Heydrich Reinhard

The traditional Russian transliteration named after Heydrich - Reinhard Tristan Eigen Heydrich . A more phonetically correct spelling is Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heidrich . Now the most common intermediate options are Reinhard Heydrich and Reinhard Heydrich . Heydrich was given the name Reinhard t ( Reinhardt ), in 1932, he changed his spelling to Reinhard.

Childhood and adolescence

Reinhard Heydrich's mother Elizabeth, nee Kranz, came from a wealthy family: her father Eugen Krantz led the Royal Conservatory in Dresden . Reinhard's father, Bruno Heydrich , was an opera singer and composer . Bruno Heydrich's operas were staged in the theaters of Cologne and Leipzig . In 1899, he founded a music school for children from the middle class in Galle , but he still could not enter the urban high society.

From an early age, Reinhardt was interested in politics. His parents read the work of the racial theorist Houston Chamberlain , devoted to questions of the “race struggle” ^[8] . When the First World War began , Heydrich was 10 years old. At the end of the war, Heydrich had the opportunity to watch demonstrations and street skirmishes in Galle ^[9] .

In 1919, at the age of 15, Heydrich, still a schoolboy, began to get involved in politics and joined the frykor “Georg Ludwig Rudolf Merker” - a paramilitary nationalist organization. Heydrich begins to actively engage in sports , fostering a competitive spirit.

In 1918-1919 he was a member of the National Association of Pan-German Youth - the “German National Youth Union” in Halle. This organization seemed too moderate to Reinhard, and in 1920 he joined the German People’s Union for Defense and Offensive ^[10] ( German. Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund ). In the same year, eager to participate more actively in the political scene that was raging around, Heydrich became a liaison in the “Lucius” division ^[11] , which was part of the volunteer detachments in Galle, where he became interested in the ideas of youth militaristic pro-patriotic movements ^[7] . In 1921 he created a new association - "German People's Youth Squad" ^[7] .

Fleet service

The economic crisis that hit post-war Germany put the Heydrich father’s music school on the brink of ruin. The musician’s career did not promise any success now, although Reinhard Heydrich played the violin well . Similarly, financially unpromising seemed to Heydrich and the career of a chemist he had dreamed of ^[12] .

March 30, 1922 ^[9] Heydrich entered the naval school in Kiel . The navy with its tough code of honor seemed to the young Heydrich to be the elite of the nation. In 1926, after graduating from college and receiving the rank of lieutenant, Heydrich was sent to serve in the intelligence of the fleet. The future Abwehr leader and future Admiral Wilhelm Canaris began to contribute to his career, while he was a senior officer on the Berlin cruiser . Relations between the Canaris family and Heydrich were very close - for example, Heydrich often played the string quartet with his wife Canaris ^[13] .

However, Heydrich’s relationship with his colleagues was not very good. Like his father at one time, he was hindered by rumors about his Jewish ancestors. During his service in the Navy, Heydrich was even more active in sports, in particular pentathlon .

Behind Heydrich the reputation of red tape spread ^[13] . In December 1930, at one of the balls, Heydrich met his future wife, rural teacher Lina von Austen , whom he married in December of the following year. According to another, more romantic version, Reinhard and his friend were boating and saw a boat with two girls overturned nearby. Of course, young people heroically came to the rescue. One of the saved girls was Lina von Osten ^[13] .

Heydrich had previously developed an affair with another woman, the daughter of the head of the naval shipyard in Kiel (according to other sources, the daughter of the owner of the largest metallurgical holding IG Fabernim). Heydrich broke this connection, sending by mail the announcement of his engagement to Lena cut out of a newspaper. The girl's father turned to the head of the Navy - Admiral Erich Raeder , with a request to influence Heydrich. According to the Navy's code of honor, Heydrich committed a grave misconduct, having two novels at the same time. The behavior of the young lieutenant was examined at a court of honor, headed by Raeder himself. At a meeting of the court of honor, Raeder noted that the daughter of “such a person” is worthy of a “village simpleton,” Heydrich answered with a request not to interfere in his choice. In April 1931, Admiral Raeder resigned Heydrich for "misbehavior" ^[13] .

