Heydrich Documentary - Biography of the life of Reinhard Heydrich

[Music] [Music] the man known to history as reinhard heydrich was born on the 7th of march 1904 in the town of hulla in eastern central germany his mother elizabeth came from a wealthy family and his father richard was a noted tennis singer composer and patriotic german who instilled his love of the fatherland along with his passion for music in his children from an early age reinhardt was one of four children three brothers and one sister and their childhoods largely revolved around their father's love of music resulting in heydrich becoming a gifted violin player he also proved to be a capable student in school and was considered to be a promising athlete excelling at swimming and in particular at fencing the family were also relatively well off which gave the children a comfortable childhood but when the first world war broke out in 1914 when reinhardt was 10 germany's economy was slowly worn down until by the end of the conflict even well-off families had started to suffer after germany's capitulation the political landscape in the country became increasingly polarized and fragmented resulting in radical far-left political groups forming who then tried to gain control of the various german states in violent incursions [Music] this in turn led to right-wing nationalist movements being formed to counter the communists who blamed the far left for weakening the country to sustain the fighting towards the end of the war these groups were named frykor or free gold in english who were paramilitary groups consisting largely of former soldiers who had returned to the western front as well as the right-wing nationalists then in 1919 when reinhard was age 15 skirmishes broke out in his hometown which led to the communists taking control prompting him to then join the local fry corps unit he wrestled back the town from the communists [Music] the widespread discontent in germany was also further compounded as the country continued to suffer from widespread food shortages unemployment and hyperinflation which made even basic food such as bread unaffordable however one of the few job opportunities that still lay open to middle-class young men like reinhardt was the military which culminated in him fortunately being accepted into the german navy in 1922 as a cadet he seems to have done well in training as two years later he was promoted to midshipman and then was sent for training as an officer resulting in him being made in ensign in 1924 his growing status as well as his striking appearance then led to various love affairs with a number of women one of the women heydrich was seeing at the time was his future wife lena von austen who was a fully paid up member of the national socialist german workers party since her brother had taken her to one of hitler's first mass rallies the two then publicly announced their engagement but their relationship and heydrich's career was rocked to the core when the father of one of his former lovers who was a friend of a high-ranking naval officer complained that heydrich had promised his hand in marriage to his daughter and then deserted her reinhardt was then charged with conduct unbefitting of an officer and a gentleman and dismissed from the german navy in april of 1931. luckily for him however lena did not desert him and they were then married in december of 1931. i would go on to have four children during their time together in many ways lena's decision not to break their engagement was one of the most important events of reinhardt's life as he was now unemployed and desperate but with his wife's help and connections within the nazi party reinhardt's fortunes were about to change the should stifle or ss had been formed in 1925 as a kind of close protection or bodyguard unit but had remained relatively unimportant until 1929 when heinrich himmler a former chicken farmer from munich was appointed to become reich's fuhrer ss himmler shared hitler's belief in the superiority of the germanic peoples but in many ways was far more fanatical than hitler and sought to make the nazi dream of a pure aryan master race a reality by any means possible at this time in 1929 the ss was still very much a minor cog in the nazi party machine but himmler had massive personal ambition and was determined to use the ss as a vehicle to both increase his own personal power as well as his racist ideologies this led to him seeking to expand the organization by any means possible so that then in 1931 himmler ordered the creation of the new ss intelligence unit and started interviewing candidates to run it for him lena then through her connections got her husband an interview with himmler who was so impressed by heydrich that he made him head of ss intelligence despite him having no experience although his salary was low to start with heydrich threw himself into his new role setting up intelligence networks which were used to obtain information on nazi opponents and also blackmail officials his reputation then started to grow as his competence became clear but he was soon confronted with a major setback when allegations were made against him regarding his rumored jewish ancestry a full internal investigation was then launched within the nazi party which proved the purity of heydrich bloodline but rumors surrounding his ancestry would continue over the coming years although few if any had the courage to voice them publicly then in 1932 partly as a reward for his services himmler appointed heydrich to be the head of the newly named and reorganized ss security service called the sd which over the coming months took control of regional police forces and expanded its influence for heydrich the timing could not have been better as on the 30th of january in 1933 hitler was made chancellor of germany in a coalition government after the nazi party had steadily increased its vote share over the previous decade after this hermann goering a former world war one fighter ace and one of hitler's closest followers was appointed minister president of prussia and then took control of the prussian police force which was the largest in germany within the prussian police there were two smaller departments which dealt with intelligence and political affairs which going then merged into one to