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"Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (German: Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich; March 7, 1904, Halle, Saxony, German Empire - June 4, 1942, Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Third Reich) - statesman and politician of Nazi Germany, head of the Imperial Main Directorate Security Council (1939-1942), Deputy (acting) Imperial Protector of Bohemia and Moravia (1941-1942), SS Obergruppenführer and Police General (since 1941).
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Reinhard Heydrich's mother Elisabeth, nee Krantz, came from a wealthy family: her father ran the royal conservatory in Dresden. Reinhard's father, Bruno Heydrich, was opera singer and composer. Bruno Heydrich's operas 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 the urban high society. For the townspeople, he remained a stranger, which was facilitated by rumors about his Jewish origin.
March 7, 1904 Reinhard Heydrich was born in the city of Halle an der Saale.
FROM early years Reinhard was interested in politics. His parents read the works of racial theorist Houston Chamberlain, dedicated to"struggle of races". When did the first World War, Heydrich was 10 years old. At the end of the war, Heydrich had the opportunity to observe demonstrations and street skirmishes in Halle.
In the summer of 1904, the Heydrich family moved into the four-story building of the conservatory in Halle, where his father, as director, was supposed to live.
In 1919, at the age of 15, Heydrich, still a schoolboy, began to get involved in politics and joined the Georg Ludwig Rudolf Merker Freikorps, a paramilitary nationalist organization. Heydrich begins to actively engage in sports, cultivating the spirit of competition.
On October 6, 1904, Reinhard Heydrich was baptized at the Catholic Church of St. Francis and Elisabeth in Halle
In 1918-1919 he was a member of the National Association of Pan-German Youth - the "German National Youth League" in Halle. This organization seemed too moderate to Reinhard, and in 1920 he joined the German People's Defense and Offensive League (German: Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund). In the same year, eager to participate more actively in the political life that was raging around, Heydrich became a liaison officer in the Lucius division, which was part of the volunteer detachments in Halle, where he became interested in the ideas of youth militaristic pro-patriotic movements. In 1921 he created a new association - the "German People's Youth Detachment"
1908 The photo shows four-year-old Reinhard Heydrich with his brothers and sisters in Halle near the house where the Bruno Heydrich Conservatory was located
The economic crisis that hit post-war Germany put Father Heydrich's music school on the verge of ruin. A career as a musician now did not promise any success, although Reinhard Heydrich played the violin well. Just as financially unpromising seemed Heydrich and the career of a chemist, which he dreamed of.
Reinhard Heydrich as a child with his sister Maria.
March 30, 1922 Heydrich entered the naval school in Kiel. The navy, with its rigid code of honor, seemed to the young Heydrich the elite of the nation. In 1926, after graduating from college and receiving the rank of lieutenant, Heydrich was sent to serve in the intelligence of the fleet. His career began to be promoted by the future leader of the Abwehr and the future Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, at that time a senior officer on the cruiser Berlin. The relations of the Canaris family with Heydrich were very close - for example, Heydrich often played in a string quartet with Canaris's wife
Fencing school in Halle. Here Reinhard Heydrich studied fencing
However, Heydrich's relationship with his colleagues was not particularly good. Like his father in his time, he was hampered by rumors that he had Jewish ancestors. During his service in the Navy, Heydrich was even more actively involved in sports, in particular pentathlon.
Admiral Felix Count von Lackner, who awakened in Reinhard Heydrich an interest in navigation
Heydrich's reputation for red tape spread. In December 1930, at one of the balls, Heydrich met his future wife, the village teacher Lina von Osten, whom he married in December of the following year. According to another, more romantic version, Reinhard and a friend were boating and saw a boat capsized nearby with two girls. Of course, young people heroically came to the rescue. One of the rescued girls was Lina von Osten
March 1922. Reinhard Heydrich is accepted into the Navy as a midshipman.
Earlier, 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 broke this connection by mailing an announcement of his engagement to Lina cut out of a newspaper. The girl's father turned to the head of the Navy, Admiral Erich Raeder, with a request to influence Heydrich. According to the code of honor of the Navy, Heydrich committed a grave offense, having two novels at the same time. The behavior of the young lieutenant was considered at the court of honor, which for some reason was headed by Raeder himself. At a meeting of the court of honor, Raeder noted that the daughter of "such a person" is more worthy of a "village simpleton", Heydrich replied with a request not to interfere in his choice. In April 1931, Admiral Raeder fired Heydrich for "misbehavior."
April 1, 1924 Reinhard Heydrich, ensign entered the Naval Academy, where he remained until March 1925
In June 1931, Reinhard Heydrich joined the NSDAP, receiving party card No. 544 916, and the SS (ticket No. 10 120). Together with the militants from the SA, Heydrich took part in the battles with the socialists and communists.
At the same time, Heinrich Himmler began to streamline the activities of the SS. To better coordinate the actions of the SS, as well as to spy on political opponents and participate in military actions, the SS needed a trained intelligence service. Through his friend Karl von Eberstein, Heydrich met Himmler and expressed his proposals to him on the creation of an SS intelligence service; Himmler liked them, and he instructed Heydrich to create a security service that became known as the SD. The main task of the SD at first was to collect compromising materials on people occupying a prominent position in society, as well as to conduct information campaigns to discredit political opponents.
Heydrich soon became important person for the Nazi Party, and his career skyrocketed. In December 1931 he was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer and in July 1932 to SS-Standartenführer. At the same time, Heydrich changed the spelling of his name from Reinhardt to Reinhard.
