GESTAPO: The Empire of Terror that Dominated Germany During 12 Years | Documentary-ZZ

On April 26th, 1933, Herman Guring created a political investigation office in Berlin with fewer than 200 officials.

12 years later, that structure had deported millions, executed tens of thousands, and turned denunciation into an instrument of government.

It was called the Gestapo.

What followed was not only repression, it was engineering of fear.

Himmler, a methodical bureaucrat with no military charisma, and Hydrich, a violinist from an educated family expelled from the Navy over a sexual scandal, together designed the most lethal internal control system of the 20th century.

They filed homosexuals, priests, students, and generals.

They infiltrated universities, churches, and the army itself.

When the White Rose distributed leaflets in Munich, it took less than 48 hours to guillotine its authors.

Adolf Iikman organized the deportation of millions of people from an office in Vienna with the precision of a logistics manager.

In Prague, Hydrich ruled without escort in a convertible Mercedes.

They killed him on a curve.

This documentary traces the complete history of the Gestapo.

From chaos to power, this is how the Gustapo emerges.

The German state begins to transform from within without a visible coup, but with movements that alter its structure step by step.

In this process, France von Papin dismisses regional governments and takes control of Prussia, a decision that allows him to directly intervene in the country’s most important administrative apparatus.

From that position, he facilitates financial backing from industrial sectors to Adolf Hitler.

And the effect is quickly reflected in the July 1932 elections where the National Socialist Party wins 230 seats and becomes the main parliamentary force.

Instability does not fade.

After further failed maneuvers, on January 30th, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Hitler as Reich Chancellor.

That same night, Berlin becomes a carefully constructed stage.

A torch-like march crosses the Brandenburgg Gate while the SA and SS dominate the streets.

No further explanation is needed.

Power stops insinuating itself and begins to show itself openly.

Less than a month later, on February 24th, 1933, direct repression begins.

The Prussian police carry out a raid on the headquarters of the Communist Party in Berlin.

Herman Guring announces the discovery of documents supposedly proving an insurrection.

No verifiable evidence is presented, but that ceases to be relevant.

Arrests begin immediately.

During the night, trucks move through the city.

Suspects are detained on mass.

Militants, sympathizers, and also people with no political activity are taken from their homes and transferred to centers such as Colombia House.

The operation is not only about capturing individuals.

It establishes a logic of control that begins to spread across society.

That mechanism takes on a decisive dimension on February 27th, 1933 when the richag burns.

A witness sees a man with a torch inside the building.

Minutes later, the fire spreads uncontrollably.

Inside, police arrest Marinos Van Luba, who offers no resistance and states he acted as a protest.

Guring immediately accuses the communists and presents the fire as the beginning of a revolution.

Hitler turns the episode into a total justification.

That same night, mass arrests begin in Berlin.

The investigative phase is over.

What follows is a widespread operation.

Hours later, Hindenburg signs the decree for the protection of people and state.

With this document, fundamental rights are suspended.

Personal liberty, expression, press, assembly, and privacy of communications.

Police are authorized to act without legal restrictions and the consequences become immediately visible.

Prisons fill up and repression spreads rapidly across the country.

In March 1933, elections are held under constant pressure.

The SA and SS are present in streets and polling stations.

The National Socialist Party wins 288 seats and its allies add 52 more.

The Communist Party, despite receiving millions of votes, does not take its seats.

Its representatives have been arrested or excluded.

On March 23rd, Parliament meets at the Croll Opera House under armed surveillance.

There the enabling act is presented.

Its scope is total.

The government can legislate without parliament and amend the constitution.

The approval obtained under pressure eliminates institutional balance.

From then on, power is concentrated in Berlin and the states lose autonomy.

In parallel, Guring reorganizes the Prussian police using files containing detailed information on thousands of people to purge the system.

Officials considered disloyal are replaced and the police ceases to operate as a legal body and becomes a political tool.

In this process, Rudolph deals emerges whose department becomes the core of the new repressive apparatus.

On April 26th, 1933, Guring formally creates the Gestapo, consolidating structures that now operate without legal limitations.

