SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

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SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#1

Post by GWalker » 27 Jan 2020, 22:52

Heinz Heydrich, younger brother of Reinhard Heydrich, was a member of the Nazi Party, NSDAP #2,637,285. He joined in 1933.

He was an SS officer, SS #36,225. In 1939, on Hitler's 50th birthday, he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer (April 20, 1939).

H Heydrich was also a Sonderführer in the Propaganda Ministry under Dr. Joseph Goebbels. He was a writer/journalist in that capacity, and when the campaign on the eastern front opened he was assigned to the 697 Panzer Propaganda Kompanie as editor of the soldier newspaper, Die Panzerfaust.

An accomplished fencer, equestrian, and musician (he was part of a stringed quartet along with his brother, Reinhard, and Admiral Canaris, in Berlin) Heinz was also a combat veteran of the invasion of Poland and then France. Physically he was tall like Reinhard, a handsome man, and an athlete in terms of his physical fitness. Heinz maintained his Catholic faith although Reinhard renounced his in favor of National Socialism and its doctrine.

He attended his brother's memorial service in Prague after Reinhard was assassinated in May 1942, and again in Berlin where he is pictured accepting condolences from among others, Adolph Hitler. Although much has been made of the packet of documents he received and read the evening before the Berlin funeral, the notion that Heinz suddenly became fully aware of his brother's role in the multiple policies and projects having to do with "the Final Solution" is fanciful but not historically correct. H Heydrich grew up in the same household as his brother; he was taught the same nationalistic thought processes as Reinhard; he fought with and for his brother in the streets during their Freikorps days; upon joining the NSDAP and the SS he wrote scathing editorials in both public papers and the Party media about the "Jewish Problem"; he witnessed and heard about firsthand as a writer/photographer/editor in Poland, France, and then Russia the mass executions taking place per his brother's directives; he spent hours talking with Reinhard, Himmler, Goebbels, and other leading Party officials about what Hitler believed necessary to be done in many areas other than extermination.

In short, he was neither ignorant nor a fool.

His demeanor the morning after reading the documents and certainly a personal letter from his brother, to be opened only by Heinz as Reinhard had directed when he left a similar "last letter" to his wife, Lina, prior to participating in the war as a fighter pilot, was that of a man who had lost a brother he truly loved and respected, had read his last letter to him with all that may have entailed, and if there were documents regarding the mass extermination policies, plans, and decisions in the packet they would have been essentially known of by Heinz to begin with. As Reinhard was as precise, detail driven, and careful (read: possessing of a policeman's well developed sense of paranoia) the burning of some if not all of the documents in the packet may have been a directive of his to Heinz.

In late 1944, Heinz Heydrich shot himself in his office on the special train assigned to PPK 697, near Reisenberg, Poland. Again, when looked into objectively the story around his suicide ("freitod") does not hold water. By 1944, the shortage of paper of all grades was acute throughout Germany. With the many soldier and service newspapers the Nazi military machine under Goebbels created the shortages were even worse. For example, in a special edition of Die Panzerfaust when the war in the east was going well for the Germans, the issue boasted 96 pages of editorial and photos. By the end of 1944 it was down to 2-3 pages per issue, as were most others of the same genre.

The myth that a state agency inspector was "looking into" a paper shortage at Die Panzerfaust and that Heinz believed his use of said paper and printing press since his brother's death to forge ID and visa documents for many Jewish folks to escape Germany had been discovered - leading him to commit suicide - is likewise silly. The grade of paper used by Die Panzerfaust, especially as the shortages grew, was "rag" paper. Document forgery of the level and quality demanded in Nazi Germany's ID and travel paperwork demanded high quality paper. ID documents, or Kennkarte, were printed using a thin cardboard - not paper - that was folded into six sections. Attempting to forge kennkarte and visa paperwork on "rag" paper would be like forging a US passport on toilet paper - not exactly going to fool anyone.

In short, Heinz Heydrich is only known to have helped two Jewish folk to escape Germany, and this was circa 1943. My research on this is reflected in the below narrative. Of great interest is the surviving Heydrich family members' utter silence about Heinz. This can be attributed to his helping two Berlin Jews to successfully escape as described below - and what Lina Heydrich, an unrepentant National Socialist who worshiped her husband, Reinhard, as well as Himmler and Adolph Hitler, and who was close with the wife of Joseph Goebbels as well as SS officer Jochin Peiper's spouse, among others, saw as an unforgivable betrayal of all she held dear by a family member.

