The Killing of SS Reinhard Heydrich

Quotes

Funeral in Berlin

"To debate whether any action was of itself right appeared so stupid to him that it was certainly a question he never asked himself." His was "a cruel, brave and cold intelligence" and his life "an unbroken chain of murders".

- Wilhelm Hoettl, member of the Nazi security service, on Reinhard Heydrich

These traits served Heydrich well in the jungle of Nazi Germany where the weakest went to the wall and political predators flourished.

This ruthless and amoral figure was born into a Catholic family in the provincial town of Halle an der Salle on 7 March 1904.

Bruno's humble origins undoubtedly counted against him in the Kaiser's Germany, where class barriers were strong and it was usual to "deny social recognition to those who had succeeded in acquiring the material prerequisites of entry into the higher class." Nor was the family helped by being Catholic in a mainly Protestant society. Bruno's lack of advancement, however, also owed something to the persistent rumor that he was Jewish.

Anti-Semitism was common in imperial Germany, particularly amongst certain sections of the middle classes who felt threatened by rapid industrialization and social change. These groups rejected the capitalist order of the late nineteenth century and demanded the restoration of a mythical Volksgemeinschaft, a folk community based on bonds of blood and culture where class conflict would be abolished and social harmony restored on the basis of race.

In this Darwinian system, the Germans were best fitted to succeed and rule. It was a philosophy that Bruno Heydrich inculcated in his children, prticularly his favorite, Reinhard, whose fair hair and blue eyes fitted the stereotype of the Nordic hero.

While his younger brother, Heinz, resorted to violence,Reinhard avoided direct confrontation. He became a moody loner who tried to prove his superiority to his fellows by excelling them in the classroom and on the sports field.

As Germany was humiliated by the peace of Versailles and shaken by social unrest, the bottom fell out of his world.

The rise of the working class threatened the social position of the family, while the inflation of the early post-war period destroyed its savings.... The experience of revolution and financial uncertainty directly influenced Reinhard Heydrich's choice of career... On 30 March 1922, at the age of eighteen, he reported for duty at the gates of Kiel naval dockyard as an officer cadet.