Reinhard Heydrich: Difference between revisions

Line 15:

Many historians regard Heydrich as the darkest figure within the Nazi regime, so much so that even [[Adolf Hitler]] described him as "the man with the iron heart". He was the founding head of the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (Security Service, SD), an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to the Nazi Party via arrests, deportations, and [[murder]]s. Alongside Propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]], he helped organize ''[[Kristallnacht]]'', a [[pogrom]] against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938. The attacks were carried out by ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' stormtroopers and civilians and is considered to be the official beginning the Holocaust.

==Biography==

Heydrich’s father, who directed a musical conservatory and sang Wagnerian roles in the opera, exposed his son to the cult of Richard Wagner, and his mother was a stern disciplinarian; the family was falsely suspected of partial Jewish ancestry.

Heydrich joined a Freikorps paramilitary unit in 1919 and entered the German navy in 1922. Commissioned as a naval officer, he was discharged in 1931 after a naval court of honour found him guilty of misconduct (for refusing to marry a shipyard director’s daughter with whom he had had an affair). That same year he joined the SS. Soon after a chance introduction to Himmler, Heydrich was entrusted with the organization of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; “Security Service”), the intelligence and surveillance arm of the SS.

Upon his arrival in Prague, Heydrich sought to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation by suppressing Czech culture and deporting and executing members of the Czech resistance. He was directly responsible for the ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'', the special [[Death squad|death squads]] that travelled in the wake of the German armies and murdered more than two million people by mass shooting and gassing, including 1.3 million Jews.

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 Many historians regard Heydrich as the darkest figure within the Nazi regime, so much so that even [[Adolf Hitler]] described him as "the man with the iron heart". He was the founding head of the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (Security Service, SD), an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to the Nazi Party via arrests, deportations, and [[murder]]s. Alongside Propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]], he helped organize ''[[Kristallnacht]]'', a [[pogrom]] against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938. The attacks were carried out by ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' stormtroopers and civilians and is considered to be the official beginning the Holocaust.
+==Biography==
+Heydrich’s father, who directed a musical conservatory and sang Wagnerian roles in the opera, exposed his son to the cult of Richard Wagner, and his mother was a stern disciplinarian; the family was falsely suspected of partial Jewish ancestry.
+Heydrich joined a Freikorps paramilitary unit in 1919 and entered the German navy in 1922. Commissioned as a naval officer, he was discharged in 1931 after a naval court of honour found him guilty of misconduct (for refusing to marry a shipyard director’s daughter with whom he had had an affair). That same year he joined the SS. Soon after a chance introduction to Himmler, Heydrich was entrusted with the organization of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; “Security Service”), the intelligence and surveillance arm of the SS.
 Upon his arrival in Prague, Heydrich sought to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation by suppressing Czech culture and deporting and executing members of the Czech resistance. He was directly responsible for the ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'', the special [[Death squad|death squads]] that travelled in the wake of the German armies and murdered more than two million people by mass shooting and gassing, including 1.3 million Jews.