Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the RHSA and Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia, flanked (to his left) by Gruppenfuhrer Karl Hermann Frank, Higher SS and Police Leader for Bohemia and Moravia and (to his right) by Horst Bohme, Chief of Security Police and SD at Prague and chief of the Protectorate's (occasional) Einsatzgruppe, early 1942.  Best regards, JR.

Death in Prague (1)

Dr Hjalmar Schacht, looking surprisingly well, in the circumstances, in his cell at Nuremberg, 1946.  Schacht served as President of the Reichsbank under Weimar and and the Nazis (to 1939) and as Hitler's Economics Minister from 1934 to 1937.  Under Hitler, he bore major responsibility for the financing of the delusory Nazi "economic miracle", which he did by the exercise of financial jiggery-pokery beyond the imagination even of a Greek budget secretary.  His loss of economic power (he continued in government as a Minister without Portfolio until 1943) resulted from disagreements wit Goering (and, indirectly) with Hitler) on increasing levels of military spending which, he thought, would derail the "economic miracle" in a storm of inflation.  He was probably right but, from Hitler's viewpoint, he also seems to have missed the main point of the whole exercise.

Schacht was at Nuremberg to answer a charge of "crimes against peace" (he was not indicted on the more serious charges available).  His low-level resistance activity after 1937, together with the relatively narrow scope of his involvement with the Nazis (confined to economic questions) probably secured his acquittal - although the importance of his contribution to keeping the ricketty Nazi "economic miracle" on the tracks for so long might have argued for a different outcome.  

After the war, Schacht developed a career as a development banker.  He died in Munich, aged 93.

Hjalmar Schacht wrote more than 20 books on economic topics.  One was titled, "Confessions of an Old Wizard" ; another, "The Magic of Money".  As more and more work is done elucidating the murky economic history of the Third Reich, Shacht's credentials for the titles of "wizard" seem stronger than ever.  They are certainly better than those that might be claimed for the pampered bureaucrats of Brussels and Frankfurt and the cowardly and uninspired politicians who "control" Europe's economy today.  Best regards, JR.

Oh where are you now, that we need you ?

While Heydrich died a lingering and unpleasant death in hospital, his colleagues back in Gestapoland were under severe pressure.  Apart from the urgency of capturing the assasins, the Fuhrer went Axminster-chewing crazy, demanding massive reprisals.  Karl Hermann Frank, who appears to have been impressed with Heydrich's severe but measured approach to security, pointed out that an absolute bloodbath would not be in Germany's interests, in view of the importance of Czech industry to war production, and appears to have been persuasive.  However, with Kurt Daluege, Chief of the Ordnungspolizei, drafted in to "help", some level of reprisal could not be avoided.

The solution to the problem presented itself in an extremely tenuous apparent link established by postal interception between the assasination and the mining village of Lidice (the link is now accepted as entirely mistaken, if not deliberately bogus).  In consequence, Lidice was subjected to a "special operation" by Horst Bohme and his Einsatzgruppe (manned by Ordnungspolizei men and SD Security Police).  A total of 183 men of the village (including 11 who had been away at the time of the main operation) were murdered in this operation.  203 women and 105 children of the village were deported to Ravensbruck concentration camp.  The women were, in the main, worked to death; most of the children died of neglect.  A small number of children deemed suitable were "Germanised" and placed for adoption with German families.  Following Hitler's orders, the village was reduced to rubble.  JR.