About the Author (Robert Gerwarth)
Robert Gerwarth is a historian of twentieth-century Europe with a particular focus on the First and Second World Wars. He holds an MA from Berlin’s Humboldt Universität and a DPhil from Oxford University, where he also spent three years as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and a further two years as a lecturer at the History Faculty and at Balliol College.
His popular books include The Vanquished, where Robert retells the legacy of the First World War. Another popular book is The Bismarck Myth, which uncovers Bismarck’s importance as the hero of the right…after 1918, leading to Hitler.
Chapter 1
This chapter explains why the Czech government in exile in London ultimately decided to take a strong resistance action, such as assassinating Heydrich in Prague, with strong backing from the British SOE, and they were aware of the consequences if such an action were to come to pass. It then explains the assassin’s efforts in planning and executing the assassination of Heydrich, with Hitler’s gentle reaction to the assassination of his hangman.
Chapter 2
The second chapter delves deeply into Heydrich’s birth and background, tracing his lineage from his great-grandparents in the early 1800s to the birth of his parents in the mid-1800s, which also explains the origin of his later rumored Jewish ancestry. The author further discusses the impact of the First World War on Heydrich’s hometown and his own life. Then, finally, there’s Heydrich’s career as a navy officer and his painful termination, which led him to his inglorious career in the SS and the future executor of the Jewish question for Adolf Hitler.
Chapter 3
The third chapter begins with Heydrich’s unpoliticalness before joining the SS; through his fiancée, he became a convinced Nazi after indoctrination in the SS. The author further highlighted Heydrich’s tireless efforts in building up the SD, which Himmler had created specifically for him, from nothing to become a formidable intelligence service. Both Heydrich and Himmler consolidated their power by fooling Göring into handing over his Gestapo, which they made into a terror machine throughout Europe and the occupied territories. The final consolidation of power came in 1934 when Heydrich helped Hitler manufacture facts of a coup d’état against Rohm, which led to the killing of multiple SA leaders, known in history as the Night of the Long Knives. And finally, in this chapter, Heydrich failed to support his parents and their business financially despite his top position in the Nazi party and his importance in the Third Reich.
Chapter 4
In this chapter, the author explains how Heydrich utilizes the power he acquired as head of the Gestapo and the SD to create a concrete policy that Hitler and Himmler could only dream of. Heydrich never had an ideology toward the Jews but rather a practical idea of how to eliminate the vermin, as Hitler would call them.
As part of Heydrich’s job, any anti-Nazi organization in the Third Reich that failed to align itself with national socialism would be brutally prosecuted by Heydrich and his apparatus.
However, as Heydrich’s responsibilities within the Third Reich increased, so did his standard of living. By 1939, he was living in fine houses, yet he still refused to help his relatives financially.
Chapter 5
This chapter takes us back in time, during and after the Anschluss. Heydrich was able to oust all variations of Jews in larger quantities even more rapidly than it had happened in the old Reich, as Germany was to be known very soon. All this was through the help of Adolf Eichmann, one of Heydrich’s Jewish experts.
Another point the author highlighted was that Heydrich did not receive orders directly from the Führer. Most of his orders were through Himmler or Göring. Only the invasion of Poland would reverse this situation when orders needed actions rapidly.
Chapter 6
At the outbreak of the war and its escalation, Heydrich’s responsibilities expanded significantly. He was now tasked by Hitler with the Jewish question of whether to exterminate or expel them. He had to find a final solution to the unwanted chief enemy of the Third Reich.
Starting from Hitler to all other high-ranking Nazi officials, this chapter made it clear that none of them had a concrete vision of what needed to be done to rid themself of the much-hated Jews, especially now that the Third Reich had just inherited close to two million Jews with the conquest of Poland.
From the beginning of 1940, still, only a rough plan to the Jewish question was available, masterminded by Eichmann. Only through trial and error would Heydrich and his experts perfect the model with which to finally rid the Third Reich of the Jew.
Chapter 7
This chapter demonstrated that, despite the Wehrmacht’s multiple victories in 1940, Heydrich was unable to assert real SS influence on the Western Front, largely due to the conservative German generals. By this time, Heydrich’s solution to the Jewish question had evolved to one of exportation to Madagascar, a newly acquired territory resulting from the German conquest of France. But that would prove impossible due to logistical inadequacy and unforeseeable future problems.
In mid- to late 1942, the Wehrmacht seized vast swaths of land following its swift victory over Soviet territories, although Heydrich still could not extend his influence in that area. He was frustrated, but soon he would get his time.
Another crucial point in this chapter was the Wannsee Conference of January 1942, where the final solution to the Jewish question was led and finalized by Heydrich and his team of experts. The author argued that there was still confusion on whether the Jews would be exported or murdered.
Chapter 8
In this chapter, the author explains why Hitler chose Heydrich as the protector of Bohemia and Moravia and how Heydrich himself ruled with an iron hand during the first few months of his arrival in Prague. It was also pointed out in this chapter that Heydrich governed the Czechs through a give-and-take strategy; that is, he gave them basic amenities in exchange for their maximum cooperation.
To eliminate the Czechs’ past, he started by trying to eradicate their culture through re-education and the introduction of German film and music, coupled with a German-only program of Czech radio. With all his hard work, he failed to protect himself at the height of resistance activities, not just in Prague but throughout German-occupied Europe. His untimely death came on 27 May 1942 on his way to work.
Chapter 9
In the last chapter, the author argues that Heydrich only became an ideological figure after spending years in the company of Hitler and Himmler. The chapter also explains that Hitler’s attempt to wipe out Lidice, the city where Heydrich was assassinated, was unsuccessful, and later, Lina Heydrich received a substantial bounty from Germany in honor of her deceased husband, the general.
