Reinhard Heydrich

1904 – 1942

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was a high-ranking SS general, head of the Reich Main Security Office, and one of the principal architects of the Holocaust. As acting Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia he earned the nickname "the Butcher of Prague" for the mass arrests, executions, and deportations to Theresienstadt that he ordered, and as chair of the January 1942 Wannsee Conference he formalized the bureaucratic plan for the genocide of European Jews. He was assassinated in Prague in May 1942 by Czech and Slovak resistance fighters, dying of his wounds a week later, after which Nazi reprisals destroyed the village of Lidice and killed all of its men.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM