1. The God of Death
Death has appeared in both history and religion fromtime to time as the ugly
reality of life, one that is inevitable. Differentcivilizations embodied death as gods
probably to emphasizethe inevitability of death or even to create fear in the
minds of human beings. The gallant Egyptians employed Osiris as the God of the
Underworld and the wolf headed Anubis as the guard. At the time it became such
an influence that even the simple process of mummification was done
ceremonially. The Greeks were known for their magnificence in art, culture and
the amazing mythology that could steal your heart. They employed Hades as the
God of the Underworld. Hades was oneof the three most powerfulbrothers;
Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, and naturally held a position in Mount Olympus.
Fabulous literature surrounds Hades and his life with Persephone. The beauty of
this mythology depicted the extraordinary ability of the ancient Greeks to create
irresistible literature. The Greeks believed that the death of a single person meant
the fortification of the God of the Underworld. In theFar Eastthe Buddhists
believes in an entity known as Yama to be the ruthless King of the Underworld or
hell as some people would refer to it. According to my opinion all these Gods
regardless of their origin played a significant role in making the people
understand the reality of death.
However in this context I do not intend to talk about these Gods, is stead let us
focus on a human being who was referred to as a god only in the context of his
ruthlessness.
Reinhard Heydrich was probably Adolf Hitler’s most revered henchman. Even
though he didn’t survivethe entire war he was quite successfulin creating a name
for him within quite a shortperiod of time. He was a good friend of Admiral
Wilhelm Canaris who governed the rivalorganization, the Abwehr. However, the
personalities of Canaris and Reinhard were juxtaposed at all costs. They both
competed for the same position which was nothing shortof grandeur, the
supremacy in the Third Reich. However, Reinhard had what it took to acquire that
position – the ruthlessness to take any measures to get whathe wanted, and foul
to the core that is what Hitler required fromhis henchmen. Hitler had often

2. advised his henchmen that the weak should be oppressed and eradicated for it
was the ultimate intention of Nature. I believe this misconception lead to the
downfallof Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.
Born in 1904 in HALLE AN DER SAALE he was the son of the elegant composer
Richard Bruno Heydrich and his wife Elisabeth Anna Maria Amalia Krantz who
happened to be a devoted Roman Catholic. His father was German Nationalist,
thus he took necessary measures to instill patriotism in the minds of Reinhard and
his two brothers. Reinhard Heydrich was a brilliant student at school; he excelled
in the sciences and was a good swimmer and a fencer. However, certain records
also state that he was subjected to bullying, probably due to his shyness and
senseof insecurity.
Then, in 1922 he enrolled into the German Navy, and he excelled at it for a
significant time. He was a devoted naval officer who worked with ample
perseveranceand diligence; in fact had he stayed in the Navy he would have done
very well. Unfortunately his great misfortuneprevailed, and he was let go from
the Navy for gross misconduct. Hetook it hard. However, this was a time of grave
misfortunefor Germany. Since the defeat at the end of the FirstWorld War the
country had been barely surviving. Themakebelieve euphoric feeling of
patriotism that had convinced the Germans to rally round the Kaiser as he was
preparing to give way to his obsession over bringing the British Empire to her
knees had driven the entire country fromprosperity to shambles. Following the
abdication of the Kaiser the newly formed Weimar Republic was a great failure. As
the Communists and anti-Communists vandalized each other the Nazis were
slithering their way into power eliminating any obstacle with utter brutality. Many
gentlemen fell for the mesmerizing speeches of Hitler: Franz Von Papen an
idealistic nobleman helped Hitler the most, Joachim Von Ribbentrop, and many
more people who werelater known as the gentlemen who never belonged with
the Nazis. However, theunemployed Reinhard Heydrich found Hitler quite
interesting. Himmler had interviewed him and probably realized that he had
found someone justderanged as he was. Reinhard’s ideas for the SS had
apparently amazed Himmler. Within two years of servitudehe was already in
power, his power was such that he only answered to Himmler.

