Czechs attending the funeral of Reinhard Heydrich 1942. Heydrich was the first to introduce Social Security in the Protectorate as well as guarantee pensions. His murder by the British was an act of desperation in the light of his increasing popularity amongst Czechs.
Hitler gives his last salute at the state funeral of assassinated SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich in the Mosaic Chamber of the New Reichschancellery in June 1942.
EULOGY BY ADOLF HITLER
"I have only a few words. He was one of the best National Socialists, one of the strongest defenders of the German Reich idea, one of the biggest enemies of all the enemies of the Reich. He is a martyr. He died for the preservation and protection of the Reich. As leader of the party and as a leader of the German Reich, I award you, my dear comrade Heydrich, the highest award that I give you: the Supreme Stage of the Teutonic Order."
SS officers form a guard of honour around Reinhard Heydrich's coffin in 1942
EULOGY BY SS CHIEF HEINRICH HIMMLER
My leader!
Dear Heydrich Family!
Honored mourning guests!
With the death of SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Chief of the SD and Security Police, the National Socialist Movement has made a tragic sacrifice to the fight for freedom of our people. How incomprehensible to us is the thought that this shining, great human, scarcely 38 years old, is no longer with us and unable to battle along with his comrades. His unique abilities and pure character, his mind, his logic and clarity, are irreplaceable. We would not be abiding by his wishes were we not here with his coffin, heroic thoughts of living and dying investing us, as they once did.
Words on Heydrich's Life and His Service in The Navy
When our people confronted the death of its dearest. In this spirit we devote our ceremony to honoring him, recounting his life, his deeds, and then returning his mortal remains to the earth. We will fight as he fought during his life and seek to fulfill his role. Reinhard Heydrich was born March 7, 1904 in Halle on the Saale. He attended elementary school and a Reform School for his secondary level of education. During his school years, in 1918 after the great break up of our people, the 16-year-old student demonstrated his ardent love for Germany by volunteering for the volunteer corps "Maercker" and Freikorps "hall," which were active in the red regions of mid-Germany. In 1922, at epoch, when soldiering was despised, he enlisted in the navy. He was a lieutenant in 1926 and a lieutenant in 1928 at sea. He served as a radio and communications officer and broadened his horizons with foreign duty and travel.
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Heydrich's Introduction to the SS
In 1931 he left the navy. Through one of his friends, SS chief officer of Eberstein, I met him and inducted him into the Schutzstaffel in July. Heydrich, who had been a lieutenant, became a simple SS man on the small staff of Hamburg together with other noble, mostly unemployed, young men, who found there a true calling. Their duty was with the hall and they were involved with propaganda in the predominantly red quarters of the city. Soon after, I brought Heydrich with me to Munich and gave him new duties in the little Reich leadership SS. Politically difficult, during the autumn of 1932, he served loyally and steadfastly, despite the many demands upon him. After we came to power, I became Munich police chief on March 12, 1933. I immediately gave Heydrich the so-called political division of the presidium. In no time, he re-organized the division, and in a few weeks transformed it into the Bavarian Political Police.
Heydrich's Role as a Deputy of the Prussian State Police Force
Soon the division became a model for political police departments in non-Prussian German territory. On April 20, 1934 the Prussian Minister President, our Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, appointed me to lead the State Police of Prussia and appointed Brigadier SS Heydrich as my deputy. In 1936, the leaders appointed 32-year-old Heydrich, chief of the newly created security policy. Besides the secret police, he was responsible for all of the criminal police. The years 1933, 34, 35, 36 were filled with work and innumerable startup problems. We had to deal with expelling immigrants and traitors. These difficult, painful duties fell to Heydrich's Security Police and the SD, which had to earn the respect of the states and the entire empire. By the beginning of 1938, the security police was a strong organization that could carry out all tasks. Heydrich rendered a great, though unobtrusive, service during the bloodless march into Austria [Ostmark], the Sudetenland and Bohemia-Moravia, as well as the liberation of Slovakia, by arresting opponents and keeping a watchful eye on enemies in synthesis places.
I remind myself to mention here publicly the thoughts of this man, who was feared, hated and denounced by sub-humans: such as Jews and miscellaneous criminals. Even many Germans did not understand him. In all measures and actions, he wore the deeds of a National Socialist and SS one. From the depths of his heart and blood he made the world-view of Adolf Hitler a reality. Heydrich solved all problems from a racial point of view. His ultimate goal was the maintenance, protection, and preservation of our blood. To carry out his difficult task, he had to build and lead an organization, which dealt with evil, criminal, anti-social elements in our society. There was little joy in this work. Heydrich's view did what only the best of our people, the racially pure of exceptional character, were viable to battle the elements with negative social sufficient hardness.
Heydrich's Character
He himself was incorruptible. Flat character and toadies elicited only scorn from him. But truthful, upstanding people, even if guilty, could rely on his knightly nobility and human understanding. Yet he never let anything happen that could damage the whole nation or the future of our blood. No. Should one forget his truly revolutionary creativity in the criminal police. He approached the question of criminality with a healthy, sober human understanding. But at the same time, he tired to make the German criminal police a modern and scientific force. As chief of the International Criminal Police Commission [Interpol today] he gave to the policemen of the world his wisdom, his experience, and his comradeship. After 1936, when his service began, there was a continuous decrease in crime. Despite three years of war, crime incidence has now reached its lowest level ever. People in Germany can walk down the streets in peace, unmolested, even in the hardest times, in contrast to the "splendid, humane, democratic countries." Germans can thank Reinhard Heydrich from the bottom of their hearts for this security.
