Operation Anthropoid - Assassination of R.Heydrich, Prague, Czech Republic - World War II Sites on Waymarking.com

Operation Anthropoid was the code name for the assassination of top German leader Reinhard Heydrich. He was the chief of the Reich Main Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or RSHA), the acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, and a chief planner of the Final Solution, the Nazi programme for the genocide of the Jews of Europe.

Heydrich had been the chief of the RSHA since 1939. This was an organisation that included the Secret Police (Gestapo), the Security Agency (Sicherheitsdienst, or SD), the Criminal Police (Kripo) -- and, in 1942, the President of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). Heydrich was a key planner in eliminating Hitler’s opponents, as well as (later) the key planner of the genocide of the Jews. He was involved in most of Hitler’s intrigues and a valued political ally, adviser, and friend of the dictator.

Due to his abilities and power, Heydrich was feared by almost all German generals. In September 1941, Heydrich was appointed acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, replacing Konstantin von Neurath, whom Hitler considered too moderate. During his role as de facto dictator of Bohemia and Moravia, Heydrich often drove with his chauffeur in a car with an open roof. This was a show of confidence in the occupation forces and the effectiveness of their repressive measures against the local population. Due to his cruelty, Heydrich was nicknamed the Butcher of Prague, the Blond Beast, and the Hangman.

Strategic context
Nazi zenith 1941–42

By late 1941, Hitler controlled almost all continental Europe, and German forces were approaching Moscow. The Allies deemed Soviet capitulation likely. The exiled government of Czechoslovakia, under President Edvard Beneš, was under pressure from British intelligence, as there had been very little visible resistance in the Czech lands since the German occupation began by the occupation of the Sudet regions of the country in 1938 (occupation of whole country began in 1939). The takeover of these regions that was enforced by the Munich Agreement and the subsequent terror of the German Reich broke the will of the Czechoslovaks for a period.

The Czech lands were producing significant military materiel for the Third Reich. The exiled government felt it had to do something that would inspire the Czechs, as well as show the world the Czechs were allies.

The status of Reinhard Heydrich as the Protector of Bohemia and Moravia as well as his reputation for terrorizing local citizens led to him being chosen over Karl Hermann Frank as an assassination target. The assassination was also meant to prove to the Nazis that they were not untouchable.

Operation

Planning

The operation was given the codename ANTHROPOID. With the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), preparation began on 20 October 1941. Warrant Officer Josef Gabcík and Staff Sergeant Karel Svoboda were chosen to carry out the assassination on 28 October 1941 (Czechoslovakia's Independence Day). Svoboda was replaced with Jan Kubiš after a head injury during training, causing delays in the mission, as Kubiš had not completed training nor had the necessary false documents been prepared for him.

Insertion

Jozef Gabcík and Jan Kubiš of ANTHROPOID were airlifted along with seven soldiers from Czechoslovakia’s army-in-exile in the United Kingdom and two other groups named Silver A and Silver B (who had different missions) by a Royal Air Force Halifax of No. 138 Squadron into Czechoslovakia at 2200 hours on December 28, 1941. Gabcík and Kubiš landed near Nehvizdy east of Prague; although the plan was to land near Pilsen, the pilots had problems with orientation. The soldiers then moved to Pilsen to contact their allies, and from there on to Prague, where the attack was planned.

In Prague, they contacted several families and anti-Nazi organisations who helped them during the preparations for the assassination. Gabcík and Kubiš initially planned to assassinate Heydrich on a train, but after exploration they realised that this was not possible. The second plan was to assassinate him on the road in the forest on the way from Heydrich’s seat to Prague. They planned to pull a cable across the road that would stop Heydrich’s car but, after waiting several hours, their commander, Lt. Adolf Opálka, (from the group Out Distance), came to bring them back to Prague. The third plan was to assassinate Heydrich in Prague.

Assassination
The car in which Heydrich was mortally wounded showing the upholstery fibers credited for causing his death by septicemia.
The restored car in which Heydrich was mortally wounded (currently in the Military History Museum in Prague)

On May 27, 1942 at 10:30 AM, Heydrich proceeded on his daily commuting journey from his home in Panenské Brežany to Prague Castle. Gabcík and Kubiš waited at the tram stop in the curve near Bulovka hospital. Valcik was positioned about 100 metres north of Gabcík and Kubiš as lookout for the approaching car. As Heydrich’s open-topped Mercedes-Benz neared the pair, Gabcík stepped in front of the vehicle, trying to open fire, but his Sten gun jammed. Heydrich ordered his driver, SS-Oberscharführer Klein, to stop the car. When Heydrich stood up to try to shoot Gabcík, Kubiš threw a modified anti-tank grenade at the vehicle, and its fragments ripped through the car’s right fender, embedding shrapnel and fibres from the upholstery in Heydrich’s body, even though the grenade failed to enter the car. Kubiš was also injured by the shrapnel. Heydrich, apparently unaware of his shrapnel injuries, got out of the car, returned fire, and tried to chase Gabcík but soon collapsed. Klein returned from his abortive attempt to chase Kubiš, and Heydrich ordered him to chase Gabcík. Klein was shot twice by Gabcík (who was now using his revolver) and wounded in the pursuit. The assassins were initially convinced that the attack had failed. Heydrich died 8 days later from septicemia (blood poisoning) caused by shrapnel from either the bomb or the car which embedded, along with horsehair and hair from the car upholstery, in his spleen after breaking his eleventh rib and puncturing his stomach lining.