Lina once said of Heinz's suicide that he, in her opinion, did not have the psychological armor to see "it" through to the end. Implying he was not as mentally strong as her Reinhard was. I believe the truth is that Heinz Heydrich was offered a quiet and "honorable" out that would secure his family's safety - as so many others were to include Rommel and those mid-level and senior German officers who were tried and convicted after the July 20, 1944 attempt on Hitler.

As Himmler asked of her in January 1945, after she thanked him for his condolences regarding the death of her brother-in-law, "...Himmler was concerned that news of the suicide of the late Reinhard Heydrich's brother should not become common knowledge." Lina complied, reporting to Himmler she had instructed the town mayor in Wreschen, where she was then staying, to remain silent on the topic, as well (Reinhard Heydrich, The Biography, Volume 2, Enigma, Max Williams, Page 251).

One brother became inhumane and the mainspring of mass murder - the other remained humane and saved a young woman and her child from that mass murder. "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." - John 15:13

Her name is Dolores Beatrice Lieselotte Lafaire. She was born on May 20, 1918, in Germany. She was Jewish. Later in life she confirmed who it was that saved her child and she from certain death.

Dolores married a young German officer and Olympic medalist (Equestrian - 1928 Olympics), Richard Sahla. They had one child. Major Richard Sahla would serve in the invasion of Poland in 1939. He would be convicted by court martial of murdering four Polish women while they were in jail, and seriously wounding a 5th, who was able to identify him.

Richard Sahla was stripped of his rank, assigned to a penal battalion, and was killed in action on the Russian front in 1942. His grave is lost for all time.

Dolores would lose Gerrit LaFaire, her 23-year old brother, on August 16, 1942, a victim of the Nazis. Her mother and father, both Jewish, disappeared into the camps. Both died there.

The young woman with a child to raise met and married German actor Karl Johns. Johns made a number of films for the Nazi film industry and was a favorite of Joseph Goebbels. Johns (later, upon immigration to the United States, shortened to simply "John") was born on March 24, 1905. There is no record of his parents. As Johns' wife, Dolores and her child were safe from the extermination policies of Goebbels/Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich only as long as her husband remained on the Nazis' good side.

In 1943, after hearing Johns make disparaging statements / jokes about Hitler and himself, Joseph Goebbels sent the actor to an SS run work camp (Hessisch Lichtenau), a muntions factory under the Buchenwald KZ system. Karl John would be liberated by American forces in 1945.

Before his exile the actor turned to a friend in the Propaganda Ministry he felt he could trust. The man was well educated, a musician, an equestrian, and with the means to help him if he so chose to. Karl Johns had nothing to lose by approaching him, as all was lost already.

The man, a German officer, agreed to help the actor. He provided forged documents of high quality and two exit visas for Johns' wife and child. They would escape through Scandinavia and make their way to England. The officer knew Delores, and he knew her child's father was Richard Sahla, Olympic equestrian champion and now dead and buried on the eastern front.

Once liberated, Karl Johns reunited with Dolores and they immigrated to the United States where now Karl John resumed his acting career in Hollywood. They lived quietly and well, never forgetting the man who saved Dolores and child.

Karl John passed away in 1977 at the age of 72. Dolores lived to a ripe old age before passing, and as Karl chose to be buried in Berlin, she requested the same and the two were reunited once again.

The German officer who saved this family out of friendship was, under German law at the time, guilty of treason. He'd made it possible for two German Jews (Berlin Jews, at that) to successfully escape the Nazi extermination policy at the time. Further, he done so at the behest of another "traitor" under German law, Karl John, who had dared speak ill of Nazi Germany's "messiah" and Joseph Goebbels.

The penalty of such crimes of high treason was death.

And in November 1944, the officer in question, SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Heinz Siegfriend Heydrich, younger brother to the mainspring of the Final Solution, SS General Reinhard Heydrich (assassinated on May 27, 1942, in Prague), was offered the option of suicide ("frietod") for his crimes - and to avoid the scandal that would befall Hitler, Himmler, and the SS were it known a Heydrich had saved two Jews from the policies and programs of his "mythical" elder brother, Reinhard.

