Real History and documents about Reinhard Heydrich

[Translated by Maria K Shnell. No German text available]

Lina Heydrich to Jean Vaughan, Burg/F[ehmarn], February 16, 1952

1. I do not know a Prof Höttl [Website: presumably Wilhelm Höttl]. In the meantime I wrote to Schellenberg and hope to get an answer. Is it possible that there is a confusion between Prof Höttl and Prof Höhn?: The latter was a collaborator of my husband for a long time. He came to see me in Plön last summer. I do not think much of him and think it possible that there is some connection between then, esp. as I got Schellenberg’s address from him.

[…]

3. I also wrote to Herr Karl Wolff and asked him for informations. It might be possible that I get a satisfactory answer from him on the Jew-problem [Judenfrage]. But you will have to have still some patience.

4. I still got some valuable details about the conditions [circumstances?] that led to the assassination of my husband, above all news in connection with Lidice.

[…]

And now details to Herrn [Paul] Leffler’s report:

MY husband began his service in the Braunes Haus in München in August 1931. There was no fundamental material whatsoever on which to base his work. He had to create it all himself. Within the SA, to which the SS still belonged at that time, there was a kind of intelligence service, the head of which was a certain Graf Dumoulin [du Moulin?]. But his work must have been unsatisfactory, for in the course of time he disappeared, and was not heard of again.

Soon my husband moved with his office into a room that he had rented from the widow Victoria Edrich. She kept a boarding home, where she served dinner mostly to SS-men. She was an enthusiastic member of the Partei; she was always ready to bring personal sacrifices, and she showed much courage and intelligence in critical moments. In times, when the Partei was forbidden, she used to hide the first flag in her sideboard behind cups and plates.

Her actions were free from selfishness, or hopes of rewards.

One day an acquaintance of my husband’s Richard Hildebrandt, was [sic. who] has been sentenced to death in Poland now, but who was Stabsführer of Sepp Dietrich at that time, wanted to see my husband. He rang the bell at the appartement door of Mrs Edrich, as he had been told by my husband. A little window in the wall opened.

There appeared Mrs Edrich in her dressing gown, “What do you want?” — “I’d like to see Mr Heydrich.” “Heydrich?? — My name is Edrich,” and peng the window closed. He rang the bell anew. Nobody opened. Hildebrandt goes away. After a little time he comes back, rings the bell and asks urgently to be allowed to enter, to see Mr Heydrich.

Still in addressing gown, Mrs Edrich answers that she is a decent person and a widow, and would he pleased let her alone and stop talking about Herr Heydrich, she did not know anybody with the name of Heydrich, her name being Edrich. Herr Hildebrandt did not yet succeed in entering, and he only wanted to fetch this typewriter, that he had lent to my husband. —

Once my husband was informed that the police had become interested in the apartment of Mrs Edrich. A secret-policeman (a policeman not wearing uniform) had been posted at the entrance-gate and scrutinized everybody who entered Türkenstrasse 23. My husband took a snapshot of him and sent that into his bureau.

But soon the apartment Türkenstr. became too small, my husband having three co-operators [colleagues] at that time. My husband and I had married in Dec 1931 and lived in a little village Lochhausen (see photo) near München. My husband had to ride to the city every morning.

In October 1932 we moved. Himmler had rented a house in Nymphenburg (a suburb of München). The office moved into this house too, and a few rooms were left for private use (see photo). This house was ideal for its purpose. It was the last but one house in a lane that had no thoroughfare. So nobody could pass that lane without being noticed. The Münchener police never came to know about us. (All this happened in the time when the organizations of the SA and SS were forbidden).

During this time also Herr L [Leffler] entered the service. At that time the service was not called SD but PJ (Presse Information). It was the time of the beginning, of building, – and of starvation. — Goodness me, what a famishing time and that! — Never any money, – at last we had to lay off some of the fellow-workers who had to provide for a family. Mr L. wrote about the office work.

My husband had built up this service, after the pattern of the British Intelligence service, because he was of the opinion that no nation could do without such an institution and that many mistakes and unsuccessful deeds of the German Government resulted from the lack of such an institution, for a minute knowledge of the meaning and thoughts of the own people and of the foreign people is the base of a successful politic [foundation of political success].

Therefore there can be no question of such an institution being criminal. But as it is the fundamental element for politics, it is and remains always a key position; and that fact perhaps may have been the most secret reason for the assassination of my husband, in Prague [May 27, 1942]. The chief of the SD as intelligence-centre and the Gestapo as the governmental executive were more than ever key positions for decisions concerning conduct of war, during the war.

