Going Down in History: Reinhard Heydrich, the Butcher of Prague

A Nazi officer who was one of the planners of the Holocaust. An expert in torture and blackmail whose proposals made even Hitler say “that is going too far”: General Reinhard Heydrich.

Dismissed from the military at a junior rank, Reinhard Heydrich won Hitler’s favour through his ruthlessness and soon became one of the regime’s most feared bureaucrats. The most sinister trait of this general, whom Hitler nicknamed “the man with the iron heart”, was persecuting the families of those he considered “guilty” when he could not catch them. Heydrich was notorious for taking whoever was at home when he could not find the victims on his lists there. He would torture those left behind until the “culprit” surrendered. Carrying this cruelty beyond Germany, Heydrich first did a “genocide internship” in Austria and was then sent to Czechoslovakia. Because of his arbitrary executions he received the nickname “Butcher of Prague”, who knows which of his terrible nicknames it was.

One did not need to be very clever or very moral to rise to the top of the Gestapo, the secret state police (Geheime Staatspolizei)  of Hitler’s regime. Reinhard Heydrich was an insecure but ambitious and arrogant officer. Although he had been dismissed from the military, he was in fact exactly the kind of order-taker Hitler was looking for. He did not ask many questions. He did not interpret orders. Indeed, if the commander-in-chief said shoot, he killed. He never thought about tomorrow. He was ready to sign off on every possible lawlessness.

First, rivals were eliminated. Even though they had fought in the same ranks, SA (Storm Detachment) commander Ernst Röhm was arrested and killed as the result of a plot. Of course this purge would not have happened without Heydrich.

After that the young Nazi did not have to wait long, because the regime needed people like him. So the doors of high office suddenly opened and Reinhard Heydrich was put at the head of the intelligence service. His first move on taking over the Gestapo surprised no one. He gave the organisation’s members the armour of immunity from prosecution. Knowing they would never be tried whatever they did, Gestapo agents spread terror across Europe.

Heydrich was not content with profiling innocent people and Jews. The ambitious executioner also had his own comrades closely watched. Recording every moment of party leaders with hidden cameras, Heydrich soon became one of the symbols of Hitler’s merciless regime. He was so useful for what he knew and planned that he managed to keep his post despite rumours that he was of Jewish descent. But he was also psychopathic enough to be ashamed of his ancestry and to open fire on his own reflection in the mirror. He always denied his past. The more people said “he is Jewish too”, the more savage he became. Nicknames such as “god of death”, “blond beast” and “hangman” were the inhuman ranks he earned. Even the most powerful generals of the time, the wealthy backers of the regime and veteran party members feared the cruel architect of the lists, because they knew very well that the smallest mistake could put them on the list and make them a target of the regime.

Heydrich, who reached the rank of general before he was even 30, was one day assassinated by Czech patriots. Sadly, his ruthless principles were applied even after his death. On the claim that it had helped the assassins, a village was wiped off the map and hundreds of innocent people were shot.

Persecuting the family of a “culprit” he could not catch, setting traps for comrades who had fought in the same ranks, granting his men immunity from prosecution, drawing up lists, denying his own past and ancestry, having even his closest colleagues followed.  Forensic scientists say that even identical twins have different fingerprints. But are the footprints of tyrants always the same?