Smrt v Praze - Atentát na Reinharda Heydricha – Haasis Hellmut G. (2024)

German historian Hellmut G. Haasis offers the Czech reader a detailed analysis of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a number of little-known insights into this dramatic historical event of European significance, and a new perspective on the Czech resistance. The author first creates a psychological portrait of Reinhard Heydrich, the third man in the power hierarchy of Nazi Germany and the architect of the so-called Final Solution to the Jewish question. However, the focus of Haasis's attention is the Czech anti-Nazi resistance – primarily in the occupied Protectorate; he maps the non-communist Czech resistance from the beginning of the occupation until Heydrich's arrival in Prague in September 1941. The main heroes of his book are the paratroopers from Operation Anthropoid, their comrades from other missions, and especially the members of their network of helpers, mostly from the Sokol resistance, most of whom paid for their courage with their lives during the massive terror following the assassination. Haasis's book culminates in the depiction of the last battle of the paratroopers in the Church of St. Cyril and Methodius, with many vivid details and a description of the assassination's place in history – from the obscuring of its significance and silence during the communist era to its dignified, albeit late, commemoration in the form of a memorial built in 1995 at the site of the paratroopers' deaths.