Death of Reinhard Heydrich
End of the Third Reich and the Nazi Leaders
What happened to the leading figures of the Third Reich? How and when their stories come to an end? And what kind of an end it was?
Reinhard Heydrich
Chief of RSHA -- Reich Security Main OfficeReich governor of Bohemia and Moravia -- Czech puppet state
Considered Hitler's successor by Hitler
Nicknames: The Butcher of Prague, The Blond Beast, Der Henker (hangman)
Date of death: 1942-06-04, age 38.
Cause of death: Blood Poisoning - A week after being wounded by two members of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile's secret service Special Group D.
Operation Anthropoid was the only successful assassination of a member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle.
Some experts on biological warfare have alleged that the grenade which killed Heydrich contained purified Botulinum toxin. The grenade used to attack Heydrich was not of a standard type used by the allies. A photograph taken by the Nazis of one of the unused grenades left shows a strangely customised Gammon grenade tightly wrapped with adhesive tape and appearing to cover an aluminium water canteen. Furthermore, the symptoms that Heydrich suffered before his eventual death mystified doctors and bore some similarities to those of Botulinum poisoning.
On Jan 20 1942, 15 senior Nazi officials were invited to the Wannsee lakeside villa by Reinhard Heydrich to discuss "the Final Solution of the Jewish question in Europe". Over cigars and cognac, these bureaucrats discussed the elimination of as many as 11 million Jews.
The license plate number of his car was "SS-3".