Superman
Although Himmler was a mystic, he was a practical mystic. Just for the sake of broadening his horizons, he would not have studied books on magic. And the matter is not only that he firmly believed that it was possible to impose a curse or to predict the future, but that he most of all wanted to control fate, and not only his own. With the advent of Hitler to power, he immediately clearly smelled of war. Order of the SS to the war is not ready yet. He was only at the stage of formation. Ideas already clearly shone through, but the application of ideas was at the level of search.
At the beginning of the SS, Hitler rejoiced at the intense activity that Himmler developed. Then he began to wonder what this Himmler was creating. And at the end just grabbed his head.
According to the memoirs of Speer, “Hitler often disparagingly spoke of the myth created by Himmler around the SS:“ What nonsense! Only the time has come that has cast aside all mysticism, and please - he begins everything from the beginning! So then it is better to stay in the bosom of the church. She, at least, has traditions. What is it worth one thought to make me someday "holy SS"! Just think about it! Yes, I turn in my grave! ""
Himmler, by the way, was completely sincere. Saint Hitler fits well with the ideology of the Order. And while Hitler turned weak Germany into the Millennial Reich, Himmler turned the protection of the leader of the nation entrusted to him into an irresistible force designed to bring order to this great Reich. He began by subordinating the SS to the police, which Goering had previously controlled. The police in his understanding was a wonderful link between the Order and the simple Germans. According to Himmler, his police should have a mixed sense of respect and fear in the citizens. “I know that in Germany there are some people who become ill when they see our black uniform, we understand this and do not expect to be loved,” he said. Well, people in black uniforms were really afraid, and not only thieves, gangsters, or molesters of minors, but also people who were completely law-abiding were afraid. Himmler with a strong hand kept the usual criminal police, but added it to the political secret police (Gestapo) and the security service of the SS (SD). And in the year 1939, the Gestapo and the SD entered the headquarters of imperial security (RSHA). The criminal police, as a matter of fact, was engaged in the usual business - catching criminals. But the SD and the Gestapo were busy with much more important things. The CD kept the purity of its own SS ranks, and the Gestapo neutralized political opponents and cut off any dissent. All the inner life of Germany was in the hands of Himmler.
Heinrich Muller
With the beginning of the period of hostilities, the power of the Gestapo and SD extended to all the territories attached to the Reich. Heinrich Muller became the head of the Gestapo that year, and Reinhard Heydrich was already at the head of the SD (after the establishment of the RSHA, he became the head of imperial security, and the SD leadership took Kaltenbruner-ner). It was thanks to his work and skillfully executed forgery that Rem was eliminated, and the attack aircraft lost their power and authority in the emerging Reich. Thanks to his efforts, an assassination attempt on von Rath was planned.
Reinhard Heydrich was an amazing person. Tall, blond, blue-eyed, with a strong-willed face and a very high forehead, he gave the impression of a real Aryan. If there was a genius in the SS, then undoubtedly - Heydrich. He came from the family of the director of the conservatory in the small Saxon town of Gall-on-Saale, the mother of the future SS man in his youth was an actress, that is, Reinhard left the artistic environment itself. Even the middle name that was given to him at birth sounded like Tristan - the mother was crazy about Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde.
Even in childhood, his extraordinary abilities to music were discovered - Reinhard was considered a wunderkind and a virtuoso violinist, this love for music he retained until his death. But he chose not a musical, but a military career. Proud, courageous, enterprising, he dreamed of free seas and the uniform of a naval officer. In the cadet corps, where he enrolled, his extraordinary abilities in navigation and mathematics immediately opened up. In the latter area, he was just a genius. In addition to intelligence, the young Heydrich also possessed all the qualities of an excellent athlete - he went in for equestrian sport and became a swordsman, to win over which is impossible. Heydrich did not know fear, was unusually dexterous and had the gift of intuition.
It seemed that the further fate of Heydrich was excellent. In 1926, he received the rank of lieutenant, two years later - lieutenant chief, then was assigned to the flagship Schleswig-Holstein.
It was then that everything collapsed.
Reinhard Heydrich - Hitler's favorite, who organized the "exposure" of Tukhachevsky
Young Heydrich was very indifferent to the female sex, given the external attractiveness, he had a lot of fans. This attraction ruined his career. Once during a kayak ride, Reinhard saw drowning girls: they went out to ride a boat, the boat turned over. Like a true knight, Heydrich immediately rushed to the rescue. One of the rescued girls he liked very much, and they began to meet, and a couple of months later, Heydrich announced their engagement. And just announced, there immediately appeared a certain girl who complained to the command that ... she was expecting a child from Reinhar. The officer was advised to break off the engagement and fulfill his duty, that is, marry another. Heydrich refused. Then he was subjected to a court of honor, convicted and dismissed without the right to reinstate military navy. It was the collapse of all hopes. Heydrich was unemployed, but he registered his marriage with Lina von Osten.
Heydrich's wife turned out to be a passionate supporter of the Fuhrer and advised Reinhard to relate the fate to the SS. Reinhard himself dreamed more of the merchant navy, he was attracted by the sea. But he heeded the advice of his wife and through one school friend met Himmler. Suddenly, Himmler offered the young officer not only SS membership, but also remarkable future prospects. In his new acquaintance, he quickly discerned a sober and tenacious mind (so that, and the Reich-Fuhrer of the SS knew how to find talents). Himmler offered Reinhard to take the post of the head of the SD. It turned out that Heydrich has all the necessary qualities of counterintelligence. He was enthusiastically engaged in cryptography and developed all the measures that helped Himmler's office to take a leading position in the emerging Reich. On his advice, Himmler "mastered" the police structures and turned the SS into a real military elite.
At the same time, Heydrich himself preferred to keep a low profile: brave in moments of danger, in life he was shy and modest, did not like to stick out his own merits. This could not fail to attract Himmler. All services to the party were given not to the timid Reinhard, but to the imperious Heinrich. However, Heydrich and did not seek to reap fame, his work fascinated. It was like solving riddles, and he loved riddles.
Heydrich treated with laughter the magical orientation of Himmler and his commitment to the racial theory. On the appearance of the Reichsführer himself, he once expressed himself with such words: "... if you look at his nose, this is a typical Jewish, real Jewish soldering iron." However, Reinhard himself did not escape accusations of unclean blood: his enemies for a long time and unsuccessfully tried to convince Himmler that something was wrong with the origin of the latter.
The spit-raisers were embarrassed by the name of his mother - Süss, completely Jewish, but it was the surname from the second marriage, and it wasn’t Jewish. Heydrich was not an anti-Semite in the sense that he was not infected with racial nonsense; on the contrary, he tried with all his might to avoid wasting blood in vain. But if it was necessary to carry out some important operation for the party and the state, the best targets were, of course, the Jews. That is, he was able to masterly use someone else's anti-Semitism, if it is necessary for the sake of the cause.
That's how he turned out to be the developer of the “Gryspinop” plan, that is, he organized the murder in Paris of an employee of the German embassy von Rath. By this time, his SD was already divided into two wings: the first was performing normal functions within the state, and the second was something like the English Intelligence Service. Not only did Gayd-ichu manage to create a remarkable network of agents, under the guise of a fashionable brothel in Berlin, he opened a kind of information mining salon. High-ranking officials and officers of the Reich went to this salon with a hunt. Heydrich literally stuffed the cabin with all kinds of listening equipment, so that the secret sayings of the salon clients immediately became known to him. The salon was famous for its girls, there was no end of customers.
Studying the data eavesdropping, Heydrich was able to reveal not only dangerous secrets, but recruited agents. Not even the Italian minister Ciano escaped such a fate. The SD managed to conduct its actions both domestically and abroad, directing and pushing the actions of hostile political leaders.
In 1936, the Office of Heydrich deftly organized the exposure of Tukhachevsky. The operation was based on rumors that Tukhachevsky was going to throw Stalin’s power in the USSR. Heydrich himself believed little in the rumors, but it was a wonderful chance to throw off Tukhachevsky himself, and knowing Stalin’s manic mind, that was also the top military leadership of the Soviet country.
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
The weakening of the enemy immediately interested Hitler. So Heydrich ordered his specialists to compile a voluminous dossier on a Soviet general, consisting of the allegedly genuine correspondence of Tukhachevsky with German comrades. The dossier was slipped by the Soviet intelligence officer, who immediately informed those who should. Stalin's answer did not make him wait: heads flew to the USSR, the great purge began in the army.
He also skillfully organized the Crystal Night. To implement the plan, he decided to arrange the murder of Ernst von Rath, an employee of the German embassy in France.
The diplomat was known in particular circles: he was homosexual, which made the task easier. As a performer, the people of Heydrich selected a young Polish Jew Grinshpan, who had a love affair with the German. At the same time, the family of Grinshpan was “staged” so that she fell into a Polish-German dispute over Jews and ended up in a camp for displaced persons on Polish territory.
