Jan Kubis and Jozef Gabcik
Reinhard Heydrich was one of the planners of what the Nazis termed the Final Solution, having chaired the Wannsee conference which led to the Wannsee Protocol. The einsatzgruppen which entered occupied territories in the wake of the German armies were his responsibility, and the murders of Jews, Gypsies, and intelligentsia, committed by these special purpose groups were done on his order. Heydrich was a former naval officer who had been summarily dismissed from the service for conduct unbecoming an officer when he joined the Nazi Party in the early 1930s. He rose through the party ranks quickly. Heydrich was instrumental in the planning of Kristallnacht, and he developed the Gestapo into the feared secret police it became.
In 1941 Heydrich was assigned as Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Within three days of his arrival in Prague, 92 Czech’s were executed. Heydrich was determined to end Czech resistance and enforce production quotas of arms and machinery. Mass executions of Czech’s and deportation of others to concentration camps as forced labor led the Czech government in exile to initiate plans to assassinate Heydrich. Two Czech’s, Jan Kubis and Jozef Gabcik, were trained in England by the Special Operations Executive before being returned to Prague by parachute just outside the city in December 1941. Supported by the Czech resistance, the pair remained hidden in Prague.
In May 1942 Heydrich was summoned to Berlin to meet with Adolf Hitler, likely to provide the Fuhrer with his views regarding the suppression of the French Resistance. It was widely believed that Heydrich was to be transferred to Paris. On May 27 Heydrich was being driven to his office at Prague Castle when Gabcik attempted to open fire using a Sten gun, which jammed. Heydrich returned fire with his pistol. Kubis threw a bomb at the car, which detonated and wounded Heydrich and Kubis. Both assassins then fired pistols at Heydrich, who continued to return fire. The assassins fled, Kubis by bicycle and Gabcik on foot, pursued by Heydrich’s driver. Gabcik shot the driver after he followed him into a butcher shop, and escaped.
Heydrich died of his injuries on June 4, 1942. German reprisals were immediate. More than 13,000 Czechs were arrested and at least 5,000 were killed outright, with many more dying in the concentration camps. The Nazis produced false evidence that the killers were linked to the town of Lidice. Males from Lidice over the age of 16 were executed (199), 195 women were sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp and the remaining children were sent to Chelmno, where more than eighty were executed. The nearby village of Lezaky was also “liquidated”. Both assassins and others who assisted them were killed in gunfights with SS troops, committed suicide, or were captured and executed.
Reinhard Heydrich was the only senior Nazi leader to be assassinated by the resistance during World War II, though there were multiple plots to kill Hitler and others. None were successful. The final gun battle between the conspirators and the Germans took place in the Karel Boromejsky Church. In retaliation the Germans executed the bishop and priests associated with the church as well as its lay leaders. Heydrich was given two lavish funeral processions by the Nazis, one in Prague and a second in Berlin, attended by Adolf Hitler and the rest of the Nazi hierarchy. The project of building the death camps at Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka was named Operation Reinhard, in his memory.