Heinz Heydrich's grave, somewhere near Reisenberg, Poland, is likely unmarked and forgotten. His brother Reinhard's grave in Berlin was recently dug into for reasons unknown and remains once again unmarked.

In England, the Sahla Family fondly remembers Dolores and her child; Karl John who sought to see them escape certain death in a KZ, and Heinz Siegfried Heydrich who in saving them both gave up his life for the sake of remaining human.

**Photos of Dolores Sahla-John, Major Richard Sahla, and Karl John and their extended families are available online. Observations, additions, and corrections are invited on this forum.
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Re: Hauptsturmfuhrer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#2

Post by GWalker » 04 Feb 2020, 15:18

Addendum -

Continued research now affirms Heinz Heydrich along with Kurt Jochiem Fischer, the commander of the 697 PPK, created and conducted a rescue operation lasting nearly two years (1942-1944) that Fischer states saved over 300 Jews from arrest/extermination. Where Fischer, upon arrest and trial in the Nazi "People's Court" was sentenced to death (commuted by Himmler upon a personal plea from a senior SS general who knew Fischer at University - to imprisonment), Heydrich committed suicide ("freitod").

Heydrich, an SS officer, would have faced judgement at the hands of an SS court, and said trial would have greatly embarrassed/undermined the SS at its highest leadership level to include Hitler himself. Himmler's offer/recommendation of "freitod" provided for the safety of Heydrich's family - and Reinhard Heydrich's widow, Lina, was directed by Himmler in January 1945 not to speak of her brother-in-law's suicide.

Fischer, liberated in April 1945, went on to become a noted author and film maker. His article, "Escape to Sweden" details the operation he and Heydrich conducted and was written/published after the war.
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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#3

Post by GWalker » 04 Feb 2020, 16:31

Addendum 2 -

General Henning von Tresckow was at the hub of several operations meant to assassinate Adolf Hitler; one in 1943 that was cancelled as Heinrich Himmler would not be present when the attempt was made, and the other on July 20, 1944.
In September 1941, von Tresckow, now at Army Group Centre in Russia, committed AGC to do anything necessary to see Hitler killed and the German government restored to respectability. In May 1942, SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Heinz Heydrich was assigned to the 697 PPK at Army Group Centre. By this time Heydrich, the younger brother of Reinhard Heydrich, was beginning to question his role in the Nazi war effort. Von Tresckow was reaching out to and creating an active resistance effort within the Army, in Russia, when Heydrich arrived at the 697th.
Already present at the unit was its commander and editor of the newspaper Die Panzerfaust was Kurt Jochim Fischer. Von Tresckow, outraged and in correspondence with fellow senior officers, decried the mass shootings of Jews on the eastern front as well as other mass murders he was witness to or had knowledge of. Fischer and Heydrich shared this knowledge of horror and for their own personal as well as professional reasons joined von Tresckow's operation to dethrone and kill Hitler at the soonest opportunity.
In the meantime both men, as described in an article written after the war by Fischer, started an operation to save Jews from extermination. Fischer offered over 300 Jews were provided the necessary documents and ratline to Sweden to make their escape.
As the documents needed a signature that would not be challenged, or if challenged would be back-stopped by the signer, they turned to von Treschow who agreed to help.
On July 21, 1944, in lieu of the failed attempted to kill Hitler and the immedate and massive investigation by the Gestapo/SD/SS to discover all those involved - von Tresckow committed suicide as did his loyal co-planner, Major Hans von Oertzen.
"To protect other conspirators, he staged an appearance of partisan attack by firing his pistols and then dispatched himself by holding a hand grenade below his chin and detonating it. He was buried in the family home in Wartenberg. When the Nazis learned about his connections in late August, his body was exhumed and taken to the crematorium in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. His wife was arrested on 15 August, and her children taken away under Nazi policy of Sippenhaft (shared family guilt); however, early in October she was released and survived the war."
In his account of the rescue operation Fischer revealed a key document was signed by a German general who committed suicide after the failed attempt of July 20th. The decision was made between he and Heydrich to continue to use the Tresckow signed document and assume the risk of its being successfully challenged. It was and the bearer(s) of said documents were arrested and interrogated. The Gestapo investigation led to the 697 PPK in November 1944 with the arrest of Fischer and suicide of Heydrich.
Heydrich, an SS officer, was subject to a show trial by an SS court, established by Himmler to both protect the image of the SS he was promoting, and to demonstrate the SS was above all other courts in Nazi Germany. Per author Herbert F. Ziegler's excellent book "Nazi Germany's New Aristocracy - The SS Leadership, 1925-1939", the SS man was only "important...insofar as he guaranteed the existence of the collective: kith and kin, the tribe, the SS, and the Reich"
As Hauptsturmfuhrer Heinz Heydrich had committed in both the NSDAP and SS' eyes the unpardonable sin of high treason (being in league with the Von Tresckow organization and aiding/abetting Jews to escape "The Final Solution" - a program put in detail and motion by his brother Reinhard - his death was inevitable.
At the same time given the lingering question of the Heydrich Family tree being "contaminated" by Jewish blood - a phobia that haunted Reinhard until his assassination in 1942, to have to admit even in an SS court that his brother, Heinz, used his title and rank in the SS to help some 300 JEWS escape death by gassing, or shooting, or slave labor conditions, would only renew such talk - and shake the SS to its core.
Hence the offer to take his own life, avoid his family being prosecuted/persecuted for his actions (as was Von Tresckow's), and the caution to Lina Heydrich as reported in Max Williams' excellent volume on Reinhard Heydrich "Enigma", "It appears Himmler was concerned that news of the suicide of the late Reinhard Heydrich's brother should not become common knowlege."
This after Lina Heydrich in a January 9, 1945 letter to the Reichsführer-SS told him of Heinz's now widow and their children staying in Posen under the "care" of SS-Brigadeführer Erwin Schulz...a form of protective custody perhaps put in place to encourage Hauptsturmfuhrer Heydrich to keep his part of the deal. Schulz was less than understanding of Heinz Heydrich's reasoning to help a single Jew, much less 300, escape death - his role with the Einsatzkommando, the creation of Reinhard Heydrich, the boilerplate of Schulz's own belief system and guilt.
"In May 1941 Schulz was appointed chief of Einsatzkommando (mission squad) Nr. 5. He directed the execution of thousands of Jews in Lvov, Zhytomyr, Dubno and Berdychiv between June and late August 1941. When he convened with Otto Rasch at Zhytomyr in mid August 1941, Rasch informed him that on the orders of Adolf Hitler, more Jews needed to be shot. The Senior SS and police leader for occupied Eastern Russia Friedrich Jeckeln ordered that all Jews not engaged in forced labor, including women and children, were to be slaughtered."
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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#4

