Ian Baxter - Heydrich: Butcher of Prague

IMAGES OF WAR

THE BUTCHER OF PRAGUE

RARE PHOTOGRAPHS FROM WARTIME ARCHIVES

Ian Baxter

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Ian Baxter, 2022

ISBN 978-1-39909-756-7

eISBN 978-1-39909-757-4

Mobi ISBN 978-1-39909-757-4

The right of Ian Baxter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Ian Baxter is a military historian who specialises in German twentieth-century military history. He has written more than fifty books including Poland The Eighteen Day Victory March, Panzers In North Africa, The Ardennes Offensive, The Western Campaign, The 12th SS Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend, The Waffen-SS on the Western Front, The Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front, The Red Army at Stalingrad, Elite German Forces of World War II, Armoured Warfare, German Tanks of War, Blitzkrieg, Panzer-Divisions at War, Hitlers Panzers, German Armoured Vehicles of World War Two, Last Two Years of the Waffen-SS at War, German Soldier Uniforms and Insignia, German Guns of the Third Reich, Defeat to Retreat: The Last Years of the German Army At War 194345, Operation Bagration the Destruction of Army Group Centre, German Guns of the Third Reich, Rommel and the Afrika Korps, U-Boat War, and most recently The Sixth Army and the Road to Stalingrad. He has written over a hundred articles including Last days of Hitler, Wolfs Lair, The Story of the V1 and V2 Rocket Programme, Secret Aircraft of World War Two, Rommel at Tobruk, Hitlers War With his Generals, Secret British Plans to Assassinate Hitler, The SS at Arnhem, Hitlerjugend, Battle of Caen 1944, Gebirgsjger at War, Panzer Crews, Hitlerjugend Guerrillas, Last Battles in the East, The Battle of Berlin, and many more. He has also reviewed numerous military studies for publication, supplied thousands of photographs and important documents to various publishers and film production companies worldwide, and lectures to various schools, colleges and universities throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

The reign of SS-Obergruppenfhrer Reinhard Heydrich in Bohemia and Moravia will forever remain in the history of the Second World War as a period of terror, immense brutality and mass killings of Czech citizens. However, it was also a time of great solidarity and heroism among the Czech people in spite of the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children. The population lived in daily fear for themselves and their loved ones, but despite the constant trepidation, resistance to Nazism was strong in Czechoslovakia.

One of the most powerful Nazis of the Third Reich, Reinhard Heydrich, who became protector of Bohemia and Moravia in September 1941, soon earned the nickname of the executioner of the Czech nation and the Butcher of Prague.

However, after only eight months in office, Heydrich would be attacked in Prague on 27 May 1942 by two Czech paratroopers, Jozef Gabk and Jan Kubi. Heydrich would later die from his injuries and as a result there were brutal consequences for the Czech citizens and terrible reprisals would follow.

This book is the story of Reinhard Heydrichs rise to power. He became the darkest figure within the Nazi regime and would become known by his Fhrer as the man with the iron heart.

Michal Vborn

Prague

Reinhard Heydrich was a high-ranking SS and police official and a main architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Main Security Office and became k deputy and acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.

This book, with rare and previously unpublished photographs together with in-depth captions and text, chronicles the story of Heydrich, who later became known as the Butcher of Prague for suppressing Czech culture and deporting and executing members of the Czech Resistance. Brutal and callous, he was directly responsible for the Einsatzgruppen, the special task forces that travelled in the wake of the German armies, and murdered more than 2 million people by mass shooting and gassing, including 1.3 million Jews. He also chaired the January 1942 Wannsee Conference which formalized plans for the Final Solution to the Jewish Question.

However, in May 1942 Heydrich was critically wounded in Prague as a result of Operation ANTHROPOID. Following his assassination, the Nazi State declared a State Funeral in Prague and then another in Berlin. This book reveals unique photos of the funeral held at Hitlers Reich Chancellery.

With Heydrich dead, the Czech people suffered huge reprisals which saw the villages of Lidice and Leky razed to the ground and the inhabitants either sent to concentration camps or executed.

Reinhard Heydrich is regarded as one of the darkest figures in the Nazi hierarchy. He joined the Nazi Party in June 1931 and by August that same year had joined the realms of the SS. During this time Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, began setting up a counter-intelligence section of the SS and met Heydrich for an informal meeting at a railway station in Eberstein. Himmler was so impressed with Heydrichs ideas that he hired him straight away.

Heydrich began his role as chief of the new Ic Service (Intelligence Service) from the Nazi Party head office in Munich called the Brown House. Within weeks of taking the job he had formed a large network of spies and informers. By December Himmler had promoted him to the rank of SS-Sturmbannfhrer.

In mid-1932 Himmler appointed Heydrich as chief of the renamed security service: Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service or SD). Consequently, Heydrichs power grew over the next couple of years, turning a small counter-intelligence department into an efficient machine of fear and intimidation.

By June 1934 Heydrich had become head of the Gestapo, which he used as an instrument of terror against his opponents. Over the next couple of years the Gestapo earned its infamous reputation with its policemen using torture and violence as their key to interrogation.