1924 Reinhard Heydrich midshipman.
The appointment of Adolf Hitler in 1933 to the post of Reich Chancellor meant for the SA and SS the coming to power and the beginning of reprisals against the opposition. Officials who held their posts under the Weimar Republic were largely replaced by people from the SA and SS.
1929 Reinhard Heydrich as lieutenant
Meanwhile, the SA attack aircraft, under the leadership of Ernst Röhm, caused Hitler more and more anxiety. The officers and rank and file of the SA, which largely ensured Hitler's rise to power, were unhappy with the fact that, in their opinion, the SA received insufficient authority. The situation was aggravated by the presence of two wings within the National Socialist Party - one that was more inclined towards national politics (Adolf Hitler) and the other, who believed that the party should first of all implement the socialist program (Gregor Strasser). Among the stormtroopers, there was more and more talk about the need for a second, truly socialist revolution. At this time, it was Heydrich's SD that collected compromising material on Ryoma and his closest associates. The materials collected by Heydrich pointed to an imminent putsch being prepared in the depths of the SA. After the SA was defeated by the SS forces during the so-called “Night of the Long Knives”, and Röhm himself was killed, on June 30, 1934, Heydrich received the rank of SS Gruppenführer.
December 26, 1931. The wedding of Reinhard Heydrich and Lina.
As part of the hardware struggle between the two power departments - the SS and the Wehrmacht - Heydrich's SD took a serious part in the removal from power of the commander-in-chief of the ground forces, Colonel-General Werner von Fritsch and Defense Minister Werner von Blomberg. A compromising dossier was collected on both military men. Von Blomberg's young wife was a prostitute in the past, a scandal erupted, and Hitler fired him. Fritsch, on false evidence, was accused of a homosexual affair and also removed from his post. At the same time, several dozen more senior military officials were removed or demoted.
Lina and Reinhard Heydrich shortly after their marriage in 1931.
Serious tensions also existed between Heydrich's SD and military intelligence - the Abwehr, which was led by Heydrich's former patron Wilhelm Canaris. In public, both leaders remained friendly and even met every morning for a walk. However, behind the scenes, each tried to take the other out of the game: Heydrich gave orders to carry out secret searches in the offices of Canaris, and he diligently searched for evidence of Heydrich's Jewish origin.
SD branch in Munich. Here Reinhard Heydrich was taken on as head of department
In 1934, the SD became part of the secret police (Gestapo). In 1936, Himmler became chief of the German police, and Heydrich became chief of the Security Police ("sipo", German: Sicherheitspolizei, Sipo), which combined the criminal and political police. With the help of this instrument of violence, Heydrich was given the opportunity to crack down on both the enemies of the regime and his personal enemies. Security police agents also conducted surveillance of Jews, communists, liberals, and religious minorities. The staff of the SD included about 3,000 agents, and up to 100,000 people were part-time informants. After the Anschluss, Heydrich, together with Himmler, organized terror in Austria against opponents of the regime, and also created the Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz.
In 1939, the SD, the zipo and the Gestapo were placed under the control of the newly created department of the RSHA - the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA, headed by Heydrich. The RSHA became the most powerful organization for collecting and analyzing information, as well as suppressing the opposition.
In 1933, Reinhard Heydrich in his office at the Wittelsbach Palace in Munich.
It was Heydrich who developed a plan to stage a border incident, called the Gleiwitz incident. The purpose of the staging was to show that Germany's attack on Poland was only Germany's response to acts of violence against German residents committed by the Polish side. In August 1939, SS men dressed in Polish uniform attacked a German radio transmitter in the town of Gleiwitz. The corpses of the "Poles" were presented to the world media. In fact, the deceased prisoners of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp acted as the dead Poles. On September 1, 1939, German troops attacked Poland and World War II began. During the occupation of Poland, the SS Einsatzgruppen, subordinate to Heydrich, destroyed the Polish intelligentsia, communists and Jews
August 7, 1934. Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich oversee the preparations for the funeral of President Hindenburg
In the early years of World War II, Heydrich was not only involved in organizational work. As an Air Force reserve officer, Heydrich took part in German combat missions (first as a gunner-radio operator on a bomber, then as an attack aircraft pilot) during campaigns against France, Norway and the USSR. This corresponded to Heydrich's ideas about the ideal SS officer, who not only sits at his desk, but also participates in hostilities. After Heydrich's plane was shot down east of the Berezina River in 1941 and Heydrich was rescued only in time by German soldiers who arrived in time, Himmler personally forbade him to participate in hostilities.
Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich in 1934.
After the occupation of Poland, Heydrich gave the order to create for Jews special areas of compact settlements in large cities, ghettos, where Jews from the countryside, as well as from Germany itself, were to be resettled, and also to form "Jewish councils" dealing with Jewish affairs from the local Jewish population ( German Judenräte). In this way, Heydrich managed to force the Jews themselves to participate in the policy of their own destruction. In December 1939, Heydrich appointed Eichmann head of the RSHA's special unit for Jewish affairs and then, with his help, carried out mass deportations of Jews from Germany and Austria to Polish ghettos.
