20. století
Reinhard Heydrich
A prominent Nazi and Reich Pprotector
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He was one of the prominent men of the Third Reich, the architect of the Holocaust and protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
He was renowned for his love for classical music and for fencing.
Heydrich came from the wealthy family of a music composer and conservatory director in Halle. He enrolled in the Freikorps units as a very young man and experienced to the full the frustration that reigned in Germany after the defeat at war. He then started a career in the German navy, which he however interrupted in 1931 for a love escapade, following which Heydrich was let go.
He immediately enrolled in the NSDAP (the National Socialist German Workers' Party, ie. the Nazi party) that was growing stronger. In 1932 he became the armored fist of the SS and founded the Security service (SD - Sicherheitsdienst). His influence greatly increased following the
dissolution of the SA old guard on the “Night of the Long Knives” in 1934.
After the burst of the war, his power kept on growing vertiginously until he became the third man of the Reich in 1941. On that year he was named Reich protector by Hitler and was also chosen to solve the question of ethnicity in the Reich. As head of this mission, Heydrich led the Wannsee conference in 1942, where plans were defined for the “final solution” that led to the death of millions of people in the process known as the Holocaust.
On the 27th of May, an attack was perpetrated against Heydrich by a group of Czechoslovak parachutists. His injuries didn’t seem to be severe, however his condition worsened a lot in the following days and Heydrich died of septicemia on the 4th of July. His death was a hard blow for the Third Reich and led to numerous brutal repressive measures.