The elimination of my husband had to create a state of entire pêle mêle [sic]. And the time after the assassination proved more than enough that it did. This may at the same time be a proof and a historical acknowledgment of the quality of his work.

But let us go back to Zuccalistr., [Nymphenburg], München. After the work of my husband showed some results, Himmler and Röhm arrived for inspection, one day. We all were awfully excited. (I simply have to say always, “we”, for I was a part of the staff! I was: washerwoman, char-woman, cook, fireman. Now our stoves were stoked from the hall. And above these stoves there was a little board for matches. And every morning my matches had disappeared.

I had to know who always took them. Now at the Stachus (that is a place [square] in Munich) there is a shop where you can get all things for Carnival [Fasching], there I went and bought a box of exploding matches. Now I had put these on the board and waited fort things to happen. — But now, when H. and R. had appeared so unexpectedly I had forgotten all about these matches.

The inspection must have gone well, for my husband sent someone down for matches to lighten the cigars. And from old custom perhaps this one took my matches from the board. Suddenly upstairs an awful “bang” and terrified faces everywhere. Goodness me, my matches — what will be the end of that. I ran upstairs and explained everything. And that was the smiling end of the first attempted assassination!

Another little story:

When my husband applied for that place [position], there was also another applicant, the former Major Honinger. Honinger always kept close to my husband. He offered him a furnished room in the apartment of his sister, and so on. He used to write the name of my husband Heidrich. One day after my husband had been appointed he wrote an article about him in the newspaper, spelling the name Heidrich.

Some years later, on the day of the Machtübernahme in Bayern [March 1933], Honinger was found dead in his room. He had committed suicide, the files in the Police centre showed that he had been an agent for the police. What would have been the consequences if Himmler had chosen him instead of my husband!

On Jan 30, 1933 there was the Machtübernahme in Prussia. Herr Göring became Ministerpräsident. He created the State Police, with Diehls [sic. Rudolf Diels] as the head. In München everything remained as it had been before. The Cabinet Held strengthened its efforts against the NSDAP. Now it was decided that Bayern was to be won over from Prussia. The office was removed to Berlin Westend, Eichenallee.

Our first child was to be born there. My husband had moved already to Berlin, and I was busy packing our furniture when the last piece had just been put into the van, the Machtübernahme in Bayern was announced by radio. My husband returned to München and moved to Berlin. As I expected our baby, I hardly ever left our apartment, which was in the same house as the office. My husband came to see me on Sundays.

One Sunday I came to know Diels. He was married to a daughter of Mannesmann, a beautiful, red-haired woman. Now Frau Diels came to see me often, showed much sympathy and tried to gain my confidence. Therefore I was terribly taken aback when my husband told me one day, that Göring had issued an order of arrest against him (my husband) and that Diels was very much interested in knowing when he came to see me.

From that day his visits became secret, and I never told Mrs Diels when my husband was in Berlin. Then all at once Frau Diels did not come to see me any more, and I never saw her again.

On June 12, 1933, three days after my birthday, our first son Klaus was born, who perished to cruelly at the age of 10 [in October 1943, street accident in Jungfern-Breschan. Picture shows Heydrich with oldest son Klausat Fehmarn island in 1938 ].

Four weeks after his birth, we moved back to München, where my husband had become the head of the Section VI of the Bayrische Police (the political police). This time we had the whole of Zuccalistr. at our disposition. Our delayed salaries had been paid, we had no more trouble from want of money, though our payment was rather poor and far below the wages that were paid in general throughout the Reich in other employments. Our work was above all honorary service to the State.

In October our son was christened. Röhm and Himmler were godfathers and my mother was godmother. This may show that we had no distrust toward Röhm whatsoever, though we justly abhorred the ways and [homosexual] conduct of life of some of the higher SA leaders.

After I had moved to München the office in Berlin Westend was closed, and newly established in München Leopoldstr. The office, now called the SD, employed 200 people and throughout the Reich there were branch offices (Außenstellen).

I lost more and more contact with the work, as my time was wholly taken by my own duties as mother and housewife, and so I heard from the work only what my husband was able to tell me without breaking his oath of silence (Schweigepflicht) to which each State official had to submit.

Signed: L H

“This is about half the letter. The rest follows soon.” [– a note by the translator].