create a new organization named the gohaima stats politzi or gestapo which was staffed by members of the nazi party goring then used his new instrument of terror to subdue the other political parties in germany said that before long and after a rigged election in march of 1933 hitler had obtained majority within the reichstag which in effect ended german democracy the only trouble was that this new organization was a valuable tool of power as the gestapo was now germany's foremost secret police service making it a target for the majority power players within the nazi hierarchy most notably the ss and the sa by 1933 the stum ab tailung or sa which was the paramilitary arm of the nazi party under its leader ernst rome consisted of two million men meaning that it threatened to overwhelm all the other state agencies for policing and defense including the armed forces this led to growing pressure being put on hitler from both inside and outside the nazi party for the sa and its leadership to be muzzled himmler and his new deputy heydrich saw that the route greater power for the ss laying gaining control of the country's police forces and intelligence services the most important of which was the prussian police and the gestapo himmler then set his sights on gaining control of the gestapo and assimilating it into the ss the only problem being the goring well hitler would have to approve its transfer it became increasingly evident however that both goering and his subordinates were ineffective in being able to control the unruly sa who by now were randomly beating up and interrogating thousands of german citizens every single day which increasingly made the nazis more and more unpopular hitler then acted in april of 1934 and appointed himmler as an inspector of the gestapo although goring still effectively had overall control of the organization heydrich was then unbelievably as he was only 30 years old in 1934 appointed to the head of the gestapo and the sd which effectively made him germany's police and intelligence chief himmler then intelligently positioned the ss firmly behind hitler whilst ernst rome on the other hand in 1934 had made demands that the german army should merge with the sa and had even insulted hitler in public this effectively decided rome's fate in the fuhrer's eyes and he then ordered going to draw up a list of persons both inside and outside the nazi party who were to be eliminated this operation was called operation hummingbird but it is known today as the night of the long knives and going then delegated the responsibility for the operation's implementation to himmler and heydrich hummingbird was then put into action on the 30th of june 1934 when leading members of the sa including ernst rum were arrested and shortly afterwards killed along with hundreds of other political and personal enemies of the nazi hierarchy purge appeased the german army and the political establishment who had pressured hitler to act against the sa and was also beneficial to him as he had successfully liquidated his enemies throughout germany and forced his followers especially the ss to prove their loyalty by taking part in the purge himmler and heydrich had also emerged from 1934 as two of nazi germany's most powerful men and they then moved to crush any further opposition amongst the population to appease hitler and further increase their own power hermann goering was then formally made head of the german air force or luftwaffe in 1935 which then resulted in the gestapo coming fully under the control of the ess shortly afterwards and himmler was then made head of all the various german police forces in 1936 which effectively gave both him and heydrich mastery of all security and policing within the third reich there was now a clear chain of command within the ss as himmler now only answered directly to the fuhrer whilst heydrich in turn answered only to hitler and himmler the gestapo was by this time effectively beyond reproach as the actions of its agents could not be challenged through the law courts but only through the organization itself heydrich was also aided by the gestapo head of operations heinrich muller who also greatly increased the numbers of gestapo agents in informants which led to a culture of paranoia throughout the country as neighbors accused neighbors of imagined offences and personal feuds were settled by one party and forming another in acts of revenge the first concentration camps also sprung up around germany during this period which as the name suggests were built to contain or concentrate undesirables and enemies of the state who were often detained or even murdered if they were considered a threat to the regime persecution of the jews had also increased in 1935 with the passing of the nuremberg laws which were designed to preserve the purity of german blood as marriages between jews and non-jews were banned heydrich was then in 1936 given the extra responsibility or honor of planning the berlin olympics the most challenging aspect of which was the ending for the duration of the games of all anti-jewish activity to avoid international criticism hitler then turned his attention to the unification of germany with his homeland austria and heydrich aided this by ordering his agents to stir up support for the union in the nazi-supporting austrian population the austrian government did their best to resist germany taking control of their country by organizing a referendum on the matter but hitler stated that any vote would be fraudulent and he would reject its outcome the fuhrer then sent an ultimatum to austria whose government tried to gain support from france and britain which was not forthcoming and german troops then crossed the border and occupied austria on the 12th of march 1938. the german armed forces were greeted by mass crowns of cheering people but behind the public jubilation the ss and the gestapo were hard at work silencing arresting and eliminating anyone who was considered a threat to the new order at this time it was still possible for jews to leave nazi-controlled territories as there was an ongoing policy of immigration and after the unification of austria and germany an office was set up by the ss in vienna for purposes of facilitating the immigration of the jews this was headed by adolf eichmann who would