What Is The SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich?

Reinhard Heydrich was a high ranking Nazi official in Germany during World War II. Heydrich was a strict, cruel, and ruthless man. He is known for his anti-Semitic views and assisting Hitler in many radical and inhumane attacks against Jews, including Kristallnacht. Heydrich is also known for his assassination in 1942. Topics discussed will include: early life, rise to power, career, and death.
Reinhard T. Heydrich was born on March 7, 1904. (“SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich,” The History Place). Growing up, both of his parents were strict. Heydrich’s father regarded himself as being “patriotic,” and his mother was a “strict disciplinarian”. (“SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich,” The History Place). Heydrich is believed to have adopted many of his nationalistic
(“SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich,” The History Place). Excelling in the SS and Nazi party, Heydrich quickly rose through the ranks and in March of 1933, Heydrich was promoted to “SS Brigadier General.” (“Reinhard Heydrich: In Depth,” The Holocaust Encyclopedia). Heydrich was also chief of the Gestapo, an undercover Nazi police organization. Along with Heinrich Himmler, Heydrich planned and executed many attacks against Jews and the Jewish population within Europe. One of these attacks was known as Kristallnacht, or “the night of broken glass.” On November 9, 1938, under Heydrich’s order, hundreds of Jewish owned businesses were destroyed and approximately 25,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps. (“SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich,” The History Place). On January 20, 1942, along with fifteen other senior Nazi bureaucrats, Heydrich held a meeting known as the “Wannsee Conference” to begin discussing “The Final Solution.” The Final Solution referred to the systematic killing and annihilation of eleven million European Jews living in Nazi occupied Europe. Heydrich was also responsible for assembling the “Judenrat.” The Judenrat were Jewish councils organized within the ghettos. Ghettos were small and fenced off areas within cities, designed to separate Jews from other
(“Reinhard Heydrich: In Depth,” Holocaust Encyclopedia). While traveling in Prague without guards, Heydrich was killed when two Czech agents rolled a hand grenade under his Mercedes Benz. (“Reinhard Heydrich: In Depth,” Holocaust Encyclopedia). The explosion did not immediately kill Heydrich, he died eight days later from an infected wound in his leg. As a result of this attack, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler ordered the entire village of Lidice (a small town in Czechoslovakia) to be liquidated. (“SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich,” The History Place). Firing squads were organized, and a total of one hundred and seventy-two men over the age of sixteen were killed. Women and children were taken to concentration camps, where a strong majority of them died. Some children, who looked as though they could be Aryan, were taken to German orphanages. (“The Liquidation of Lidice,” The History Place). On June 9, 1942, a funeral was held for Heydrich, and Hitler titled him as “the man with the iron heart.” Throughout the entirety of the war, Heydrich was the only high ranking Nazi official to be