Heydrich, Reinhard

(1904–1942)

   Before his assassination in 1942, Heydrich was Heinrich Himmler’s second-in-command in regard to the implementation of the Final Solution. As head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), Heydrich issued the directives that mobilized the bureaucratic machinery in the war against the Jews. In his youth, Heydrich was strongly influenced by racial antiSemitism, and after leaving the navy in 1931, he was attracted to the ideas of the Nazi Party. He joined the party that year and quickly attracted Himmler’s attention. Tall, blond-haired, and with blue eyes, Heydrich epitomized the Aryan ideal, although throughout his life rumors circulated that he had Jewish ancestry.

   Heydrich was a ruthless and calculating bureaucrat who made himself indispensable to Himmler. Nicknamed the “Blond Beast,” Heydrich acquired a reputation for his use of extortion and terror against his political opponents. In 1938, he acquired authority over Jewish affairs in his capacity as head of the RSHA. Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, he dispatched his second-in command, Adolf Eichmann, to Vienna to organize the Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration, and he was so pleased with Eichmann’s work that he created a similar office in Berlin.

   Following Germany’s conquest of Poland in September 1939, Heydrich became involved in all aspects of Germany’s Jewish policy. From the organization of the ghettos and the creation of the Judenrate (Jewish Councils) to the mass deportation of Jews from the annexed part of Poland, Heydrich was deeply involved in the strategic planning of Germany’s Jewish policy. It was Heydrich’s use of Einsatzgruppen in Poland, and more extensively in the Soviet Union, however, that was responsible for the murder of more than a half million Jews. It was also Heydrich who wrote the letter that was signed by Hermann Goering that authorized the plan to carry out the Final Solution.

   In January 1942, Heydrich convened the Wannsee Conference for the purpose of coordinating the bureaucratic agencies that were necessary for implementing the annihilation of European Jewry. Following his assassination on 27 May 1942 by two Czech patriots, he was succeeded by Ernst Kaltenbrunner as head of the RSHA.