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Miscellaneous
Extracts and drafts developed from other Lina
Heydrich and Jean Vaughan Materials Himmler's Partei Nr was 14,303, and his SS Nr
was 168. In about 1929/30, Heydrich had been requested to
leave the navy because of his association with
women, debts, and other complaints by
society.1 1943: Stroop and Höss of
course both came directly under Himmler's
orders, and did not respond to Hans Frank;
Frank was more concerned about this usurpation of
his authority as Generalgouverneur, than the
atrocities (Warsaw, Auschwitz) themselves, felt
G M Gilbert.2 Bach-Zelewski: Leon Goldensohn had
lengthy conversations with the 'truthful
opportunist' Bach-Zelewski, and probably still has
his notes. [see his
recent book?]3 Gilbert found Kaltenbrunner to be fawning
and ingratiating when the tables were turned, and
Kaltenbrunner was the prisoner; for a bar of
chocolate, the SS general willingly wrote down all
he knew in an essay on Himmler and the SS. In lay
terms, he saw Kaltenbrunner as being an 'emotional
cripple' rather than even mildly insane.4 Holocaust: The former Abwehr officer
Hans-Bernd Gisevius, whose anti-Hitler
credentials are above reproach, argued from his
knowledge of his late friend Arthur Nebe and
others involved, that Heydrich himself was the
'inventor' of that program. 'Always he felt bitter
that Hitler's and Göring's or some other's
reluctance prevented him to proceed as fast as he
had in mind.'5 Heydrich described: Louis P Lochner, the
Associated Press journalist, recalled years later
that his voice struck him as the most coldly
impersonal one that he had ever heard. 'He could
speak of torture and extortion of confessions in a
most matter of fact way, and his face remained
immobile and unemotional.' But this is what history
would expect a journalist to write of Heydrich, the
policeman's policeman. He had the iron nerve never
to bat an eyelid when the duelling blade flashed
across his face. 'When I was in his presence,'
continued Lochner, 'I always had the feeling that
he was analyzing or dissecting each one of us and
trying to find a vulnerable point where he might
come up with an excuse for an arrest.' And more of
the same.6 Lina hero-worshipped her husband and was bitter
about the way he would come to be portrayed. She
saw him as the 'grosser Gegenspieler des
Kremls' - the great antagonist of the
Kremlin.7 Schellenberg: Lina Heydrich was scathing
about the 'treason' he had committed in 1945,
evidently successfully, since, as she pointed out,
her husband's Amtschef Schellenberg had survived,
while Amtschef Ohlendorf had been
hanged.8 She recommended that Oberg would be a
fine source on Heydrich, once he was free to speak
(he was serving a twenty year sentence in France).
Lina called Schellenberg 'ambitious, unscrupulous,
at the same time charming and intelligent.' After
Reinhard Heydrich's death, she added, he knew how
to make himself indispensable with Himmler. 'He
does not acquire my esteem,' Lina added.9 Ohlendorf: Lina knew Ohlendorf as
Sachbearbeiter, or specialist. 'He knew the
development and history of the SD thoroughly, he
was intelligent and brave, he was a "gentleman" - a
man of honour,' she added, meaning unlike
Schellenberg no doubt.10 Lina stated that Bammler and
Bentivegni, of the Abwehr, were Canaris'
constant companions when he came to the Heydrich
house for conferences.11
She had asked her sister in law -- Heinz Heydrich's
widow (living in Berlin with their five children)
-- to write down her own reminiscences for Jean
Vaughan. Order to kill Jews in Russia. Reinhard
Heydrich evidently kept these things to himself.
Lina Heydrich would write privately in January
1952, 'As to the orders concerning the Jews in
Russia, they were issued from the highest places
[von den höchsten
Stellen], as far as I know, and I
don't know whether they were already issued at the
lifetime of my husband. But the more I think about
it, the more I doubt it. Some time ago, I had some
rather interesting conversations on this matter,
being so far rather ignorant of the beginning and
development of these things.'12 Lina appeared to know nothing, i.e. Heydrich had
told his wife nothing. She offered to ask Karl
Wolff what he knew about the
Judenfrage.13 Origins of Heydrich. [See
too British 1942 document]. Like Himmler,
Heydrich would die young - just thirty-eight when
assassins struck him down. Reinhard Tristan Eugen
Heydrich had been born on March 7, 1904 as the
first-born son of Bruno and Elizabeth
Heydrich in Halle in the Saale. He was baptised
into the Catholic church, and the feast that
followed was by all accounts a lavish one. He was
thus nearly four years younger than Himmler. The family's origin was Silesia, near the
Erzgebirge, mostly woodcutters and craftsmen by
trade. Reinhard's grandfather was a musical
instrument manufacturer from Meissen, in Saxony,
and his father Bruno was the second of seven
children, all talented musicians (pianists and
violinists); After their father's early death,
Bruno's mother had remarried, a stonemason by the
name of Süfa (the origin of several false
legends about Reinhard's ancestors). Bruno himself
had married Elisabeth Krantz at a society
wedding in Dresden's Catholic Königskirche
(Hofkirche?). Elizabeth's father Professor Eugen
Krantz, son of a well known portrait painter,
directed the Dresden Conservatoire, and then in
1899 established a well-regarded conservatoire in
Halle [Konservatorium für Musik und
Theater, at Gütchenstrasse 20: see photo
in the Rasmussen collection], at which children
from the age of seven could learn the piano,
violin, and cello, and classes were held in singing
and elocution. In Halle Bruno dedicated himself to
composing religious operas. Here in Halle their first son Reinhard would be
born. Upon the death of her parents, the Krantz's,
his wife Elisabeth had inherited their considerable
wealth, and it was against this background of art
and religious music that the young Reinhard had
been brought up.14 At sixteen, Heydrich had joined the Freikorps
movement as a messenger [Melder], no
sinecure in the extremely Red heart of Central
Germany. In 1922 he had joined the navy as an
Offiziersanwärter, being promoted to
Lieutenant in 1926 and Oberleutn zur See two years
later, specialising in Funk- und Nachrichtenwesen.