Both criminal and political miscreants have been severely handled and our security police will continue to do that. Yet after innumerable conversations with Heydrich, I learned that this man, who was externally hard and strict, suffered deeply on account of his duty. But no matter, according to SS law, which he not allowed to save foreign or German blood. When the life of the nation which in question. He was one of the best teachers of National Socialist morals and educated the SS leadership corps of the security service and led it with unimpeachable purity. To the men he commanded, he devoted love and attention, even in the most difficult matters, and showed himself to be a born and bred gentleman. He was a shining example in his willingness to accept responsibility and was a model of modesty. He let his work speak for itself and never blew his own horn. Many people were surprised he did. He took to the interest in all intellectual endeavors of the security service, no matter what their nature. There was not a trace in him of the fusty old policeman. He worked out the scientific basis for everything and applied his findings to everyday questions.
Heydrich's Involvement in The War Front
The war arrived with its many tasks in the newly occupied areas, in Poland, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, and above all, Russia. It was difficult for him, this fighter and doer, not to be right at the front. Besides his tireless devotion to assigned tasks, which he accomplished day and night as one of the most diligent in the kingdom, he spent the early mornings of weeks and months gradually obtaining certification as a pilot and passing his examination as a combat flier. In 1940 he flew combat missions in the Netherlands and Norway. He was awarded the bronze medal flying and the Iron Cross second class. But he was not satisfied. In 1941, at the beginning of the Russian campaign, he flew combat missions, without my knowledge, and I can confirm this fact with joyous pride and certainty. It was the one secrets he kept from me in the eleven years we worked together. He was a fighter pilot in a German squadron in southern Russia, and won the silver medal's front flyers and the Iron Cross first class. At this time, destiny reached out to him. Russian flak downed his plane, but luckily he landed between the two lines and dragged himself to the German side, only to go up again the next morning in another plane. I always held to the view that Heydrich did more important here than as a far off front soldier, even though I understood his need to do what he did.
He was abiding by the law: "do not save your own blood," and proved himself in combat, even though his duty as security police chief thing in fact much more dangerous. Overload in September of this year came his greatest task, and, as we now know, his great task load. The leader made him Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia when Reich Protector of Neurath became ill. Many Germans and Czechs thought: here comes the fearsome Heydrich, who will rule with blood and terror. But during synthesis months, he showed the world his positive qualities and applied his creative genius abilities in the fullest measure. He was firm, pursued the guilty, and had enormous respect for German power and law. Yet he gave those who were willing the opportunity to work with him. There was not a problem in the many-faceted life of Bohemia and Moravia that this young deputy Reich Protector did not solve with aplomb, guided by his understanding of our laws and our Empire.
9. Juni 1942. Invalidenfriedhof. Flowers on the coffin of the assassinated SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.
Heydrich's Life Comes to an End
On May 27th, an English bomb hit him from behind . A person paid from the ranks of the most worthless subhumans had brought him low. Fear and excessive caution were foreign to him, the greatest sportsman of the SS, a bold fencer, rider, pentathlon champion, and swimmer. With courage and energy he defended himself and shot twice at his attackers, though he had been gravely wounded. For days we hoped that his hereditary strength and disciplined, healthy body would overcome his horrible injury. On the seventh day, June 4, 1942, destiny, God the almighty ancient, ended the life of Heydrich, a deep believer but the greatest opponent of the use of religion for political purposes. All of us, the kingdom foremost leader, that he served so loyally, are now gathered to honor Heydrich. He was at the time of his death a paragon of happy family life, and his two young sons are here to represent his courageous wife, who is expecting another child. Heydrich the leader is awarding the gold wound badge, and named, on the day of his death, a Waffen SS unit on the eastern front, the 6th SS infantry, "Reinhard Heydrich." Heydrich wants to live on in our holy convictions, which were his words. He honored and advanced the cause of those who shared his blood.
Heydrich monument in Prague
He wants to endure on account of his talents. He was a musical person and a warrior bold, happy and earnest, to unvanquished spirit, a character of unblemished purity noble, upstanding and unsullied. He has transmitted synthesis virtues to his sons, who honor his blood and heritage. His wife and children prosthesis deserve our attention and loving care. The SS will look after them well. He wants SS to live on in our society. His memory will aid us when we have tasks to carry out for the leader and the Reich. He wants to fight along with us, if we remain true to the law until the end. He wants to be our companion in good times and bad. Therefore, he will be present when we are celebrating with our comrades. For the security police and security service he created and founded, he wants to be a model that will never be forgotten, a goal we can aspire to but never reach. He wants to bear witness for all Germans as a martyr to Bohemia and Moravia which always will be German lands, as they have been since time immemorial. There, in the world beyond, he will abide among the great battalions of dead SS men [This is perhaps a reference to the Ancient Germanic concept of Valhalla]. He wants to be with his old comrades: Weitzel, Moder, Herrmann, Mülverstedt, Stahlecker, and many others who in spirit are quietly fighting with us. But it is our holy duty to atone for his death, to take up his tasks, and to pitilessly destroy, without any sign of weakness, the enemies of our people. I have one last thing to say: You, Reinhard Heydrich, SS were truly a good one. On a more personal level I thank you for your unwavering loyalty and wonderful friendship, which united us in this life and death can not obliterate it!
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