The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

The True Story Behind Operation Anthropoid

Author: Callum MacDonald

On 27 May 1942 a Czech agent threw a bomb at a passing Mercedes Reinhard Heydrich was travelling in. The assassination sent a shock wave through the Nazi leadership and provoked ferocious reprisals against Czechs and Jews. This book is based on archive material and interviews with surviving members of SOE and Czech military intelligence.

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Summary

Description

SS-Obergruppenfhrer Reinhard Heydrich rose through the ranks from relative obscurity in the 1920s to the pinnacle of power in the Third Reich by 1936. He was considered the most dangerous man in Nazi Germany after Hitler himself. He was Himmler's deputy, yet even Himmler feared him. He operated in secret, quietly devoting his time to organising the Holocaust. On 27 May 1942 a Czech agent, part of a team of parachutists trained by SOE, threw a bomb at a passing Mercedes Heydrich was travelling in. Eight days later he died in agony from his wounds. The assassination sent a shock wave through the Nazileadership and provoked ferocious reprisals against Czechs and Jews, the most notorious of which was the total obliteration of Lidice and the massacre of its inhabitants. Based on original archive material and interviews with surviving members of SOE and Czech military intelligence, this story of danger and tragedy is as exciting and strange as a spy thriller.

Critic Reviews

“'the most complete account to date . . . an impressive job, by turns subtle in its political analysis and gripping in its narrative drive'”

'Callum MacDonald has discovered much new material . . . and is an expert story-teller'

Daily Telegraph

'A nail-bitingly suspenseful account'

Publishers Weekly

‘Excellent’

-- Robert Kee Observer

About the Author

Before his death in 1996, Callum MacDonald was an historian at the University of Warwick. His publications include The Lost Battle: Crete, 1941, The United States, Britain and Appeasement and Korea: The War Before Vietnam, as well as numerous articles on appeasement and the origins of the Second World War.