Its function is defined from the start to detect, monitor, and eliminate any threat to the regime.

The system is already in motion, but its control is not yet settled.

Throughout 1933, a silent internal dispute develops.

Guring and Hinrich Himmler pursue the same goal, to fully dominate the state’s secret police.

At stake is not only administration but the power to decide who watches, who arrests, and who is considered an enemy.

Himmler, until then, a secondary figure observes the simultaneous growth of the Gestapo and the SS.

Although he holds the title of Rice Fura, he considers his real position insufficient.

His rise is not based on visible gestures, but on the accumulation of information and control of internal networks.

To consolidate this strategy, he needs effective executives.

At that point, Reinhard Hydrich appears.

Himmler gives him just 20 minutes to propose an intelligence model for the SS.

Hydrich presents a structured system based on the systematic collection of information.

The proposal is approved immediately.

From then on, the construction of a system centered on detailed files about individuals considered dangerous begins.

From that work emerges the SS Security Service, the SD.

Meanwhile, repression continues to expand and arrests multiply, saturating prisons.

Himmler then introduces a new solution.

Detention centers such as Dhaka.

What begins as a place of confinement quickly becomes part of a broader system.

The concept of protective custody appears, allowing arrests without judicial process and detention by administrative decision.

With these tools consolidated, Himmler and Hydrich turn their attention to Berlin.

Control of the Gestapo in Prussia is still in the hands of Guring and deals.

So the dispute intensifies through political pressure, rumors, and internal maneuvers.

The tension is resolved on April 20th, 1934 when Guring seeds the Gestapo to Himmler.

From that moment, control becomes centralized in a single direction.

Himmler integrates the Gestapo, the SS, and the SD into a unified structure, creating a system that no longer responds to legal limits or institutional balances, but to a logic of total surveillance and repression.

Bloody night, the SS eliminate all internal opposition.

By mid 1934, the Gestapo, the SS, and the intelligence service led by Reinhard Hydrich operate as a single mechanism.

However, within the regime itself, a threat persists that has not been neutralized.

The SA under the command of Ernst Rome.

With a force of nearly 3 million members, its weight surpasses any other paramilitary structure.

Its existence represents a strategic problem that must by mid 1934, the Gestapo, the SS, and the intelligence service led by Reinhard Hydrich operate as a single mechanism.

However, within the regime itself, a threat persists that has not been neutralized.

The SA under the command of Ernst Rome.

With a force of nearly 3 million members, its weight surpasses any other paramilitary structure.

Its existence represents a strategic problem that must be resolved without delay.

During the first months of 1934, Berlin becomes a space dominated by rumors.

Talk spreads of conspiracies, internal movements, and possible alliances that could alter the balance of power.

One of the most repeated claims is Rome’s alleged intention to merge the SA with the Reich to create a popular military force.

This possibility directly alarms the high command which considers any loss of control over the state’s armed structure unacceptable.

Despite these warnings, Adolf Hitler for a time maintains his loyalty to Rome.

He even publicly acknowledges the services the SA leader has rendered to the movement.

However, pressure does not cease.

To avoid an open rupture, an intermediate solution is attempted.

The Minister of Defense, Veraferon Bloomberg, and Rome himself sign an agreement establishing the army as the only official armed force of the Reich, relegating the SA to a secondary role.

The attempt fails quickly.

During a reception prior to the signing, Rome, influenced by alcohol, openly criticizes the army, financial sectors, and the party leadership.

He accuses Hitler of having betrayed the spirit of the revolution and calls for transforming Germany into a socialist state.

The statements do not go unnoticed.

For Hydrich and his collaborators, they represent the evidence they needed.

From that moment, the SD’s work intensifies.

Entire teams review files, intercept communications, and build a dossier presenting room as a direct threat.

Telephone wiretaps are expanded through a special unit linked to the state police.

In parallel, another point of tension emerges.

France von as vice chancellor delivers a speech in Marberg in which he openly criticizes the regime’s practices.

He denounces arbitrary arrests, repression, and the elimination of political freedoms.

