113
The SD reports are piling up on Hitler’s desk, denouncing the scandalous leniency of the Protectorate’s government. Acts of sabotage; a still-active Resistance; seditious conversations overheard in public; an expanding black market; an 18 percent fall in production; the Czech prime minister’s relations with London … according to Heydrich’s men, the situation is explosive. With the opening of the Russian front, the productivity of Czech industry—one of the best in Europe—is now becoming crucial for the Reich. The Škoda factories must work flat out to support the war effort.
Despite being paranoid, Hitler is not a complete fool. He must know that Heydrich has a vested interest—coveting, as he does, Neurath’s position as Protector of Bohemia and Moravia—in discrediting the old baron by making things look as black as possible. At the same time, Hitler loathes weakness. He isn’t too keen on barons either, for that matter. The latest news is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. A call to boycott the occupation newspapers, made by Beneš and his clique in London, has been taken up to a remarkable extent by the local population for a whole week now. In itself, this isn’t a big deal, but it shows how much influence the Czech government-in-exile still exerts. And what it says about the local population’s overall state of mind is not very comforting for the occupying forces. When you bear in mind Hitler’s sworn hatred of Beneš, you can guess at how angry this must make him.
Hitler knows that Heydrich is a rising star ready to do anything to further his own ambitions. This doesn’t shock him, though, and for a good reason. Couldn’t the same thing have been said about Hitler himself? Hitler respects Heydrich because he combines fierceness with efficiency. If you add to this his loyalty toward the Führer, you get the three elements that make the perfect Nazi. And that’s without even mentioning his pure Aryan appearance. Try as Himmler might to be “faithful Heinrich,” he can’t compete with this blueprint. So it’s likely that Hitler admires Heydrich. Along with Stalin, that would make him one of the few living people to have had this honor. What’s more, Hitler seems not to have been afraid of Heydrich—surprising, for a paranoiac like him. Perhaps he wanted to stoke the fires of competition between Heydrich and Himmler? Perhaps he believed, as he confided to his Reichsführer, that the dossier on Heydrich’s supposed Jewishness was a guarantee of his devotion? Or perhaps the Blond Beast was such a perfect incarnation of the ideal Nazi that Hitler couldn’t imagine him capable of betrayal?
In any case, he must have called Bormann to organize an emergency meeting in his Rastenburg HQ. Summoned immediately: Himmler, Heydrich, Neurath, and his assistant Frank, the Sudeten bookseller.
Frank is the first to arrive. He’s about fifty and has a deeply wrinkled mafioso’s face. Over lunch with Hitler, he paints a picture of the Protectorate that confirms the SD reports in every detail. Himmler and Heydrich arrive next. Heydrich makes a brilliant speech in which he outlines the problems and proposes solutions. Hitler is impressed. Neurath, delayed by bad weather, gets there the next day—but by then his fate is already sealed. Hitler uses the same tactics as when he wishes to strip a general of his command: enforced sick leave. The position of Protector is now up for grabs.
114
On September 27, 1941, the Czech press agency, controlled by the Germans, sends out the following press release:
The Protector of the Reich of Bohemia and Moravia, Reich minister and honorable citizen Herr Konstantin von Neurath, has decided that it was his duty to ask the Führer for prolonged leave due to reasons of health. Given that the present war situation means the Protector must work full-time, Herr von Neurath has asked the Führer to temporarily relieve him of his duties, and to name a replacement for the whole length of his absence. In view of the circumstances, the Führer could not refuse this request, and he has named Obergruppenführer and police general Heydrich as Protector of Bohemia and Moravia for the entire duration of Reichsminister von Neurath’s illness.
115
In order to occupy such a prestigious post, Heydrich is promoted to Obergruppenführer, the second-highest rank in the SS hierarchy—subordinate only to Himmler’s title of Reichsführer. The only rank that surpasses that is Oberstgruppenführer, and in September 1941 nobody has reached that level yet. (There will be only four Oberstgruppenführers by the end of the war.)
So Heydrich savors this decisive step in his irresistible if somewhat meandering rise. He phones his wife, who is not very taken by the idea of moving to Prague. (She claims to have said to him: “Oh, if only you’d become a postman!” But she is so conceited and complacent that it is hard to imagine her ever having such a regret.) Heydrich replies: “Try to understand what this means to me. It’ll be a change from doing all the dirty work! Finally, I will be something more than the Reich’s dustbin!” The Reich’s dustbin: so that’s how he defined his duties as head of the Gestapo and the SD. Duties, by the way, that he would continue to fulfill with the same efficiency as before.
116
Heydrich arrives in Prague the day that his appointment is announced to the Czech people. His airplane, a three-engined Junkers 52, lands at Ruzyne Airport around noon.
He goes to the Esplanade Hotel, one of the most beautiful in town, but he obviously doesn’t spend long there, because that same evening Himmler is able to read his colleague’s report, sent by teleprinter:
At 15:10, ex–prime minister Eliáš was arrested, as arranged.
At 18:00, also as arranged, the arrest of ex-minister Havelka took place.
At 19:00, Czech radio announced my appointment by the Führer.
Eliáš and Havelka are being interrogated now. For diplomatic reasons, I must convene a special assembly in order to bring Eliáš to justice before a popular tribunal.
Eliáš and Havelka are the two most important members of the Czech government that is collaborating with the Germans under Hácha’s presidency. They have nonetheless maintained regular contact with Beneš in London—a fact known to Heydrich’s spies. This is why they are immediately condemned to death. Although, after thinking about it, Heydrich decides not to execute the sentence straightaway. It is, of course, only a temporary reprieve.
117
The next morning, at eleven o’clock, Heydrich’s investiture takes place in Hradčany Castle, or Hradchine, as the Germans call it. The vile Karl Hermann Frank—the Sudeten bookseller turned SS general and secretary of state—greets Heydrich amid great pomp in the castle courtyard. An orchestra, summoned for the occasion, plays the Nazi hymn “Horst Wessel Lied.” Then Heydrich inspects the troops while a second banner is hoisted next to the swastika that flies above the castle and the town: a black flag embossed with two runic Ss, signaling that another rung has been climbed on the ladder of terror. From now on, Bohemia and Moravia are, almost officially, the first SS state.