He had left the navy under a cloud, as it seems.
Himmler's attention was drawn to him by a mutual
friend, the then SS Obergruppenführer von
Eberstein, and in July 1936 Himmler recruited
Heydrich for the SS. As a simple SS man the former
navy lieutenant joined the little Hamburg Staffel,
with a number of mostly unemployed young men,
fighting the Saalkämpfe, and carrying the Nazi
propaganda battles into the Red districts of the
city.15 Shortly after that Himmler fetched Heydrich down
to Munich into the noch recht kleine
Reichsführung SS, 'Mit der ihm angeborenen
Treue und Zähigkeit stand er in den politisch
so schweren Monaten des Herbstes 1932, die manche
Forderungen stellten, seinen Mann.' [Not
explained what those difficulties
were.]16 Himmler was appointed Polizeipräsident in
Munich on March 12, 1933. He at once turned over to
Heydrich the sog. Politische Abteilung des
Präsidiums. Heydrich remodeled it into the
Bayerische Politische Polizei, and it became the
model for similar units in all other non-Prussian
Länder. Heydrich's rise was meteoric after
that. On April 20, 1934, Göring turned
over to Himmler and his deputy Heydrich (now an SS
Brigadeführer), die Leitung der Geheimen
Staatspolizei Preussens. In 1936 Heydrich then became chief of the
Sicherheitspolizei throughout the Reich, and
simultaneously head of the gesamte Kriminalpolizei.
He was aged just 32.17
(Six years later he would be already dead). Himmler later praised Heydrich for his part in
preparing the bloodless operations against Austria,
the Sudeten territories, Bohemia-Moravia, and the
liberation of the Slovakia, 'durch seine
sorgfältige Feststellung und gewissenhafte
Erfassung aller Gegner und einen meist bis ins
kleinste gehenden klaren Überblick über
die Tätigkeit der Feinde in diesen
Ländern, ihre Organisationsstellen und ihre
Anführer.'18 As though speaking of himself rather than
Heydrich, Himmler continued: As Himmler said to his brother, that was the
policeman's lot. Heydrich had been incorruptible, but also humane
towards the weaknesses of others; he had no time
for Schmeichler und Angeber. He gave the
Kriminalpolizei die modernste technische und
wissenschaftliche Ausrüstung, and als Leiter
der Internationalen Kriminalpolizeilichen
Kommission (Interpol) 'gab er allen Polizeien der
Welt von seinem Wissen und seinen Erfahrungen
kameradschaftlch wertvolle Beiträge.'
Criminality had sunk in Germany, now in its third
war-year, to the lowest level ever. 'Mögen
alle Menschen in Deutschland die auch in der Zeit
der Verdunkelung im Gegensatz zu den "herrlichen,
humanen" demokratischen Ländern ruhig,
unbelästigt und unberaubt über die
Strasse gehen können, in ihrem Herzen Reinhard
Heydrich dankbar sein.' And once again, speaking as though of himself,
Himmler praised Heydrich: On top of all else, determined 'Das eigene Blut
nicht zu schonen,' Heydrich had learned to fly in
his spare time, gained his wings, joined the
Luftwaffe als Jagdflieger and taken part in
operations against Holland and Norway, earning the
EK II. As BARBAROSSA began,
flog Heydrich dann again als Jagdflieger bei einer
deutschen Staffel in Südrußland, winning
the EKI, 'ohne mein Wissen und dieses, das kann ich
mit stolzer Freude bekennen und feststellen, war
die einzelne Heimlichkeit, in den elf Jahres uns
gemeinsamen Weges, die er vor mir hatte.' He was
shot down by Russian flak gunners, landed between
the lines, and got back safely.20 In September 1941 Hitler then appointed him
Stellv Reichsprotektor of Böhmen-Mähren.