3. Soon he became the head of the Gestapo; he was so efficient at his job that the
Gestapo has had files on almostevery liable subjectof the German Reich. He used
the Gestapo to cleanse the Reich of all the traitors and Jews. He had his diabolical
deputies installed in almost every Reich colony at the time with the sole purpose
of deporting the European Jews to concentration camps. Hehad introduced the
wind chilling methodologies of mass murder – the gas chambers. Hewas also
quite good at keeping mostof this information off the radar. According to his
calculations a total amount of eleven million Jews were to be exterminated by the
end of 1945. Mostof these facts illustrate tenacity of the man who masterminded
all these schemes. Contrarily he was also a great father and a husband. Mostof
his coworkers believed there were two souls inside one body. Some had often
wondered about him with awe, or perhaps terror would be a better word. In the
mornings he would eagerly reportto work with the intention of having moreand
more Jews exterminated and in the evenings he returned to a very cozy home as
their loving bread winner. Unfortunately this implies the power of the
propaganda of the Nazis and how much it deceived the Germans. The deception
was such that the people began to consider these mass murderers to be the
disciples of the Messiah who was none other than Hitler.
In 1941 thewar against the Soviets was instigated and thus began ‘Operation
Barbarossa’. Theplans Reinhard had in storefor the Bolsheviks literally belittled
the plans he had had for the Jews. They had been secretly preserved until the end
of the war in 1945. Quitefrankly his particular plan reminds me of the Olympian
Gods of Greek mythology. The feud between Zeus and Hades would be the best
example to emphasizemy point. In this caseZeus would be symbolic of all the
Allied forces broughttogether and Hades as Hitler. Kraken the creation of Hades
in this instance could be regarded as Reinhard Heydrich. Hades unleashing his
beastly creation againstZeus is almost the sameas Hitler ordering Reinhard to
end the Jewish problem. Anti-Semitism was a policy and a way of life during that
era in Nazi Germany. In the Mein Kampf, Hitler describes the Jews as a parasitic
race sucking the host country’s economy. According to Adolf Hitler this was how
the Jews thrived in Europe. This misconception was a lethal injection as far as the
ordinary German was concerned because it was sufficient to drive the majority of

4. the Germans againstthe Jews. However issuing theorder for a massacreis usually
something an ordinary human being would hesitate to do no matter how devoted
he is to his leader, but Reinhard’s willingness which he openly demonstrated
while issuing the orders makes him an exceptional entity of the Third Reich. It
probably creates a series of rhetoricalquestions in our minds: Who he really was?
Was he insane? Was he possessed? Or was hebeyond human? Itrather is a very
complicated predicament. Ittakes a deranged presenceof mind to execute such a
task even though it was unethical and inhuman. Perhaps at the time Hitler’s
propaganda gavehim the appearanceof a deity and Reinhard probably felt like a
disciple of him. Depicted below on the left is a photo of Reinhard Heydrich.
The Bolsheviks were perceived as the arch enemy of
the Third Reich and in 1941 Reinhard Heydrich got a
new posting and a promotion. He became the new governor generalof occupied
Czechoslovakia. Heemerged as the Messiah of the Czechs; he had often referred
to them as ‘my Czechs’. By that time he had already created quite a reputation for
himself as an efficient henchman of Hitler. Upon moving into a mansion in Prague
he happened to draft a paper for Himmler on his plans for the Slavic people of
Eastern Europe. He noted that among the many millions of Slavs an approximate
quarter would be executed while the restwould be sent over to the ruralSiberia
over the Ural Mountains to suffer and die. The ‘apostle’ Himmler had apparently
praised Reinhard for his brilliant master plan as they referred to it. Hitler too was
impressed. Meanwhile a very few of the henchmen wereactually concerned
about the long term consequences of these abominable atrocities, but for their