later become one of heydrich's right-hand men and one of the most important single figures in the instigation in implementation of the final solution to help with the subjugation of the country heydrich had also implemented the formation of special units of ss and gestapo operatives named einsatz commando who were tasked with securing public buildings and government officials this unit would later be reorganized into the dreaded einsatzgruppen who were responsible for the subjugation and liquidation of undesirable elements behind german lines during hitler's forthcoming invasions also in 1938 hijack was involved in one of the most notorious actions against the jews in the build-up to the war in europe on the 9th of november a german diplomat in paris ernst von wrath was assassinated by a jewish refugee who had recently fled nazi germany in reprisal propaganda minister joseph goebbels gave a speech stating that demonstrations against the assassination would not be organized by the nazi government but it would also not hamper any if they were to arise this effectively gave anyone who wanted to a free hand to attack jewish people or property without any fear of state intervention over the coming days heydrich gave the reichs police service precise instructions not to interfere with anti-jewish riots that broke out as a result of gerbil's speech in which tens of thousands of jews were arrested beaten and had their properties vandalized these riots from the 9th to the 10th of november 1938 became known as crystal nact or the knight of broken glass in reference to the window glass of jewish properties that covered the streets after the riots as austria had now been assimilated into the german reich hitler then turned his attention to the sedatin land areas of czechoslovakia which held large populations of german-speaking peoples the german army had by this time been placed a combat readiness to invade the country but hiddley using a combination of threats and bluffs managed to secure the munich agreement from france and britain in which they promised not to interfere in hitler's annexation if he agreed not to pursue any further territorial expansion but the fuhrer went back on the munich agreement anyway and in the spring of 1939 the remainder of czechoslovakia was occupied by german troops once again heydrich's gestapo and ss swept through czechoslovakia clearing it of anyone deemed to be a threat and soon the country was begrudgingly under germany's heel for the time being at least hitler had now successfully taken over austria and czechoslovakia by the use of bluff but given that he had gone back on his word not to embark on further expansion he could not hope to annex any more territory by peaceful means he then targeted poland in 1939 and tried to with himmler heydrich and muller's help justify his invasion of the country by faking an attack on the german radio station by the polish army this involved a number of gestapo prisoners being dressed in polish army uniforms who were then shot after a fake radio broadcast was sent out from the station claiming it was under attack but the broadcasting power of the transmitter wasn't strong enough to be heard at long distance which then meant that the fake attack had to be reported with a follow-up radio broadcast this was soon overshadowed however by the german army's full-scale invasion of poland which began a day later on the 1st of september 1939 prompting france and britain to then declare war on germany after a fierce struggle hitler's forces soon occupied the western half of poland and the eastern half was then invaded by stalin's forces in accordance with the terms of germany and russia's pact of cooperation heydrich's forces followed the army into poland and set about their now highly rehearsed routine of terror and after the country had been dismembered he then ordered the segregation of the country's jewish population this was done by the use of ghettos mostly in the major cities which were walled off areas into which hundreds of thousands of jews were forcibly interned leading to the deaths of tens of thousands as food was scarce and disease was rife these increasing responsibilities and the massive expanses of new territory which needed to be policed meant that the ss had by 1940 ballooned in size and heydrich was now effectively in charge of the entirety of the reich security services these included the police both uniformed and plain clothed the security services themselves that had domestic and overseas departments and the gestapo whose job it was to root out all opposition after hitler or rather the ss had subjugated poland germany then invaded france in the summer of 1940 and inflicted a crushing defeat on the allies this yet again gave heydrich even more responsibilities and problems as the occupation of france meant inevitably that the ss and the gestapo would have to expand their operations to take control of policing as well as identify and round off the nation's jewish population and political enemies indeed it should be remembered that the expansion of the ss and the gestapo was ultimately dependent on the territory that germany controlled as because it was in charge of policing the interior of the reich it ballooned in size in tandem with hitler's conquests matters were also complicated for heydrich and his subordinates by the growing number of resistance members in the conquered territories who were being aided by the defined british and their special operations executive or soe whose activity would be a constant thorn in heydrich's side and ultimately lead to his death hitler then after failing to invade britain in 1940 turned his attention to the soviet union and ordered the german armed forces as well as the ss to prepare for its invasion in 1941 it is estimated that during hitler's invasion of russia over 2 million jews were killed by the ss who would often kill entire populations or settlements including women and children with no reason or trial one of the worst examples of these massacres was a baby in september of 1941 where over 33 000 people were murdered in two days alone however the argument could be made that heydrich's forces greatly damaged germany's chances of winning the war in russia as its reign of terror turned the nationalities in the area who hated