Reinhard Heydrich’s car (a Mercedes-Benz 320 Convertible B) after the 1942 SOE Operation Anthropoid assassination attempt in Prague. Heydrich later died from his injuries. Photo: German Federal Archive.
Operation Anthropoid was the codename a daring and risky mission to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, one of the highest-ranking and most brutal Nazi officials during the Second World War. Heydrich was born on 7 March 1904 in Halle, Germany, to a musical and Catholic family. His father, Bruno Richard Heydrich, was a musician, opera singer and composer who directed a musical conservatory and sang Wagnerian roles in the opera. His mother, Elisabeth Anna Maria Amalia Heydrich (née Krantz), was a stern disciplinarian who raised him as a devout Catholic. The family was falsely suspected of partial Jewish ancestry by some of their neighbors.
Evil Incarnate
Heydrich joined the German Reichsmarine (navy) in 1922 but was dismissed in 1931 for misconduct. He then joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) and became the chief of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). The SD was, the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party. The SD was responsible for gathering and analyzing information on enemies and potential threats to the Nazi regime, both inside and outside Germany. It also worked closely with other security agencies such as the Gestapo, the secret state police of Nazi Germany, which persecuted Germans, opponents of the regime, and Jews. The Gestapo had the power to arrest, interrogate, torture, and execute anyone suspected of disloyalty or resistance. It also played a central role in carrying out the Final Solution, the mass murder of Jews in German-occupied Europe. Heydrich also became head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), which coordinated all security and police matters in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe, and included the Gestapo, Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), and SD.
Heydrich helped organize Kristallnacht, which was a series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938. He was also an architect of the Holocaust and was responsible for planning of the Final Solution at the Wannsee Conference.
On 27 September 1941, Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (the part of Czechoslovakia incorporated into the Reich on 15 March 1939). He later became Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. He became known as “the Butcher of Prague” for his ruthless suppression of the Czech resistance and his role in the deportation of Jews to the death camps.
Operation Anthropoid
Operation Anthropoid involved parachuting two trained agents into Prague and ambushing Heydrich’s car. It was planned and executed by Czechoslovak soldiers who had been trained by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret organization that was formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe and Asia against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. It was created by Hugh Dalton, the Minister of Economic Warfare, by merging three existing secret departments: Department EH, Section D, and MI R. Although the SOE faced opposition from other British agencies, such as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and Bomber Command, who feared that its activities would interfere with their own operations or provoke retaliation from the enemy, the SOE had an influential supporter in Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who famously ordered them to “set Europe ablaze”. The SOE agents were mainly tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, but they also carried out special missions such as assassinations.
The main agents of the operation were Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, two Czechoslovak soldiers who had escaped to Britain and were trained by the SOE in Scotland. They were accompanied on the mission by seven other soldiers from the Czechoslovak army-in-exile, who had different tasks to perform. The whole team was airlifted by a Royal Air Force (RAF) Halifax of No. 138 Squadron and parachuted into Czechoslovakia at 2200 (10 pm) on 28 December 1941.There they received support from the local resistance and hid in safe houses until they found an opportunity to strike.
RAF Halifax of No. 138 Squadron was a special duties squadron of the RAF that operated during World War II. It was formed in 1941 from No. 1419 Flight and was based at RAF Tempsford. It dropped agents, weapons, equipment and money to support resistance movements in occupied Europe.
On 27 May 1942, after five months of hiding and planning, Gabčík and Kubiš ambushed Heydrich’s car on a sharp curve in Prague. Gabčík fired his Sten submachinegun, but it jammed. Kubiš then threw a modified anti-tank grenade that exploded near the car, injuring both Heydrich and him. The agents managed to escape and hide in nearby Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral, along with other members of their team.
Heydrich died of his wounds on 4 June 1942. The cause of his death was sepsis, a severe infection that spread throughout his body due to fragments of horsehair and upholstery from his car that contaminated his injuries. Heydrich received intensive medical attention from Nazi doctors, including Himmler’s personal physician. Some suspect that Himmler saw Heydrich as a threat to his own power and wanted him out of the way. Heydrich succumbed to his condition after eight days of agony. The funeral of Heydrich in Berlin was attended by Hitler and other top Nazi officials, who vowed to avenge his death.
