Historical Figures

Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942)

Heydrich, 1940 (photo:Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1969-054-16, Hoffmann, Heinrich, license CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) - German Nazi, SS man, intelligence officer, one of the main co-responsible for the Holocaust, head of the Nazi secret police. Reinhard Heydrich was born into the family of a German composer. In his youth, he joined the Navy, from which he was expelled in 1931. He later joined the NSDAP and the SS, where he began to make a quick career, which brought him out of financial trouble. He did it not for ideological reasons, but for money. Only in this way could he engage in the creation of Nazi intelligence structures.

After the Nazis won the elections, he quickly established himself as a brutal and methodical man. After the war broke out, he was one of those who oversaw Hitler's death machine. It was he who organized a conference in Wansee, where the concept of the final solution of the Jewish question arose. In 1941 he was appointed protector of Bohemia and Moravia by Adolf Hitler. The commandos of the Czech government in exile organized a successful assassination attempt on Heydrich in 1942. His funeral was the largest Nazi demonstration of its kind.