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

night.36
    Frank, fearing that large-scale reprisals might work against Germany’s
    vital economic interests in the region, immediately flew to Berlin in a
    bid to convince Hitler that the attack was an isolated act orchestrated
    from London. To engage in mass killings, Frank suggested, would mean
    to abandon Heydrich’s successful occupation policies, endangering the
    12
    HITLER’S HANGMAN
    productivity of the Czech armaments industry and playing into the hands
    of enemy propaganda. Hitler, however, was furious and threatened to send
    SS-General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, head of SS anti-partisan
    warfare on the Eastern Front, to Prague. Bach-Zelewski, Hitler insisted,
    would ‘happily wade through a sea of blood without the least scruple.
    The Czechs have to learn the lesson that if they shoot down one man,
    he will immediately be replaced by somebody even worse.’ By the end of
    the meeting, however, Frank had managed to talk Hitler down. For the
    time being, the Führer rescinded his order for the indiscriminate killings
    of 10,000 hostages, but insisted that the assassins had to be captured
    immediately.37
    Before his departure from Prague, Frank had imposed martial law over
    the Protectorate. Anyone providing help or shelter for the assassins, or
    even failing to report information on their whereabouts to the police, was
    to be killed along with their entire families. The same fate awaited those
    Czechs over sixteen years of age who failed to obtain new identification
    papers before midnight of Friday, 29 May. Anyone found without proper
    papers on Saturday was to be shot. Railway services and all other means
    of public transportation ceased. Cinemas and theatres, restaurants and
    coffee houses were closed. The Prague Music Festival was interrupted. A
    curfew was established from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and in accordance with
    Hitler’s directive a reward of 10 million crowns for the capture of the
    assassins was announced. The Protectorate government, keen to distance
    itself from the assassination, pledged to double the reward.38
    Over the course of the afternoon, the head of the German Order Police,
    Kurt Daluege, was ordered by telephone to assume the post of acting
    Reich Protector and to hunt down the assassins with all means at his
    disposal.39 Fearing that the assassination attempt might be the signal for
    a more general uprising in the Protectorate, Daluege immediately
    unleashed one of the largest police operations in modern European
    history. Prague was completely sealed off by the German police and army.
    Gestapo units, reinforced by contingents from the Order Police, the
    SS, the Czech gendarmerie and three Wehrmacht battalions – more
    than 12,000 men in total – began to raid some 36,000 buildings in search
    of the assassins.40 Yet although scarcely a single house was left unexam-
    ined, the police operation failed to deliver the desired results. Around
    500 people were arrested for minor offences unrelated to the assassination
    attempt, but despite a vast number of hints (and false allegations) provided
    by the Czech and German population, the perpetrators were not
    apprehended.41
    While the civilian population in the Protectorate was holding its breath
    in fear of reprisals, Beneš was ecstatic, even though the outcome of the

    D E AT H I N P R AG U E
    13
    assassination attempt remained uncertain. He immediately sent out a
    radio message to Bartoš, their principal contact on the ground: ‘I see that
    you and your friends are full of determination. It is proof to me that the
    entire Czech nation is unshakeable in its position. I assure you that it is
    bringing results. The events at home have had an incredible effect [in
    London] and have brought great recognition of the Czech nation’s resist-
    ance.’42 Yet it was far from certain at this stage that Heydrich would
    succumb to his injuries. On 31 May, Himmler visited him in his hospital
    room in Prague. The wounded man’s condition improved