At the right time, Grynszpan received from his father a short postcard: “Dear Gershl, we ended up in Poland aground, without a penny of money. Would you be able to send anything? Thanks in advance. Father". By that time, Grinshpain's own life had gone to ashes: a German diplomat had broken off relations with him. The people of Heydrich urgently produced a new letter from Grynshpain's father, in which the father complained about the Germans and wrote about their atrocities (which were not). A letter from the young man was given by an employee of the SD, who introduced himself as a friend of his father. He himself shared stories of such atrocities that the impressionable youth had his hair on end.
Skilful conversation staff Heydrich did his job: the young man bought a gun and went to settle scores with von Rath, in it he now saw not only the lover who left him, but the enemy of the Jewish people. The embassy security was ordered to skip Grinshpan beforehand, and the ambassador was not there.
Gryshpan, who demanded an immediate meeting with the German ambassador, was missed to replace Vatu in his absence. He did not even have time to understand how the former lover shot him the whole clip. With a severe wound, von Rath was taken to a Paris hospital, and Grynshpan was arrested and sent to prison.
The police found an unsent letter to their father in the pocket of the arrested person: “My dear! I could not do otherwise - my heart bleeds from the moment I learned about the sufferings of 12 thousands of my co-religionists. God forgive me, and I hope you will forgive me. Gershl. According to Heydrich's plan, von Rath was supposed to die on the spot, but the shooter was inept, and the bullets only slightly touched the diplomat’s shoulder and hit him in the stomach.
Von Rath was lucky: in time the operation carried out guaranteed his recovery. This is what Heydrich could not allow. Under a specious pretext, a brigade of German doctors was sent to Paris. The blood that was transferred to von Ratha turned out to be by accident of the wrong group. The poor man died on the evening of November 9.
Newspapers for two days on behalf of Heydrich were in a state of hysteria.
They called Jews to account, anti-Semitic sentiments grew strongly.
Von Rath's death worked like a trigger: people were ready to show their anger. The SS Special Forces were given the command to maximally ensure the manifestation of anger, but not to allow unnecessary victims and looting. Especially it was pushing that anger could get out of control and harm the Aryan population. There were actually few victims, the damage was enormous.
Heydrich was not against material damage: by that time the Reich was pursuing a policy of squeezing Jews out of the economy and generally from the country, which will be discussed a little later. It also prepared the ground for the complication of Polish-German relations and should have provoked Polish provocations, which Hitler expected with impatience.
Another secret affair of the SD is the organization of an allegedly unsuccessful attempt on the Fuhrer. Heydrich didn’t hold on to organizing the assassination himself, but when he got information about a really preparing terrorist act, he used it remarkably, allowing events to flow along the planned plot by the conspirators with a small amendment.
8 November 1939, Hitler visited a pub in Munich, where he gave a speech before the old party cadres. To the surprise of the audience, his speech was brief, and he left the pub early. You probably shouldn't be surprised: I think he was notified about the time of the explosion. After 15 minutes after his departure, the explosive laid by Elser exploded, six old party members and a waiter were killed, and more than 10 people were injured. But the task of the SD was accomplished: the people took the unsuccessful attempt as the miraculous salvation of their Fuhrer. Newspapers choked with delight, which was required - not everyone liked the start of the Second World War. After the assassination attempt, the nation rallied. She was convinced that the attack was organized by the damned British!
Sometimes good decisions were made by Heydrich completely spontaneously.
Since the beginning of the war, the British decided to destroy the economy of the Reich in a very peculiar way: they began to drop fake cards from the aircraft for food and consumer goods. Immediately, a plan was born in Heydrich's head: to organize the creation of counterfeit money and scatter it over England. For a whole year, the specialists of the SD worked to create banknotes that can pass the most serious test. For this purpose, even counterfeiters were brought in prisons.
By the year 1940 in the SD, such fakes were already made that they were gladly taken in any bank. But by this time the plan to undermine the British economy had already faded into the background. Heydrich began to use fakes for its intended purpose: for the maintenance of PXA. The department had a lot of expenses, but not much money was allocated from the budget. Almost all RXA agents received their fee with fakes.
But the most important event of Heydrich is the collection of secret files. The head of the RCA had dirt on everyone, not excluding Hitler himself. After the death of Reinhar, these documents fell to Muller and Kaltenbrunner. The compromising evidence kept all senior officials of the Reich in fear of PXA. But Heydrich increasingly dreamed of a higher post. He wanted to extend his influence to all the internal politics of the Reich and take the chair of the Minister of the Interior. Hitler doubted Heydrich’s organizational skills and offered him the post of deputy protector for Bohemia and Moravia to begin with.
In September 1941, he was sent to help Baron von Neurath. Neurat really could not do anything with the opposition to the German regime. Arriving on the spot, on the very first day, Heydrich introduced a state of emergency in order to lure out of the underground all the discontented. And the discontented at this bait pecked: resistance began. All dissenters immediately went to prisons and camps, and after a couple of weeks the state of emergency was lifted, and life entered its shores.
However, Heydrich knew that in addition to the communist and nationalist Czech underground, there was a hidden opposition (he saw it in the Czech intelligentsia). Therefore, his support he chose the workers and peasants. The whole policy he pursued was aimed at improving the lives of ordinary people: he introduced an increased food ration for those employed in production, allocated footwear and industrial goods for the same category of people, raised wages, requisitioned buildings in Czech resorts, creating a network of holiday homes, destroyed speculation in goods. And this policy justified itself: the Czech workers supplied the German army with military equipment throughout the war. They lived even better than the workers in Germany itself. About any resistance and speech did not even go. But then the British intelligence and the Czech government, which was in exile, intervened. Be-nesh could not come to terms with the idea that his country did not even try to speak out against the Germans. So the decision was born to send the Czech saboteurs, if the people prefer not to quarrel with the Germans.
The conspirators took advantage of Heydrich’s renowned quality — extraordinary courage. He drove through the city without any protection and in an open car, only his driver was next to him. Reinhard's route was well known to the people of Prague: he did not change it. So to make a terrorist attack was not a problem.
On the morning of June 27, 1942, Heydrich was driving around the city as usual. But behind the wheel - that’s a coincidence! - was not the old and experienced chauffeur Willy, and the other chauffeur - Klein. Willie knew well how to act in unusual situations. Klein did not know. And when the car began to make a turn, a man in a raincoat jumped out onto the road. Heydrich understood everything instantly.
“Press on the gas!” He shouted to the newcomer, but he was confused ... and slowed down.
This short moment was enough for the person to drop the raincoat and pull out the machine gun. But the machine refused! Then a grenade flew onto the road. She was thrown by a second terrorist. The car was crippled from the explosion, windows were smashed from the surrounding houses. The conspirators decided to flee, but behind them both the wounded rushed, and chauffeur Klein and Heydrich himself. The driver immediately received two deadly shots to the head. Gade-ichu managed to wound the saboteur, but this is the last thing he could do. He fell to the ground and lost consciousness. He never came to himself again: he died of blood poisoning on July 4.
The German response to Heydrich's death was terrible: the recently pacified Czech Republic was subjected to unprecedented terror. They were looking for Heydrich's murderer. He was handed over by a Czech for a fee. Heydrich was posthumously awarded the Order of Blood and the German Order.
Unlike many figures of the Reich, Heydrich was, although cruel (not without reason, Hitler called him a man with an iron heart), but he was quite a reasonable person. He did not pour blood in vain, did not cause unnecessary indignation among the people. In a limited area, he even tried to create a semblance of a normal life for Jews, although by this time the policy towards them had tightened considerably.
This is how Theresienstadt appeared - a closed Jewish city with Jewish administration. Himmler ascribed credit to his creation. In fact, Heydrich and the Gestapo chief Muller did it, or rather, not Muller himself, but his subordinate Eichmann. In Theresienstadt, when the Reich was accused of atrocities against the Jews, they even brought representatives of the Red Cross. Here, the guides showed, you say that we are destroying the Jews, we are planting them over barbed wire, but where do you see wire and atrocity here? Look at those happy faces! Specially for the guests, the musical group was exhibited, and the guests listened with pleasure as the Jews of Theresienstadt played Mozart or Beethoven. After that, the Red Cross could not say that he had seen atrocities.
Of course, it was all a fake. And life in Terezi-enstadt was not sweet, but the fact that the children refused humanitarian condensed milk, so they would try not to refuse! Fear was present in everything. But compared with the Polish ghettos or camps, there was no atrocities. Heydrich himself saw the threat in the Jews, not because they were Jews, but because they were subject to the "red contagion". It was not for nothing that he was so outraged at the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that he even turned to his chief, Himmler, with a report on the growing communist danger.
Theresienstadt - "the settlement of the Jews"
“The fact,” he said, “that on the territory of the Reich the security police (SD) discovered many terrorist-sabotage groups established by order of the Comintern, is indicative of the position taken by the Soviet Union in relation to the Reich. The preparation of acts of sabotage against objects of military significance, bridges, explosions of important sections of the railway, the destruction and shutdown of important industrial enterprises and installations were the goal of these groups, which consisted entirely of communists who did not stop in the performance of their tasks and before the killings. In addition to assignments related to the commission of acts of sabotage, members of the groups received instructions on the commission of the attacks on the leaders of the Reich. Although it would have been expected that a series of these crimes, committed or being prepared by the Comintern, would cease after the signing of the non-aggression pact from August 23 on August 1939, but as a result of extensive investigations carried out especially in the territories occupied by Germany, evidence was obtained that the Comintern did not intend stop their criminal activities against the Reich ...
