, is in a helpless state. And the terrorist who wounded him runs away, clearly trying to escape deserved retribution?
That's right, one group rushes to catch him. Kubich, realizing that there are only enemies around him, begins to indiscriminately fire from a pistol in all directions, clearing a path for himself to the bicycle.
Another group of conscientious Czechs rushed to the aid of the bleeding SS Obergruppenführer. The first to arrive was the bright blonde lady Maria Navarrova . She gave Heydrich necessary help, and then stopped a passing Tatra van, owned by the Golan company, to take the SS man to the hospital.
What remained at the scene of the incident was a lady's bicycle abandoned by the terrorists, a jammed Sten, a leather briefcase, a raincoat and a pool of blood... Well, and a Mercedes that was blown up by a bomb.
Blood poisoning
The question arises: where were the rest of the saboteurs? Where did the man with the mirror, Josef Walczyk, go? And superman Adolf Opalka, who was sitting there somewhere and watching what was happening. He could easily take advantage of the carelessness of the guards, approach unnoticed and finish off the wounded fascist.
Now it’s difficult to say for sure, but, most likely, the psyche of the fearless saboteurs was strongly influenced by the fact that Heydrich was overshadowed by ordinary Czechs at those moments...
After 10 minutes, the SS Obergruppenführer was taken to the hospital in that same Tatra. Relatively small shrapnel wounds received during the explosion led to blood poisoning. Despite the efforts of doctors, Heydrich died on June 4, 1942. He was given a magnificent funeral. First in the presence Himmler A farewell ceremony took place in Prague. And on June 9, Heydrich was seen off on his last journey by all of Berlin.
In general, the terrorist attack took place. The fascist villain is killed. The act is heroic. Almost the only successful attempt on such a significant person of the Third Reich. After all, Heydrich is the second person in the SS hierarchy, and the third in Hitler’s entourage. Figure!
But this is far from the end of the whole story...
“Execute 10 thousand Czechs!”
Hitler tore and threw. He gave a grand scolding to the chief of the Prague police, SS Gruppenführer Karl Frank . He ordered a reward of 1 million Reichsmarks to be announced for anyone who would help find the terrorists. And as a response, he proposed to arrest and execute 10,000 suspicious Czechs. But Frank achieved the reversal of this decision - he well understood that Benes was just waiting for this. And he did not give in to provocation. In general, we agreed to limit ourselves to “little bloodshed.”
Already on the day of the assassination attempt, May 27, Frank declared a state of emergency. Mass searches were carried out in Prague. Resistance members, Jews, and communists were found hiding in houses, apartments, attics and basements. In total, 3,188 people were arrested. 1,331 were shot, including 201 women.
On June 3, the Gestapo received information that two Czech pilots who had fled to Great Britain might have been involved in the murder. Their relatives lived in the mining village of Lidice, 30 kilometers from Prague.
On the evening of June 9, the village was surrounded by the Germans. All men over 16 years of age were rounded up - there were 172 of them. And in the morning they shot me. 195 women were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. The children were taken to the Central Bureau of Resettlements in the city of Litzmannstadt and distributed among German families. The village itself was wiped off the face of the earth. Buildings were burned, blown up and bulldozed. The name Lidice was deleted from the list of settlements.
Two weeks later, the same fate befell the village of Lezhaki, from where the paratroopers’ radio broadcasts were made.
Heads preserved in alcohol
The seven paratroopers who attempted to assassinate Heydrich became victims of betrayal. On June 16, 1942, one of the resistance members, 31 years old Karel Churda , Flattered by the promised reward, he told the Gestapo everything. Passwords, names, addresses...
Arrests and interrogations began. The Germans soon learned that they had to look for saboteurs on Resslova Street in Prague. They take refuge in the crypt of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
The cathedral was surrounded by SS troops. After several hours of unequal battle, the terrorists committed suicide. Jan Kubis died from his wounds later. The Nazis cut off the heads of Kubiš and Gabčík, preserved them in alcohol and presented them for identification. Near these heads, the owners of safe houses, comrades and even girls who met with underground fighters were interrogated. All of them were subsequently executed.
The protectorate authorities paid generously for any information on this case. 20 million crowns were divided between seven Germans and fifty-three Czechs. Crazy how main character plays about the great betrayal, became a very rich man - received 500,000 Reichsmarks. He was given new documents in the name Carla Yerhota . Former resistance member took German citizenship and married a German woman Maria Bauer . Until the end of the war he worked for the Gestapo, received an apartment in the Vinohrady district of Prague and a salary of 30,000 crowns per month. (this is 1,000 Reichsmarks - like three salaries of a German submariner) . On May 17, 1945, he was arrested and two years later executed in Prague's Pankrac prison.
Elevator to the scaffold
From his marriage to Lina von Osten, Heydrich had four children. The youngest daughter - Martha was born two months after her father's death. She now runs a family hotel on the island of Femar.
Daughter Silke - a famous fashion model, became the director of the Fashion House.
Eldest son Klaus - died as a child in 1943.
Jr - Haider . After graduating from the technical institute, he worked as director of the Dornier aviation company. Now retired.
Lina inherited a castle in the Czech Republic after her husband. In the 70s, she wrote memoirs, published under the title “Life with a War Criminal.”
Heydrich's grave is located in the Berlin Invalides Cemetery. After the end of the war, the tombstone was destroyed.
The first surgeon in Prague, Professor Hochlbaum, who operated on Heydrich, was accused of connections with the Nazis after the liberation of Czechoslovakia. Sentenced to hard labor. In 1945, while clearing mines in one of the districts of Prague, he was seriously wounded. But not a single doctor agreed to treat him. Hohlbaum had to move to Leipzig, where he soon died.
On May 22, 1946, Heydrich’s successor, Karl Frank, was executed in the courtyard of Pankratz prison in Prague to the jubilation of a crowd of thousands. Several caring fathers lifted the children onto their shoulders so that they could clearly see when the executioner on the scaffold broke Frank's neck...
What a terrible irony of fate - the death of the hanged Frank was officially recorded by the forensic doctor, Dr. Navarre - the husband of the same Maria Navarrova who, on May 27, 1942, was the first to rush to the aid of the wounded Reinhard Heydrich...
Barn find
Traces of Heydrich's Mercedes were lost after the war. And only in March 2012, an entrepreneur from the outskirts of the Czech city of Hradec Kralove discovered an old captured Mercedes-Benz 320 in a barn among all sorts of rubbish. He noticed strange damage to the right rear wheel of the convertible and guessed who the previous owner of the car might be. Historians are almost sure that we are talking about the car of the famous Nazi. But the last word for forensic examination. Although for a long time another car was passed off as Heydrich’s Mercedes, which actually belonged to another Nazi - the head of the Lesser Terezin Fortress Heinrich Jockel . It is now kept in the collections of the National Technical Museum in Prague. Participated in the exhibitions “Operation Anthropoid”. Tellingly, the Mercedes from the museum also had similar dents on the body. Experts believe that the car was damaged back in 1964 at the Barrandov studio during the filming of the famous film by Jiri Sequens “Assassination.”