Post by GWalker » 05 Feb 2020, 17:45

Reinhard Heydrich's NSDAP membership number was 544, 916. His SS membership number was 10,120.
Heinz Heydrich's NSDAP number was 637,285. His SS number was 36,225; only 92,369 members separated the two.
Lina von Osten-Heydrich's NSDAP number was 201,380 having joined in 1929. It was Lina who brought Reinhard into the NSDAP. Her brother, Jurgen, was a member of the Party and its SA.
An "Alten Kampher", or "Old Fighter" was a title awarded by Hitler in February 1934. It referred to those who had joined the NSDAP or the Allegemaine SS prior to January 30, 1933.
The "Old Guard" of the SS refers to those whose membership number is 50,000 or below - or members before the NSDAP seizure of political power in 1933.
A special chevron was authorized to be worn on the right sleeve of those confirmed by their membership numbers to belong to the "Old Guard", and who were individually "Old Fighters". It was an honored distinction from those who joined the NSDAP after 1933 - when it became opportunistic to do so.
In lieu of the above, both Reinhard and his brother, Heinz, were "Old Guard" and "Old Fighters". This highly respected distinction within the NSDAP and the SS was yet another reason why, in November 1944, after Heinz was confronted by the SS/SD investigators at his unit (697 PPK) along with Dr. Joachim Fischer, its commander, Heinz's actions to rescue 300 Jews (June 1942-November 1944) was an abomination / high treason.
And why, within the Heydrich Family to this day, Heinz is not spoken of or about. Frau Heydrich (Lina) was as devout a National Socialist as was her husband, Reinhard. She was also the personification of the good SS wife. Both her sons were enrolled in the Hitler Youth and therefore received early indoctrination in National Socialism, and were doted on by Heinrich HImmler himself. Heinz's "betrayal" of the NSDAP and the SS aristocracy he was privy to made him an outcast with Lina, who among other things used forced labor (Jewish prisoners) at her home in CZ and was alleged to have abused and brutalized them whereas Heinz was rescuing Jews (Berlin Jews, in specific).
For Lina Heydrich, whose entire social privilege and status (she once referred to her situation as being like that of a princess living in a fairy tale) was welded to National Socialism and the SS doctrine of racial superiority and "pure blood". To discuss Heinz and why he took his own life could have, and would have, separated she and her immediate family from all those other Nazi/SS figures and activities (wartime and post-war) she loved.
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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#5

