Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

Operation Anthropoid
Operation Anthropoid
Part of World War II
	Heydrich's Typ 320 damaged by the anti-tank grenade
Type	Assassination
Location	Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Planned	December 1941 – May 1942
Planned by	Special Operations Executive, František Moravec
Target	Reinhard Heydrich (DOW)
Date	27 May 1942
Executed by	Jozef Gabčík, Jan Kubiš
Outcome	Heydrich succumbs to wounds on 4 June; Nazis order reprisals; Assassins killed in firefight at St Cyril and Methodius Cathedral; Bishop Gorazd and church priests arrested and executed; Estimated 13,000 arrested and interrogated; estimated 5,000 executed; Lidice and Ležáky destroyed; citizens executed or imprisoned;

Reinhard Heydrich, the commander of the German Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the acting governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a principal architect of the Holocaust,^[1] was assassinated during the Second World War in a coordinated operation by the Czechoslovak resistance. The assassination attempt, code-named Operation Anthropoid, was carried out by resistance operatives Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš on 27 May 1942.^[2] Heydrich was wounded in the attack^[3] and died of his injuries on 4 June.^[2]

The operatives who carried out the assassination were soldiers of the Czechoslovak Army who were prepared and trained by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) with the approval of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, led by Edvard Beneš. The Czechoslovaks undertook the operation to help confer legitimacy on the government-in-exile, and to exact retribution for Heydrich's brutal rule.^[4] The operation was the only verified government-sponsored assassination of a senior Nazi leader during the war. Heydrich's death led to a wave of reprisals by SS troops, including the destruction of villages and mass killings of civilians, notably the Lidice massacre.

Multiple memorials have been created in different nations such as in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and in the United Kingdom as a result of both the assassination and its aftermath. The events have been the subject of various films (usually in the general context of World War II in popular culture and specifically portrayals of Heydrich).

^ Browning i, Christopher (2007). The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – ]March 1942. University of Nebraska Press. In a brief two years between the autumn of 1939 and the autumn of 1941, Nazi Jewish policy escalated rapidly from the pre-war policy of forced emigration to the Final Solution as it is now understood—the systematic attempt to murder every last Jew within the German grasp.
^ ^a ^b "Heydrich Is Dead; Czech Toll At 178," pg 1, The New York Times, 5 June 1942.
^ McNab 2009, pp. 41, 158–161.
^ Burian 2002, p. 31.

[1] Browning i, Christopher (2007). The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – ]March 1942. University of Nebraska Press. In a brief two years between the autumn of 1939 and the autumn of 1941, Nazi Jewish policy escalated rapidly from the pre-war policy of forced emigration to the Final Solution as it is now understood—the systematic attempt to murder every last Jew within the German grasp.

[Dead_pg_1-2] "Heydrich Is Dead; Czech Toll At 178," pg 1, The New York Times, 5 June 1942.

[FOOTNOTEMcNab200941,_158–161-3] McNab 2009, pp. 41, 158–161.

[FOOTNOTEBurian200231-4] Burian 2002, p. 31.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]