russia against germany meaning that a great opportunity to gain their support was lost in the process this is just one example of how the nazi regime and in particular the ss time and time again made irrational decisions and wasted germany's much needed resources to exterminate whole populations which in the long run only weakened germany's war effort by depleting its resources and also harden enemy resistance a surprising fact about heydrich is that he also saw service during world war ii as a pilot in the luftwaffe and flew dozens of combat missions during the early stages of the conflict this is particularly amazing as he was at the time one of the most important members of the nazi hierarchy whose death or capture would have been a huge blow to say the least but his career as a budding fighter ace were eventually cut short after he crashed his plane behind enemy lines in june of 1941 and after evading soviet troops and returning to german lines was forbidden to fly combat missions again by himmler he also yet had more responsibilities to attend to as military production in czechoslovakia had slumped by this time as strikes were increasing and resistance to the german occupation was growing heydrich was then appointed to deputy reich protector of bohemia and moravia in september of 1941 and was tasked with crushing check resistance and restoring arms production he did this by using carrot and stick tactics in which resistance or strikes were severely punished but on the other hand workers were given better pensions and working conditions as a positive incentive heydrich had also been appointed by hitler goring and himmler to take charge of the plans to bring about a final solution to the jewish question and began in secret during the second half of 1941 to oversee its implementation then in berlin at vanci on the 20th of january 1942 heydrich chaired a meeting of various reich department heads to finalize his plans for the final solution we have proof of what was discussed at von c as martin luther who was a foreign office official did not destroy his transcript at the meeting despite being ordered to during the discussions heydrich outlined his plans in which occupied europe's 11 million strong jewish population was to be transported across the continent from west to east and evacuated historians agree that the word evacuated was a cover word for killed an evasive language such as this has in small part led to the growing trend of holocaust denial as the nazis were very careful not to allow any written evidence of their plans to come to light however adolf eichmann would later state after his capture by israeli agents in argentina nearly 20 years afterwards that towards the end of the vanci conference the participants chatted casually about their plans and in his words were discussing the subject quite bluntly they spoke about methods of killing about liquidation about extermination this is crucial as eichmann's prominent position within the ss and his leading role in the implementation of the final solution means that his testimony is concrete proof that the holocaust did take place and disproves the sadly growing trend of holocaust denial that is all too widespread in the west today heydrich also clearly outlined what degree of jewish heritage was necessary for any given person to be evacuated which was done to avoid any possibility of legal challenges which could delay the process in essence the minimum requirements for being considered jewish were having at least two jewish grandparents however if a person had two jewish grandparents but was married to a non-jew they were spared also people with one jewish grandparent who were married to a jew were considered jewish this gives one some idea of how determined the nazis were to eradicate jews from europe as a person could end up in a gas chamber even if they had never practiced the jewish faith or even had jewish parents in the weeks and months after the von sea conference the plans for the implementation of the final solution were put into place resulting by the spring of 1942 in permanent gas chambers being completed at death camps such as auschwitz and treblinka where over the coming years nearly 2 million people including jews homosexuals political prisoners and gypsies were gassed alive and then incinerated these along with other concentration camps death camps and the actions of hydric and himmler's einsatzgruppen resulted by 1945 in the deaths of over 6 million jews and possibly up to 17 million persons in total if prisoners of war and political prisoners are included heidrick was now at the very peak of his career after vanci and in the spring of 1942 he could have been forgiven for thinking the future belonged to him as war in the east had still not turned against germany and his position was stronger than ever within the nazi hierarchy but his brutality and ruthlessness would in the end prove to be his undoing as in britain the czech government in exile led by edward banesh aided by his former head of czech intelligence frantisek moravec had identified heydrich as a potential target for assassination banesh had decided that some kind of operation was necessary as the czech government in exile was not officially recognized by the british therefore he wanted to undertake a major operation against the nazi regime in czechoslovakia in order to gain greater diplomatic leverage so that czechoslovakia would be reformed as a nation after the war to achieve this goal and with the british government's approval czech soldiers were specially chosen and would then put through a rigorous training regime to prepare them to be dropped behind enemy lines into czechoslovakia in an operation codenamed anthropoid two men named jan kuvish and joseph gabchek were then chosen to carry out the operation and were then along with their commandos dropped into czechoslovakia in december of 1941 in a british halifax bomber but as was often the case none of the operatives were dropped in the correct location bakubish and gabcik were luckily found by czech resistance members who smuggled them into prague where they would then spend the following months being transferred back and forth between various safe houses the british had equipped the operatives with collapsible submachine guns known as sten guns