Reinhard Heydrich welcomes leaders in Nuremberg. 1935
After the German troops occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939, changing the government there, the position of imperial protector was created for the regions of Bohemia and Moravia, which came under the German protectorate, who took up residence in the Prague district of Hradcany. Initially, the former German Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath was appointed to this position. His tenure was accompanied by rivalry between the bodies loyal to the protector, special services and party structures, caused by the overlapping competence of different branches of government. This, as well as Neurath's lack of toughness in suppressing Czech resistance, led to his actual removal from office. The secret services, with the participation of Heydrich, prepared a report on the Czech resistance to Hitler criticizing Neurath
June 18, 1936. Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick delivers a speech on the occasion of the appointment of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler as Chief of the German Police. Right Reinhard Heydrich
At the end of September 1941, A. Hitler summoned Konstantin von Neurath, Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, and announced that he had decided to appoint Heydrich as his deputy. Von Neurath did not agree with this decision and announced his resignation from this post. Then Hitler sent von Neurath on "indefinite leave." His duties were transferred to Heydrich as "Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia" (German "Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor von Böhmen und Mähren").
July 2, 1936. Commemoration of the memory of the German king Henry I Ptitselov (876-936), revered as the founder of the empire and a fighter against the Slavs
Thus, Heydrich became the de facto imperial protector (von Neurath never returned to his duties), retaining the position of head of the RSHA Main Directorate. On September 27, 1941, Heydrich took up residence in Hradcany. Heydrich set up his country residence, to which he moved his family, in the so-called “Lower Palace”, which he inherited after the resignation of K. von Neurath, in the town of Panenské Břežany, 15 km north of Prague, confiscated from the sugar merchant of Jewish origin Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer
Reinhard Heydrich (left in civilian clothes) during Olympic Games 1936 in Berlin.
January 2, 1937 Heydrich at the birthday party of Hermann Göring
January 29, 1937. On family holiday Lieutenant Colonel Richard Praschnow, Lina Heydrich, Brigadier Karl Wolf, Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler.
Reinhard Heydrich with his wife Lina and son Klaus.
A week after the appointment, Heydrich initiated a process against the Czech Prime Minister Alois Elias, who was suspected of having links with the resistance. The process under the chairmanship of Otto Tirac took place in four hours, Elias was sentenced to death (which was carried out after the death of Heydrich). One of the first actions after the appointment of Heydrich was the order to close all synagogues in the protectorate, and in November 1941, on his orders, the Theresienstadt concentration camp was created, which was intended to contain Czech Jews before being sent to death camps. At the same time, Heydrich began to carry out measures to appease the population: he reorganized the social security system, increased wages and food standards for workers.
September 1937. Reinhard Heydrich and his wife Lina during a visit to Germany by Benito Mussolini
Heydrich had many of the stereotypically Nordic qualities: tall, lean, blond with an icy calm. Contrary to this image, Heydrich had a very high voice, for which he received the nickname "goat" from his friends. This is probably why few records of his speeches have survived. Heydrich was a keen sportsman and gifted musician.
Reinhard Heydrich at his desk in 1937
He was able to become a good assistant for his boss Himmler (Heydrich held senior positions in the SD from the age of 29, and 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: it. HHHH, Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich, "X. H. H. H. - Himmler's brain is called Heydrich.
January 9, 1938. Reinhard Heydrich in the Imperial Hall of the Landwehr casino after the fencing competition
From his youth, Heydrich was accompanied by rumors about Jewish origin, and this information was subsequently used by his political enemies to fight him. One argument was that Heydrich's father, Bruno Heydrich, featured in " Music Encyclopedia Riemann" for 1916 as "Bruno Heydrich, real name Suess".
February 23, 1938. Reinhard Heydrich congratulates Scherer on his victory
In 1932, one of the leaders of the NSDAP, Gregor Strasser, ordered the party genealogist Achim Gerke to investigate information about a possible admixture of Jewish blood. Gercke came to the conclusion that the information in the Riemann Musical Encyclopedia was erroneous, and the second husband of Heydrich's grandmother had the surname Suess (Bruno Heydrich was born from his first marriage). After the war, the hypothesis of Heydrich's Jewish origin was the subject of serious scientific research.
March 12, 1938. Reinhard Heydrich with Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler after the Anschluss of Austria at the entrance to the Metropol Hotel in Vienna
The Israeli historian Shlomo Aronson, while working on his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Heydrich and the period of the formation of the Gestapo and SD” (published in 1966), built a family tree of Heydrich on the paternal side until 1738, and on the maternal side until 1688 and did not find among his ancestors Jews
July 2, 1938. Laying a wreath at the tomb of the German King Henry I the Fowler (876-936) in the crypt of Quedlinburg Cathedral.
August 20, 1938. The delegation congratulates the Fuhrer on his birthday. From left to right, General Dalyuge, SS General Karl Wolf, Reinhard Heydrich, August Hessmeier and Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler
January 30, 1939 Holiday at the Interior Ministry in Berlin. At the table, Reinhard Heydrich, Kurt Daluege, secretary, Mrs. Frick, Heinrich Himmler and others
Franz Josef Huber, Arthur Nebe, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich and Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller. 1939
March 15, 1939. Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich and Karl Wolf in the courtyard of Prague Castle
Reinhard Heydrich describes the organization of the Imperial Security Office during the visit of a Spanish police delegation
April 9, 1939 Birthday of the daughter of Reinhard Heydrich Silk.
Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich on their way to the Imperial Chancellery.
September 1939. Polish company. Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler receives a progress report from Reinhard Heydrich
During the war, Reinhard Heydrich flew as a fighter pilot and was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class.
