Reinhard Heydrich was a high-ranking officer in the Nazi army, and was one of the architects of the “Final Solution,” the plan to carry out the genocide of Jews.
Reinhard Heydrich is regarded as one of the darkest figures of the Nazi regime in the 20th century.
He was a high-ranking officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), the paramilitary, prison and police organization in the service of Adolf Hitler. He was also one of the architects of the “Final Solution to the Jewish question”, the plan of the Third Reich to carry out the genocide of the European Jewish population during World War II.
Adolf Hitler described it as “the man with the iron heart”. Other names attributed to him include “the executioner” and “Himmler’s evil genius”.
He earned such epithets with actions such as coordinating the Night of the Broken Glasslead the Wansee Conference in which the Nazi leaders launched the Final solution, and create the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi special commandos responsible for at least a million deaths.
Heydrich was also considered by some to be a potential future leader of the Third Reich. His closeness to Hitler caused him to be appointed as governor (protector) of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Czechoslovak territory occupied by the German Nazi regime. He was sent to suppress the constant uprisings of the population.
He earned the nickname of the “Butcher of Prague” or the “Blond Beast”, when two weeks after taking office, he ordered the shooting of 550 people. considered dissidents with the aim of keeping the population in a continuous state of threat.
The Czechoslovakian government-in-exile, based in London, decided that some urgent action had to be taken to prevent the Nazis from gaining permanent power in their homeland. They sent two agents to try to assassinate Heydrich.
Operation Anthropoid
The plan to annihilate Reinhard Heydrich was called Operation Anthropoid. According to Pere Cardona, a Spanish historical writer specializing in World War II, this plan is based on an idea by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which convinces the Czech prime minister in exile, Edvard Benes, of the need to eliminate Heydrich to raise the morale of the Czech people and eliminate the possible successor of Adolf Hitler.
In the weeks that followed, the Czechoslovak government searched for two men who might have carried out the attack, and it didn’t take them long to find them. Those selected were the military Josef Gabcik Y Karel Svoboda. A few days after starting the training (they had to be instructed in techniques skydivers to be released in Czechoslovakia from exile) the second was replaced by taking a severe blow to the head during a jump. The newly chosen command was Jan Cabbage.
The mission it began on May 27, 1942. At 10:30 am Heydrich was driving his Mercedes-Benz convertible to his headquarters at Hradcany Castle. Such was his conviction that he was indestructible that neither he nor his driver had an escort. and repeated the same route day after day.
As Heydrich’s convertible slowed around a sharp curve, Gabcik and Kubis got into his car. Gabcik’s submachine gun jammed and he couldn’t fire, but Kubis managed to fire. a hand grenade that hit the rear of the vehicle. After the explosion, shrapnel and other debris from the bodywork embedded in Heydrich’s back, and although the protector he was able to get up and tried to chase his attackers, his injuries were too serious and he collapsed.
Heydrich died on June 4, 1942 as a result of the injuries received in the attack and because of his obstinacy in being treated by a doctor he trusted in Berlin. The delay in starting the treatment caused a septicemia that ended his life. On June 9, he was solemnly buried in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
Hitler’s anger was of such magnitude that he demanded Himmler destroy the small Czech population. of Lidice, which had welcomed members of the resistance who had collaborated with the perpetrators of the assassination. That day 199 men were executed, 195 women were sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp and 95 children were arrested (81 would be killed in the Chelmno extermination camp). The price the Czechs had to pay for killing the symbol of Nazi power in their country was very high.
The perpetrators of the assassination, Gabcik and Kubis, were betrayed by Karel Kurda, a member of the resistance, and after a long firefight with the SS forces, on June 18 they died in their refuge in the Orthodox Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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