Killing The butcher of Prague
82 years ago, on June 4, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, the head of Nazi security police and governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, was killed by Czech parachutists in an assassination attempt. This event was a significant moment in Czech resistance and dealt a major blow to the Nazi war effort, as it showed that even high-ranking German officials were not invincible.
The assassination, known as Operation Anthropoid, was planned by British special operations and supported by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile. Jozef Gabcík and Jan Kubis were the main operatives involved. They were flown from Great Britain to Czechoslovakia along with seven other Czech soldiers in December 1941. Initially, the plan was to kill Heydrich on a train or in his car in a forest, but it was eventually decided to attack him at a sharp turn in the Liben district of Prague, on his way from his home in Panenske Brezany.
Gabcík and Kubis positioned themselves at a tram stop near Bulovka Hospital, where there was a bend in the road. Their colleague Josef Valcík used a mirror to signal the arrival of Heydrich's open-roofed Mercedes Benz. Gabcík attempted to stop the vehicle by jumping in front of it, but his Sten gun jammed. Heydrich stopped the car and tried to shoot Gabcík, but Kubis threw a grenade. Although the bomb only hit the rear wheel of the car, Heydrich suffered serious injuries, including a broken rib, ruptured diaphragm, and splinters in his spleen. Kubis was also injured. The explosion shattered the windows of a tram, injuring passengers with shards of glass. Heydrich, despite his injuries, tried to chase Gabcík but soon collapsed. The driver, Klein, pursued Kubis, but his gun jammed, allowing Kubis to escape. Following Heydrich's orders, Klein then went after Gabcík, who found refuge in a butcher's shop. The owner, a Nazi sympathizer, revealed Gabcík's hiding place to Klein, resulting in a confrontation between them. Gabcík injured Klein in the leg and managed to escape. Heydrich, 38 years old at the time, was taken to Bulovka Hospital, where he died on June 4 at 4:30 am.
The assassination triggered an extensive manhunt by the Gestapo, making it the largest in the history of the Third Reich. The Gestapo knew they were searching for parachutists due to the discovery of an unused bomb with British parts and a British sub-machine gun at the scene. The Nazis offered a reward of one million marks for the capture of the Czechs involved. Martial law was declared, and anyone over the age of 15 had to register with the police by May 30, or they would be shot. The evidence left at the scene was displayed in the window of a Bata shoe store on Wenceslas Square. Despite the efforts of over 21,000 German searchers who combed through 36,000 houses, the Czechs involved in the assassination were not found.
After seeking refuge with two families in Prague, the assassins, along with five other paratroopers, found shelter in the Karel Boromejsky Greek Orthodox Church in Prague's New Town. Betrayed by resistance fighter Karel Curda, 700 German soldiers stormed the church. Despite being armed only with pistols, the Czech resistance fighters, including Kubis, put up a fierce two-hour battle against the soldiers armed with sub-machine guns and hand grenades. When the soldiers discovered the others hiding in the crypt, they attempted to flood the catacombs and smoke out the assassins. After six hours of resistance, the four parachutists, including Gabcik, chose to commit suicide.
In retaliation, Hitler ordered the murder of thousands of Jews. Although he initially wanted to kill 10,000 Czech political prisoners, Heinrich Himmler convinced him to spare them for industrial productivity. However, over 13,000 were arrested, and 5,000 were killed in reprisals. Mistakenly believing the assassins were in Lidice, the Nazis massacred all 199 men in the village, arrested 195 women and sent them to Ravensbrück concentration camp, and took 95 children, most of whom likely perished in gas chambers. Lidice was destroyed on June 9, 1942, and the ruins were bulldozed.
Soviet Spy in Tokyo
Rikhard Zorge, a Soviet spy in Japan, was the first to alert Stalin about Hitler's plan to attack the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. In the same year, he also informed the USSR that Japan had no intention of going to war with them. Born on October 4, 1898, near Baku in present-day Azerbaijan, Rikhard's family relocated to Germany when he was three years old. They settled in the suburbs of Berlin, where Rikhard excelled academically and consistently ranked at the top of his class until graduation.
Zorge was recruited by the Soviet Union as a spy and was sent to various European countries to work as a journalist while secretly assessing the potential for communist uprisings. In order to solidify his position in Germany, Zorge joined the Nazi party in 1933.
He was then tasked with establishing a Soviet spy network in Japan, a challenging mission in a country known for its xenophobia. To gather information freely, Zorge took on roles as a correspondent for German newspapers in Tokyo. His analytical articles were regularly published in the Nazi press, establishing him as a prominent journalist in Japan.
Before the outbreak of World War II, Zorge became the press attaché at the German Embassy in Tokyo. With his education, manners, and language skills, he was able to build connections within the highest circles of the embassy and began forming a network of agents.
His spy network in Japan included Max Gottfried, a Red Army officer and radio operator, Friedrich Clausen, and Hotsumi Ozaki, a Japanese journalist. Hotsumi Ozaki became Zorge's most important source of information. Zorge was popular with women, and after his arrest, Tokyo police discovered that at least 20 women claimed to have had affairs with him. He even had an affair with Frau Ott, which demonstrated the trust he had gained with the embassy. However, his playboy lifestyle took a toll on his health, and he became an even heavier drinker.
Zorge provided the Soviet Red Army with information about the German-Japanese Pact and warned of the Pearl Harbor attack. In 1941, Zorge allegedly informed them of the exact launch date of Operation Barbarossa, which was supposed to begin around June 20, 1941. Stalin initially dismissed the report and even ridiculed Zorge for his intelligence. However, when Zorge's information proved to be true with Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Stalin changed his mind. Later that year, Zorge provided another piece of information that strengthened the Red Army: he advised the Soviet Union that Japan would not attack until Moscow was captured. This time, Stalin believed Zorge and transferred Soviet Siberian divisions from the eastern borders to fight the Germans. The Nazi advance was stopped just a few kilometers before Moscow, which was a significant moment in the 20th-century history.
The stressful nature of his work and his alcoholism took a toll on agent Ramsai, and the authorities were closing in on him. His relationship with his superiors in Moscow was also deteriorating as they became annoyed with his independent work style and carefree attitude. In October 1941, Zorge and his co-conspirators were arrested in Tokyo. Zorge was imprisoned for nearly four years and was tortured until he confessed to working for the Soviet Union. The Japanese government approached the Soviet Union three times with offers to exchange Zorge for one of their own spies.