November 1940. The funeral of the Italian police chief Senator Boccini in Rome. In the photo Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler
Reinhard Heydrich with his family. 1941
1941 Visit of Gauleiter Karl Hanke. Welcome to Prague Castle.
September 28, 1941. Reinhard Heydrich during the solemn raising of the national flag in the courtyard of the Prague Castle.
October 29, 1941. Karl Hermann Frank, Heinrich Himmler, Karl Wolf and Reinhard Heydrich in Prague Castle
In December 1941, a meeting of the Association of Southeast Europe was held in Prague in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle.
April 20, 1942 President of the Protectorate Dr. Emil Hacha demonstrates to Reinhard Heydrich a fully equipped ambulance train for the Führer's birthday
September 27, 1941. SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich on his inauguration day in Prague
Reinhard Heydrich examines the crown of St. Wenceslas in Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral
Opening of the Imperial School of Police and Security Services in Prague. Reinhard Heydrich speaks to Bruno Strechenbach
Reinhard Heydrich and Karl Hermann Frank meet with a delegation of Czech farmers
Reinhard Heydrich and Minister of Education Moravec at a meeting in Prague
May 26, 1942. The last lifetime picture of Heydrich. Musical evening in the Wallenstein Palace.
The assassination attempt on Heydrich was planned by the Czechoslovak "government in exile" of Edvard Beneš with the participation of the British Special Operations Directorate. By killing Heydrich, it 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 invaders. The direct executors of the operation, called "Anthropoid", were agents Josef Gabchik and Jan Kubis, trained by the British.
May 27, 1942. Mercedes Reinhard Heydrich.
The delivery of Gabczyk and Kubiš took place on the night of December 28-29, 1941. An RAF Handley Page Halifax took off from Sussex Airfield at 22:00 and dropped Gabczyk and Kubiš at 02:12. Due to a navigational error, the saboteurs were landed not near Pilsen, as planned, but in the suburbs of Prague, Negvizdy. Then two more groups of Czech saboteurs were dropped, three and two people, respectively. Gabczyk and Kubiš were equipped with Colt revolvers, Mills hand grenades, bombs different types and fake documents. The saboteurs hid the equipment and, following the instructions received before the flight, reached Pilsen, where they stayed in predetermined apartments with Resistance members Vaclav Kralj and Vaclav Stelik. In the future, they established contacts with many other active members of the underground.
Joseph Gabchik
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 Breschan to the center of Prague. When Heydrich was in an open-topped car (except for the SS Obergruppenführer himself, there was only a driver in it - Heydrich preferred to drive without security at all) at 10:32 a turn was passing, Gabchik pulled out a STEN submachine gun and tried to shoot at Heydrich point-blank, but the cartridge jammed. Heydrich ordered the driver to stop the car and pulled out his service pistol.
Mercedes Reinhard Heydrich. after the assassination attempt on May 27, 1942
At that moment, Kubiš threw a bomb, but missed, so that the bomb exploded behind the right rear wheel of the car.
Jan Kubis
Heydrich, who received a fractured rib and a shrapnel wound to the spleen, which was hit by metal parts of the upholstery of the car and a piece of uniform, got out of the car, but immediately fell next to him. 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 the patient large doses of morphine. On the morning of June 3, Heydrich's condition improved, but by noon he fell into a coma and died the next day. The cause of death was given as infection of the 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 the guarded room of the Bulovka hospital.
Immediately after the death of Heydrich, Himmler received a huge number of telegrams of condolences, both from the leading ranks of the Reich and military leaders from the Soviet-German front, and from representatives of satellite countries (including Italian and Bulgarian policemen) and even from Ukrainian nationalists .
On the night of June 5-6, 1942, the coffin was transported on a carriage from the Bulovka Hospital to Prague Castle.
In Prague, they were half-mast state flags after the death of Reinhard Heydrich
After a two-day farewell to the body in Prague, the coffin was taken to Berlin.
On June 7, 1942, from the very early morning, tens of thousands of Germans and Czechs came to the courtyard of the Prague Castle to say goodbye to the deceased
June 7, 1942. The removal of the coffin from the Prague Castle
June 7, 1942. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, family members and leading officials
June 7, 1942. Heinrich Himmler with his two sons at the coffin in the courtyard of Prague Castle
June 7, 1942. Funeral procession marches through Prague to the railway station
June 7, 1942. From the railway station in Prague, the coffin with the deceased was loaded onto a special train to Berlin. The next day, June 8, 1942, the train arrived at the Berlin station at 12.00 o'clock.
The funeral took place on June 9th. The entire top of the country participated in the burial ceremony. Adolf Hitler himself held 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 radiant 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 with the depths of his heart and his blood, understood it and carried it out." The London newspaper The Times quipped that one of the most dangerous men in the Third Reich had been given a "gangster's 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, Himmler personally took over the leadership of the RSHA, but on January 30, 1943, he handed it over to Ernst Kaltenbrunner. The post of Imperial Protector of Bohemia and Moravia was given to SS-Oberstgruppenführer, Police Colonel-General Kurt Dalyuge.
June 9, 1942. The coffin with the body of Heydrich in the courtyard of the new Reich Chancellery after the official ceremony
Guard of honor on the Wilhelmstrasse in front of the New Imperial Chancellery.
