Heydrich: The Face of Evil [Hardcover]

Mario Dederichs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2006

This meticulously researched biography creates a complete and balanced picture of Reinhard Heydrich. A leading figure within the Nazi Party, he was responsible more than Himmler for the planning and execution of the Holocaust. Having joined the Nazi Party in 1931, Heydrich rose quickly through the ranks of the SS. By the age of twenty-nine he had become an SS Brigadier General, and his ruthless ambition led many senior Nazis to believe that he was the natural successor to Hitler. It was Heydrich’s initiative to create the Einsatzgruppen, paramilitary units which were established before Operation Barbarossa to murder Jews and political operatives of the Communist party. In 1941 Heydrich was made Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Supremely confident of his authority within the province, he would often drive alone in an open-top car. British-trained Czech partisans took advantage of this gesture, and in 1942 carried out a daring assassination attempt. Heydrich was mortally wounded in the ambush and died a week later in hospital. The reprisals that followed were brutal: more than 15,000 Czechs were murdered and the town of Lidice was razed to the ground. This book examines Heydrich’s meteoric rise to power, his complex personality, and the aftermath of his death: Hitler’s vengeance and the postwar fortunes of Heydrich’s widow and descendants.

Editorial Reviews

Review

WWII History, May 2007
“There have been several comprehensive biographies of Heydrich, but Mario Dederich’s fine depiction burnishes new faces of the life and times of the man some have called ‘The Blond Beast.’ Dederichs, who passed away shortly after completing this manuscript, had access to Heydrich’s widow’s memoirs and was able to obtain rare interviews with his son and daughter, thus creating a more complete and personal portrait than ever before.

“For those who wish to learn more about the workings of Hitler’s inner circle, and the types of individuals who held the reins of power in the Third Reich, Dederich’s book provides a chilling glimpse into this frightening world.”

"With journalistic flair and historical awareness Mario R Dederichs pursues the trail of this copybook-Nazi. He spares readers nothing. He takes them to Auschwitz, and to the edge of the execution trench, standing naked, awaiting a bullet from those less couth than the planners of these murders. Archives from Berlin to Jerusalem lay on Dederichs' path, and everywhere he found previously overlooked witnesses, for example the only Czech doctor to assist at the unsuccessful emergency surgery on Heydrich. By the time he finishes the book, the reader has realized that the face of evil is not to be found only below the bald pate of the stupid skinhead. It is the fanatics with a good civil service background who need watching."
-- Goslarsche Zeitung

"Journalist Mario R Dederichs has succeeded in writing a gripping short biography which is very acceptable in content and style. He demonstrates skilfully the many facets of the 'man with the icy stare'."
-- Ulrike Steinbach

"Dederichs has condensed sketches from Fest, studies by Aronson, Deschner, Calic and Sydnor on one side of the narrative, and enlarged upon them with his own archive research and interviews with eye-witnesses. Many new details and nuances in no way reject the existing picture, however. The text is particularly impressive where the author focusses on the treatment of National Socialist crimes by German justice after 1945, especially the later struggle of Heydrich's widow for her pension rights. Additionally the depiction of Heydrich's web of informers and Fuehrer-elite is fascinating. The readability, scope, adherence to fact, psychological evaluation and a thorough method bolster the author's intention to explain the most oppressive epoch of German and European history to a new generation."
-- Professor Manfred Funke, Lecturer in Political Science, Bonn University.

 

"The central question of the biography is how this man came to be an embodiment of evil. Dederichs approaches the person of Reinhard Heydrich through meticulous research and eye-witness interviews. His journalist's pen has made the life of the Gestapo-chief into a gripping story. At the same time, the text withstands scientific scrutiny thanks to its detailed evaluation of sources."-- Main Echo

About the Author

Mario Dederichs was Washington, Moscow and Bonn correspondent for Stern magazine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Greenhill Books; First Edition edition (November 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853676861
• ISBN-13: 978-1853676864
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,355,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Naziest Nazi, January 11, 2007

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Heydrich: The Face of Evil (Hardcover)

The soldiers who worked with or for Reinhard Heydrich, who rose through the ranks of the SS to become a brigadier general, left some colorful descriptions of him. He was "an animal of prey" according to one. Another said, "His God was might." Another said he was "the most demonic personality in the National Socialist leadership." Hitler himself called Heydrich, whom he admired, "The Man with the Iron Heart". Heydrich played key roles in setting up the mechanisms by which millions of Jews lost their lives, but his name does not ring with infamy like that of Goerring or Eichmann. The main reason for this is that he did not live long enough to see the defeat of Germany and thus get brought to the judicial investigation and the trial that would have inevitably resulted in his hanging. Nonetheless, he was an essential figure within the Third Reich, and Mario R. Dederichs, a journalist who had written articles on Heydrich, was working on a book on the subject when he died in 2003. Colleagues helped finish _Heydrich: The Face of Evil_ (Greenhill Books), which has won praise in Germany, and Geoffrey Brooks translated from the German. The book helps show Heydrich as an ambitious and confident rising star of the Nazi party, but cannot keep from showing that he was some kind of monster.

Heydrich was a young nationalist, acting as a teenage civic messenger in the aftermath of WWI, and joining the navy in 1922. He signed on to Heinrich Himmler's SS, and worked directly under Himmler all his career in intelligence. He was ruthless in pursuit of his own career, but seemed sincerely devoted to the principles of National Socialism, especially racial hatred. He issued guidelines for Nazi action in the Kristallnacht. He recommended in 1939 that every Jew wear a distinguishing yellow star; at this time, even Hitler thought this was a bit extreme, but a couple of years later, the rule went into effect. It was Heydrich who appointed Eichmann head of the administrative branch dealing with treatment of the Jews. It was Heydrich who convened and chaired the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, resulting in a plan for large-scale extermination of the Jews. He advanced to be _Reichsprotektor_ in the Czech puppet state in September 1941, and with overconfidence he took to being driven along Prague streets in his open car without bodyguards. He was attacked on 27 May 1942 by the resistance. Elaborate services were conducted in Prague and Berlin. Hitler knew he had lost one of the best of his henchmen, and himself placed Heydrich's military decorations on the funeral pillow.

The most disconcerting part of this biography is that it is almost impossible to find anything humane about its subject. He did love his violin, true, but the rest of the portrait is bleakly evil. He was a sorry husband, using his power and manipulativeness to have countless affairs. He only intermittently showed interest in his children. In his work, he had no conscience in dealing with his fellow military men, much less with the doomed Jews under his control. Because his crimes were never judicially investigated, and he was never convicted of any wrong-doing, modern neo-Nazis have made an idol of him. A racist in the US called him admiringly "the Naziest Nazi of them all." For anyone else, this biography will be a harrowing and sad reading experience.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book, December 3, 2006

By 

M. R. Sheffield (Herkimer, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Heydrich: The Face of Evil (Hardcover)

Much better than the (few) earlier Heydrich bios, packed dense with information but still easy to read. A GREAT JOB WITH A DIFFICULT SUBJECT. If you are interested in WW II or Nazi Germany, this is a must read book. You will not be disappointed.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, April 10, 2007

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David J. Judge "DJJ" (Centreville, Virginia USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Heydrich: The Face of Evil (Hardcover)

If you ever want to appreciate what evil is truly about, please read this book. We do not need to conjure up images of a devil with human beings like Heydrich roaming the face of the earth. Unfortunately, they still do occupy the space we all share. The man was truly ruthless and cold blooded. Read it and you will come away with a better understanding of the suffering and death that was needlessly inflicted on mankind by this horrible man.