Post by GWalker » 05 Feb 2020, 19:29

The Heydrich Family is most interesting in this respect, as well. It is a family of unmarked / forgotten graves. Reinhard/Heinz's father, Bruno Heydrich, was buried but his grave's exact whereabouts is now listed as "Unknown". Reinhard's grave in Berlin was marked, then unmarked, and remains generally known as to where it is - despite another nearby grave recently disturbed as believed to be his. Heider Heydrich is on record saying the disturbed grave is not his father's and he (Heider) has not, despite reports, released all family rights to it to anyone. Heinz Heydrich's grave is given officially as being in a German military cemetery near Reisenburg, Poland. However, it turns out that the cemetery is not a marked/titled one and the grave is likewise unknown and is possibly, by now unmarked (Heinz's remains were not returned to his family for burial in Halle, or in Berlin alongside his brother. This due to his perceived betrayal of National Socialism and the SS oath to Hitler, and wartime circumstances in late 1944). Klaus Heydrich, first born son of Reinhard and Lina Heydrich, was tragically killed in an accident in CZ. His remains were first buried on the grounds of the family home at Panenske Brezany in CZ, then exhumed to be taken to Fehmarn, the family's summer home. However, the tin casket belonging to Klaus was found empty and discarded not far from his original burial site...but Heider Heydrich is on record saying he believes Klaus remains buried in the original grave. Lina Manninen-Heydrich-Von Osten is buried at Fehmarn under her first and second husbands' names. Unsupported, to date, speculation has it that Lina had Reinhard's remains exhumed in Berlin and transported secretly to Fehmarn for re-burial. This along the same lines as her son, Klaus', remains. It is fair to say given Lina Heydrich's exceptional love, loyalty, and passion for her family members both thought processes could indeed be true. Helping her with this would have fallen to, of course, the SS whose members she supported, hosted, and made room for at Fehmarn during and after the war.
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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#6

Post by GWalker » 18 Feb 2020, 21:06

From June/July 1942 until their arrest on November 18, 1944, Hauptsturmfuhrer/Lieutenant Heinz Heydrich and Dr. Kurt Joachim Fischer (the latter the commander of the 697 Panzer Propaganda Kompanie on the eastern front) operated a ratline that saw roughly 300 Jewish men and women escape Berlin, Germany.

This letter by journalist Axel Huber, taken from an article written by Dr. Fischer after the war, details that operation. A second article by Fischer appeared in a 1950 issue of Der Spiegel, as well.

https://web.archive.org/web/20090311122 ... nisse.html

Fischer was tried in the People's Court on December 28, 1944. Found guilty, he was sentenced to death for high treason. Heydrich was offered "freitod", or suicide, to protect the image of Reinhard Heydrich within the NSDAP and more importantly, the SS. His family's safety was promised in return for his taking his own life. He killed himself on November 19, 1944. Although said to be buried in a military cemetery in Poland, the exact location of his grave, and if it is even still marked, is unsure.

Both Heydrich and Fischer were charged with theft (the materials and machinery used to print the passes and visas they were providing to the escapees) and with "corruption", the oft used charge used by the Gestapo/SD as it was wide-ranging and conveyed illegal activity. In fact, both were under indictment for high treason as saving Jewish lives from extermination was such an offense. Both were likewise associated with General Henning von Tresckow, the hub of the German Resistance within the Wehrmacht, and privy to the July 20, 1944 attempt on Hitler's life. It was von Tresckow's signature that appeared on the passes/visas as he was privy to the operation and could be counted on to back up any inquiry if the pass was questioned.

Von Tresckow committed suicide on July 21, 1944, masking his death as combat related, to avoid being arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo. Heydrich and Fischer's ratline and rescue operation were discovered roughly two months later when a German soldier stopped and inspected two people's passes and noted the name of the now deceased general being on them. Once Tresckow's involvement in the Resistance, the assassination plot, and the ratline were discovered his body was exhumed from its honorable resting place in his home town and sent to a KZ where it was stripped of his medals and awards and then cremated.