His words cause concern, but his position partially protects him.

Hydrich looks for an alternative.

The Gestapo identifies the true author of the speech, Edgar Jung.

The reaction is swift.

Jung is kidnapped in Munich and days later his body is found mutilated near Berlin.

The message is made clear.

By the end of June 1934, the situation reaches its critical point.

In Berlin, groups of SA men are pulled out with their hands raised and pushed into trucks by armed agents.

The arrests are no longer selective.

The army enters the scene.

An article signed by Vereronfr makes it clear that the armed forces support Hitler without reservation.

The message shortly afterward, an internal essay document falls into the hands of the SD.

The text suggests that the organization will return with strength after the break.

For the intelligence services, this confirms the constructed narrative.

The decision is made without further delay.

Adolf Hitler travels to Bad Visci where Rome is staying.

The operation is carried out at dawn.

Rome is arrested in his room and transferred to Stadleheim prison.

2 days later, he is offered the chance to end his own life.

He refuses.

He is executed.

Simultaneously in Berlin, around 150 SA leaders are detained and shot in military facilities.

The executions are carried out without trial.

Orders are transmitted from Gustapo headquarters on Prince Alrech Street.

The operation is not limited to the SA.

Other figures are eliminated.

Among them is Kurt Vonlika, former chancellor, murdered along with his wife in their residence.

Guring later claims he had tried to resist arrest.

The purge continues for several days.

The exact number of victims is not precisely established, but it is estimated to exceed 1,000.

The operation redefineses the internal balance of the regime.

As it progresses, the machinery operates without interruption.

Reinhard Hydrich centralizes information and distributes orders continuously.

Each target is identified and names appear on coded lists with priority levels from different parts of the Reich.

Brief reports arrive, arrests, executions, and transfers.

In this process, one of the most significant cases is that of Gregor Strasa, a former movement leader and political rival of Adolf Hitler, who during the purge is detained, subjected to violence, and executed in his cell.

Once the main objective is achieved, Hitler orders the executions to stop.

On July 2nd, 1934, at 7:00, an order is issued to all police departments.

Destroy any documents related to the operation.

The files are burned.

In a short time, the SA structure is neutralized.

The elimination of its leadership breaks any capacity for coordinated action.

With the disappearance of this force, Hinrich Himmler and Reinhard Hydrich consolidate their position.

In 1936, Himmler assumes the role of chief of all German police, integrating political police, criminal police, and security units.

Meanwhile, Hitler turns his attention to broader objectives.

On November 5th, 1937, he convenes a secret meeting at the Chancellory.

For hours, he lays out his vision.

Germany must expand by force.

Concrete targets are set.

Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

Internal reservations within the army do not disappear.

Figures such as Veron Bloomberg and Veron Frri express concern.

Hydrich identifies the opportunity to eliminate them.

The process begins in January 1938.

Bloomberg’s marriage to Na Grun is used to force his resignation through compromising information.

In parallel, a case is constructed against vonfr, accused of homosexual conduct.

Although he is acquitted, his career is destroyed.

With both removed, Hitler assumes supreme command of the armed forces.

The Ministry of War is replaced by the high command of the Vermacht.

Political decisions translate into action.

In March 1938, Germany annexes Austria.

In October, it takes control of regions of Czechoslovakia.

By 1939, the military machine is ready.

In parallel, Heddrich’s apparatus develops operations outside Germany.

Agents such as Alfred Nyoks carry out sabotage and elimination missions.

In August 1939, Hydrickch orders a simulated attack in Glyitz.

The operation uses executed prisoners dressed as Polish soldiers to create evidence.

The incident is presented as external aggression.

On September 1st, 1939 at 4:45, German forces cross the border.

The war begins.

Absolute surveillance.

The Gestapo controls life within the Reich.

The real center of power is no longer in speeches or public squares, but concentrated in a group of buildings in Berlin bounded by Prince Alrech Strasa, Wilhelm Strasa, and Anhalter Strasa, a perimeter from which decisions affecting millions of people are made.

