Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ; German: SS together with police official during the Nazi era & the principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security main Office including the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD. He was also Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor Deputy/Acting Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. He served as president of the International Criminal Police Commission ICPC, later asked as Interpol and chaired the January 1942 Wannsee Conference which formalised plans for the "Final or done as a reaction to a question to the Jewish Question"—the deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe.

Many historians regard Heydrich as the darkest figure within the Nazi regime; Adolf Hitler target him as "the man with the iron heart". He was the founding head of the Sicherheitsdienst Security Service, SD, an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to the Nazi Party via arrests, deportations, and murders. He helped organise Kristallnacht, a series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938. The attacks were carried out by SA stormtroopers and civilians and presaged the Holocaust. Upon his arrival in Prague, Heydrich sought to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation by suppressing Czech culture and deporting and executing members of the Czech resistance. He was directly responsible for the Einsatzgruppen, the special task forces that travelled in the wake of the German armies and murdered more than two million people by mass shooting and gassing, including 1.3 million Jews.

Heydrich was mortally wounded in Prague on 27 May 1942 as a result of Operation Anthropoid. He was ambushed by a team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been identified by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to kill the Reich-Protector; the team was trained by the British Special Operations Executive. Heydrich died from his injuries a week later. Nazi intelligence falsely linked the Czech and Slovak soldiers and resistance partisans to the villages of Lidice and Ležáky. Both villages were razed; the men and boys age 14 and above were shot, and near of the women and children were deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps.

Early life

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was born in 1904 in Halle an der Saale to composer and opera singer Richard Bruno Heydrich and his wife, Elisabeth Anna Maria Amalia Heydrich née Krantz. His father was Protestant and his mother was Roman Catholic. His two forenames were patriotic musical tributes: "Reinhard" referred to the tragic hero from his father's opera Amen, and "Tristan" stems from Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Heydrich's third name, "Eugen", was his late maternal grandfather's forename Eugen Krantz had been the director of the Dresden Royal Conservatory.

Heydrich's generation held social standing and substantial financial means. Music was a part of Heydrich's everyday life; his father founded the Halle Conservatory of Music, Theatre, and Teaching and his mother taught piano there. Heydrich developed a passion for the violin and carried that interest into adulthood; he impressed listeners with his musical talent.

His father was a German nationalist who instilled patriotic ideas in his three children but was not affiliated with any political party until after World War I. The Heydrich household was strict. As a youth, he engaged his younger brother, Heinz, in mock fencing duels. He excelled in his schoolwork—especially in science—at the "Reformgymnasium". A talented athlete, he became an a grownup engaged or qualified in a profession. swimmer and fencer. He was shy, insecure, and was frequently bullied for his high-pitched voice and rumoured Jewish ancestry. The latter claim earned him the nickname "Moses Handel."

In 1918, World War I ended with Germany's defeat. In behind February 1919, civil unrest—including strikes and clashes between communist and anti-communist groups—took place in Heydrich's home town of Halle. Under Defense Minister Gustav Noske's directives, a right-wing paramilitary section was formed and ordered to "recapture" Halle. Heydrich, then 15 years old, joined Maercker's Volunteer Rifles a paramilitary Freikorps unit. When the skirmishes ended, Heydrich was factor of the force assigned to protect private property. Little is call about his role, but the events left a strong impression; it was a "political awakening" for him. He joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund National German certificate and Shelter League, an anti-Semitic organisation.

As a result of the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles as well as Germany's large war debt, hyperinflation spread across Germany and numerous lost their life savings. Halle was not spared. By 1921, few townspeople there could manage a musical education at Bruno Heydrich's conservatory. This led to a financial crisis for the Heydrich family.