The activities of the Soviet Union directed against national-socialist Germany ... testify to the colossal scale of underground subversive work, sabotage of terror and espionage in order to prepare for war, which is being waged in the fields of politics, economics and defense. "
Heydrich had nothing against ordinary Jews, but he suspected hidden communists in them. Much more negatively, he was opposed to wealthy Jews; in them he saw the world conspiracy against Germany - the conspiracy of financiers and industrialists. To destroy these citizens was not part of his plans, but it would be a good thing to get rid of them. If the Reich is built as a national state of the Germans, then it must first be cleared of internal threats. This position was taken by Muller and Himmler himself. They had no pathological hatred of the Jews, which overwhelmed Hitler.
To expel the Jews in the SS was considered the best solution. With the beginning of the war it became a necessity. The Reich could not allow to keep within itself an internal enemy, and in the six years of the Reich’s existence the majority of Jews were opposed to the National Socialists. Even before this war, Germany was constantly negotiating to move the Jews to the land of Palestine, but the result was disappointing - the quotas were exhausted. An attempt to send Jews to civilized countries was also unsuccessful: they could accept individual Jews, by no means a whole wave of immigrants. There was another stumbling block: the mass of Jews had no means for resettlement. And Himmler has developed a special plan: the relocation of poor Jews at the expense of the rich. Rich Jews refused to pay for the poor. Then it was decided to expel the Jews with deprivation of property - in this case, the rich could pay for the transportation of the poor, in any case, they lost their money. But rich Jews refused to leave anti-Semitic Germany, hoping to preserve both property and life even in such a bad country. Vydit Jews to the end and send did not work.
Realizing that with the solution of the Jewish question completely confused, Himmler shoved him on Heydrich. Gade-ryh entrusted him to Muller. Müller created a division within his department that dealt exclusively with the Jewish question. The instructions of the leadership were entrusted to the quiet and executive young SS officer Alfred Eichmann. This "Nazi criminal" was guilty only of the fact that he carried out the orders clearly and meticulously. However, he ended his life very badly. After the defeat of the Reich, he managed to escape, change his last name, live in a foreign country. And many years later, the old Eichmann stole the Israeli Mossad, and the Israeli court arranged a demonstration process and sentenced him to death. If the protocols of interrogations of this person show, then only how a completely normal German and not a sadist, who does not have any hatred for the Jews, tries to do them better, and as a result it turns out that he committed a crime against humanity.
Adf Eichmann
Eichmann was very unlucky in this regard: he was assigned to deal with the Jewish question, when there could be only one solution — camp and extermination. He did not understand this. Probably, in those years, many Germans did not understand this at all, because the camp system was closed and they could not see firsthand the results of their “labor”. And Eichmann, who was just a gear in a huge car, saw only his part of the mechanism, for which he was sentenced to death.
In his ministry, Eichmann was put to the most unpleasant and tedious paper work, so that when the opportunity arose to go somewhere, he immediately agreed. So the future hangman got into the SD. He told the investigator about his activities as follows:
“In the“ Jews ”department I met with a completely new task area.
Untersturmführer von Mildenstein was a very sociable, friendly person; Austrian by birth, apparently, traveled a lot around the world. There was no such callousness in him, rudeness, like most of the then chiefs, with whom they were afraid to speak. We very quickly became close to him. One of the first things he assigned to me was related to the book The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl.
Herzl called for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, and thereby brought about the life of the Zionist movement; it soon gained many supporters, mainly in Eastern Europe. Von Mildenstein told me to read it. I worked hard on these in the following days. The book interested me, until then I did not hear about anything like that ... It made an impression on me - perhaps my romanticism affected me, my love for nature, for mountains and forests ... I delved into its content, much remembered. I did not know what will happen next. When I finished the book, I was ordered to draw up a synopsis, a certificate; It should have been distributed as an official circular for employees of the SS and internal use in the SD, the security service ... She was later printed in a notebook, a circular for the SS. I set out there the structure of the world Zionist organization, the goals of Zionism, its base and difficulties. His demands were emphasized; they responded to our own intentions - in the sense that Zionism sought a political decision: they wanted a land on which their people could finally settle down and live peacefully. This largely coincided with the program installation of national socialism.
At the same time, I took up neo-Zionists. I also wrote a certificate about them, but I don’t know if it was published as a circular. During this time, I recognized Untersturmführer von Mildenstein as a person who is looking for political solutions, rejecting the methods that Sturmovik magazine preached ... I was assigned such a range of issues - international Zionism, modern Zionism, orthodox Judaism. Another employee knew the organizations involved in assimilation.
We had nothing else! Around this time, Mildenstein’s acquaintance began to visit us, his name was Ernst von Bolsching. He had been engaged in commerce in Palestine for a long time, along with a certain Mr. Borman, who sent from there - every year, if I'm not mistaken, - a ship loaded with onions to one of the Scandinavian countries. This Mr. von Bolypving often came to our service and talked about Palestine.
He obtained such a complete overview - the program of Zionism, the current situation, the situation in Palestine and the spread of Zionism throughout the world - that I was gradually becoming a specialist in Zionism. I also received newspapers, including Haint. I couldn’t read their badges and letters, so I bought Samuel Kaleko’s book — a Hebrew textbook. I began to learn typed letters. Words too, but mostly I just wanted to learn how to read the printed text of the newspaper „ Heint ", it was typed in Yiddish, but in Hebrew letters.
And at the beginning of 1936, there were changes. Mr. von Mildenstein moved to the Imperial Road Construction Authority, the “Todt Organization”, and he was sent to North America to study the construction of motorways ... My boss was a new man, namely Dieter Wizlitzeni ...
Gradually, I became acquainted with the so-called incoming correspondence, until then I did not see it at all. Messages came from the offices of the SD on the ground, from some central instances, but most often these were reports about conferences of the organization of world Jewry itself. Sometimes these were scientific materials, supposedly scientific materials found somewhere during the confiscation, and since the Gestapo did not know what to do with them, they were handed over to the SD. There also came reports from nationalist organizations and police reports ...
Task number one was to ensure that reports come from the lower branches of the SD to higher departments, and from these higher ones to the General Directorate; that the field offices have instructions on what they should report at all and what interests us; in turn, they must communicate this to their lower branches and through them further on, up to the agent network. With regard to the collection of reports, as far as this relates to my sector, preliminary work has already been carried out - through the circular letter of the SS. I just had to refer to this circular: this is what we need! The government wants them to leave; all that contributes to this, should be done, nothing should interfere. Everything was spinning around this.
Of course, I had to have information on the number of immigrants. I also learned then that things are not going well. I first heard about the difficulties in obtaining a certificate of payment of taxes. The same with the deadlines, because the shelf life of some documents was too small, we had to get them again. I learned about the difficulties that arose due to the fact that some police station, out of ignorance or out of stupidity, liquidated the Jewish organization, sealed the premises, arrested functionaries, which caused delays. I heard about the complications arising from the fact that the authorities of the mandated territory in Palestine allocated insufficient quotas for emigration. I heard about the difficulties posed by other countries that accepted emigrants. But I was powerless, because the General Directorate of the SD was a purely informational organization, it had to simply transfer what it learned to higher services.
... My job was to send to Palestine the largest possible contingent of Jews. I was interested in any possibility of emigration overseas. But all this is only theoretically. After all, I could only explain in my reports what can be done, what is desirable. But it was very difficult to achieve a political solution, it meant to abandon the methods of the Sturmovik. Probably, this concept suited someone as propaganda. But it didn’t bring anyone closer to a solution ”.
So, after studying the "Palestinian issue" and a trip to Palestine, Eichmann realized that nothing would come of it. And after the Crystal Night it became clear that with the decision of the Jewish question it was impossible to do anything at all. But all the attempts of the SD to somehow resolve the situation ended in nothing. Then the Second World War began, this situation only worsened. A plan was created in Heydrich’s head to create a “Jewish protectorate” on the lands of Poland ... he even found a place in the Radomirskie voivodship. But from this, too, nothing happened.
Then the top management had another idea: to relocate the Jews to the island of Magadaskar. This idea was expressed by Guido von Liszt, but as a theoretical one. But Eichmann, who had already grown to the head of the Jewish department, was to test theory with practice. The “Madagascar” plan intended to take away the designated island from the French, resettle all the French from it, establish a naval base and then settle the rest of the land with the Jews of the Reich.
“Since Madagascar will only be under the mandate of Germany,” said the project of Radimacher, “its Jewish population will not receive German citizenship. At the time of transportation, the citizenship of European countries will be taken away from the Jews; instead, they will become citizens of the Madagascar mandate. Such a situation would not allow them to create their own state in Palestine, similar to the Vatican, and to use for their own purposes the symbolic significance of Jerusalem in the eyes of Christian and Muslim society. In addition, the Jews will remain hostages in the hands of Germany, which will allow them to achieve good behavior in the future of their relatives in North America.