The coffin with the body of the deceased is loaded on a gun 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 cemetery of the Invalides (German: Invalidenfriedhof), approximately in the center of zone "A". After the end of the war, the tombstone was destroyed so that the grave would not become a place of worship for neo-Nazis, and now the exact place of 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. Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler throws flowers on the coffin.
June 9, 1942. Cemetery of the Invalids. Heinrich Himmler saluting the deceased
June 9, 1942. Cemetery of the Invalids. Flower-studded coffin of Reinhard Heydrich.
Model of the Tomb of Heydrich. The tomb was supposed to become a monument in honor of those who died 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 who liberated Prague. On May 27, 2009, a monument to the heroes of the Resistance who executed Heydrich was unveiled at the site of the assassination attempt in Prague.
Bust of Reinhard Heydrich was erected at the murder scene 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 solemn ceremony of awarding Reinhard Heydrich the title of honorary citizen of Brno. September 21, 1942
Lina Heydrich in 1943 with her children, Klaus Haider, Silke and Martha
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(All material taken from
The traditional Russian transliteration of Heydrich's name is Reinhard Tristan Eigen Heydrich. A more phonetically correct spelling is Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heidrich. Now the most common intermediate options are Reinhard Heydrich and Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich was given the name Reinhardt (Reinhardt), in 1932 he changed the spelling to Reinhard (Reinhard).
Childhood and youth
Reinhard Heydrich's mother Elisabeth, nee Krantz, came from a wealthy family: her father ran the royal conservatory in Dresden. Reinhard's father, Bruno Heydrich, was an opera singer and composer. Bruno Heydrich's operas were staged in theaters in Cologne and Leipzig. In 1899, he founded a music school in Halle for middle-class children, but he never entered the city's 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 had read the works of the racial theorist Houston Chamberlain on "race struggles". When the First World War began, 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, begins to get involved in politics and joins the Georg Ludwig Rudolf Merker volunteer corps, a paramilitary nationalist organization. According to contemporaries, his character at that time became more and more closed. [source?] Heydrich begins to actively engage in sports, cultivating the spirit of competition.
Navy service
The economic crisis that hit post-war Germany put Father Heydrich's music school on the verge of ruin. A musical career now did not promise any success, although Reinhard Heydrich played the violin well. Also financially unpromising seemed to Heydrich and the career of a chemist, which he dreamed of.
March 30, 1922 Heydrich enters the naval school in Kiel. The navy, with its rigid code of honor, seemed to the young Heydrich the elite of the nation. This confidence was further reinforced by the family's frequent visitor, Count Felix von Luckner. The future head of the Abwehr and the future Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, at that time a senior officer on the cruiser Berlin, begins to contribute to his career. The relations of the Canaris family with Heydrich were very close - for example, Heydrich often played in a string quartet with Canaris's wife.
However, Heydrich's relationship with his colleagues was not particularly good. Like his father in his time, he was hampered by rumors that he had Jewish ancestors. While serving in the Navy, Heydrich was even more active in sports, in particular pentathlon, fencing and horseback riding.
Behind Heydrich, a reputation for red tape spreads. In December 1930, at one of the balls, Heydrich met his future wife, Lina von Osten, a village teacher, and married her in January of the following year. According to another, more romantic version, Reinhard and a friend were riding a boat and saw a boat with two girls capsized nearby. Of course, young people heroically came to the rescue. One of the rescued girls was Lina von Osten.
Earlier, 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 an announcement of his engagement to Lina, cut out from a newspaper, by mail. The girl's father turns to the head of the Navy, Admiral Erich Raeder, with a request to influence Heydrich. According to the code of honor of the Navy, Heydrich committed a grave offense, having two novels at the same time. The behavior of the young lieutenant is considered 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 person" is more worthy of a "village simpleton", but Heydrich replied with a request not to interfere in his choice. In April 1931, Admiral Raeder fired Heydrich for "misconduct."
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 socialists and communists.
At the same time, Heinrich Himmler began to streamline the activities of the SS. To better coordinate the actions of the SS, as well as to spy on political opponents and participate in military actions, the SS needed a trained intelligence service. Through his friend Karl von Eberstein, Heydrich meets Himmler and expresses his proposals to him on the creation of an SS intelligence service; Himmler liked them, and he instructed Heydrich to take over the creation of the SD.
The main task of SD in the first couple was the collection of compromising materials on people occupying a prominent position in society, as well as conducting information campaigns to discredit political opponents. A favorite accusation against opponents was the attribution of homosexual relationships to them.
Soon Heydrich became an important person for the Nazi Party, and his career quickly went up the hill. In December 1931 he was promoted to SS Obersturmbannführer and in July 1932 to SS Standartenführer.
At the same time, Heydrich changed the spelling of his name from Reinhardt to Reinhard.
Political struggle 1933-1934
The appointment of Adolf Hitler in 1933 to the post of Reich Chancellor meant for the SA and SS the coming to power and the beginning of the crackdown on the opposition. Officials who held their posts under the Weimar Republic were largely replaced by people from the SA and SS.
Meanwhile, the SA attack aircraft, under the leadership of Ernst Röhm, caused Hitler more and more anxiety. The officers and rank and file of the SA, which largely ensured Hitler's rise to power, were unhappy with the fact that, in their opinion, the SA received insufficient authority. The situation was aggravated by the presence of two wings within the National Socialist Party - one that was more inclined towards national politics (Adolf Hitler) and the other, who believed that the party should first of all implement the socialist program (Gregor Strasser). Among the stormtroopers, there was more and more talk about the need for a second, truly socialist, revolution. At this time, it was Heydrich's SD that collected incriminating material on Ryoma and his closest associates. The materials collected by Heydrich pointed to an imminent putsch being prepared in the bowels of the SA. After the SS forces during the so-called "Night of the Long Knives" SA were defeated, and Röhm himself was killed, on June 30, 1934, Heydrich received the rank of SS Gruppenfuehrer.