5. sakethey remained silent with their deep innermostthoughts concealed beneath
the unconscious mind. Now let us analyzeReinhard’s decision to draft such a
paper. Why did he do it? Was it to strengthen his position as one of Hitler’s
henchmen or did he actually possess thepassion for massacre? This too is a
tedious task. I believe that Hitler’s gift to mesmerize people with his voice kindled
this ruthlessness in him. On the other hand it could also be his method of
avenging his expulsion fromthe Navy. However his almostimpressivefamily life
evicts the possibility of him being sociopathic, instead he appears as a person
suffering fromMultiple Personality Disorder only with the absence of amnesia.
He loved his children more than gold but at
the sametime hated the Jewish children and
masterminded their demise in the worstway
possible. This was probably how the
misconception took its’ toll.
A very few people were under the impression
that the Nazis were educated but when one
considers all these atrocities don’t they arouse
our suspicion on their so called education?
However, wecould agree with the fact that
Nazis were educated and one probably could
submit sufficientexamples to substantiatethis
claim. Let’s consider Dr. Josef Mengele for
instance, yes he was well educated, he was a
physician and an expert in the field of Genetics but he seemingly lacked sufficient
knowledgeon Ethical values; most of the scientists in Nazi Germany lacked the
ability to distinguish between moral and immoral uses of their knowledgeor
perhaps they wererestrained fromdoing so.
In Czechoslovakia Reinhard Heydrich possessed thepower to decide who lives
and who dies. However, this power of Reinhard Heydrich was instrumental in
preparing his own grave. He had already become the prioritized target of the

6. Allied Czechoslovakian Resistance. On the 4th
June 1942 the Resistance launched
the operation Anthropoid and assassinated Reinhard Heydrich.
His funeral as is illustrated abovewas a great loss the Reich, to Himmler and Hitler
in particular. On the other hand the Czechs paid a terrible price for this
assassination. This demonstrates thatReinhard Heydrich was the crucial target
probably becausehe had the ability of thinking and creating novel but menacing
techniques of mass murder. However, his assassination didn’thinder the
massacrethat was already underway. Numerous postwar comments of former
German SS soldiers seemed to imply that they weresatisfied with the
assassination of Reinhard, mainly becauseit destroyed the machinery that
believed death was a formof art.
In ancient Greek mythology this power that Reinhard possessed was entrusted to
the Olympian Gods who held supremacy over the humans.

7. Hitler had often praised Reinhard as the image of a true Aryan; yes, he was tall,
handsomewith blonde hair and blue eyes. The Aryans werea very ancient race of
people who had their origin in the Steppes of Asia Minor; then they migrated to
the Eastand some migrated to the Westforming Western Europe. On the
contrary to whatHitler believed they werea peace loving people. Today the
Aryans can be found in Nepal, India and even in Sri Lanka. MostAryans often
accuseHitler of corrupting truevalue of the Swastika; for it never meant any
harmto anybody instead it stands for peace.
Most psychologists believethat humans have two sides to their personalities; one
which emphasizes the diabolical aspect of humans and the other which
elaborates the compassionate, humaneaspect. I believe that the Holocaustis
probably the only historical event that depicted the natureof human evil. The
holocaustis not justabout the six million Jews that were massacred butit also
illuminates fatality of human misconception.
The Holocaustwasn’tthe creation of one human being but frankly the result of an
unholy alliance. Hitler made the policy; Himmler fortified it and Reinhard
Heydrich, the God of Death made the Holocaustpossible. Today we study about
the Holocaustunder European history; the HolocaustI believe stands as a
milestone in the history of mankind. Itnot only depicts the nature of evil but also
obscenefate of misconception which led to the near extinction of a race of
human beings. The lessons learnt fromthe pastare the foundation to a better
future. Humans do have the ability as well as the potential to thrive but the
ignorantinterracial conflicts hinder this great cause. Therefore, I believe the
messageimplied is quite clear.
By: Visith Dantanarayana