81 Facts About Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich was chief of the Reich Security Main Office.

Reinhard Heydrich was the founding head of the, an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to the Nazi Party via arrests, deportations, and murders.

Reinhard Heydrich was mortally wounded in Prague on 27 May 1942 as a result of Operation Anthropoid.

Reinhard Heydrich was ambushed by a team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to kill him; the team was trained by the British Special Operations Executive.

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was born in 1904 in Halle an der Saale to composer and opera singer Richard Bruno Heydrich and his wife, Elisabeth Anna Maria Amalia Heydrich.

Reinhard Heydrich's father came from a Protestant family, but converted to Elisabeth's Roman Catholic faith upon marriage.

Reinhard Heydrich was an altar boy, attending evening prayers and Mass every week with his mother as part of the Catholic minority in Halle.

Two of his forenames were musical references: "Reinhard Heydrich" referred to the hero from his father's opera Amen, and "Tristan" stems from Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

Reinhard Heydrich learned the piano and violin by the time he was six years old.

Reinhard Heydrich developed a passion for the violin and carried that interest into adulthood; he impressed listeners with his musical talent.

Reinhard Heydrich's father was a German nationalist with loyalties to the Kaiser, who instilled patriotic ideas in his three children but was not affiliated with any political party until after World War I The household was strict.

Reinhard Heydrich engaged his younger brother, Heinz, in mock fencing duels.

Reinhard Heydrich excelled in his schoolwork at the secular "Reformgymnasium", especially in the sciences.

Reinhard Heydrich was shy, insecure, and was frequently bullied for his high-pitched voice and rumoured Jewish ancestry.

Reinhard Heydrich's family maintained cordial relations with the Jewish community; many Jewish students attended the Halle Conservatory, and its cellar was rented out to a Jewish salesman.

Reinhard Heydrich was friends with Abraham Lichtenstein, son of the cantor.

Reinhard Heydrich began to form positive opinions about the Volkisch movement and anti-communism, as well as a distaste for the Treaty of Versailles and the positioning of the German-Polish border.

Reinhard Heydrich stated he joined the Deutschvolkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund, an antisemitic organisation.

In 1922, Reinhard Heydrich joined the German Navy, taking advantage of the security, structure, and pension it offered.

Reinhard Heydrich became a naval cadet at Kiel, Germany's primary naval base.

Reinhard Heydrich received good evaluations from his superiors and had few problems with other crewmen.

Reinhard Heydrich was promoted on 1 July 1928 to the rank of first lieutenant.

Early in 1931 Reinhard Heydrich was charged with "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" for a breach of promise, having been engaged to marry another woman he had known for six months before the Lina von Osten engagement.

Reinhard Heydrich received severance pay of 200 Reichsmarks a month for the next two years.

Himmler asked Reinhard Heydrich to convey his ideas for developing an SS intelligence service.

At first he had to share an office and typewriter with a colleague, but by 1932 Reinhard Heydrich was earning 290 Reichsmarks a month, a salary he described as "comfortable".

Reinhard Heydrich later received a Totenkopfring from Himmler for his SS service.

On 1 August 1931, Reinhard Heydrich began his job as chief of the new 'Ic Service'.

Reinhard Heydrich set up office at the Brown House, the Nazi Party headquarters in Munich.

Nazi Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan claimed Reinhard Heydrich was not a pure Aryan.

In 1933, Reinhard Heydrich gathered some of his men from the SD and together they stormed police headquarters in Munich and took over the organisation using intimidation tactics.

Himmler became the Munich police chief and Reinhard Heydrich became the commander of Department IV, the political police.

At Hitler's direction, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler, Goring, and Viktor Lutze drew up lists of those who should be killed, starting with seven top SA officials and including many more.

Reinhard Heydrich improved his index-card system, creating categories of offenders with colour-coded cards.

In early 1936, Reinhard Heydrich left the Catholic Church in favour of the Gottglaubig movement.

At that point, Reinhard Heydrich was head of the SiPo and SD.

Reinhard Heydrich was assigned to help organise the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

In January 1937, Reinhard Heydrich directed the SD to secretly begin collecting and analysing public opinion and report back its findings.

Reinhard Heydrich then had the Gestapo carry out house searches, arrests, and interrogations, thus in effect exercising control over public opinion.

In February 1938 when the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg resisted Hitler's proposed merger with Germany, Reinhard Heydrich intensified the pressure on Austria by organising Nazi demonstrations and distributing propaganda in Vienna emphasising the common Germanic blood of the two countries.

In mid-1939, Reinhard Heydrich created the Stiftung Nordhav Foundation to obtain real estate for the SS and Security Police to use as guest houses and vacation spots.

Reinhard Heydrich became the president of the International Criminal Police Commission on 24 August 1940, and its headquarters were transferred to Berlin.

Reinhard Heydrich was promoted to SS-Obergruppenfuhrer und General der Polizei on 24 September 1941.

In 1936, Reinhard Heydrich learned that a top-ranking Soviet officer was plotting to overthrow Joseph Stalin.

Reinhard Heydrich discussed the matter with Himmler and both in turn brought it to Hitler's attention.

Reinhard Heydrich's SD forged documents and letters implicating Tukhachevsky and other Red Army commanders.