Joining the SS

In June 1931, Reinhard Heydrich joined the NSDAP , receiving a party membership card No. 544 916, and the SS (ticket number 10 120). Together with militants from the SA, Heydrich took part in battles with socialists and communists. ^[14]

At the same time, Heinrich Himmler began to streamline the activities of the SS. To better coordinate the actions of the SS, as well as to monitor political opponents and participate in force actions of the SS, a trained intelligence service was required. Through his friend Karl von Eberstein, Heydrich met Himmler and expressed his suggestions for him to create an SS intelligence service; Himmler liked them and he instructed Heydrich to start creating a security service that became known as the SD . At first, the main task of the SD was to collect incriminating materials on people occupying a prominent position in society, as well as conducting information campaigns to discredit political opponents.

Soon Heydrich became an important person for the Nazi party, and his career quickly went up the hill. In December 1931 he received the title of SS Obersturmbannführer , and in July 1932 - the Standartenführer SS . At the same time, Heydrich changed the spelling of his name from Reinhardt to Reinhard.

The political struggle of 1933-1934

The appointment of Adolf Hitler in 1933 to the post of Reich Chancellor meant for the SA and SS the rise to power and the beginning of reprisal against the opposition. The officials who held their posts under the Weimar Republic were largely replaced by immigrants from the SA and SS.

Meanwhile, the SA attack aircraft, under the leadership of Ernst Rohm , caused Hitler more and more concern. The officers and rank-and-file SA, which in many respects ensured Hitler's rise to power, were unhappy that, in their opinion, the SA had not received enough authority. The situation was aggravated by the presence of two wings within the National Socialist Party - more inclined toward national policy (Adolf Hitler) and another, who believed that the party should first of all carry out a socialist program ( Gregor Strasser ). In the midst of stormtroopers, more and more there was talk about the need for a second, truly socialist revolution . At this time, Heydrich's SD ^[15] collected compromising material on Ryohm and his closest associates. Materials collected by Heydrich pointed to the inevitable putsch being prepared in the bowels of the SA. After the SS was defeated by the SS during the so-called "Night of the Long Knives" SA, and Rom himself was killed, on June 30, 1934, Heydrich received the title of SS Gruppenführer .

As part of the apparatus struggle between the two law enforcement agencies - the SS and the Wehrmacht - the Heydrich SD took a serious part in the removal from power of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Colonel General Werner von Fritsch and Minister of Defense Werner von Blomberg . A compromising dossier was collected on both military men. Von Blomberg's young wife was a prostitute in the past, scandal erupted, and Hitler fired him. Fritsch on false evidence was accused of homosexual relations and also removed from his post. At the same time, several dozens of higher military ranks were removed or demoted ^[16] .

Serious friction also existed between the Heydrich SD and military intelligence - the Abwehr , which was led by the former patron of Heydrich, Wilhelm Canaris . In public, both leaders remained friendly and even met each morning for a walk. However, behind the curtains, everyone was trying to get the other out of the game: Heydrich gave orders to conduct secret searches in the offices of Canaris, who carefully searched for evidence of Heydrich's Jewish origin.

In charge of internal security agencies

The Reichsführer SS Security Service (SD) ( German: Der Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS ) was formed in March 1934 ^[17] . In 1936, Himmler became the head of the German police, and Heydrich was appointed the head of the SD and the chief of the German security police ("zipo", German. Sicherheitspolizei, Sipo ), which united the criminal police ("kripo") and the secret state police (" Gestapo "). Using this tool of violence, Heydrich was given the opportunity to deal with both enemies of the regime and his personal enemies. Security police agents also spied on Jews, Communists, liberals, and religious minorities. The staff of the SD included about 3,000 agents, and up to 100,000 people were part-time informants ^[18] . After the Anschluss, Heydrich, together with Himmler, organized terror in Austria against opponents of the regime, and also created the Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz ^[19] .

In 1939, the SD, the zipo and the Gestapo were transferred to the newly created Office of the RSHA - the General Directorate of Imperial Security ( German: Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA ), headed by Heydrich. The RSHA has become a powerful organization for collecting and analyzing information, as well as suppressing the opposition.

Period of World War II

It was Heydrich who developed the plan for the dramatization of the border incident, known as the Glyuvitsky provocation ^[20] . The purpose of the staging was to show that the German attack on Poland is only a response of Germany to acts of violence against German residents committed by the Polish side. In August 1939, SS men disguised as Polish uniforms attacked a German radio transmitter in the city of Gleywitz . The corps of the "Poles" was presented to the world media. In fact, the dead prisoners of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp acted as killed Poles ^[20] . On September 1, 1939, German troops attacked Poland, and World War II began . During the occupation of Poland, the Einzatzgruppen SS group , subordinate to Heydrich, destroyed the Polish intelligentsia, the Communists and the Jews ^[21] .

In the early years of World War II, Heydrich was engaged not only in organizational work. As an Air Force reserve officer, Heydrich took part in the combat missions of German aviation (first as a radio gunner on a bomber , then as a ground attack pilot) during campaigns against France , Norway and the USSR ^[22] . This corresponded to Heydrich's ideas about the ideal SS officer, who not only sits at his desk, but also participates in hostilities. After the plane of Heydrich was shot down east of the Berezina River and Heydrich was rescued only in time by German soldiers who arrived in time, Himmler personally forbade him to participate in hostilities ^[23] .

Participation in the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question”

Heydrich was one of the main architects of the Holocaust and implementers of the plan of genocide of Jews in Germany and the occupied countries ^[24] .

According to Nazi ideology, Jews were the leading force of the world communist movement, enemies of the Reich and the embodiment of the image of the enemy. Jews, along with blacks, gypsies, Eastern Slavs and other non-Aryan peoples, were declared "subhuman" ( German: Untermenschen ).

Even before the war, Heydrich collected information about Jewish organizations, and the SD held a thorough surveillance of them. On November 7, 1938, in Paris, a Polish Jew, Herschel Grinspan , attempted to assassinate German diplomat Ernst vom Rath , who died on November 9. In response to the death of von Rath on the same night, mass riots took place in different cities of Germany, known as the “ Crystal Night ". Heydrich was the main coordinator of these actions and personally issued teletype orders for the regional police and SS ^[25] . At a meeting at Goering , held immediately after Kristallnacht, Heydrich introduced a package of proposals for further Jewish policies into the development of the Nuremberg laws , the main motive of which was to increase discriminatory measures that would eventually force Jews to emigrate. Heydrich also proposed, by analogy with the “Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration” ( German Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung ), which was led by his subordinate Adolf Eichmann in Berlin, to create in Berlin the “Imperial Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration” ( Reichszentrale für jüdischeke ). All these measures were implemented within a few months ^[26] .

After the occupation of Poland, Heydrich gave the order to create for Jews special areas of compact settlement in large cities, ghettos , where Jews from the countryside, as well as from Germany ^[27] , were to be resettled, as well as to form “ Jewish ” Jewish affairs from the local Jewish population advice ”( German: Judenräte ). Thus, Heydrich managed to force the Jews themselves to participate in the politics of their own extermination. In December 1939, Heydrich appointed Eichmann the head of the RSHA special unit for Jewish affairs ^[28] and then, with his help, carried out mass deportations of Jews from Germany and Austria to the Polish ghettos. However, sending Jews to the ghetto was only a stage for Heydrich, an intermediate station on the way to the final goal - the complete destruction of the Jewish population of Europe.

During the occupation of the countries of Eastern Europe and the large territory of the Soviet Union, a huge number of Jews turned out to be in the hands of the German administration, who from the Nazi point of view were a racially inferior people to be destroyed. At the same time, special firing squads created to carry out a policy of terror and national extermination could no longer cope with the tasks of destroying such a huge number of people. Back in December 1940, Hitler, through Himmler and Goering, instructed Heydrich to develop a plan for a “ final solution ” ( German: Endlösung ) of the Jewish question. The plan drawn up by Heydrich did not survive, but from the surviving documents it is known that he was sent to Hitler at the end of January 1941 ^[29] .

In the summer of 1941, Hitler brought to the top leadership of the Reich an order for a “General Solution of the Jewish Question” ( German: Gesamtlösung der Judenfrage ). The text of the order was not preserved, but the existence of such a document is known from the testimony at the Nuremberg Trials ^[30] . On July 31, Goering sent a directive to Heydrich with instructions to carry out preparatory measures in territories under German control. To implement this plan, Heydrich needed to coordinate the work of a huge number of ministries and departments. January 20, 1942 in the suburbs of Berlin on Lake Grozer Wannsee , the so-called Vansey Conference was convened , the purpose of which was to develop a plan for the extermination of Jews on a European scale.

As part of his project, Heydrich proposed sending Jews to forced labor in the East, where most of them were supposed to die from exhausting labor. Survivors had to undergo "special treatment" ( German: Sonderbehandlung ), that is, physically destroyed. In total, the estimated elimination were eleven million Jews. ^[31]

Thus, it was Heydrich who formulated the foundations of a “final solution to the Jewish question” ( German: Endlösung der Judenfrage ). It remains unclear whether the name of the operation to exterminate Polish Jews, Operation Reinhardt ( German: Aktion Reinhardt ), is derived from Heydrich or from the name of Secretary of State Fritz Reinhardt. Most of the decisions of the Wannsee Conference began to be implemented after the death of Heydrich.

Imperial Protector of Bohemia and Moravia

After the German troops occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939, changing their government there, the Bohemian and Moravian regions, which came under the German protectorate, created the position of imperial protector, who took up residence in the Prague district of Hradcany . Initially, the former German Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath was appointed to this post. His tenure was accompanied by a rivalry between organs loyal to the protector, special services and party structures, caused by the overlapping competence of different branches of government. This, as well as the insufficient rigidity of Neurath when suppressing Czech resistance, led to his actual removal from office. The secret services, with the participation of Heydrich, prepared a report on Czech resistance with Hitler criticizing Neurat ^[32] .

At the end of September 1941, A. Hitler called for the Reichsprotector of Bohemia and Moravia, Konstantin von Neurat, and announced that he had decided to appoint him Heydrich's deputy. Von Neurath disagreed with this decision and announced his resignation from this post. Then Hitler sent von Neurath to "indefinite leave." His duties were transferred to Heydrich, as "the acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia " ( German: "Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor von Böhmen und Mähren" ).

Thus, Heydrich became a de facto imperial protector (von Neurath did not return to his duties), retaining the position of head of the Main Directorate of the RSHA. On September 27, 1941, Heydrich took up residence in the Hradcany. He set up his country residence, to which he moved his family, in the so-called Lower Palace, which he inherited after K. von Neurath’s resignation in Panenske-Břežani , 15 km north of Prague, confiscated from a sugar -miner of Jewish origin Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer .

A week after the appointment, Heydrich initiated a trial against Czech Prime Minister Alois Eliash , who was suspected of having connections with the resistance. The trial, chaired by Otto Tyrac, took four hours, and Eliash was sentenced to death ^[33] (which was carried out after the death of Heydrich). One of the first after the appointment of Heydrich’s actions was the order to close all synagogues on the territory of the protectorate, and in November 1941, on his orders, the concentration camp Theresienstadt was created, which was intended to contain Czech Jews before being sent to death camps ^[34] . At the same time, Heydrich began to take measures to appease the population: he reorganized the social security system, increased wages and nutritional standards for workers ^[35] .

Doom

Assassination

The attempt on Heydrich was planned by the Czechoslovak "government in exile" Edward Benes with the participation of the British Office of Special Operations . The assassination of Heydrich was aimed at raising the prestige of the Resistance . Of course, punitive actions of the Germans were expected, but it was assumed that they, in turn, would only increase the resistance of the population to the invaders ^{[35] [36]} . The direct executors of the operation, called "Anthropoid", were agents prepared by the British agents Joseph Gabchik and Jan Kubis .

