Operation Anthropoid: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and the Price of Resistance
- dthholland
- May 27, 2023
- 6 min read
In the spring of 1942, two parachutists pedalled frantically through the streets of Nazi-occupied Prague. One was bleeding from a grenade blast. The other had just sought refuge in a butcher’s shop after his gun jammed. Behind them, one of Hitler’s most feared henchmen lay mortally wounded — a man so brutal that even the Führer called him “the man with the iron heart.” This was the beginning of the end for Reinhard Heydrich, and the daring mission to kill him would spark one of the most savage Nazi reprisals of the Second World War.
The Rise of “The Butcher of Prague”
By 1941, Reinhard Heydrich had already left an unmistakable mark on Nazi Germany. A key architect of the SS, the SD (Sicherheitsdienst), and the Holocaust, he was ruthless, calculating, and terrifyingly efficient. As head of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), Heydrich was instrumental in orchestrating Kristallnacht in 1938 — the first major organised pogrom against Jews under Nazi rule. His influence reached deep into the structure of the Third Reich, making him one of Hitler’s most trusted operatives.
In September 1941, Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Nazi-occupied provinces in Czechoslovakia. His predecessor, Konstantin von Neurath, had enforced anti-Semitic laws, censored the press, and repressed political opposition. But Hitler considered him too lenient — especially when Czech resistance and student protests continued to flare up. Neurath had overseen the arrest of 1,200 student demonstrators, leading to the execution of nine of them, yet it wasn’t enough.
Enter Heydrich. His appointment was clear: eliminate Czech resistance, ramp up arms and motor vehicle production for the German war effort, and crush any hope of national autonomy. He had carte blanche.
Rule by Terror
Within a week of taking office, Heydrich declared martial law and ordered the execution of nearly 150 Czech resistance fighters. Between September 1941 and March 1942, up to 5,000 people were arrested — 10% of whom were promptly executed. The rest were sent to concentration camps such as Mauthausen-Gusen in Austria or Ravensbrück in Germany. At Mauthausen, prisoners were often assigned meaningless, deadly tasks like carrying massive blocks of granite up the infamous “Stairs of Death.” Only around 4% survived the experience.
Resistance activity plummeted. Any rebellion, no matter how minor, resulted in sweeping punishments. But Heydrich’s vision for Bohemia and Moravia extended far beyond repression. Nazi policy did not aim to integrate Czechs into the Reich — most were seen as racially inferior. The long-term objective was forced displacement to the East or outright extermination to make space for German settlers. In this sense, the occupied Czech territories were not only an industrial asset but also a testing ground for the most extreme Nazi ideologies.
By early 1942, Heydrich was playing a central role in implementing the Final Solution, having chaired the Wannsee Conference where the logistics of genocide were formalised. With all this in view, the exiled Czechoslovak government in London, alongside British intelligence, decided Heydrich had to be stopped.
Planning Operation Anthropoid
The assassination plot was proposed by František Moravec, the exiled head of Czech military intelligence. He approached Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), a covert organisation known for sabotage and espionage — dubbed by Churchill as the “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.”
The mission was approved under the codename Operation Anthropoid. However, the exiled Czech government insisted that the operatives be Czechoslovak nationals, to affirm their commitment to the resistance. This was no small ask. The team knew full well that killing a Nazi leader of Heydrich’s stature would bring unthinkable reprisals upon the civilian population.
Twenty-four Czech soldiers, selected from among the 2,000 exiles in Britain, were trained in sabotage and guerrilla warfare in Scotland. Two of them were eventually chosen: Jozef Gabčík, a Slovak, and Jan Kubiš, a Czech. The original plan was to deploy in late October 1941, but an accident during training injured Gabčík’s partner, forcing a delay.
On 28 December 1941, Gabčík and Kubiš parachuted into the Protectorate, but a navigation error landed them in Nehvizdy, rather than near Pilsen. From there, they travelled overland to Prague and linked up with the local resistance. Their contacts were deeply uneasy. Many believed the operation was suicide — not just for the men involved, but for thousands of Czechs who would pay the price.
Still, Edvard Beneš, the exiled Czech President, pressed them to continue. For him, bold action was the only way to revive the dwindling resistance and gain credibility with the Allies.
The Assassination Attempt
Reinhard Heydrich had grown overconfident. He travelled daily through Prague in an open-topped green Mercedes convertible — a show of power and invulnerability. On the morning of 27 May 1942, at 10:30am, the assassins took up position at a sharp bend in the road in the suburb of Libeň. They had chosen the location because the car would have to slow down.
As expected, the Mercedes approached and decelerated. Gabčík stepped onto the road and raised his British-made Sten gun. It jammed.
Instead of speeding off, Heydrich ordered his driver to stop and stood up in the car, drawing his pistol. Kubiš, acting quickly, hurled a modified anti-tank grenade at the vehicle. It exploded near the rear wheel, wounding both Heydrich and Kubiš. Shrapnel ripped through Heydrich’s back, damaging his lung, spleen, and diaphragm.
Despite his injuries, Heydrich emerged from the car and aimed his pistol at Kubiš. A chaotic shootout followed. Kubiš fled on a bicycle while Gabčík escaped by boarding a tram after shooting the driver who had pursued him.
Both men believed the operation had failed. But within hours, Heydrich’s condition deteriorated rapidly. Though hospitalised and initially expected to recover, he succumbed to sepsis on 4 June 1942. The grenade had done its job.
Nazi Reprisals: Lidice and Ležáky
The consequences were swift and horrifying. Hitler initially demanded the execution of 10,000 Czechs, but his generals intervened, worried this would cripple Czech industry. Instead, around 13,000 people were arrested; thousands were deported to concentration camps, and an estimated 5,000 were executed.
Two villages bore the brunt of Nazi wrath. The Gestapo mistakenly believed the assassins had been aided by residents of Lidice and Ležáky. On 10 June 1942, all 172 males of Lidice aged 14 to 84 were shot. The women were sent to Ravensbrück, where four pregnant women were forced to undergo abortions in the same hospital where Heydrich had died. Eighty-one children were either murdered at Chełmno extermination camp or selected for Germanisation.
The village itself was levelled, reduced to ash and rubble. Ležáky met a similar fate. In total, at least 1,300 Czechs — including 200 women — were killed in retaliation for the assassination.
The Final Stand of the Resistance Fighters
After weeks of hunting, the Gestapo received a tip-off. On 18 June 1942, the assassins were cornered in the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague. Kubiš and several others died in the upper gallery during a gunfight. Gabčík and his team retreated to the crypt below. Nazi forces pumped the basement with tear gas and flooded it with water. Rather than surrender, the men chose to end their own lives.
The church’s clergy, who had harboured the resistance, were tortured and executed. The Germans displayed the heads of the assassins on spikes. Today, the bullet-pocked walls of the crypt remain as a memorial.
Legacy of Operation Anthropoid
Though the Allies never authorised a similar assassination again during the war — the human cost was deemed too high — Operation Anthropoid had lasting impact. It drew global attention to Nazi atrocities in occupied Czechoslovakia. More crucially, it prompted the Allies to rescind the 1938 Munich Agreement, recognising that the pre-war boundaries of Czechoslovakia should be restored after the war.
Heydrich’s successors carried on with the Final Solution, but some historians argue that had he lived, the Nazi grip on Central Europe would have been even tighter, and the loss of life greater still.