The Betrayal
Gabčík and Kubiš, along with other agents, were eventually betrayed by a fellow paratrooper named Karel Čurda. Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral where they were hiding was surrounded by hundreds of SS troops on 18 June 1942 .Gabčík and Kubiš, along with two agents who had helped in the mission, escaped to the crypt of the cathedral. There they faced a brutal siege by the SS, who tried to flush them out. They resisted until they ran out of ammunition and then chose to take their own lives rather than surrender.
Čurda was a member of a resistance group codenamed Out Distance, which had lost most of its equipment and personnel after landing at their drop zone. It was the seventh group sent by the Czechoslovak government in exile in London, through the Special Group D of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). It was the seventh group sent by the Czechoslovak government in exile in London, through the Special Group D of the MoD. The codename was chosen to reflect the group’s goal of outdistancing the Nazis in their sabotage and intelligence activities.
Out Distance played an important role in Operation Anthropoid, as two of its members joined Gabčík and Kubiš in their mission to kill Heydrich. Čurda provided them with weapons, explosives and radio equipment that he had salvaged from Out Distance’s drop zone. He also helped them find safe houses and contacts within the resistance network.
After the death of Heydrich, Čurda changed sides and betrayed members of the resistance to Gestapo, leading to their discovery and death. He was under pressure from his family and feared the Nazi reprisals. He decided to turn himself in to the Gestapo and reveal the names and locations of the resistance members who helped the assassins. He also identified the church where Gabčík and Kubiš were hiding. For his treachery, he received a large sum of money and a new identity. He married a German woman and had a son with her.
Nazi Reprisals
The assassination had a huge impact on the course of the war and the fate of Czechoslovakia. It was the only successful killing of a top Nazi leader by the resistance. It also provoked a brutal retaliation by the Nazis, who killed thousands of Czech civilians, destroyed the villages of Lidice and Ležáky, and intensified their persecution of Jews, all under the the direct orders of Hitler.
Lidice was falsely accused of harboring local resistance partisans and aiding Operation Anthropoid team members. On 10 June 1942, all male inhabitants of Lidice over 15 were shot, while women and children were deported to concentration camps. The village was burned down and razed to the ground.
On 24 June 1942, all adults (both men and women) in Ležáky were shot on the spot, while children were either selected for Germanization or sent to their deaths at Chelmno extermination camp. Ležáky was also demolished completely by the Nazis.
Chelmno extermination camp, also known as Kulmhof, was the first Nazi death camp established in German-occupied Poland. It operated from December 1941 to January 1945. The estimated number of people killed at Chelmno ranges from 152,000 to 340,000, most of whom were Jews from the Łódź ghetto and other ghettos in western Poland. The camp was dismantled by the Nazis in 1943 and 1945 in an attempt to erase the evidence of their crimes. Only a few prisoners managed to escape or survive the camp. The camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on 20 January 1945.
Post War
After the war, Čurda was tracked down and arrested by the Czech authorities. He was tried for high treason for betraying his comrades and collaborating with the Gestapo. He reportedly said in court that he thought anyone would have done the same for one million marks, which was his reward for his betrayal. He was found guilty and hanged on 29 April l947 at Pankrác Prison in Prague.
The assassination of Heydrich is considered one of the most significant acts of resistance in World War II, as it disrupted the Nazi hierarchy, boosted the morale of the Allies, and inspired more resistance movements across Europe. It was seen as a heroic act of defiance and resistance by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile and many people in Europe.
Gabčík and Kubiš are remembered as national heroes in Czechoslovakia and beyond. They were posthumously awarded several medals for their courage and sacrifice, including the Czechoslovak War Cross and the French Croix de Guerre. Their remains were buried in a mass grave at the Ďáblice cemetery in Prague, along with other victims of Nazi terror. Their story has inspired several books, films, and monuments that honor their legacy.
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