For propaganda purposes, you can use the slogan about the generosity of Germany, which gives Jewish cultural, economic, administrative and legal independence. It must be emphasized that the inherent sense of responsibility that we Germans will not allow us to immediately provide an independent state of existence to a race that has not had independence for millennia. To do this, she will have to turn in historical exam". They were going to introduce autonomy on the island: "... their city mayors, police, post office, railway administration and others."
Funds for the project were supposed to be taken from a specially created bank where the value of the property of Jews in Europe automatically fell. Eichmann was assigned to implement the project in practice. He deeply delved into the assigned business: he studied the climatic features of the island, read basic research on the nature of the island and its economy ... but the project stalled. On the one hand, the Jews themselves did not want to go there, on the other hand, numerous German departments put obstacles in their way.
“And when the plan finally cleared up,” he stated, “and none of the central departments had any wishes left - then it was already late. German troops were in Paris for a long time, but we could not get to Madagascar. When the French fleet left, and Germany occupied a part of France that was not occupied until the Mediterranean, the Madagascar was out of the question. That was the end of the case.
True, it never came to Eichman why the Jews refused Madagascar and why the project was inhibited in every way. The first were confused by the particular climate and the fact that the island was too small for global resettlement, while the Offices braked the project, since Hitler was not going to resettle anyone. He already had another project. Here Himmler somewhat underestimated the Fuhrer's anti-Semitism.
And when the war with the USSR began, neither Himmler nor Heydrich could do anything: nobody would dare to act against the order of the Fuhrer in the Reich.
One summer in summer, Eichmann 1941 summoned Heydrich. “I have come. And he told me: "The Führer, well, with this emigration ..." But first, very briefly: "The Führer ordered the physical destruction of the Jews." This phrase he told me. And contrary to his wont he was silent for a long time, as if he wanted to check the effect of his words. I remember that today. At the first moment I did not even try to imagine the scale of this action, because he carefully selected the words. But then I understood what was going on and did not say anything to it, because I could not say anything. Because of such ... about such things, about a violent decision, I never thought. "
Heydrich did not even think, obviously, before, he was not less shocked by the order. He had no experience in such matters. So the only thing he could offer was to send Eichmann to learn from someone else’s experience. And such a person was in the Reich. He pathologically hated Jews, but he was very fond of Jewish gold. Many considered him a shame of the National Socialist Party. The bastard was named Odilo Globocnik, he served as chief of police in the city of Lublin.
“And then he (Heydrich) told me:“ Eichmann, go to Globocnik in Lublin. Go to Globocnik. Reichsfuhrer already gave him the appropriate instructions. See how it went. What he uses to destroy the Jews there, "Eichmann continues." As ordered, I went to Lublin, found the office of the head of the SS and the police Globocnik, went to the Gruppenführer and told him that Heydrich had sent me, because the Führer had ordered the physical the destruction of the Jews. Globocnik then summoned some sturmbannführer Höfle, probably from his headquarters.
We went from Lublin, now I don’t remember how this place is called, I confuse them, I can’t say for sure, it was Treblinka or something else. There is a woodland, a rare such forest, and through it a dirt road, a Polish road. And to the right of the road was a house, the usual structure in which the people who work there live. We were greeted by a captain, an ordinary police officer. There were still workers, a few people. And the captain was without a uniform, which I was extremely surprised, he was with rolled up sleeves, he probably worked with them. They built wooden houses there, two or three. Dimensions - maybe with a country house, rooms for two or three.
Höfle told the police captain to explain to me what they were building. And he began. It was a man with such, you know ... in such a hoarse voice. Maybe he drank. He spoke in a certain dialect, probably, like in the south-west of Germany, and began to tell me that he had already tightened all the seams, because the engine from a Russian submarine would work here, and the engine exhaust gases would let me down here and poison them ".
Returning from a business trip, Eichmann reported on what he had seen to Heydrich, he was silent, and for several months did not bother the head of the Jewish department. But in the fall, Muller sent him with a similar task, now to Chelmno.
“This is what I saw there: a room, if I remember correctly, is five times more than where we are; there were Jews inside. They had to undress, and then a closed truck, a van, arrived at the door.
I drove very close. And the naked Jews had to go into the body. Then they were locked there, and the car drove away. ... I drove after that car - and saw the worst thing I had ever seen before. The van drove up to a long pit. The body was opened and corpses were thrown out. As if alive, they still bent. Thrown into the pit. I see in front of me how some man in civilian with ticks pulled out his teeth. In Berlin, I reported to the gruppenführer Müller. I told him the same thing that I say now. I told him: it is terrifying, it is sheol. I can not. This ... I can't do that! - I said to him. I was sent to such places: these two, then Auschwitz, and then I was sent to Treblinka. And in Minsk too. Minsk, Oswiecim, Treblinka, Minsk, Oswiecim, Treblinka, Minsk ... "
What he saw in Minsk almost drove Eichmann insane: “When I arrived, I only saw how young soldiers, I think they had a skull and bones on their buttonholes, shot at a pit, the size of which was, say, four or five times more of this room. Maybe even much more, six or seven times. I ... I am there ... no matter what I said ... because I only saw, I did not even think, I did not expect this. And I saw nothing more! They shot from top to bottom, I also saw a woman with her hands behind her back, and my legs gave way, I felt bad!
... I went from there to the car, sat down and left. I went to Lviv. I now remember - I did not have an order to go to Lviv. Somehow I get to Lvov, I come to the head of the Gestapo and say to him: “It's terrible what is being done there,” I say. “After all, young people are brought up by sadists!” Me and Muller said exactly the same thing. And to Ponter too he said. I said this to everyone. I told everyone. And I said to that Führer of the SS in Lvov: "How can you just shoot at a woman and children like that? How is it possible?” I said. “You can't ... People either go crazy or become sadists our own people. " And he says to me: “Here they do the same, they shoot too. Want to see? "I say:" No, I don't want to watch anything. " And he says: “We’ll go by anyway." There was also a hole there, but already buried, and from it blood, as if ... how to say it? The blood flowed from there. I never saw anything like that. Fed up with such a task!
I went to Berlin and reported to the gruppenführer Müller. I told him: “This is not a solution to the Jewish question. In addition, we bring up sadists from our people. And there is nothing for us to be surprised, it is not necessary to be surprised if they are all criminals, only criminals. "I still remember how Muller looked at me, and his expression said," Eichmann, you're right; this is not a solution. " But he, of course, also could not do anything. Nothing could do Muller, nothing, absolutely nothing! Who ordered it all? He ordered, namely, ordered, of course, the chief of the security police and the SD, that is, Heydrich. But he had to receive instructions from the Reichsfuhrer SS, that is, from Himmler; by itself he could not, could never have done such a thing. And Himmler should have had a categorical indication from Hitler; if Hitler had not ordered it would be for such a thing on the front somewhere, under bombs and shells ... ”
Eichmann did not understand at all: what he called the upbringing of sadism was the practice of killing in a person everything that binds him to the human world. Soldiers who performed such tasks were supposed to perform them without feeling either pleasure or suffering. This was the main condition in the education of the SS man - to give up everything that connects him with the animal principle in man. During training, the SS passed many tests. These were both purely physical tests that required exertion of strength, courage, ability to make quick decisions, to withstand high loads, to be prepared for everything dangerous and unexpected, and moral - related to bringing pain to another person, degrading pride, and included unquestioned training. obedience and fostering loyalty to his Fuhrer.
The most common test of courage and endurance of the SS fighter was as follows: the candidate was placed for an hour or more in icy water, they were often attacked by hungry shepherd dogs, which he had to strangle with his bare hands, they could shoot him, he was asked to go between the blades of daggers, he was it was proposed to kill the animal with his own hands so as not to damage his body, and then remove the skin without spoiling the eye.
These rites of initiation of newbies and the method of their further training the clever, well-read, Himmler borrowed from the practice of the Jesuits and other secret orders, about which he knew a lot. And after the Tibetan expeditions, he learned something about the local technique of “viparit”, developed by the priests of Bon on.
This technique, Tibetan in origin, says that to fully improve the spirit, its hardening, giving it the "Golden Glow", that is, the forces of Fire that conquer the Ice, you must go through disgust and take it as pleasure. For this technique teaches us to eat inedible and unpleasant elements - blood, semen, urine, feces, saliva, etc. Then, at another stage, a person learns without disgust, but on the contrary, with an understanding and a pleasant feeling, to contemplate ominous pictures - death, injury, physiological manifestations of life. And then learns to perceive that which brings pain, as pleasure.
The final result of such a learning process was to become complete perfection, and this perfection is considered, according to Tibetan notions, the magical basis of immortality. Eichmann did not belong to the SS elite. He was engaged in labeling, that is, clerical routine, before calling in SD. It is unlikely that he underwent appropriate training, like real SS warriors. The latter, after training, were to remain calm in any situation — not to be angry, not to shout, not to cry, not to be afraid, not to feel disgust. Himmler dreamed of creating a new man. Unlike Hitler, he actually created it.