Fischer's life was spared when SS/SD Gauleiter Dr. Gustav Adolph Scheel, an alumni and friend of Fischer's from their days at Heidelberg University, intervened with Himmler himself. Himmler, not wishing to denigrate the People's Court decision, arranged to have Fischer's "execution" announced on the radio while at the same time transferring him to the prison at Torgau where he was to serve a six and a half year sentence, and pay a 40,000RM fine. Fischer was liberated in April 1945 by American troops who reached the prison just minutes before he would have been shot by its guards.

Fischer went on to raise his step-son who would become a well known writer and film maker like his stepfather.

The Heydrich Family on Reinhard's side under direction of his widow, LIna Heydrich, "blackballed" Heinz's suicide and the reason why as instructed to by Himmler in January 1945 (as discussed in Max William's 2nd Volume on Heydrich, "Enigma"). That directive remains in force to this day among the surviving children of Reinhard and LIna.
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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#7

Post by GWalker » 09 Mar 2020, 19:55

Input from Axel Huber offers Dolores John was not of Jewish heritage. This according to still-living family member, Peter Sahla, her son by previous marriage to Richard Sahla, KIA on the Russian Front in June 1942.

This now coincides with Dr. Kurt Fischer's original published recollections of his and Heinz Heydrich's rescue operation (May 1942- January 1944) where it was the wife of a German actor (Karl John / Dolores John) sought help in smuggling her female friend, who was Jewish, out of Berlin.

By Fischer's account roughly 298 more Jews would seek escape with Heinz' and Fischer's help via a ratline that began in Berlin under the oversight of Admiral Canaris/Abwehr and ended on fishing boats crossing from Copenhagen to Sweden via the escape network established there and with which Heinz Heydrich made contact and arrangements for safe passage.
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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#8

Post by GWalker » 10 Mar 2020, 01:07

I am indebted to Alex Huber - who sent me some thoughtful information regarding Heinz Heydrich / Dr. Kurt Fischer today.

Alex explored the Fischer account of Heinz and he providing rescue opportunities to the Berlin Jewish community from May 1942 to January 1945.

More to research, ask questions about, and finally publish as follow up to "Escape to Sweden", Kurt Fischer's first recollection as published in Penguin magazine so many years ago.
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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#9

Post by VanillaNuns » 11 Sep 2020, 23:10

GWalker wrote:
18 Feb 2020, 21:06

The Heydrich Family on Reinhard's side under direction of his widow, LIna Heydrich, "blackballed" Heinz's suicide and the reason why as instructed to by Himmler in January 1945 (as discussed in Max William's 2nd Volume on Heydrich, "Enigma"). That directive remains in force to this day among the surviving children of Reinhard and LIna.
I don't pretend to know the whole story behind what you claim but I can assure you that at least some of Heinz Heydrich's descendents are on good terms today with their cousins, nieces and nephews.

Indeed, several of them later emigrated to the same country where Silke now lives. There is a large extended family of a new generation there who don't give a hoot about events and rivalries from 75 years ago, whilst at the same time enjoying their privacy.

The ghost of Lina holds little or no influence anymore. The world has moved on and the families have done likewise.

Heinz Heydrich's descendents are certainly not shunned by their family members in 2020.

I trust the forum support staff will act responsibility by deleting any requests for information on family members whereabouts today. They deserve the right to privacy.

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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#10

Post by VanillaNuns » 14 Sep 2020, 06:37

Hi Greg,

Your posts are very interesting and I enjoyed reading them. A couple of mistakes though:

(1) Lina didn't have a brother called Jurgen. This was her father's name but he was born in 1870. He was apparently both a staunch nationalist and had strong antisemitic beliefs. Very possible that it was he who influenced his daughter to join the Nazi party.

She did have 2 brothers - Hans and Klaus. Hans was the "last man standing" dying in 1989. The younger one Klaus died in infancy. All the family are buried together on Fehrmarn as you are probably aware.

(2) Reinhard Heydrich remains buried today in the Invalidenfriedhof. There was no realistic attempt by Lina to have his remains exhumed and reburied elsewhere as the cemetery was in the Soviet zone. She did take Marte to the cemetery once to show her where her father was buried.