As part of the hardware struggle between the two power departments - the SS and the Wehrmacht - Heydrich's SD took a serious part in the removal from power of the commander-in-chief of the ground forces, Colonel-General Werner von Fritsch and Defense Minister Werner von Blomberg.
Serious friction also existed between Heydrich's SD and military intelligence, the Abwehr, which was led by Heydrich's former patron Wilhelm Canaris. In public, both leaders remained friendly, and even met every morning for a walk. However, behind the scenes, each tried to take the other out of the game: Heydrich gave orders to carry out secret searches in the offices of Canaris, and he diligently searched for evidence of Heydrich's Jewish origin.
At the head of the internal security agencies
In 1936, Himmler became chief of the German police, and Heydrich became chief of the "sipo" ("security police" - Sicherheitspolizei, Sipo), a hybrid of criminal and political police. With the help of this instrument of violence, Heydrich was given the opportunity to crack down on both the enemies of the regime and his personal enemies. Security police agents also conducted surveillance of Jews, communists, liberals, and religious minorities.
In 1939, the SD, the zipo and the Gestapo (German: Geheime Staatspolizei, Gestapo) were placed under the control of the newly created RSHA - the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA, headed by Heydrich. RSHA has become a powerful organization for collecting and analyzing information, as well as suppressing opposition.
The Second World War
It was Heydrich who developed a plan to stage a border incident, called the Gleiwitz incident. The purpose of the staging was to show that the German attack on Poland is only Germany's response to acts of violence against German residents committed by the Polish side. In August 1939, SS men dressed in Polish uniform attacked a German radio transmitter in the town of Gleiwitz. The corpses of the "Poles" were presented to the world media. In fact, the deceased prisoners of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp acted as the killed Poles. On September 1, 1939, German troops attacked Poland and World War II began. During the occupation of Poland, the SS Einsatzgruppen, subordinate to Heydrich, destroyed the Polish intelligentsia, communists and Jews.
In the early years of World War II, Heydrich was not only involved in organizational work. As an Air Force reserve officer, Heydrich took part in German combat missions (first as a gunner-radio operator on a bomber, then as an attack aircraft pilot) during campaigns against France, Norway and the USSR. This corresponded to Heydrich's ideas about the ideal SS officer, who not only sits at his desk, but also participates in hostilities. After Heydrich's plane was shot down east of the Berezina River in 1941, and Heydrich was saved only in time by German soldiers who arrived in time, Himmler personally forbade him to participate in hostilities.
Participation in the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question"
Heydrich was one of the main architects of the Holocaust and the implementers of the idea of the genocide of Jews in Germany and the occupied countries.
According to the ideology of the Nazis, the Jews were the embodiment of the image of the enemy. Jews, along with the Slavs (including Russians), Negroes, etc., were declared "subhuman" (Untermenschen), and, consequently, beings unworthy of life. The only acceptable form of existence of a subhuman, according to the ideology of German Nazism, is existence as a slave.
Even before the war, Heydrich collected information about Jewish organizations, and the SD carried out thorough surveillance of them. Initially, according to the plans of Heydrich, which corresponded to the ideas of the top of the Reich, the Jews were supposed to be deported en masse from the country. In 1938, Heydrich sent his subordinate Adolf Eichmann to Vienna to create there, on the model of the “Reichszentrale für jüdische Auswanderung”, already existing in Berlin, the “Central Bureau for Jewish Eviction” (German: Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung).
After the occupation of Poland, Heydrich gave the order to create special areas for the Jews of a compact settlement, a ghetto, and also to form "Jewish councils" (German: Judenräte) dealing with Jewish affairs from the local Jewish population. In this way, Heydrich managed to force the Jews themselves to participate in the policy of their own destruction. With the help of Eichmann, Heydrich carried out mass deportations of Jews from Germany and Austria to the Polish ghettos. Nevertheless, for Heydrich, the ghettos were only a stage, a way station on the way to the final goal - the complete destruction of the Jewish population of Europe.
During the occupation of the countries of Eastern Europe and a significant territory of the Soviet Union, a huge number of Jews and Slavs, racially inferior peoples to be destroyed, fell into the hands of the German administration. However, the special firing squads created to carry out the policy of terror and national extermination could no longer cope with the tasks of destroying such a huge number of people. In July 1941, Heydrich received an assignment from Hermann Goering, in which he authorized him to carry out any preparations aimed at achieving the "General Solution to the Jewish Question" (German: Gesamtlösung der Judenfrage). Heydrich quickly realized that in order to implement this plan, he needed to coordinate the work of a huge number of ministries and departments. To do this, on January 20, 1942, the so-called Wannsee Conference was convened in the suburbs of Berlin on Lake Wannsee, the purpose of which was to develop a plan for the extermination of Jews on a European scale.
As part of his project, Heydrich proposed "... forced labor under conditions of gender separation. [source?] Able-bodied Jews must build roads, and, no doubt, most of them will die from natural causes during this work." Survivors were to be subjected to "special treatment" (German: Sonderbehandlung). In Heydrich's understanding, this meant the killing of Jews by hunger and disease.