At number eight, Prince Alrech Strasa stands the most feared core, the headquarters of the Gestapo.

And from there, Hinrich Himmler directs a structure that has ceased to be merely a police force and has become a complete system of state control.

In September 1939, this logic of unified command takes on a definitive institutional form with the creation of the Reich main security office, the RHA, under the leadership of Reinhard Hydrich.

This body integrates intelligence, interrogations, arrests, and executions into a single operational system, eliminating any clear separation between functions and concentrating everything into a compact and direct chain of command.

The internal design follows a precise organization.

Seven departments structure its operation.

Personnel, logistics, internal espionage, foreign espionage, Gustapo, criminal police, and foreign intelligence.

Each section has a defined role, but in practice the boundaries blur, creating a system in which information flows without barriers and control, is reinforced from multiple directions at the same time.

Within this framework, the Gustapo does not act in isolation, but is integrated into a structure where different agencies coordinate their activities.

On the streets, this control takes a different form.

Plain clothes agents carry out arrests, searches, and interrogations while a network of informants grows continuously.

Doormen, shop employees, office workers, and even school children are pushed to observe and report behavior, turning private comments into evidence and seemingly harmless conversations into formal denunciations.

Surveillance ceases to depend solely on formal structures and becomes embedded in everyday life and personal relationships.

The official message reinforces this perception.

The gestapo is everywhere.

Operationally, this is not entirely true, but the psychological effect is sufficient.

Fear fills the spaces where physical presence does not reach, and the population comes to assume that any word may be heard, which alters behavior, reduces expression, and even conditions thoughts.

In this context, minimal mechanisms of escape emerge.

Jokes circulate in whispers known as whispered jokes, small cracks in a system that seeks to control everything.

One of them summarizes the situation precisely.

In the future, teeth will be pulled through the nose because no one dares to open their mouth.

Humor functions as relief, but it also reveals the extent to which fear has penetrated society.

Meanwhile, Hydrickch promotes new initiatives that expand the reach of control.

He proposes the creation of a weekly publication under SS supervision which begins with a small team and quickly grows to a circulation of 189,317 copies per week within 2 years.

A figure that during the war will reach 750,000.

Its content includes scandals, denunciations, and articles designed to attract attention, but its main function is more strategic to gather information.

Readers are invited to send letters with criticism and those who respond are identified.

This data is passed to the Gestapo which acts accordingly.

The system also uses more direct methods.

Fake advertisements offer radios with headphones capable of receiving foreign broadcasts and those who show interest are immediately arrested and registered as suspects.

Some are publicly displayed while agents present the confiscated devices, reinforcing the idea of constant surveillance.

Control extends beyond the political sphere.

Heddrich turns his attention to religion, considering any independent structure a potential center of opposition.

Surveillance of churches, priests, and believers intensifies, and specific cases illustrate how the system functions.

Autograph chaplain and professor tells his students that all men can be respected, including Jews.

His words are reinterpreted as an ideological attack on the state.

He is accused of undermining official doctrine and shortly afterward receives a visit from the Gestapo which reprimands him and leads to his removal from the education system.

Internal opposition exists although in limited forms in 1938.

One of the most visible figures is Martin Neimler a former naval commander who had initially supported the regime.

His break occurs when the state attempts to impose its authority over religion.

Nimmer publicly denounces this interference, is arrested on July 1st, 1937, spends months in prison, receives a formal sentence, and upon leaving the court is arrested again by the Gestapo.

His fate is removed from the ordinary judicial system, and he is sent to concentration camps where he remains for years.

In his case, as in many others, the law no longer determines punishment.

That decision passes to the security apparatus.

Surveillance is also projected onto the military sphere.

Heddrich maintains a tense relationship with army intelligence led by Wilhelm Canaris.

Although there is formerly a division of functions, in practice it is not respected.

The Gestapo handles internal treason and military intelligence handles external espionage, but Hydrich expands his field of action and orders Canaris himself to be monitored.

When indirect contacts with the Vatican are detected in 1939, a secret file is opened under the code name Black Chapel, allowing action against him at any time.

