Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942), one of the most important members of the German SS, second only to Himmler, and Hitler intended to groom Heydrich as his successor; because of his extreme cruelty, he had many horror titles such as "blonde beast", "man of iron heart", "Nazi decapitator", "follower of death", "Nazi demon king", "Black Prince of the Third Reich", etc.
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich, born on March 7, 1904 in Halle, Lower Saxony, Germany, is said to have been of Jewish descent. His father, Bruno, was a frustrated opera singer and composer, and his mother was the daughter of the director of the Dresden Concertgebouw. Heydrich was a beautiful, blonde, tall man who excelled in swimming, equestrianism, athletics, fencing, and other sports; Heydrich was inspired by nationalist and racist ideas in his family at a young age, engaged in anti-Semitic activities at an early age, and was about to enter paramilitary training at the age of fifteen.
Due to the collapse of the German economy after World War I, Heydrich also interrupted his studies due to economic factors and entered the German Navy; Heydrich rose rapidly in the army, serving as a second lieutenant in 1926 and lieutenant in 1928; but he was expelled from the army because of an improper relationship with the daughter of a shipbuilding department chief.
He joined the Nazi Party and SS in June 1931 and took over the SS security service (sd) in July 1932, becoming Heinrich Himmler's right-hand man. In 1936 he led the "Security Police" (SIPO), and in 1939 the security services, the security police and the secret police "Gestapo" were reorganized into the newly established General Directorate of National Security (RSHA), with Heydrich as its director. Heydrich worked positively, especially in the persecution of Jews. In 1941 he became national commander-in-chief of the SS. In July 1941, he was commissioned by Hermann Goering to carry out the final jewish solution.
From September 1941 he was Deputy Administrator of Moravia and Bohemia in the German-occupied areas of Czechoslovakia. Heydrich skillfully used the "candy and whip" method to gradually Germanize the Czech region, and during his tenure he killed countless people and was known as the "Butcher of Prague". On January 20, 1942, Heydrich was responsible for convening the Wansee Conference to draw up a detailed plan for the implementation of the Holocaust.
During his stay in Prague, Heydrich did not carry his bodyguards on his visits in order to avoid being harmed by his pro-people image as deputy chief executive. On the night of 27 May 1942, Heydrich was seriously wounded by two British-dispatched Czech underground agents attacking him with grenades and a series of pistols outside Prague, and died on 4 June. Hitler personally presided over Heydrich's funeral, calling him "the man with the heart of steel" and posthumously awarding him the "Order of Germany" and buried in Berlin.
In retaliation for Heydrich's assassination, Hitler carried out devastating destruction and killings in other parts of the Czech Republic, the village of Lidice is the most famous case, the SS Seventh Armed Mountain Division "Prince Eugen" division under the pretext of Lidice village to shield the Assassins, all adult men over the age of sixteen in Lidice village were shot, 172 women and countless children were sent to concentration camps as punishment, the entire retaliation resulted in the death of 2,000 to 5,000 people, in an attempt to erase the village of Lidice from the map. After the war, the Czech government built tombstones in the village of Lidice to commemorate the innocent victims. The Lidice massacre also became a source of international children's day, because 88 children were killed and newborn babies were forcibly sent to German families for adoption.