The Rabbits Protest

Abstract

In January 1942 SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the ruthless head of the Reich Security Office, convened the Wannsee Conference to formalise plans for the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Problem’. A few months later, he was the target of a daring assassination mission to show that Nazi leaders could have no immunity from retribution. On 27 May 1942 two parachutists from the Czech Brigade seriously wounded Heydrich, the Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, on the outskirts of Prague in ‘Operation Anthropoid’.¹ At first, Heydrich, who had reached for his gun and chased his assailants, expected to recover. Sudeten German surgeons from the Charles University Prague rapidly operated with apparent success.² But the bullet, after hitting the rear axle of his bloated, open black Mercedes, had been diverted vertically through Heydrich’s back, carrying cloth, wire and wool from the seat; his wounds became gangrenous.