Distrust becomes the norm.

No one is exempt.

Civilians, religious figures, and military personnel are subjected to the same system.

From that point on, this control begins to be directed toward a specific objective, the systematic persecution of Jews.

In the early months of the regime, a boycott of Jewish shops is decreed and organized groups move through neighborhoods, combining economic pressure with direct violence.

Control expands rapidly.

Reports detail commercial relationships considered unacceptable, identify actors, and allow administrative measures to be applied that shape behavior.

The economic sphere is redefined as an ideological problem, and the response transforms entire social relationships.

The balance is definitively broken in 1938.

A coordinated operation raises the level of violence with the expulsion of 17,000 Jews of Polish origin to the border where thousands are left trapped without resources.

Among them is the Griepan family.

On November 7th of that year, Hershel Griepan shoots diplomat Ernst Vomrath in Paris who dies days later.

The order is carried out without delay.

The destruction of synagogues and Jewish property is ordered.

Within hours, more than a 100 temples are burned, dozens destroyed, and thousands of shops devastated.

At the same time, mass arrests are carried out, affecting tens of thousands of people, combining violence, looting, and control.

A collective fine of 1 billion Reichs marks is also imposed while businesses are transferred into Aryan hands, consolidating a process that not only represses but also redistributes wealth.

The consequences become visible at every level.

expelled families, separated children, and constant arrests.

Detention centers become overcrowded.

In Prince Alrech Strasa, the main building reaches enormous proportions, and cells concentrate dozens of prisoners in extreme conditions.

Interrogations include beatings, physical pressure, and prolonged violence, while detainees are forced to witness the suffering of others, generating a permanent climate of uncertainty.

When capacity is exceeded, transfers to other centers involve immediate punishment.

In this process, the figure of Adolf Iikman appears.

Born in 1906, he begins in minor positions, but specializes in the Jewish question, studies social structures, learns languages, and integrates into the security apparatus.

In 1937, he takes part in a mission to Palestine, and although it is unsuccessful, his profile is consolidated within the system.

After the annexation of Austria in 1938, he establishes a central office for Jewish immigration in Vienna, from which he controls who can leave and under what conditions.

The system allows departure for those with resources while increasing pressure on the rest.

In a single operation, thousands are arrested and sent to different destinations, marking the beginning of an expansion that continues with the occupation of new territories.

With the creation of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the Gestapo establishes detention centers and reinforces its presence.

In places such as the Pete Palace in Prague, interrogations take place under extreme conditions with detainees forced to stand for long periods.

In parallel, special units begin to operate more actively within the territory.

War and extermination, the system expands across Europe.

War is no longer being prepared.

It has begun.

After consolidating internal control over the Reich and extending its dominance over Austria and Czechoslovakia, the regime enters a different phase, broader and more brutal.

The Gestapo, the security service, and the special units accompanying the army begin operating in occupied territories with objectives defined before the military advance.

Poland becomes the first stage of this design.

Decisions taken in the weeks prior make it clear that this is not a temporary occupation but a complete transformation of the territory aimed at dismantling its social and political structures.

On October 18th 1939 the chief of the general staff France Halda records a key conversation with Edoard Vagner after meeting Adolf Hitler.

The directive is unequivocal.

Poland will not be rebuilt.

Its intellectual elite must disappear as a governing class and its population must remain in a state of permanent weakness.

This line coincides with the program presented by Reinhard Hydrich on behalf of Hinrich Himmler which defines concrete targets, Jews, intellectuals, clergy and nobility.

The first step consists of concentrating the Jewish population into enclosed urban areas.

The fall of Poland is rapid and leaves the territory completely exposed to the German repressive apparatus.

The regions incorporated into the Reich are subjected to Germanization policies while the rest becomes part of the so-called general government under the authority of Hansf Frank.

From there, a model is structured that combines administration, direct violence, and social reorganization.

Himmler interprets his mission in racial terms.

Populations considered non-German must be expelled, reduced, or eliminated, and their lands handed over to settlers from the Reich.