At the beginning of the SS, Hitler rejoiced at the intense activity that Himmler developed. Then he began to wonder what this Himmler was creating. And at the end just grabbed his head.According to the memoirs of Speer, “Hitler often disparagingly spoke of the myth created by Himmler around the SS:“ What nonsense! Only the time has come that has cast aside all mysticism, and please - he begins everything from the beginning! So then it is better to stay in the bosom of the church. She, at least, has traditions. What is it worth one thought to make me someday "holy SS"! Just think about it! Yes, I turn in my grave! ""
Himmler, by the way, was completely sincere. Saint Hitler fits well with the ideology of the Order. And while Hitler turned weak Germany into the Millennial Reich, Himmler turned the protection of the leader of the nation entrusted to him into an irresistible force designed to bring order to this great Reich. He began by subordinating the SS to the police, which Goering had previously controlled. The police in his understanding was a wonderful link between the Order and the simple Germans. According to Himmler, his police should have a mixed sense of respect and fear in the citizens. “I know that in Germany there are some people who become ill when they see our black uniform, we understand this and do not expect to be loved,” he said. Well, people in black uniforms were really afraid, and not only thieves, gangsters, or molesters of minors, but also people who were completely law-abiding were afraid. Himmler with a strong hand kept the usual criminal police, but added it to the political secret police (Gestapo) and the security service of the SS (SD). And in the year 1939, the Gestapo and the SD entered the headquarters of imperial security (RSHA). The criminal police, as a matter of fact, was engaged in the usual business - catching criminals. But the SD and the Gestapo were busy with much more important things. The CD kept the purity of its own SS ranks, and the Gestapo neutralized political opponents and cut off any dissent. All the inner life of Germany was in the hands of Himmler.
Heinrich MullerWith the beginning of the period of hostilities, the power of the Gestapo and SD extended to all the territories attached to the Reich. Heinrich Muller became the head of the Gestapo that year, and Reinhard Heydrich was already at the head of the SD (after the establishment of the RSHA, he became the head of imperial security, and the SD leadership took Kaltenbruner-ner). It was thanks to his work and skillfully executed forgery that Rem was eliminated, and the attack aircraft lost their power and authority in the emerging Reich. Thanks to his efforts, an assassination attempt on von Rath was planned.
Reinhard Heydrich was an amazing person. Tall, blond, blue-eyed, with a strong-willed face and a very high forehead, he gave the impression of a real Aryan. If there was a genius in the SS, then undoubtedly - Heydrich. He came from the family of the director of the conservatory in the small Saxon town of Gall-on-Saale, the mother of the future SS man in his youth was an actress, that is, Reinhard left the artistic environment itself. Even the middle name that was given to him at birth sounded like Tristan - the mother was crazy about Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde.
Even in childhood, his extraordinary abilities to music were discovered - Reinhard was considered a wunderkind and a virtuoso violinist, this love for music he retained until his death. But he chose not a musical, but a military career. Proud, courageous, enterprising, he dreamed of free seas and the uniform of a naval officer. In the cadet corps, where he enrolled, his extraordinary abilities in navigation and mathematics immediately opened up. In the latter area, he was just a genius. In addition to intelligence, the young Heydrich also possessed all the qualities of an excellent athlete - he went in for equestrian sport and became a swordsman, to win over which is impossible. Heydrich did not know fear, was unusually dexterous and had the gift of intuition.
It seemed that the further fate of Heydrich was excellent. In 1926, he received the rank of lieutenant, two years later - lieutenant chief, then was assigned to the flagship Schleswig-Holstein.
It was then that everything collapsed.
Reinhard Heydrich - Hitler's favorite, who organized the "exposure" of Tukhachevsky
Young Heydrich was very indifferent to the female sex, given the external attractiveness, he had a lot of fans. This attraction ruined his career. Once during a kayak ride, Reinhard saw drowning girls: they went out to ride a boat, the boat turned over. Like a true knight, Heydrich immediately rushed to the rescue. One of the rescued girls he liked very much, and they began to meet, and a couple of months later, Heydrich announced their engagement. And just announced, there immediately appeared a certain girl who complained to the command that ... she was expecting a child from Reinhar. The officer was advised to break off the engagement and fulfill his duty, that is, marry another. Heydrich refused. Then he was subjected to a court of honor, convicted and dismissed without the right to reinstate military navy. It was the collapse of all hopes. Heydrich was unemployed, but he registered his marriage with Lina von Osten.
Heydrich's wife turned out to be a passionate supporter of the Fuhrer and advised Reinhard to relate the fate to the SS. Reinhard himself dreamed more of the merchant navy, he was attracted by the sea. But he heeded the advice of his wife and through one school friend met Himmler. Suddenly, Himmler offered the young officer not only SS membership, but also remarkable future prospects. In his new acquaintance, he quickly discerned a sober and tenacious mind (so that, and the Reich-Fuhrer of the SS knew how to find talents). Himmler offered Reinhard to take the post of the head of the SD. It turned out that Heydrich has all the necessary qualities of counterintelligence. He was enthusiastically engaged in cryptography and developed all the measures that helped Himmler's office to take a leading position in the emerging Reich. On his advice, Himmler "mastered" the police structures and turned the SS into a real military elite.
At the same time, Heydrich himself preferred to keep a low profile: brave in moments of danger, in life he was shy and modest, did not like to stick out his own merits. This could not fail to attract Himmler. All services to the party were given not to the timid Reinhard, but to the imperious Heinrich. However, Heydrich and did not seek to reap fame, his work fascinated. It was like solving riddles, and he loved riddles.
Heydrich treated with laughter the magical orientation of Himmler and his commitment to the racial theory. On the appearance of the Reichsführer himself, he once expressed himself with such words: "... if you look at his nose, this is a typical Jewish, real Jewish soldering iron." However, Reinhard himself did not escape accusations of unclean blood: his enemies for a long time and unsuccessfully tried to convince Himmler that something was wrong with the origin of the latter.
The spit-raisers were embarrassed by the name of his mother - Süss, completely Jewish, but it was the surname from the second marriage, and it wasn’t Jewish. Heydrich was not an anti-Semite in the sense that he was not infected with racial nonsense; on the contrary, he tried with all his might to avoid wasting blood in vain. But if it was necessary to carry out some important operation for the party and the state, the best targets were, of course, the Jews. That is, he was able to masterly use someone else's anti-Semitism, if it is necessary for the sake of the cause.
That's how he turned out to be the developer of the “Gryspinop” plan, that is, he organized the murder in Paris of an employee of the German embassy von Rath. By this time, his SD was already divided into two wings: the first was performing normal functions within the state, and the second was something like the English Intelligence Service. Not only did Gayd-ichu manage to create a remarkable network of agents, under the guise of a fashionable brothel in Berlin, he opened a kind of information mining salon. High-ranking officials and officers of the Reich went to this salon with a hunt. Heydrich literally stuffed the cabin with all kinds of listening equipment, so that the secret sayings of the salon clients immediately became known to him. The salon was famous for its girls, there was no end of customers.
Studying the data eavesdropping, Heydrich was able to reveal not only dangerous secrets, but recruited agents. Not even the Italian minister Ciano escaped such a fate. The SD managed to conduct its actions both domestically and abroad, directing and pushing the actions of hostile political leaders.
In 1936, the Office of Heydrich deftly organized the exposure of Tukhachevsky. The operation was based on rumors that Tukhachevsky was going to throw Stalin’s power in the USSR. Heydrich himself believed little in the rumors, but it was a wonderful chance to throw off Tukhachevsky himself, and knowing Stalin’s manic mind, that was also the top military leadership of the Soviet country.
Mikhail TukhachevskyThe weakening of the enemy immediately interested Hitler. So Heydrich ordered his specialists to compile a voluminous dossier on a Soviet general, consisting of the allegedly genuine correspondence of Tukhachevsky with German comrades. The dossier was slipped by the Soviet intelligence officer, who immediately informed those who should. Stalin's answer did not make him wait: heads flew to the USSR, the great purge began in the army.
He also skillfully organized the Crystal Night. To implement the plan, he decided to arrange the murder of Ernst von Rath, an employee of the German embassy in France.
The diplomat was known in particular circles: he was homosexual, which made the task easier. As a performer, the people of Heydrich selected a young Polish Jew Grinshpan, who had a love affair with the German. At the same time, the family of Grinshpan was “staged” so that she fell into a Polish-German dispute over Jews and ended up in a camp for displaced persons on Polish territory.
At the right time, Grynszpan received from his father a short postcard: “Dear Gershl, we ended up in Poland aground, without a penny of money. Would you be able to send anything? Thanks in advance. Father". By that time, Grinshpain's own life had gone to ashes: a German diplomat had broken off relations with him. The people of Heydrich urgently produced a new letter from Grynshpain's father, in which the father complained about the Germans and wrote about their atrocities (which were not). A letter from the young man was given by an employee of the SD, who introduced himself as a friend of his father. He himself shared stories of such atrocities that the impressionable youth had his hair on end.