Thus, it was Heydrich who formulated the foundations of the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" (German: Endlösung der Judenfrage). It is still unclear whether the name of the operation to exterminate Polish Jews "Operation Reinhardt" (German: Aktion Reinhardt) is derived from the name of Heydrich or from the surname of State Secretary Fritz Reinhardt.
Most of the decisions of the Wannsee Conference began to be implemented after the death of Heydrich.
Imperial Protector of Bohemia and Moravia
After the German troops occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939, changing the government there, the position of imperial protector was created for the regions of Bohemia and Moravia, which came under the German protectorate, who took up residence in the Prague district of Hradcany. Initially, the former German Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath was appointed to this position. According to Heydrich, who also wanted to get this position, Neurath did not show the cruelty required in the post. Heydrich collected dirt on Neurath, in particular, evidence of Neurath's frequent departures from his workplace without good reason. At the end of September 1941, A. Hitler summoned the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, K. von Neurath, and announced that he had decided to appoint R. Heydrich as his deputy. K. von Neurath did not agree with this decision and announced his resignation from this post. Then A. Hitler sent K. von Neurath on "indefinite leave." And R. Heydrich began to fulfill his duties as "Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor von Böhmen und Mähren", which can be translated both as "Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia", and as "Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia"
Thus, Heydrich became the actual imperial protector (K. von Neurath never returned to his duties), retaining the position of head of the RSHA. On September 27, 1941, Heydrich took up residence in Hradcany. Heydrich himself arranged his country residence, where he moved his family, in the so-called. "Lower Palace" in the town of Panenské Břežany, 15 km north of Prague, confiscated from the Jewish sugar merchant Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer (German).
assassination attempt
In 1938, during the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German troops, some of the ministers of the Czechoslovak government managed to escape to Great Britain, where they formed the so-called "government in exile". The government was headed by the former president of the country, Edward Benes, but the British ruling circles did not have much interest in his work. To improve its image in the eyes of the British, the government in exile began to support the resistance movement in the territories occupied by the Germans. The purpose of this work was to prove to the British that the government in exile was capable of organizing large-scale guerrilla activity against the Germans. At the same time, the organization of resistance on the territory of Czechoslovakia belonged to the "competence" of Great Britain, which also could not organize it. Then it was decided by the assassination of Heydrich to cause retaliatory punitive measures from the German government against the local population, which would push them to intensify resistance.
At the end of 1941, a plan was ripened for a grandiose operation - the assassination of the imperial protector. The operation was codenamed "Anthropoid". On the morning of December 29, 1941 at 2:24 a.m., agents Josef Gabchik and Jan Kubis, trained by the British, landed from a British bomber into the territory of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. British agents managed to get to Prague and establish contact with representatives of the Czech underground, after which for several months they collected information about Heydrich's habits, his daily routine, security system, etc.
Unlike many NSDAP functionaries, Heydrich paid very little attention to his security. This was facilitated by his conviction that a strong guard would damage his image as a leader capable of destroying any manifestations of resistance in the country (and thus protect himself from attack). Demonstrating his ability to restore iron order in the region, Heydrich went to work every day without security, in a personal open car. Heydrich’s lack of fear for his safety was objectively explained by the fact that with his coming to the leadership of the Protectorate, the economy of Bohemia and Moravia began to grow, the salaries of workers and employees were raised, and measures were taken to improve their social and property situation. Under these conditions, Heydrich obviously did not have to worry about his safety.
For the attack on Heydrich, a narrow sharp turn in the Prague suburb of Liben. Here "Mercedes-Benz" Heydrich had to slow down sharply; there were no police stations nearby. On the morning of May 27, 1942, Gabczyk and Kubiš were waiting for Heydrich's car at the turn. In briefcases, they held Stan folding submachine guns and hand grenades. A third agent, Josef Walczyk, took up position on high ground to signal Heydrich's approach with a pocket mirror. Heydrich, who usually showed up on time, was late. At 10:32, when the agents had already decided to leave their positions, fearing being discovered, Valchik gave a signal. When Heydrich's car slowed down at the turn, Gabchik pulled out a submachine gun and tried to shoot at Heydrich from the shortest distance, but the cartridge jammed. Heydrich, apparently assuming that he was dealing with a lone terrorist, ordered the driver Klein (who replaced Heydrich's permanent driver that day) to stop the car and pulled out his service pistol. increase speed.) Then Kubiš threw a grenade at the car without hitting the car. The grenade exploded behind the right rear wheel. Heydrich and Klein jumped out of the car and began to shoot back. Klein was wounded in the leg and unable to move, and Heydrich, badly wounded by grenade fragments, fell on the hood of the car. After they were found by the Czech police and taken to the hospital. (According to another version, Heydrich began chasing the attackers, and Kubisch, running away, threw back a grenade, which wounded Heydrich).
An x-ray examination revealed a fractured rib and shrapnel wounds to the spleen in Heydrich. After the operation, he felt better for a while. However, inflammation soon began, caused by an infectious infection of the blood. Heydrich fell into a coma and died on June 4, 1942. After a two-day farewell to the body in Prague, the coffin was taken to Berlin. On June 9, the most magnificent and solemn funeral was held that has ever been held in the Reich. The entire top of the country participated in the burial ceremony. Adolf Hitler himself held a farewell speech, calling Heydrich "a man with an iron heart."