Reinhard Heydrich created the "Zentralstelle IIP Polen" unit of the Gestapo to coordinate the ethnic cleansing of Poles in "Operation Tannenberg" and the Intelligenzaktion, two codenames for extermination actions directed at the Polish people during the German occupation of Poland.

On 27 September 1941, Reinhard Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and assumed control of the territory.

The Reich Protector, Konstantin von Neurath, remained the territory's titular head, but was sent on "leave" because Hitler, Himmler, and Reinhard Heydrich felt his "soft approach" to the Czechs had promoted anti-German sentiment and encouraged anti-German resistance via strikes and sabotage.

Reinhard Heydrich came to Prague to enforce policy, fight resistance to the Nazi regime, and keep up production quotas of Czech motors and arms that were "extremely important to the German war effort".

Reinhard Heydrich viewed the area as a bulwark of Germandom and condemned the Czech resistance's "stabs in the back".

Reinhard Heydrich started his rule by terrorising the population: he proclaimed martial law, and 142 people were executed within five days of his arrival in Prague.

Reinhard Heydrich was put on trial in Berlin and sentenced to death, but was kept alive as a hostage.

Reinhard Heydrich was later executed in retaliation for Heydrich's assassination.

Reinhard Heydrich used equipment confiscated from the Czech gymnastics organisation Sokol to organise events for workers.

Reinhard Heydrich labelled them "economic criminals" and "enemies of the people", which helped gain him support.

Reinhard Heydrich was, for all intents and purposes, military dictator of Bohemia and Moravia.

Reinhard Heydrich was one of the main architects of the Holocaust during the early war years, answering to and taking orders from only Hitler, Goring, and Himmler in all matters pertaining to the deportation, imprisonment, and extermination of Jews.

Reinhard Heydrich sent a telegram that night to various SD and Gestapo offices, helping to coordinate the pogrom with the SS, SD, Gestapo, uniformed police, SA, Nazi party officials, and even the fire departments.

Reinhard Heydrich masterminded the plan and toured the site, which was about four miles from the Polish border.

On Himmler's instructions, Reinhard Heydrich formed the Einsatzgruppen to travel in the wake of the German armies at the start of World War II.

On 21 September 1939, Reinhard Heydrich sent out a teleprinter message on the "Jewish question in the occupied territory" to the chiefs of all Einsatzgruppen with instructions to round up Jewish people for placement into ghettos, called for the formation of Judenrate, ordered a census, and promoted Aryanization plans for Jewish-owned businesses and farms, among other measures.

Reinhard Heydrich ensured the safety of certain athletes, such as Paul Sommer, a Jewish German champion fencer he knew from his pre-SS days, and the Polish Olympic fencing team that competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics.

On 29 November 1939, Reinhard Heydrich issued a cable about the "Evacuation of New Eastern Provinces", detailing the deportation of people by railway to concentration camps, and giving guidance surrounding the December 1939 census, which would be the basis on which those deportations were performed.

In May 1941 Reinhard Heydrich drew up regulations with Quartermaster general Eduard Wagner for the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union, which ensured that the Einsatzgruppen and army would co-operate in murdering Soviet Jews.

On 10 October 1941, Reinhard Heydrich was the senior officer at a "Final Solution" meeting of the RSHA in Prague that discussed deporting 50,000 Jews from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to ghettos in Minsk and Riga.

On 20 January 1942, Reinhard Heydrich chaired a meeting, now called the Wannsee Conference, to discuss the implementation of the plan.

On 27 May 1942, Reinhard Heydrich planned to meet Hitler in Berlin.

Reinhard Heydrich ordered his driver, Klein, to halt and attempted to confront Gabcik rather than speed away.

Reinhard Heydrich was placed on his stomach in the back of the van and taken to the emergency room at Bulovka Hospital.

Hitler's personal doctor Theodor Morell suggested the use of the new antibacterial drug sulfonamide, but Gebhardt thought that Reinhard Heydrich would recover and declined the suggestion.

That a man as irreplaceable as Reinhard Heydrich should expose himself to unnecessary danger, I can only condemn as stupid and idiotic.

Reinhard Heydrich was declared entitled to a substantial pension as her husband was a German general killed in action.

Reinhard Heydrich's assailants hid in safe houses and eventually took refuge in Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral, an Orthodox church in Prague.

Reinhard Heydrich's replacements were Ernst Kaltenbrunner as the chief of RSHA, and Karl Hermann Frank and Kurt Daluege as the new acting Reichsprotektors.

Reinhard Heydrich's time in the SS was a mixture of rapid promotions, reserve commissions in the regular armed forces, and front-line combat service.

Reinhard Heydrich was a major in the Luftwaffe, flying nearly 100 combat missions until 22 July 1941, when his plane was hit by Soviet anti-aircraft fire.

Reinhard Heydrich began training as a pilot in 1935, and undertook fighter pilot training at the flight school at Werneuchen in 1939.

Himmler initially forbade Reinhard Heydrich from flying combat missions, but later relented, allowing him to join Jagdgeschwader 77 "Herz As" in Norway, where he was stationed from 15 April 1940 during Operation Weserubung.

On 20 July 1941, without seeking authorisation from Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich rejoined Jagdgeschwader 77 during Operation Barbarossa, arriving at Yampil, Vinnytsia Oblast in a borrowed Bf 109.

Reinhard Heydrich avoided capture and returned to Berlin after being rescued by a patrol.