Skilful conversation staff Heydrich did his job: the young man bought a gun and went to settle scores with von Rath, in it he now saw not only the lover who left him, but the enemy of the Jewish people. The embassy security was ordered to skip Grinshpan beforehand, and the ambassador was not there.
Gryshpan, who demanded an immediate meeting with the German ambassador, was missed to replace Vatu in his absence. He did not even have time to understand how the former lover shot him the whole clip. With a severe wound, von Rath was taken to a Paris hospital, and Grynshpan was arrested and sent to prison.
The police found an unsent letter to their father in the pocket of the arrested person: “My dear! I could not do otherwise - my heart bleeds from the moment I learned about the sufferings of 12 thousands of my co-religionists. God forgive me, and I hope you will forgive me. Gershl. According to Heydrich's plan, von Rath was supposed to die on the spot, but the shooter was inept, and the bullets only slightly touched the diplomat’s shoulder and hit him in the stomach.
Von Rath was lucky: in time the operation carried out guaranteed his recovery. This is what Heydrich could not allow. Under a specious pretext, a brigade of German doctors was sent to Paris. The blood that was transferred to von Ratha turned out to be by accident of the wrong group. The poor man died on the evening of November 9.
Newspapers for two days on behalf of Heydrich were in a state of hysteria.
They called Jews to account, anti-Semitic sentiments grew strongly.
Von Rath's death worked like a trigger: people were ready to show their anger. The SS Special Forces were given the command to maximally ensure the manifestation of anger, but not to allow unnecessary victims and looting. Especially it was pushing that anger could get out of control and harm the Aryan population. There were actually few victims, the damage was enormous.
Heydrich was not against material damage: by that time the Reich was pursuing a policy of squeezing Jews out of the economy and generally from the country, which will be discussed a little later. It also prepared the ground for the complication of Polish-German relations and should have provoked Polish provocations, which Hitler expected with impatience.
Another secret affair of the SD is the organization of an allegedly unsuccessful attempt on the Fuhrer. Heydrich didn’t hold on to organizing the assassination himself, but when he got information about a really preparing terrorist act, he used it remarkably, allowing events to flow along the planned plot by the conspirators with a small amendment.
8 November 1939, Hitler visited a pub in Munich, where he gave a speech before the old party cadres. To the surprise of the audience, his speech was brief, and he left the pub early. You probably shouldn't be surprised: I think he was notified about the time of the explosion. After 15 minutes after his departure, the explosive laid by Elser exploded, six old party members and a waiter were killed, and more than 10 people were injured. But the task of the SD was accomplished: the people took the unsuccessful attempt as the miraculous salvation of their Fuhrer. Newspapers choked with delight, which was required - not everyone liked the start of the Second World War. After the assassination attempt, the nation rallied. She was convinced that the attack was organized by the damned British!
Sometimes good decisions were made by Heydrich completely spontaneously.
Since the beginning of the war, the British decided to destroy the economy of the Reich in a very peculiar way: they began to drop fake cards from the aircraft for food and consumer goods. Immediately, a plan was born in Heydrich's head: to organize the creation of counterfeit money and scatter it over England. For a whole year, the specialists of the SD worked to create banknotes that can pass the most serious test. For this purpose, even counterfeiters were brought in prisons.
By the year 1940 in the SD, such fakes were already made that they were gladly taken in any bank. But by this time the plan to undermine the British economy had already faded into the background. Heydrich began to use fakes for its intended purpose: for the maintenance of PXA. The department had a lot of expenses, but not much money was allocated from the budget. Almost all RXA agents received their fee with fakes.
But the most important event of Heydrich is the collection of secret files. The head of the RCA had dirt on everyone, not excluding Hitler himself. After the death of Reinhar, these documents fell to Muller and Kaltenbrunner. The compromising evidence kept all senior officials of the Reich in fear of PXA. But Heydrich increasingly dreamed of a higher post. He wanted to extend his influence to all the internal politics of the Reich and take the chair of the Minister of the Interior. Hitler doubted Heydrich’s organizational skills and offered him the post of deputy protector for Bohemia and Moravia to begin with.
In September 1941, he was sent to help Baron von Neurath. Neurat really could not do anything with the opposition to the German regime. Arriving on the spot, on the very first day, Heydrich introduced a state of emergency in order to lure out of the underground all the discontented. And the discontented at this bait pecked: resistance began. All dissenters immediately went to prisons and camps, and after a couple of weeks the state of emergency was lifted, and life entered its shores.
However, Heydrich knew that in addition to the communist and nationalist Czech underground, there was a hidden opposition (he saw it in the Czech intelligentsia). Therefore, his support he chose the workers and peasants. The whole policy he pursued was aimed at improving the lives of ordinary people: he introduced an increased food ration for those employed in production, allocated footwear and industrial goods for the same category of people, raised wages, requisitioned buildings in Czech resorts, creating a network of holiday homes, destroyed speculation in goods. And this policy justified itself: the Czech workers supplied the German army with military equipment throughout the war. They lived even better than the workers in Germany itself. About any resistance and speech did not even go. But then the British intelligence and the Czech government, which was in exile, intervened. Be-nesh could not come to terms with the idea that his country did not even try to speak out against the Germans. So the decision was born to send the Czech saboteurs, if the people prefer not to quarrel with the Germans.
The conspirators took advantage of Heydrich’s renowned quality — extraordinary courage. He drove through the city without any protection and in an open car, only his driver was next to him. Reinhard's route was well known to the people of Prague: he did not change it. So to make a terrorist attack was not a problem.
On the morning of June 27, 1942, Heydrich was driving around the city as usual. But behind the wheel - that’s a coincidence! - was not the old and experienced chauffeur Willy, and the other chauffeur - Klein. Willie knew well how to act in unusual situations. Klein did not know. And when the car began to make a turn, a man in a raincoat jumped out onto the road. Heydrich understood everything instantly.
“Press on the gas!” He shouted to the newcomer, but he was confused ... and slowed down.
This short moment was enough for the person to drop the raincoat and pull out the machine gun. But the machine refused! Then a grenade flew onto the road. She was thrown by a second terrorist. The car was crippled from the explosion, windows were smashed from the surrounding houses. The conspirators decided to flee, but behind them both the wounded rushed, and chauffeur Klein and Heydrich himself. The driver immediately received two deadly shots to the head. Gade-ichu managed to wound the saboteur, but this is the last thing he could do. He fell to the ground and lost consciousness. He never came to himself again: he died of blood poisoning on July 4.
The German response to Heydrich's death was terrible: the recently pacified Czech Republic was subjected to unprecedented terror. They were looking for Heydrich's murderer. He was handed over by a Czech for a fee. Heydrich was posthumously awarded the Order of Blood and the German Order.
Unlike many figures of the Reich, Heydrich was, although cruel (not without reason, Hitler called him a man with an iron heart), but he was quite a reasonable person. He did not pour blood in vain, did not cause unnecessary indignation among the people. In a limited area, he even tried to create a semblance of a normal life for Jews, although by this time the policy towards them had tightened considerably.
This is how Theresienstadt appeared - a closed Jewish city with Jewish administration. Himmler ascribed credit to his creation. In fact, Heydrich and the Gestapo chief Muller did it, or rather, not Muller himself, but his subordinate Eichmann. In Theresienstadt, when the Reich was accused of atrocities against the Jews, they even brought representatives of the Red Cross. Here, the guides showed, you say that we are destroying the Jews, we are planting them over barbed wire, but where do you see wire and atrocity here? Look at those happy faces! Specially for the guests, the musical group was exhibited, and the guests listened with pleasure as the Jews of Theresienstadt played Mozart or Beethoven. After that, the Red Cross could not say that he had seen atrocities.
Of course, it was all a fake. And life in Terezi-enstadt was not sweet, but the fact that the children refused humanitarian condensed milk, so they would try not to refuse! Fear was present in everything. But compared with the Polish ghettos or camps, there was no atrocities. Heydrich himself saw the threat in the Jews, not because they were Jews, but because they were subject to the "red contagion". It was not for nothing that he was so outraged at the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that he even turned to his chief, Himmler, with a report on the growing communist danger.
Theresienstadt - "the settlement of the Jews"
“The fact,” he said, “that on the territory of the Reich the security police (SD) discovered many terrorist-sabotage groups established by order of the Comintern, is indicative of the position taken by the Soviet Union in relation to the Reich. The preparation of acts of sabotage against objects of military significance, bridges, explosions of important sections of the railway, the destruction and shutdown of important industrial enterprises and installations were the goal of these groups, which consisted entirely of communists who did not stop in the performance of their tasks and before the killings. In addition to assignments related to the commission of acts of sabotage, members of the groups received instructions on the commission of the attacks on the leaders of the Reich. Although it would have been expected that a series of these crimes, committed or being prepared by the Comintern, would cease after the signing of the non-aggression pact from August 23 on August 1939, but as a result of extensive investigations carried out especially in the territories occupied by Germany, evidence was obtained that the Comintern did not intend stop their criminal activities against the Reich ...