Max Williams confirms Heydrich's remains have remained in situ since his burial in June 1942. Please see page 217 of his book "Heydrich - The Dark Shadow of the SS"

(3) The grave of Heydrich was indeed disturbed in December 2019. The photographs confirm this was the exact plot and no one in the German media or the Berlin local government or cemetery authorities have denied it. There is speculation the looters were hoping to find the ceremonial funeral cord that Himmler had dropped into the grave before it was sealed, but apparently nothing was taken.

I haven't seen any comments by Heider Heydrich denying his father's grave was tampered with. It would be a ridiculous statement to make as there was huge media coverage surrounding the story at the time.

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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#11

Post by GWalker » 16 Dec 2020, 03:50

Thank you for your post.

I just completed this article on Heinz Heydrich - should you have access to Linkedin.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nazi-bur ... %2FQ%3D%3D
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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#12

Post by GWalker » 04 Feb 2021, 16:29

The three part series on Heinz Heydrich can now be more easily found / read at these links.

https://frontierpartisans.com/21122/naz ... ch-part-i/
https://frontierpartisans.com/21139/two ... h-part-ii/
https://frontierpartisans.com/21228/a-g ... -part-iii/

This update as to the funeral for Heinz has been added as of 2/4/2021

Update 2/4/2021 -

"Herr Axel Huber shared the below with me in follow up to my original story. Until now there has been no record of a formal military burial ceremony held in Reisenburg/Prabuty, Poland, for Heinz Heydrich. In my own research I learned, as Herr Huber shares, that the German Soldiers' Cemetery where the funeral was held no longer exists. It has been vandalized over the years as well as eventually built over. My sincere gratitude is extended to Axel for the historically important information regarding Heydrich's services.

"Isa Heydrich told me that her mother left for Riesenburg immediately after receiving the news of her death. The family did not live in Berlin at that time, but in a small village in what is now Poland. I can't think of the name right now. She then attended the funeral. The grieving widow allegedly fled on the last train to Berlin in the spring of 1945, where they lived to see the end of the war.

"I had already asked in Riesenburg years ago. A German military cemetery is no longer known there.

"Unfortunately no. Isa - Heinz's daughter - always talked about how many photos she had of her father. Also of the funeral in 1944. But unfortunately she never showed me the photos and even less gave them to me.

"She also has no children. Only an ex-husband, whom - so was my impression - she still loved. And a brother in Berlin. Maybe the things ended up there. But in both cases I have no names and no addresses. Working with her was very frustrating. Except for a few letters, I have no record of ever being in contact with her."

This short interview with Isa before her passing shows her father being greeted by Adolf Hitler at the memorial service in Berlin, and Reinhard Heydrich's two young sons, Klaus and Heider, being likewise consoled by Hitler. SS Hauptsturmfuhrer HHeydrich is seen standing to the right side and rear of Hitler, with SS Reichfurhrer HHimmler, godfather to Reinhard Heydrich's children, standing between Klaus and Heider Heydrich.

Isa Heydrich - https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/hhhh/kij ... nhard.html

In this segment of the series Isa seeks to refute her father's role as an ardent National Socialist who actively participated in the carrying out, at his level, of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Per Herr Huber, despite his three years' of ardent research on behalf of Frau Heydrich he was unable to find a single scrap of evidence supporting the claims that Heinz Heydrich was anything but his brother's protector and loyal advocate of his policies right up until his very likely murder at Panzer Propaganda Kompanie 697 by Dr. Kurt Fischer (circled) and/or his fellow conspirators in an embezzlement case Fischer was the ring leader of."
Greg Walker (ret)
USA Special Forces
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Georg_S
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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#13

Post by Georg_S » 04 Feb 2021, 18:33

Hello

Heinz Heydrich is listed as Leutnant on the VDK site , and you can Read the following (german)

Heinz Siegfried Heydrich wurde noch nicht auf einen vom Volksbund errichteten Soldatenfriedhof überführt.

Nach den uns vorliegenden Informationen befindet sich sein Grab derzeit noch an folgendem Ort: Prabuty - Polen


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Georg
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sperverbandax
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Joined: 26 Sep 2021, 21:23
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Re: SS-Hauptsturmführer Heinz Siegfried Heydrich

#14

Post by sperverbandax » 26 Sep 2021, 22:19

I have an entry in the parish book which describes Heinz's funeral in Prabuty (I myself live not far away). Would you like more information? Write priv.

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