Author Description

In the darkest months of 1941, as Hitler and his generals consolidated their grip on Western Europe and rolled swiftly into the Soviet Union, the world despaired at the seeming invincibility of Nazi power. Determined to smash all remnants of resistance, Hitler appointed Reinhard Heydrich, the most feared figure in occupied Europe and symbol of the hated Nazi SS elite, as Reichsprotektor of Czechoslovakia. Heydrich, who had organized the infamous Wannsee Conference to plan the Final Solution, terrorized the Czechs in an orgy of torture and murder in order to establish his model of SS State on their soil. The Nazi triumph over all decency and justice seemed complete. At this moment, an inspired and desperate effort was launched in London by exiled Czech President Benis, his determined intelligence chief, and the British Secret Service. Their plan: a spectacular action against the Nazis - nothing less than the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich himself. Heydrich's murder proved terribly costly as it led to the obliteration of the village of Lidice and to a throttling of Czech resistance. Forty years later, the ultimate worth of the assassination, in light of its complex aftermath, continues to pose a disturbing moral challenge.