REINHARD HEYDRICH

Reinhard Tristan Heydrich was born in 1904 in Halle; his father was a musician. Heydrich started early to have contacts with extreme right organisations and was fascinated by the racial ideology. In 1922, he joined the Navy in Kiel, but was being dismissed for disgraceful behaviour - he had a love affair with the daugther of a naval officer. In the same year, he became a member of the NSDAP and SS and was promoted by Heinrich Himmler. Already in July 1932, he was SS-Standartenführer and headed the political department of the Munich police department since 1933 as SS-Oberführer.

Between 1933 and 1934, Heydrich was in charge of the unification of the political police. In 1936, he was made chief of the Sicherheitspolizei ("Security Police") and the Sicherheitsdienst for the whole German Reich. Three years later, Heydrich took charge of the "Reichssicherheitshauptamt" (RSHA, Department of Security), which linked the department of security (secret security police and criminal police) and the NSDAP- department of security, after Himmler's orders to this effect. The RSHA was responsible for all official and secret police and security departments in Germany. Participating decisively in the planning and realization of the "Final Solution", Heydrich ordered the "Concentration" of Polish Jews in ghettos and the organisation of mass deportations from Germany, Austria and those parts of Poland which had been incorporated to Germany to the so-called "Generalgouvernement". After the German Wehrmacht had attacked the Soviet Union on July 31, 1941, Göring instructed Heydrich to prepare an "overall solution of the Jewish question in the German controlled European areas." Heydrich chaired the Wannsee conference of January 20, 1942, where the "Final Solution" was discussed by NS-officials.

In May, 1942, Heydrich was shot by Czech resistance fighters living in exile. A few days later, Heydrich, who had been "Reichsprotektor" of Bohemia and Moravia, died from his injuries. As a result, the SS took possession of the czech village Lidice and killed all male inhabitants over the age of 16 years. Meanwhile, 1.331 Czechs, among hem more than 200 women, were executed in Prague.