German Leadership

Reinhard and Heinz Heydrich.

FBbrummbar

SS General Reinhard Heydrich was one of the main architects of the Holocaust and probably the darkest figure within the Nazi elite; even Hitler described him as “the man with the iron heart”. Heinz Heydrich was his younger brother and an SS lieutenant. His immense pride in his older brother’s high rank changed in 1942 after Reinhard’s death following an ambush in Czechoslovakia by resistance-fighters. Among the personal effects that Heinz received before Reinhard’s state funeral were a bundle of his personal papers, which included details about the ‘Final Solution’ – the systematic extermination of the Jews. Heinz was horrified. He burned the papers and resolved to use the influence of the Heydrich name to secretly help as many Jews as possible escape from Germany. As a journalist and publisher of the soldiers’ newspaper, Die Panzerfaust, he had access to a commercial printing-press which he used to print forged travel-documents to give to Jewish families. His secret work continued for two years, but was undone by a state attorney’s investigation at the newspaper offices in November 1944. Terrified that he had been found out and of the repurcussions for his wife and 5 children, Heinz committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. In fact, the state attorney hadn’t suspected a thing. His commission was merely to investigate paper shortages. taken from fb/Alex de Groot