Hitler's Hangman by Robert. Gerwarth Read Free Book Online

his life. As the car braked
    sharply, Kubiš stepped out of the shadows and tossed one of his bombs
    towards the open Mercedes. He misjudged the distance and the bomb
    exploded against the car’s rear wheel, throwing shrapnel back into Kubiš’s
    face and shattering the windows of a passing tram. As the noise of the
    explosion died away, Heydrich and his driver jumped from the wrecked
    car with drawn pistols ready to kill the assassins. While Klein ran towards
    Kubiš, who was half blinded by blood dripping from his forehead,
    Heydrich turned uphill to where Gabčík stood, still paralysed and holding
    his useless machine gun. As Klein stumbled towards him, disorientated by
    the explosion, Kubiš managed to grab his bicycle and escape downhill,
    convinced that the assassination attempt had failed.31
    Gabčík found escape less easy. As Heydrich came towards him through
    the dust of the explosion Gabčík took cover behind a telegraph pole, fully
    expecting Heydrich to shoot him. Suddenly, however, Heydrich collapsed
    in agony, while Gabčík seized his opportunity and fled. As soon as the
    assassins had vanished, Czech and German passers-by came to Heydrich’s
    aid and halted a baker’s van which transported the injured man to the
    nearby Bulovka Hospital, where an X-ray confirmed that surgery was
    urgently required: his diaphragm was ruptured, and fragments of shrapnel
    and horsehair from the car’s upholstery were lodged in his spleen.
    Although in severe pain, Heydrich’s paranoia and suspicion of the Czechs
    were strong: he refused to let the local doctor operate on him, demanding

    D E AT H I N P R AG U E
    11
    instead that a specialist be flown in from Berlin to perform the urgently
    needed surgery. By noon, he settled for a compromise and agreed that a
    team of local specialists, led by Professor Josef A. Hohlbaum from the
    German Surgical Clinic of Prague, should carry out the operation. Shortly
    after midday, Heydrich was wheeled into the operating theatre while
    Himmler and Hitler, who had been immediately informed of the attack,
    dispatched their personal physicians, Professor Karl Gebhardt and Dr
    Theodor Morell, to Prague.32
    While Heydrich lay in hospital, his fate uncertain, rage spread among
    Nazi leaders and Protectorate Germans. Police had to restrain ethnic
    Germans from attacking Czech stores, bars and restaurants and from
    lynching their Czech neighbours.33 Officially, the Nazi-controlled press
    played down the significance of the attack, emphasizing that Heydrich’s
    injuries were not life-threatening and instead reporting on the successes
    of the German summer offensive on the Eastern Front, most notably the
    recent encirclement battle south of Kharkov where more than 240,000
    Red Army soldiers had been taken prisoner.34 Privately, however, the Nazi
    leadership was far more agitated than it was willing to admit in public. As
    Goebbels noted in his diary on 28 May 1942:
    Alarming news is arriving from Prague. A bomb attack was staged
    against Heydrich in a Prague suburb which has severely wounded him.
    Even if he is not in mortal danger at the moment, his condition is
    nevertheless worrisome . . . It is imperative that we get hold of the assas-
    sins. Then a tribunal should be held to deal with them and their accom-
    plices. The background of the attack is not yet clear. But it is revealing
    that London reported on the attack very early on. We must be clear that
    such an attack could set a precedent if we do not counter it with the
    most brutal of means.35
    The Führer himself was entirely in agreement. Less than an hour after the
    assassination attempt, an outraged Hitler ordered Heydrich’s deputy and
    Higher SS and Police Leader in the Protectorate, Karl Hermann Frank,
    to execute up to 10,000 Czechs in retaliation for the attack. Later that
    evening, a deeply shaken Himmler reiterated Hitler’s order, insisting
    that the ‘one hundred most important’ Czech hostages should be shot that
    very