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VI. REINHARD HEYDRICH. "Today at 15.32 in Prague an attempt on the life
of the Deputy Reich Protector HEYDRICH was made..."
(Radio Prague -- 27th May, 1942, 17.30) H. was born on the 7th March, 1904 in Halle
(Province of Saxony) as son of the Director of a
private musical academy. His mother also descends
from a family of musicians. H. was educated at a
Halle High School and at an early age (1918) became
a member of some ultra-national youth organisation.
Later in his life, H. used to brag about legendary
feats of heroism (and terrorism) which he claimed
to have performed at that time. -- In 1922 H.
joined the German Navy, was commissioned as
Sub-Lieutenant in 1926 and was posted to the
ill-fated training ship "Niobe". During the last
journey of this ship, from which it never returned
he was, however, not on board. Later Heydrich,
promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1928, became
Intelligence Officer in the Baltic Command of the
German Navy ("Admiralstabsleitung der Marinestation
Ostsee"). It was probably in this position that
Heydrich got into contact with Admiral Canaris, the
famous Chief of German Military Intelligence, a
connection which, rumours contend, has never been
cut. In 1931, Heydrich left the Navy, apparently
owing to some scandal, the most current rumor being
that this scandal was a homosexual one. In the same
year H. joined the Nazi Party in Hamburg and made a
rapid career: The end of the same year saw him
already as "Sturmführer" of the SS, attached
to the SS High Command in Munich, and in 1932,
after a short spell of duty in East Prussia,
Heydrich rose to the rank of
"Standartenführer" (approximately Regimental
Commander). Heydrich's job in the SS was the
re-organisation of the existing spying and
information services of the SS (the so-called
"S.D." = "Sicherheitsdienst" = Security Service of
the SS) and he did this job so thoroughly that the
mopping up of political opponents in 1933 was done
with a thoroughness and swiftness which was
decisive for the continuation of Hitler's
regime. In 1933, Heydrich, then SS-Oberführer,
became first Chief of the Political Department of
the Munich Police, later Chief of the Bavarian
Police, and in 1935 -- having already been Berlin
Gestapo Chief -- Heydrich assumed his present rank
of Chief of the whole of the German Security Police
(incorporating Gestapo and C.I.D.).- It was stated
some time ago in the SS Weekly "Das Schwarze Korps"
that Heydrich has also taken part in this war as an
officer of the German Air Force and more recent
photographs show him indeed with the ribbons of
both Iron Crosses. His main activity, however, was
certainly centered on the task of extending the
police system, the spying apparatus and the
terrorism which he had instituted in Nazi Germany
over more than half of Europe. This task has not
been a very easy one and Heydrich himself in a
speech he made in 1941 on the "Day of the German
Police" pointed out that the German police forces,
large as they were, had not been sufficient to
cover the whole of Hitler-owned and Hitler-occupied
Europe with the usual thoroughness. The call-up of
further men (Gestapo is not in every case a
reserved occupation) and the particularly big
demand for security forces which exists in the wide
spaces of Russia have already contributed to
increase these difficulties further, and the fresh
unrest in Western Europe this spring and summer may
well have caused something approaching a "security
crisis". Such hard times have happened before,
though not in the same degree, and it was usually
Heydrich who was sent to the spot where trouble was
brewing. He has visited almost every occupied
territory, and his visits resulted without fail in
mass executions and more terror. Thus in the second
half of September 1914 special difficulties were
encountered by the German authorities in
Czecho-Slovakia. Apparently Neurath, the
Reichsprotektor, was considered too weak or the
trouble was too strong, anyway, Heydrich was kept
on the spot as Deputy Reichsprotektor and the usual
mass executions and phoney trials took place for
several weeks. His position as Deputy Reichsprotektor, however,
did not prevent Heydrich from remaining Security
Chief of German occupied Europe. Thus towards the
middle of this month of May, Heydrich went again
"on tour", this time to the Western occupied
territories which had shown considerable unrest
following upon British air and commando attacks. On
the 7th May H. installed Oberg, the most "capable"
of the terrorist SS, Police and Gestapo Leaders in
Poland, as Senior SS & Police Leader for
occupied France. On the 17th, H. was reported to be
in The Hague (mass shootings of former Dutch
officers) and on the 26th he was reported back in
Prague and received the heads of the Czech puppet
government and administration, announcing to them
the measures to be taken for the "simplification"
of administration in the Protectorate. If Heydrich should not survive the attempt or if
he is invalided for some appreciable time, the loss
for the Nazi regime would be very serious indeed.
It can safely be said that next to Himmler Heydrich
is the soul of the terror machinery from which
depends the fate of the inner front in Germany. The
Gestapo machine, certainly exceedingly well
organised, is already -- and admittedly -- heavily
taxed by the lack of man-power and the rising
unrest. The loss of the "master mind" will have
serious consequences. -- Another point worth noting
is that Heydrich was one of the most important
members of the Himmler group within the Nazi Party,
all the more important as he controlled the
Gestapo, the most important instrument of power in
Germany. The following personalities in the Protectorate
were among Heydrich' s closest collaborators and
may be rather prominent in the coming days: --- "The Führer has appointed Paul Wegener
as successor to the late Gauleiter and Regent ROVER
..." (DNB, 26.5.42) Wegener, born on the 1st October, 1908 in Varel
(Oldenburg), was educated in Wilhelmshaven and
later at the Colonial Academy at Witzenhausen. He
was for a short time farmer, later a merchant and,
after having joined the Nazi Party, he became a
full-time politician. In 1933 he became a Member of
the Reichstag, in August 1936 he was transferred
from Bremen, where he had been active hitherto, to
the Mark Brandenburg and became Deputy Gauleiter
(after Kube and his staff had been cleared out).
After the occupation of Norway Wegener, who had
taken part in the Polish campaign as officer in the
Waffen-SS became deputy to Reich Commissioner
Terboven in Oslo. |
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Focal Point
2003 
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