The activities of the Soviet Union directed against national-socialist Germany ... testify to the colossal scale of underground subversive work, sabotage of terror and espionage in order to prepare for war, which is being waged in the fields of politics, economics and defense. "
Heydrich had nothing against ordinary Jews, but he suspected hidden communists in them. Much more negatively, he was opposed to wealthy Jews; in them he saw the world conspiracy against Germany - the conspiracy of financiers and industrialists. To destroy these citizens was not part of his plans, but it would be a good thing to get rid of them. If the Reich is built as a national state of the Germans, then it must first be cleared of internal threats. This position was taken by Muller and Himmler himself. They had no pathological hatred of the Jews, which overwhelmed Hitler.
To expel the Jews in the SS was considered the best solution. With the beginning of the war it became a necessity. The Reich could not allow to keep within itself an internal enemy, and in the six years of the Reich’s existence the majority of Jews were opposed to the National Socialists. Even before this war, Germany was constantly negotiating to move the Jews to the land of Palestine, but the result was disappointing - the quotas were exhausted. An attempt to send Jews to civilized countries was also unsuccessful: they could accept individual Jews, by no means a whole wave of immigrants. There was another stumbling block: the mass of Jews had no means for resettlement. And Himmler has developed a special plan: the relocation of poor Jews at the expense of the rich. Rich Jews refused to pay for the poor. Then it was decided to expel the Jews with deprivation of property - in this case, the rich could pay for the transportation of the poor, in any case, they lost their money. But rich Jews refused to leave anti-Semitic Germany, hoping to preserve both property and life even in such a bad country. Vydit Jews to the end and send did not work.
Realizing that with the solution of the Jewish question completely confused, Himmler shoved him on Heydrich. Gade-ryh entrusted him to Muller. Müller created a division within his department that dealt exclusively with the Jewish question. The instructions of the leadership were entrusted to the quiet and executive young SS officer Alfred Eichmann. This "Nazi criminal" was guilty only of the fact that he carried out the orders clearly and meticulously. However, he ended his life very badly. After the defeat of the Reich, he managed to escape, change his last name, live in a foreign country. And many years later, the old Eichmann stole the Israeli Mossad, and the Israeli court arranged a demonstration process and sentenced him to death. If the protocols of interrogations of this person show, then only how a completely normal German and not a sadist, who does not have any hatred for the Jews, tries to do them better, and as a result it turns out that he committed a crime against humanity.
Adf EichmannEichmann was very unlucky in this regard: he was assigned to deal with the Jewish question, when there could be only one solution — camp and extermination. He did not understand this. Probably, in those years, many Germans did not understand this at all, because the camp system was closed and they could not see firsthand the results of their “labor”. And Eichmann, who was just a gear in a huge car, saw only his part of the mechanism, for which he was sentenced to death.
In his ministry, Eichmann was put to the most unpleasant and tedious paper work, so that when the opportunity arose to go somewhere, he immediately agreed. So the future hangman got into the SD. He told the investigator about his activities as follows:
“In the“ Jews ”department I met with a completely new task area.
Untersturmführer von Mildenstein was a very sociable, friendly person; Austrian by birth, apparently, traveled a lot around the world. There was no such callousness in him, rudeness, like most of the then chiefs, with whom they were afraid to speak. We very quickly became close to him. One of the first things he assigned to me was related to the book The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl.
Herzl called for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, and thereby brought about the life of the Zionist movement; it soon gained many supporters, mainly in Eastern Europe. Von Mildenstein told me to read it. I worked hard on these in the following days. The book interested me, until then I did not hear about anything like that ... It made an impression on me - perhaps my romanticism affected me, my love for nature, for mountains and forests ... I delved into its content, much remembered. I did not know what will happen next. When I finished the book, I was ordered to draw up a synopsis, a certificate; It should have been distributed as an official circular for employees of the SS and internal use in the SD, the security service ... She was later printed in a notebook, a circular for the SS. I set out there the structure of the world Zionist organization, the goals of Zionism, its base and difficulties. His demands were emphasized; they responded to our own intentions - in the sense that Zionism sought a political decision: they wanted a land on which their people could finally settle down and live peacefully. This largely coincided with the program installation of national socialism.
At the same time, I took up neo-Zionists. I also wrote a certificate about them, but I don’t know if it was published as a circular. During this time, I recognized Untersturmführer von Mildenstein as a person who is looking for political solutions, rejecting the methods that Sturmovik magazine preached ... I was assigned such a range of issues - international Zionism, modern Zionism, orthodox Judaism. Another employee knew the organizations involved in assimilation.
We had nothing else! Around this time, Mildenstein’s acquaintance began to visit us, his name was Ernst von Bolsching. He had been engaged in commerce in Palestine for a long time, along with a certain Mr. Borman, who sent from there - every year, if I'm not mistaken, - a ship loaded with onions to one of the Scandinavian countries. This Mr. von Bolypving often came to our service and talked about Palestine.
He obtained such a complete overview - the program of Zionism, the current situation, the situation in Palestine and the spread of Zionism throughout the world - that I was gradually becoming a specialist in Zionism. I also received newspapers, including Haint. I couldn’t read their badges and letters, so I bought Samuel Kaleko’s book — a Hebrew textbook. I began to learn typed letters. Words too, but mostly I just wanted to learn how to read the printed text of the newspaper „ Heint ", it was typed in Yiddish, but in Hebrew letters.
And at the beginning of 1936, there were changes. Mr. von Mildenstein moved to the Imperial Road Construction Authority, the “Todt Organization”, and he was sent to North America to study the construction of motorways ... My boss was a new man, namely Dieter Wizlitzeni ...
Gradually, I became acquainted with the so-called incoming correspondence, until then I did not see it at all. Messages came from the offices of the SD on the ground, from some central instances, but most often these were reports about conferences of the organization of world Jewry itself. Sometimes these were scientific materials, supposedly scientific materials found somewhere during the confiscation, and since the Gestapo did not know what to do with them, they were handed over to the SD. There also came reports from nationalist organizations and police reports ...
Task number one was to ensure that reports come from the lower branches of the SD to higher departments, and from these higher ones to the General Directorate; that the field offices have instructions on what they should report at all and what interests us; in turn, they must communicate this to their lower branches and through them further on, up to the agent network. With regard to the collection of reports, as far as this relates to my sector, preliminary work has already been carried out - through the circular letter of the SS. I just had to refer to this circular: this is what we need! The government wants them to leave; all that contributes to this, should be done, nothing should interfere. Everything was spinning around this.
Of course, I had to have information on the number of immigrants. I also learned then that things are not going well. I first heard about the difficulties in obtaining a certificate of payment of taxes. The same with the deadlines, because the shelf life of some documents was too small, we had to get them again. I learned about the difficulties that arose due to the fact that some police station, out of ignorance or out of stupidity, liquidated the Jewish organization, sealed the premises, arrested functionaries, which caused delays. I heard about the complications arising from the fact that the authorities of the mandated territory in Palestine allocated insufficient quotas for emigration. I heard about the difficulties posed by other countries that accepted emigrants. But I was powerless, because the General Directorate of the SD was a purely informational organization, it had to simply transfer what it learned to higher services.
... My job was to send to Palestine the largest possible contingent of Jews. I was interested in any possibility of emigration overseas. But all this is only theoretically. After all, I could only explain in my reports what can be done, what is desirable. But it was very difficult to achieve a political solution, it meant to abandon the methods of the Sturmovik. Probably, this concept suited someone as propaganda. But it didn’t bring anyone closer to a solution ”.
So, after studying the "Palestinian issue" and a trip to Palestine, Eichmann realized that nothing would come of it. And after the Crystal Night it became clear that with the decision of the Jewish question it was impossible to do anything at all. But all the attempts of the SD to somehow resolve the situation ended in nothing. Then the Second World War began, this situation only worsened. A plan was created in Heydrich’s head to create a “Jewish protectorate” on the lands of Poland ... he even found a place in the Radomirskie voivodship. But from this, too, nothing happened.
Then the top management had another idea: to relocate the Jews to the island of Magadaskar. This idea was expressed by Guido von Liszt, but as a theoretical one. But Eichmann, who had already grown to the head of the Jewish department, was to test theory with practice. The “Madagascar” plan intended to take away the designated island from the French, resettle all the French from it, establish a naval base and then settle the rest of the land with the Jews of the Reich.
“Since Madagascar will only be under the mandate of Germany,” said the project of Radimacher, “its Jewish population will not receive German citizenship. At the time of transportation, the citizenship of European countries will be taken away from the Jews; instead, they will become citizens of the Madagascar mandate. Such a situation would not allow them to create their own state in Palestine, similar to the Vatican, and to use for their own purposes the symbolic significance of Jerusalem in the eyes of Christian and Muslim society. In addition, the Jews will remain hostages in the hands of Germany, which will allow them to achieve good behavior in the future of their relatives in North America.