The assassination took place on the morning of May 27, 1942, at a bend in the Prague suburb of Liben on the way from the Heidrich Jungfern Breshan suburban residence to the center of Prague. When Heydrich in an open-top car (except for him, only the driver was in him - Heydrich preferred to drive without guard) drove a turn at 10:32, Gabchik snatched the STEN submachine gun and tried to shoot Heydrich at close range, but the weapon was jammed ^{[ 37]} . Heydrich ordered the driver to stop the car and pulled out his service pistol ^[38] . At that moment, Kubish threw a bomb, but missed, so that the bomb exploded behind the right rear wheel of the car. Heydrich, who suffered a broken rib and fragmented wound to the spleen (a metal fragment and a piece of car seat upholstery got into it) got out of the car, but soon fell nearby. He was taken to Bulovka hospital in a truck, which was stopped by a Czech policeman who happened to be at the scene of the assassination attempt ^[39] .

Around noon, Heydrich was operated on. The surgeon removed the damaged spleen ^[40] . On May 27, Himmler's personal doctor Karl Gebhardt arrived at the hospital. He prescribed large doses of morphine to the patient. On the morning of June 3, information appeared about the improvement of Heydrich’s condition, but by noon he fell into a coma and died the next day. The cause of death was indicated "septic organ failure . " In 1972, the cause of death was called "anemic shock." The final diagnosis has not yet been made ^[41] .

Immediately after the death of Heydrich, Himmler received a huge number of condolences from the leadership of the Reich and military commanders from the Soviet-German front, and from representatives of satellite countries (including Italian and Bulgarian police). After a two-day farewell to the body in Prague, the coffin was brought to Berlin . The funeral took place on June 9th . The entire top of the country participated in the burial ceremony. Adolf Hitler himself held a farewell speech, calling Heydrich "a man with an iron heart." Later, Himmler called Heydrich “a shining great man” and stressed that he “made a sacrificial contribution to the struggle for freedom” of the German people, “felt the worldview of Adolf Hitler deep in his heart and his blood, realized it and realized it” ^[42] . The London Times newspaper quipped that one of the most dangerous people in the Third Reich had a "gangster funeral" ^[43] . Hitler posthumously awarded Heydrich the “ German Order ”, a rare award intended for senior party functionaries (most of the awards of this order were also posthumous). A mourning booklet was published by the Anenerbe Society in memory of Heydrich ^[44] .

After the death of Heydrich, the leadership of the RSHA initially took over Himmler personally, but on January 30, 1943, he transferred it to Ernst Kaltenbrunner . The post of imperial protector of Bohemia and Moravia was received by the Oberstgruppenführer SS , Colonel-General of Police Kurt Daluge .

Heydrich’s grave is located in the Invalidenfriedhof cemetery in Berlin, approximately in the center of zone “A”. After the war, the tombstone was destroyed so that the tomb would not become a place of worship for neo-Nazis, and now the exact burial place is unknown ^{[45] [46]} .

On the first anniversary of Heydrich's death at the scene of the assassination, his bust was installed, destroyed after the liberation of Prague . On May 27, 2009, a monument to the heroes of the Resistance who killed Heydrich was unveiled in Prague at the scene of the assassination attempt ^[47] .

Retribution operation

The attempt on Heydrich made a deep impression on the leadership of the Reich. On the day of Heydrich's death, the Nazis launched a mass terror campaign against the Czech population. It was announced that anyone who knows the whereabouts of the tread killers and who does not give them away will be shot with the whole family. Mass searches were carried out in Prague, during which other members of the Resistance, Jews, Communists and other persecuted categories of citizens who were sheltering in houses and apartments, were identified. 1331 Czechs were shot, including 201 women. ^[48]

On June 9, 1942, on the day of Heydrich's funeral, the village of Lidice was destroyed in retaliation. All men over 16 years old (172 people) were shot on the spot, 195 women were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, the children were taken to the Central Office for Immigrant Affairs of the city of Litzmanstadt ( German Umwandererzentralstelle Litzmannstadt ) and subsequently distributed to German families , most of them were lost ^[49] .