Punitive measures were not long in coming - by order of Hitler, the village of Lidice was completely slaughtered, and a wave of repression swept through the entire Protectorate, which led to the intensification of the partisan movement in Czechoslovakia.
Hitler posthumously awarded Heydrich the "German Order", a rare award reserved for senior party functionaries (most awards of this order were also posthumous).
On the first anniversary of Heydrich's death, a bust of him was erected at the site of the assassination attempt. The bust was destroyed by the Soviet troops who liberated Prague.
There is a legend according to which, shortly before his death, Heydrich, feeling himself the sovereign master of the Czech Republic, put on himself the crown of St. Wenceslas stored in Prague Castle, and became a victim of a curse that falls on the head of everyone who owns the crown of the Czech Republic not by right. [source?]
The leadership of the RSHA after the death of Heydrich was initially taken over personally by Himmler, but on January 30, 1943 he handed it over to Ernst Kaltenbrunner. The post of Imperial Protector of Bohemia and Moravia was given to SS Oberstgruppenführer, Police Colonel General Kurt Dalyuge.
Heydrich's grave is located in Berlin's Invalides Cemetery (German: Invalidenfriedhof) approximately in the center of zone "A". It was planned to erect a huge magnificent monument on it, but because of the war this was not carried out.
Operation Retaliation
The assassination attempt on Heydrich made on the leadership of the Reich deepest impression. The investigative measures were poorly organized at first, so Heydrich's killers managed to lie low. However, subsequently the Nazis launched a campaign of mass terror against the Czech population. It was announced that anyone who knew the whereabouts of the killers of the protector and who did not give them up would be shot with the whole family. In Prague, mass searches were carried out, during which other members of the Resistance, Jews, communists and other persecuted categories of citizens hiding in houses and apartments were identified. 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 old was destroyed, 172 women were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, the children were taken to the Central Office for Immigrants of the city of Litzmannstadt (German: Umwandererzentralstelle Litzmannstadt), where traces of most of them are lost. The alleged connection between the assassination attempt and the population of the village was cited as the reason for this operation. In total, as part of operations of retribution for the death of Heydrich, about 5,000 Czechs were killed.
The place where the British agents were hiding (the crypt of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius of the Czech Orthodox Church in Prague) was betrayed by a traitor named Karel Churda (Czech Karel Čurda). After many hours of fighting with the SS, the agents were forced to shoot themselves. The priest and members of the church clergy who harbored Heydrich's killers were arrested. Gorazd, the Orthodox Bishop of Prague, who was at that time in Berlin 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 Chikl and Vladimir Petrshik, as well as the headman of the temple, Jan Sonnevend, 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 clergy 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
Heidrich had many of the stereotypically Nordic qualities: tall, lean, 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 there are few records of his speeches. Heydrich was a keen sportsman and gifted musician.
He was able to become a good assistant for his boss Himmler (Heydrich held senior positions in the SD from the age of 29, and 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: it. HHHH, Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich, "X. H. H. H. - Himmler's brain is called Heydrich. Himmler soon after the death of Heydrich confiscated all the documents from his personal safe.
From his youth Heydrich was accompanied 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 Gauleiter 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 Musical Encyclopedia for 1916 as "Bruno Heydrich, real name Süss" and Süss was a very popular Jewish surname. Further investigation showed that the information about the name Suess is unfounded, which means that Heydrich does not have Jewish roots on his father's side. Also, rumors about the Jewish origin of Heydrich's mother were 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, it also lacks data on Heydrich's grandmother on the maternal side, although this information was required even for obtaining the rank of private SS.
However, the “excavations” of the past elite of the Third Reich (in relation to Heydrich, Himmler, Hitler) in terms of “Jewish roots” were generally widespread in the 30s among less successful NSDAP colleagues. Such "archeology" has been and remains a favorite topic of modern near-historical journalism.
At the same time, the hypothesis of the Jewish origin of Heydrich was the subject of serious scientific research. The Israeli historian Shlomo Aronson, while working on his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Heydrich and the period of the formation of the Gestapo and SD” (published in 1966), built Heydrich’s family tree on the paternal line until 1738, and on the maternal line until 1688 and did not find among his Jewish 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 for the creation of a National Socialist land-cultivating commune (Himmler's own idea), which, however, did not meet 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 a plot feature film a year after the event: it was an American film Hangmen 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 Czechoslovak "Assassination" (Atentát, 1964, in the role of Heydrich Siegfried Loyd, East Germany) and the American "Operation Daybreak" (Operation Daybreak, 1975, in the role of Heydrich Anton Diffring, Germany) - based on the book by Alan Burgess (Eng. Alan Burgess) "Seven at Dawn" (Eng. Seven Men At Daybreak). The assassination attempt on Heydrich was also captured in the film Sokolovo (1974) by the Czechoslovak director Otakar Vavra, the second film in the trilogy about Czechoslovakia during the war years. The role of Heydrich was performed 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 trilogy "Berlin Noir".
American science fiction writer Philip Dick wrote the alternative historical novel The Man in the High Castle. The novel is set in the 1960s in the victorious Third Reich; Heydrich seeks to assume 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 documentary footage of his funeral is inserted into the film. Stirlitz recalls this event, after which RSHA was headed by Kaltenbrunner.
The book Seventeen Moments of Spring, on which the film was based, 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.