which could be dismantled and hidden with ease as well as grenades which was designed to explode on contact after being thrown fortunately for kill fish and gap check heydrich despite living off the capital of an occupied country had maintained his casual attitude to his personal security as he would often drive from his villa in the suburbs of prague into the city center and his headquarters at prague castle in an open top mercedes with only his driver to protect him himmler had visited prague in april of 1942 and was appalled by heydrich's disregard for his own safety but thankfully for the checks heydrich continued to display his characteristic arrogance and ignored himmler's orders to travel with an armed escort after spending several weeks studying heydrich's daily routine as well as the route heydrich took into prague kevish and gabcik then chose the spot to carry out their attack the location was a wide bend in the road where kuvish gavchik and along with the third agent joseph valchik would attack heydrich's car as it slowed down word then reached them that heydrich was due to leave the city for berlin to meet hitler and possibly would be reassigned to paris to subdue the growing resistance movements there the decision was then made to carry out operation anthropoid before hydric left prague for berlin the three men then took up their positions on the morning of the 27th of may 1942 with valtryek positioned before the bend in the road with a mirror with which he would signal his comrades when he saw heydrich's car approaching fish and gabchek were positioned on the bend in the road near a tram stop where they could wait without a rousing suspicion then shortly after 10 30 a.m heydrich left his villa and drove along his usual route but was later than usual as he had spent time with his family that morning before leaving the country as he approached the czech commandos valtryek signaled his comrades to prepare themselves and as heydrich and his driver then rounded the corner they were confronted by gapchik who stepped into the road pulled out his submachine gun aimed at heydrich and pulled the trigger but the gun jammed heydrich then made another fatal mistake and ordered his driver to stop the car after which he then stood up and went for his pistol kuvish then threw a contact grenade towards the car attempted to land it inside the vehicle but missed and then it exploded sending shrapnel into heydrich's side the czech agents then fled the scene being chased by heydrich's driver but heydrich himself then slumped to the floor holding his side which was now bleeding profusely he was then rushed to hospital in the back of a delivery van where the doctors tried but failed to remove the dozens of grenade fragments from his body he initially seemed to be making a good recovery but whilst eating lunch a week after the attack he collapsed went into a coma and then died early in the morning of the 4th of june 1942 aged 38. an autopsy concluded that he had died of sepsis possibly caused by the horsehair stuffing of the seats in his car entering his body given the relatively primitive medical technology of the time the exact causes of death are not known for certain his attackers then went into hiding after the incident but were then later betrayed by one of their comrades who revealed the locations of a number of resistant safe houses where they'd been given shelter the son of one of the owners of the safe houses then revealed after being presented with his mother's severed head that heydrich's assassins were hiding in the saint cyril cathedral in prague gestapo and ss troops then surrounded the cathedral and after a gun battle all of the czech agents inside including kubis and gabcik shot themselves to avoid capture [Music] hitler and his nazi hierarchy were incandescent with rage at heydrich's assassination and ordered severe and brutal reprisals to be carried out as revenge for his death and it is still debated to this day as whether the nazi reprisals made the assassination of reinhard heydrich worthwhile heydrich was given a lavish state funeral by the nazi regime and was then buried with full military honours in berlin where many believe his body still lies to this day in the coming years the responsibility for the implementation of the final solution to the jewish question fell to hydric subordinates including adolf eichmann who during the later stages of world war ii accelerated and streamlined the plans that his superior had masterminded indeed his ss comrades paid heydrich a grim final tribute as the penultimate operation to exterminate poland's jewish population in the winter of 1942 to 1943 was codenamed operation reinhardt [Music] reinhard heydrich is today considered as one of the key masterminds of the nazi party's final solution to the jewish question he was arguably one of the most capable ruthless and cold-hearted members of the nazi elite and there is little doubt that if he had lived that millions more innocent people would have died under his tyrannical rule indeed many believe that if germany had won world war ii heydrich given his ambition and ability may well have become fear himself and one can barely imagine what the world would have been like if this had come to pass in reality however himmler and heydrich's plan of creating a european master race by murdering millions of jews gypsies and homosexuals did nothing but weakened germany's chances of winning world war ii as it greatly depleted the reich's precious and limited resources reinhardt heydrich was more than any other person responsible for masterminding and instigating the details of the holocaust as a responsibility for its planning was delegated to him by hitler and himmler and it was he who oversaw virtually every detail until by the time of his death everything was in place for the coming genocide there is no doubt that he is one of the most evil and frightening human beings who has ever walked the earth we must never forget the countless millions of men women and children who were brutally murdered under his rule you

Channel: The People Profiles

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Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles

Id: EgFBRxQ1S_o

Length: 35min 54sec (2154 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 11 2019