Место, в котором скрывались британские агенты ( крипта кафедрального собора святых Кирилла и Мефодия Чешской Православной Церкви в Праге), стало известно гестапо в результате предательства участника Сопротивления, парашютиста Карела Чурды . 18 июня состоялся штурм церкви , в ходе которого все агенты погибли или покончили с собой. Позднее были расстреляны священники кафедрального собора, епископ Пражский Горазд и другие клирики Чешской православной церкви, а сама Чешская православная церковь запрещена ^[50] .

Гейдрих имел многие стереотипично нордические качества: высокий худощавый блондин с ледяным спокойствием. Вопреки этому образу, Гейдрих обладал весьма высоким голосом, за что получил у своих знакомых прозвище «козёл». ^[13] Вероятно поэтому сохранилось мало записей его речей. Гейдрих был увлечённым спортсменом и одарённым музыкантом.

Он смог стать для своего шефа Гиммлера хорошим помощником (руководящие должности в СД Гейдрих занимал с 29 лет, РСХА возглавил в 35 лет). Например, он проделал почти всю работу по интеграции политической полиции в партийный аппарат. Герману Герингу приписывается шутка: нем. HHHH, Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich , «Х. Х. Х. Х. — Мозг Гиммлера зовётся Гейдрих».

Вальтер Шелленберг , известный нацист и соратник Гейдриха по партии, так описал Рейнхарда в своей книге «Лабиринт» ^[7] :

С юности Гейдриха сопровождали слухи о еврейском происхождении и эта информация впоследствии использовалась его политическими врагами для борьбы с ним. Одним из аргументов было то, что отец Гейдриха, Бруно Гейдрих, фигурировал в «Музыкальной энциклопедии Римана» за 1916 год как «Бруно Гейдрих, настоящая фамилия Зюсс». В 1932 году один из лидеров НСДАП Грегор Штрассер приказал партийному генеалогу Ахиму Герке расследовать информацию о возможной примеси еврейской крови. Герке пришёл к выводу, что информация в «Музыкальной энциклопедии Римана» ошибочна, а фамилию Зюсс носил второй муж бабушки Гейдриха (Бруно Гейдрих родился от первого брака). После войны гипотеза о еврейском происхождении Гейдриха была предметом серьёзного научного исследования. Израильский историк Шломо Аронсон при работе над докторской диссертацией на тему «Гейдрих и период становления гестапо и СД» (опубликована в 1966 году ) построил генеалогическое древо Гейдриха по отцовской линии до 1738 года , а по материнской — до 1688 года и не нашёл среди его предков евреев ^[13] . Среди историков, придерживающихся точки зрения о еврейских предках Гейдриха, автор нескольких фундаментальных работ по истории Третьего рейха Иоахим Фест ^[51] .

От брака с Линой фон Остен у Гейдриха было четверо детей: сыновья Клаус и Хайдер, дочери Зильке и Марта (Марта родилась 23 июля 1942 , почти через два месяца после смерти отца). Лина, унаследовавшая после мужа замок в Чехии, пыталась играть самостоятельную политическую роль и разрабатывала в 1940-е годы планы создания национал-социалистической землеобрабатывающей коммуны, не встретившие, однако, поддержки Гиммлера, являвшегося автором этой идеи. В 1970-е годы она написала интересные мемуары, изданные под названием «Жизнь с военным преступником», где содержатся важные сведения о взаимоотношениях мужа с Гиммлером и Канарисом.