In Prague he acted with an iron first, rounding up
the anti-Reich elements, while winning over the
rest to co-operate with him in restoring Czech's
productive association with the Reich. On May 27, 1942 a British-made assassin's bomb
struck him down; badly injured, he had drawn his
gun and fired back twice at the assassins. This
super fit, almost superhuman Heydrich, dueller,
champion fencer, runner, rider, swimmer, hovered
between life and death for seven days before, as
Himmler rather
oddly put it, 'das Schicksal, der Herrgott, der
Uralte, an den er, der große Gegner des
Mißbrauches jeder Religion zu politischen
Zwecken, in selbstverständlicher Unbeirrtheit
und Unterordnung zutiefst glaubte,' put an end to
sein körperliches Leben.21 Dr G M Gilbert quoted Erwin
Lahousen, who suggested that Heydrich felt a
social outcast after his separation from the Navy,
and was inordinately grateful for the company of
Vice Admiral Canaris to the extent that he later
closed his eyes to any suspicions of the admiral's
loyalty.22 Himmler saw nothing [[wrong]] in
the close association between the families of
Heydrich and Canaris. Lina Heydrich
liked Canaris, and would wring her hands many times
after the war about the unjustness of the spy
chief's execution as a traitor in April 1945 (she
seemed unaware of the depth of his traitorous
activities). She found the friendship between Heydrich and
Canaris amusing, more than anything else. Both were
musicians, and their wives relished their harmless
little musical soirées in Berlin. 'He was a
rather sly and businessmanlike person,' she wrote
of Canaris; 'but without greatness, without a
straight line in his work, and unable to organise
and build up an actually powerful SD [security
service]. My husband used to say, "He's always
his own spy" [meaning he did everything
himself]. But they got along quite
well.' They both had been officers in the Navy, and
navies have always inspired a cliquishness, a
camaraderie, a chauvinism among their officers, 'My
husband never anticipated high-treason of him, but
he often called him a schräger Vogel, a
crooked old bird, which means that my husband knew
that ... [next page
missing?]'23 At the Halle conservatoire, Heydrich's father
Bruno Heydrich had composed an opera, Das
Leierkind, The Handorgan Child, which ended
with the words: The whole world is nothing but a
handorgan / which God himself is grinding / and
everyone has but to dance to the tune / which is
just whining' According to Lina, these were the
last words spoken now by Reinhard to Himmler, as he
said farewell in Prague, 'when his time had come
and God called him.' Heydrich revelled in the legends that surrounded
the SD and its fellow organisations. Zum Tag der
Deutschen Polizei in 1941, he would proclaim,
"Geheime Staatspolizei, Kriminalpolizei und
Sicherheitsdienst sind noch umworben vom raunenden
und flüsternden Geheimnis des politischen
Kriminalromans. In einer Mischung von Furcht und
Gruseln und doch im Inland mit einem gewissen
Gefühl der Sicherheit ob ihres Vorhandenseins
sagt den Männern diese Arbeit im Ausland gern
Brutalität ans Sadistische grenzende
Unmenschlichkeit und Herzlosigkeit nach. Im Inland
achtet und unterstützt man verstehend unsere
Aufgabe,. Hier gibt uns nichts, bis zum kleinsten
egoistischen Wunsch, was man nicht glaubt durch die
Geheime Staatspolizei lösen zu können. So
sind wir, scherzhaft gesagt, variabel zum
'Mädchen für alles,' bis zum
'Mülleimer des Reiches.'" The strains of war had added to the tasks of
these professional, educated, politically
unimpeachable men - some in the Geheime
Feldpolizei, many more als besondere
sicherheitspolizeiliche Einsatzkommandos mit
dem Ziel der politischen Sicherung der besetzten
Gebiete, face to face with a feindliche
Bevölkerung. While ordinary soldiers were soon
recognised with medals and honours and fame, the
politische Soldat der "heimlichen Front"
mußte dagegen schweigen, 'unerhört
geduldig, oft nur andere politischen Faktoren
dienend, schaffen in der Gewißheit, daß
seine Tat sehr spät, oft nie öffentlich
gewürdigt werden darf." He did not explain
what such deeds were. Data from Himmler's
obituary speech, Jun 9, 1942
(printed text): Himmler had appointed Heydrich to the
Spezialgebiet schon 1931. He recognized early on
the importance of striking the enemies of the
Movement in ihren geistigen Würzeln. Bormann
said at the funeral: So wurde Reinhard Heydrich zu
einem der aktivsten Kämpfer für die
Sicherung und Reinerhaltung des
national-sozialistischen Ideengutes. Jeder
Angehörige des SD sollte weltanschaulich und
charakterlich so gefestigt sein, daß er diese
schweren und oft undankbare Aufgabe erfüllen
konnte, ohne menschlich Schaden zu leiden. Dem SD
des RFSS, dem die Beschaffung und Bearbeitung des
nachrichtendienstlichen Materials für die
Partei obliegt... reporting not only on the enemy
but on the errors and faults being made within the
Party and Reich too.24 |
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