Conspiracy theories

Heinrich Himmler, Heydrich’s direct superior, took it upon himself to see to the welfare of his subordinate. No Czech or Wehrmacht doctors were allowed to operate on Heydrich — rather, Himmler sent his personal physicians to conduct the surgery themselves. On June 4, Heydrich succumbed to what Himmler’s physicians described as septicemia. Their theory was that some of the horsehair used in the upholstery of Heydrich’s car was forced into his body by the blast of the grenade, causing a systemic infection that their medicine could not fight. In light of the rumours that Heydrich was the one man of whom Himmler was both jealous and truly afraid, the validity of this diagnosis, and the intentions of Himmler’s doctors, have been open to much speculation.[who?] According to "A Higher Form of Killing" by Harris and Paxman, Reinhard Heydrich died from botulism. This was attributed to BTX botulinum toxin that was placed in the Type 73 Hand Anti-Armor grenades used in the attack. The story originated with comments made by Paul Fildes, a Porton Down botulism researcher. No hard evidence to support this allegation has come to light. However, the records of MI6 and Porton Down for the period have remained sealed.

Consequences

Reprisals

Hitler ordered the SS and Gestapo to “wade in blood” throughout Bohemia to find Heydrich’s killers. Hitler wanted to start with brutal, widespread killing of the Czech people but, after consultations, he reduced his response to only some thousands. The Czech lands were an important industrial zone for the German military and indiscriminate killing could reduce the productivity of the region.

More than 13,000 people were ultimately arrested, including the girlfriend of Jan Kubiš, Anna Malinová, who died in the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Lidice
Main article: Lidice

The most notorious incident was in the village of Lidice, which was destroyed on June 9, 1942: 199 male residents were executed, 95 children taken, 8 of which were taken for adoption by German families, and 195 women arrested.

The possibility that the Germans would apply the principle of "collective responsibility" on this scale in avenging Heydrich's assassination was either not foreseen by the Czech government-in-exile or else was deemed an acceptable cost to pay for eliminating Heydrich and provoking reprisals that would reduce Czech acquiescence to the German administration.

Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill, infuriated, suggested leveling three German villages for every Czech village the Nazis destroyed. The Allies instead stopped planning operations to assassinate top Nazis for fear of reprisals. Two years after Heydrich was killed, however, they planned one more attempt, this time targeting Hitler in Operation Foxley, but failed to obtain approval. Operation Anthropoid remains the only assassination of a top-ranking Nazi, although the Polish underground successfully assassinted two senior SS officers in the Generalgouvernment (occupied Poland).

Attempted capture of the assassins
Bullet-scarred window of the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague where the attackers were cornered.

The attackers initially hid with two Prague families and later took refuge in Karel Boromejsky Church, an Orthodox church dedicated to Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague. The Gestapo could not find the assassins until Karel Curda (of the group Out Distance, whose objective was sabotage), was arrested and told the Gestapo the names of the team’s local contact persons for the bounty of 1 million Reichsmarks.

Curda betrayed several safe houses provided by the Jindra group, including that of the Moravec family in Žižkov. At 5 a.m. on June 17, the Moravec apartment was raided. The family was made to stand in the corridor while the Gestapo searched their apartment. Mrs. Moravec was allowed to go to the toilet, and killed herself with a cyanide capsule. Mr. Moravec, oblivious to his family's involvement with the resistance, was taken to the Pecek Palác together with his son Ata. Ata was tortured throughout the day. Finally, he was stupefied with brandy and shown his mother's severed head in a fish tank. Ata Moravec told the Gestapo all he knew. SS troops laid siege to the church but, despite the best efforts of over 700 Nazi soldiers, they were unable to take the paratroopers alive; 3, including Heydrich’s assassin Kubiš, were killed in the prayer loft (Kubiš was said to have survived the battle, but died shortly afterward from his injuries) after a 2-hour gun battle. The other four, including Gabcík, committed suicide in the crypt after fending off SS attacks, attempts to smoke them out, and fire trucks being brought in to try to flood the crypt. The Germans (SS and Police) also had casualites; SS casualties being 14 killed and 21 wounded.

Bishop Gorazd, in an attempt to minimize the reprisals among his flock, took the blame for the actions in the Church on himself, even writing letters to the Nazi authorities. On June 27, 1942, he was arrested and tortured. On September 4, 1942, he, the Church priests, and senior lay leaders were executed by firing squad. (For his actions, Bishop Gorazd was later glorified as a martyr by the Eastern Orthodox Church.)

Political consequence and aftermath

The success of the operation made Great Britain and France renounce the Munich Agreement. They agreed that after the Nazis were defeated the Sudetenland would be restored to Czechoslovakia. It also led to sympathy for the idea of expelling the German population of Czechoslovakia.

As Heydrich was one of the most important Nazi leaders 2 large funeral ceremonies were conducted. One was in Prague, where the way to Prague Castle was lined by thousands of SS-men with torches. The second was in Berlin attended by all leading Nazi figures, including Hitler who placed the German Order and Blood Order Medals on the funeral pillow.

Karel Curda, after attempting suicide, was hanged in 1947 for high treason.

(wikipedia)

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