Military ranks

• Шутце (рядовой): 14 июля 1931
• Штурмфюрер СС (лейтенант): 10 августа 1931
• Хауптштурмфюрер СС (капитан): 1 декабря 1931
• Штурмбаннфюрер СС (майор): 25 декабря 1931
• Оберштурмбаннфюрер СС (подполковник): декабрь 1931
• Штандартенфюрер СС (полковник): 29 июля 1932
• Оберфюрер СС (промежуточное звание между штандартенфюрером и бригадефюрером, не имеющее аналогов в общевойсковых званиях): 21 марта 1933
• Бригадефюрер СС и генерал-майор полиции: 9 ноября 1933
• Группенфюрер СС и генерал-лейтенант полиции: 30 июня 1934
• Обергруппенфюрер СС и генерал полиции: 27 сентября 1941

Убийство Гейдриха стало сюжетом художественного фильма уже через год после события: это был американский фильм «Палачи тоже умирают» ( англ. Hangmen Also Die , 1943, в роли Гейдриха Ханс Генрих фон Твардовски), в качестве режиссёра и сценариста которого выступили немецкие антифашисты — Фриц Ланг и Бертольт Брехт . Вышло ещё несколько игровых фильмов о пражском покушении: чехословацкий « Покушение » ( Atentát , 1964, в роли Гейдриха Зигфрид Лойда , ГДР), американо-чехословацко-югославский « » ( Operation Daybreak , 1975, в роли Гейдриха — Антон Диффринг , ФРГ) — по книге Алана Берджесса ( англ. Alan Burgess ) «Семеро на рассвете» ( англ. Seven Men At Daybreak ), британский « Антропоид », 2016. Покушение на Гейдриха запечатлено также в ленте чехословацкого режиссёра Отакара Вавры «Соколово» (1974) — втором фильме трилогии о Чехословакии в годы войны . В роли Гейдриха выступил актёр из ГДР Ханньо Хассе . Гейдрих стал одним из персонажей фильма « Канарис » (Германия, 1954. Режиссёр Альфред Вайденманн ). Исполняли роль также актёры Дон Костелло, Джон Каррадайн, Дэвид Уорнер, Мартин Хельд и др.

Гейдрих играет ключевую роль в трилогии Филипа Керра «Berlin Noir». Американский фантаст Филип Дик написал альтернативный исторический роман « Человек в высоком замке » ( англ. The Man in the High Castle ). Действие романа происходит в 1960-е годы в победившем Третьем рейхе; Гейдрих стремится занять пост рейхсканцлера после смерти Гитлера и его непосредственного преемника Бормана. Схожим образом сложилась судьба Гейдриха в романе Роберта Харриса « Фатерланд »: после гибели Гиммлера от рук террористов в 1961-м Гейдрих становится новым рейхсфюрером и в 1964 году проводит операцию по устранению выживших участников Ванзейской конференции .

Действие советского телефильма « Семнадцать мгновений весны » происходит после гибели Гейдриха, однако в фильм вставлены документальные кадры его похорон. Об этом событии, после которого РСХА возглавил Кальтенбруннер , в фильме вспоминает Штирлиц . В книге « Семнадцать мгновений весны », по которой был снят фильм, освещены некоторые аспекты происхождения Гейдриха (см. выше) и его взаимоотношений с Вальтером Шелленбергом , к которому он якобы ревновал свою жену. Впрочем, возможно, это и является художественным домыслом.

История убийства Гейдриха описана в документальном романе Лорана Бине «HHhH» (2009), удостоенном Гонкуровской премии за лучший дебют. В его экранизации 2017 года роль Гейдриха сыграл Джейсон Кларк .

В телесериале 2015 года « Человек в высоком замке », снятом по мотивам романа Дика, Рейнхарда Гейдриха в альтернативной реальности 1962 года играет актер Рей Прошиа. В сериале, в отличие от романа, планируемая борьба за пост фюрера должна развернуться не между ним и Йозефом Геббельсом, а между Геббельсом и Гиммлером. Несмотря на это в экранизации он представлен, как постаревший, но не утративший способности к манипулированию персонаж. Также, в сериале он имел звание обер ст группенфюрера , видимо за заслуги в выигранной нацистами Второй мировой войне .

•   Wikimedia Commons has media files related to Reinhard Heydrich
• Biographies of Heydrich on the site "Chronos"
• V. Schellenberg's book “Labyrinth” (about Heydrich, chapters 20, 28)
• Speech on the destruction of the Czech people (him.)