About
Reinhard Heydrich led the SD and helped Heinrich Himmler bring Germany’s political police forces under SS control. He became chief of the Security Police and SD and, in 1939, the first head of the RSHA.
Heydrich directed central parts of Nazi persecution and mass murder. He chaired the Wannsee Conference in Jan 1942. Czechoslovak agents attacked him in Prague in May 1942, and he died on June 4.
In this interview
Eichmann repeatedly gives Heydrich as his senior chief and says Heydrich passed on Hitler’s order to kill Europe’s Jews. The speakers discuss Heydrich’s character, authority, death, and place in the RSHA.
Read with care
Eichmann’s account shifts blame upward and often presents spoken orders that can’t be verified from the interview alone. His descriptions of Heydrich’s private reactions are personal assertions.
Exact scans
- File 85, scan 00006
Eichmann gives Heydrich as the chief who gave him room to study Jewish and Zionist affairs.
- File 85, scan 00007
Eichmann says Heydrich told him that Hitler had ordered the killing of the Jews.
- File 85, scan 00037
The speakers begin a long discussion of Heydrich’s career and personality.