Reinhard Heydrich

Heydrich was a great contributor to the rise to power of the nazi party.  He was second only to Himmler and he was in charge of the SD (security service of the SS and in control of the Gestapo).  He also presided the Wannsee Conference, where the Final Solution was discussed.  He has been called the most evil of all nazis and also a person of great intelligence and talent.   He is both admired and despised, but everybody agrees he was the perfect successor of Hitler as the fuehrer of Germany and new territories.  Don't you want to know more about him?  I do, so here it goes.

Reinhard Heydrich was the son of Bruno Heydrich, a music teacher and composer near Leipzig.  He wanted more and finally accomplish being a singer of Wagner's operas.  He also wrote some operas, but they never made it to Berlin, as it was his dream.  Finally, he married Elisabeth Krantz (after converting to Catholicism) and opened a music school in Halle, that became very successful.  Because he came from a poor family, he took care of hiding his past. Finally it was learned that he had been sending money to a Frau Ernestine Suess, his mother.  A rumor started saying that his real name was Isidor Suess, Suess being a Jewish name.  It was not only during the nazi period that Jews were disliked in Germany.  This was the case already at this time, so Bruno felt that these rumors could hurt him greatly.  Bruno could not do anything against this rumor. 

On March 7, 1904 Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was born.  To his father delight, he was blonde and had blue eyes, which Bruno hoped would get rid of the rumors about him being Jewish.   Since his early childhood, Reinhard was taught to have the greatest respect for the military and the emperor, to be athletic and of course, he learned music (to play the piano and the violin).  Bruno also taught Reinhard to be an anti-Semite.  He hoped that this would also end the rumors about any Jewish blood in their family.

When Reinhard was 10, WWI began.  The war was constantly discussed at home.  What really interested young Reinhard were the warships and the new lands that could be conquered with them. In high school, he was very proficient in chemistry, mathematics, physics, German, and History.  And on his own, he learned a lot about warships.  He told his parents he wanted to be a naval officer.

The German defeat in WWI in 1918, the proclamation of the republic, and the appearance of a radical group of socialists led Reinhard to join the Freikorps, to fight those rebels.  He remained a member until 1920.  Reinhard grew more and more against the Versailles Treaty, and saw anybody that accepted it as a traitor.  He hated the reds and wanted to learn Russian because he thought an enemy could not be defeated if one didn't know their language.    He hated the Jews and also the French, who were the eternal enemies.  He hated the Polish too, since Germany had lost land to Poland after WWI.

After Reinhard graduated from high school at 18, he still wanted to become a naval officer.  A considerable number of members of the Freikorps had created a nationalist movement centered in Munich with an Austrian leader, Adolf Hitler.   Reinhard was introduced to this movement, and naturally, he liked it.

On March 30, 1922 Reinhard Heydrich joined the German Navy at Kiel.  He trained specially in communications and military intelligence,  He spoke English, Spanish, Russian and French.

On December 6, 1930 Reinhard met Lina von Osten.   She was a fanatical nazi and after 2 days, they got engaged.   shortly after that, the father of a girl Reinhard had had an affair with and abandoned asked Reinhard to marry her.  He refused and was dismissed from the Navy on May 31, 1931.  The next day he was enrolled in the Hamburg section of the nazi party.

When Heydrich went to have his interview with Himmler he was told that an intelligence officer was needed.  Himmler gave him 20 minutes to write how he would handle the job.  He was given the job.  As he understood his job:  Hitler had to be made the new Messiah, the enemies of the nazi party had to be eliminated.  Also, he was the one that arranged for Hitler to become a German citizen.>

Heydrich had enemies within the party and in the SA.  He didn't care about this because his acts were approved by Hitler and Himmler and his ascension in the nazi party, and particularly in the SS and SD was impressive.  What made him so popular?

Berlin, February 27, 1933.  Hitler has been chancellor for less than a month.  He is meeting with Goering and Goebbels, when at 9:14 an alarm sounds.  The Reichstag building is on fire.  Hitler blames the communists aided by Moscow.  Within a few hours, about 20k opposition politicians have been arrested and sent to concentration camps.  Hitler has saved Germany from s civil war.  The civil rights have been suspended due to the national emergency.   In March 5 1933 the nazi party gets 43.9% of the votes and the German Nationalists 8%,  Total 51.9%  Many people believe the nazis themselves had started the fire.   Heydrich blames the Jews for the rumors.  Today we think Heydrich was the master mind behind it.

On April 27 1941 Heydrich took the title of acting leadership on the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.  There he earned the nickename of 'The Butcher of Prague'.  At the same time he was the Reich Protector, he held a conference in Wannsee, in part to assert he power.  The topic on the agenda was the final solution to the Jewish question.  (see Wannsee for more details).  As the Reich Protctor, he had been told many times that he was not taking the necessary steps to protect himself.   However, he thought himself invincible and continued to expose himself to outsider attacks.  On May 27, 1942 he was riding in his convertible Mercedes (plates SS3) while it was attacked by the resistance.  He ordered the car to stop and stoop up.   He could escape from the car but not unharmed.  Heydrich was taken to a hospital, but died on June 4, 1942 due to an infection.  He was buries with honors in a funeral presided by Hitler.

Heydrich was murdered when he was de Reich protector of Tchekoslovakia.

I'll try to add more about such an interesting person