For propaganda purposes, you can use the slogan about the generosity of Germany, which gives Jewish cultural, economic, administrative and legal independence. It must be emphasized that the inherent sense of responsibility that we Germans will not allow us to immediately provide an independent state of existence to a race that has not had independence for millennia. To do this, she will have to turn in historical exam". They were going to introduce autonomy on the island: "... their city mayors, police, post office, railway administration and others."
Funds for the project were supposed to be taken from a specially created bank where the value of the property of Jews in Europe automatically fell. Eichmann was assigned to implement the project in practice. He deeply delved into the assigned business: he studied the climatic features of the island, read basic research on the nature of the island and its economy ... but the project stalled. On the one hand, the Jews themselves did not want to go there, on the other hand, numerous German departments put obstacles in their way.
“And when the plan finally cleared up,” he stated, “and none of the central departments had any wishes left - then it was already late. German troops were in Paris for a long time, but we could not get to Madagascar. When the French fleet left, and Germany occupied a part of France that was not occupied until the Mediterranean, the Madagascar was out of the question. That was the end of the case.
True, it never came to Eichman why the Jews refused Madagascar and why the project was inhibited in every way. The first were confused by the particular climate and the fact that the island was too small for global resettlement, while the Offices braked the project, since Hitler was not going to resettle anyone. He already had another project. Here Himmler somewhat underestimated the Fuhrer's anti-Semitism.
And when the war with the USSR began, neither Himmler nor Heydrich could do anything: nobody would dare to act against the order of the Fuhrer in the Reich.
One summer in summer, Eichmann 1941 summoned Heydrich. “I have come. And he told me: "The Führer, well, with this emigration ..." But first, very briefly: "The Führer ordered the physical destruction of the Jews." This phrase he told me. And contrary to his wont he was silent for a long time, as if he wanted to check the effect of his words. I remember that today. At the first moment I did not even try to imagine the scale of this action, because he carefully selected the words. But then I understood what was going on and did not say anything to it, because I could not say anything. Because of such ... about such things, about a violent decision, I never thought. "
Heydrich did not even think, obviously, before, he was not less shocked by the order. He had no experience in such matters. So the only thing he could offer was to send Eichmann to learn from someone else’s experience. And such a person was in the Reich. He pathologically hated Jews, but he was very fond of Jewish gold. Many considered him a shame of the National Socialist Party. The bastard was named Odilo Globocnik, he served as chief of police in the city of Lublin.
“And then he (Heydrich) told me:“ Eichmann, go to Globocnik in Lublin. Go to Globocnik. Reichsfuhrer already gave him the appropriate instructions. See how it went. What he uses to destroy the Jews there, "Eichmann continues." As ordered, I went to Lublin, found the office of the head of the SS and the police Globocnik, went to the Gruppenführer and told him that Heydrich had sent me, because the Führer had ordered the physical the destruction of the Jews. Globocnik then summoned some sturmbannführer Höfle, probably from his headquarters.
We went from Lublin, now I don’t remember how this place is called, I confuse them, I can’t say for sure, it was Treblinka or something else. There is a woodland, a rare such forest, and through it a dirt road, a Polish road. And to the right of the road was a house, the usual structure in which the people who work there live. We were greeted by a captain, an ordinary police officer. There were still workers, a few people. And the captain was without a uniform, which I was extremely surprised, he was with rolled up sleeves, he probably worked with them. They built wooden houses there, two or three. Dimensions - maybe with a country house, rooms for two or three.
Höfle told the police captain to explain to me what they were building. And he began. It was a man with such, you know ... in such a hoarse voice. Maybe he drank. He spoke in a certain dialect, probably, like in the south-west of Germany, and began to tell me that he had already tightened all the seams, because the engine from a Russian submarine would work here, and the engine exhaust gases would let me down here and poison them ".
Returning from a business trip, Eichmann reported on what he had seen to Heydrich, he was silent, and for several months did not bother the head of the Jewish department. But in the fall, Muller sent him with a similar task, now to Chelmno.
“This is what I saw there: a room, if I remember correctly, is five times more than where we are; there were Jews inside. They had to undress, and then a closed truck, a van, arrived at the door.
I drove very close. And the naked Jews had to go into the body. Then they were locked there, and the car drove away. ... I drove after that car - and saw the worst thing I had ever seen before. The van drove up to a long pit. The body was opened and corpses were thrown out. As if alive, they still bent. Thrown into the pit. I see in front of me how some man in civilian with ticks pulled out his teeth. In Berlin, I reported to the gruppenführer Müller. I told him the same thing that I say now. I told him: it is terrifying, it is sheol. I can not. This ... I can't do that! - I said to him. I was sent to such places: these two, then Auschwitz, and then I was sent to Treblinka. And in Minsk too. Minsk, Oswiecim, Treblinka, Minsk, Oswiecim, Treblinka, Minsk ... "
What he saw in Minsk almost drove Eichmann insane: “When I arrived, I only saw how young soldiers, I think they had a skull and bones on their buttonholes, shot at a pit, the size of which was, say, four or five times more of this room. Maybe even much more, six or seven times. I ... I am there ... no matter what I said ... because I only saw, I did not even think, I did not expect this. And I saw nothing more! They shot from top to bottom, I also saw a woman with her hands behind her back, and my legs gave way, I felt bad!
... I went from there to the car, sat down and left. I went to Lviv. I now remember - I did not have an order to go to Lviv. Somehow I get to Lvov, I come to the head of the Gestapo and say to him: “It's terrible what is being done there,” I say. “After all, young people are brought up by sadists!” Me and Muller said exactly the same thing. And to Ponter too he said. I said this to everyone. I told everyone. And I said to that Führer of the SS in Lvov: "How can you just shoot at a woman and children like that? How is it possible?” I said. “You can't ... People either go crazy or become sadists our own people. " And he says to me: “Here they do the same, they shoot too. Want to see? "I say:" No, I don't want to watch anything. " And he says: “We’ll go by anyway." There was also a hole there, but already buried, and from it blood, as if ... how to say it? The blood flowed from there. I never saw anything like that. Fed up with such a task!
I went to Berlin and reported to the gruppenführer Müller. I told him: “This is not a solution to the Jewish question. In addition, we bring up sadists from our people. And there is nothing for us to be surprised, it is not necessary to be surprised if they are all criminals, only criminals. "I still remember how Muller looked at me, and his expression said," Eichmann, you're right; this is not a solution. " But he, of course, also could not do anything. Nothing could do Muller, nothing, absolutely nothing! Who ordered it all? He ordered, namely, ordered, of course, the chief of the security police and the SD, that is, Heydrich. But he had to receive instructions from the Reichsfuhrer SS, that is, from Himmler; by itself he could not, could never have done such a thing. And Himmler should have had a categorical indication from Hitler; if Hitler had not ordered it would be for such a thing on the front somewhere, under bombs and shells ... ”
Eichmann did not understand at all: what he called the upbringing of sadism was the practice of killing in a person everything that binds him to the human world. Soldiers who performed such tasks were supposed to perform them without feeling either pleasure or suffering. This was the main condition in the education of the SS man - to give up everything that connects him with the animal principle in man. During training, the SS passed many tests. These were both purely physical tests that required exertion of strength, courage, ability to make quick decisions, to withstand high loads, to be prepared for everything dangerous and unexpected, and moral - related to bringing pain to another person, degrading pride, and included unquestioned training. obedience and fostering loyalty to his Fuhrer.
The most common test of courage and endurance of the SS fighter was as follows: the candidate was placed for an hour or more in icy water, they were often attacked by hungry shepherd dogs, which he had to strangle with his bare hands, they could shoot him, he was asked to go between the blades of daggers, he was it was proposed to kill the animal with his own hands so as not to damage his body, and then remove the skin without spoiling the eye.
These rites of initiation of newbies and the method of their further training the clever, well-read, Himmler borrowed from the practice of the Jesuits and other secret orders, about which he knew a lot. And after the Tibetan expeditions, he learned something about the local technique of “viparit”, developed by the priests of Bon on.
This technique, Tibetan in origin, says that to fully improve the spirit, its hardening, giving it the "Golden Glow", that is, the forces of Fire that conquer the Ice, you must go through disgust and take it as pleasure. For this technique teaches us to eat inedible and unpleasant elements - blood, semen, urine, feces, saliva, etc. Then, at another stage, a person learns without disgust, but on the contrary, with an understanding and a pleasant feeling, to contemplate ominous pictures - death, injury, physiological manifestations of life. And then learns to perceive that which brings pain, as pleasure.The final result of such a learning process was to become complete perfection, and this perfection is considered, according to Tibetan notions, the magical basis of immortality. Eichmann did not belong to the SS elite. He was engaged in labeling, that is, clerical routine, before calling in SD. It is unlikely that he underwent appropriate training, like real SS warriors. The latter, after training, were to remain calm in any situation — not to be angry, not to shout, not to cry, not to be afraid, not to feel disgust. Himmler dreamed of creating a new man. Unlike Hitler, he actually created it.
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