Heydrich: The Face of Evil

"A chilling study of the man who masterminded the Holocaust Heydrich was inhumanely cruel, ruthless, devious, shameless, a sixteen hour a day workaholic who was feared and loathed even by his closest colleagues.' The Daily Telegraph An impressive mix of psychological analysis, biography and historical reporting . . . Dederichs descends into Heydrich's personal abyss and describes it in a captivating and intelligible manner while not rejecting the scientific approach.' - Die Rheinische Adolph Hitler praised Heydrich as 'the man with the iron heart'. He admired Heydrich so much that, despite rumours about Jewish ancestry, he considered him a potential successor. Reinhard Heydrich was undeniably one of the F hrer's most enthusiastic, brutal and ambitious henchmen and one of the key architects of the Third Reich's horrific genocide. He quickly rose through the ranks of the Nazi party and became one of the key architects of the Third Reich's horrific genocide. Indeed, after his 1942 assassination, the murder of more than 2 million people at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblina was code-named 'Action Reinhard'. In this critically-acclaimed biography, which includes interviews with some of his surviving family, Mario Dederichs creates a complete and compelling portrait of Heydrich's life. Dederichs details his short-lived naval career, to his work under the SS chief Himmler, his appointment as Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, and his assassination by Czech agents and the terrible reprisals exacted on the town of Lidice. More notoriously, Reinhard Heydrich chaired the 1942 Wannsee Conference which formalised plans for the Final Solution'. Heydrich was man put in charge of the 'Final Solution': the extermination of the jews. Heydrich: The Face of Evil is a brilliant, important portrait of pure evil. In 1922 he joined the Germany Navy at the age of 18, but soon after being cashiered in 1930 after an indiscreet liaison, he became a member of the SS. Here, he rose so rapidly that in 1939 he was entrusted by Hitler with the task of creating the bogus incident on the Polish border, this was to lead to the start of the Second World War. He established his fearsome reputation in the 1930s, as head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence organisation which neutralised opposition to the Nazi Party by murder and deportation. He organised Kristalnacht and played a leading role in the Holocaust, chairing the 1942 Wannsee Conference which formalised plans for the Final Solution'. In addition, as head of the Einsatzgruppen murder squads in Eastern Europe he was responsible for countless murders.