The entire state apparatus is reorganized around this objective.

In the cities, repression translates into immediate measures.

Jews are forced to organize councils that administer their communities under German orders.

Identification armbands are imposed along with forced labor, movement restrictions, and minimal rations.

Violence becomes part of everyday life.

In Warsaw, the Gestapo gathers community leaders and announces the relocation of the entire Jewish population to a designated area.

The zone is sealed with signs simulating sanitary measures.

While hundreds of thousands of people are confined under extreme conditions, ghettos spread rapidly.

In Warsaw, nearly half a million people are trapped.

In Wajge, more than 160,000.

Walls, constant surveillance, and the threat of death turn these spaces into mass prisons.

Over time, basic services disappear.

Overcrowding and food shortages cause epidemics while hunger fuels the black market and mortality rises steadily.

In 1942, Hinrich Himmler concludes that even this confinement is insufficient and orders the complete elimination of the Jewish population of Warsaw.

Within months, more than 310,000 people are deported to extermination camps such as Trebinka.

At the same time, any form of resistance or independent social structure is attacked.

Under Hansf Frank’s authority, the AB action is launched, targeting the Polish intelligencia.

Professors, professionals, and public figures are arrested and tried in proceedings directly controlled by the Gestapo with no defense or guarantees.

Executions are immediate with the aim of dismantling any form of organization within the occupied society.

As international attention shifts westward, this model is adapted to other territories.

In the Netherlands, control is concentrated under the command of Hans Albin Router, who unifies security structures.

Measures against the Jewish population advance gradually, economic restrictions, professional exclusion, property confiscation, and movement limitations.

In Amsterdam, initial protests are met with the closure of neighborhoods, the creation of Jewish councils, and selective deportations that mark the beginning of a broader escalation.

This dynamic intensifies rapidly.

Mass arrests, raids, and deportations become routine practice.

Measures cease to be gradual and are applied systematically, reducing any room for maneuver for the affected population.

In Belgium, the system introduces tactical variations.

Deception is used to identify and concentrate the Jewish population, offering supposedly safe transfers in exchange for money.

Many families surrender their possessions in hopes of escape, but end up in detention centers that function as a gateway to deportation.

Night raids, mass arrests, and constant uncertainty become part of the control mechanism.

In France, implementation is more gradual due to the initial presence of military command.

However, Hydrickch introduces covert units that prepare the arrival of the Gestapo.

Once established in Paris, the organization begins operating discreetly, collecting information on opponents and the Jewish population.

Under Carl Oberg and Helmet Kokan, a network is built that combines intelligence, infiltration, and selective repression, which over time expands and hardens its methods.

With the consolidation of this system, a central question emerges.

What to do with the Jewish population across occupied Europe.

Adolf Iikman develops plans for mass deportation from the security apparatus.

Early ideas consider transfers to distant territories, but wartime constraints render them unfeasible.

The alternative that ultimately prevails is physical elimination.

By the end of 1941, the operational foundations of the so-called final solution are established, transforming persecution into systematic extermination.

The expansion eastward accelerates this process.

Before the invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler makes it clear to his commanders that the war will not follow conventional rules.

Orders allow certain groups to be treated as absolute enemies.

The Insat group are authorized to operate autonomously in the rear areas.

Their function ceases to be control or deportation and becomes direct execution.

As they advance, they record mass shootings of civilians.

With this, the system enters a new phase.

What began as control, exclusion, and confinement evolves into increasingly direct forms of violence.

The structure developed in Germany and Poland now spreads across all occupied Europe.

The Gestapo, the Security Service, and the SS expand their field of action, integrating into a mechanism that operates simultaneously across multiple territories.

While the war continues on the fronts, in the rear, this process begins to acquire an ever broader scale.

Strike in Prague, the assassination that unleashed the massacre.

When Reinhard Hydrich arrives in Prague as acting protector, one of the most symbolically charged acts takes place in St.

Vitus Cathedral.

There the ancient crown jewels of the Bohemian monarchs are displayed.

The central piece is the crown of St.

Vislas made of gold and adorned with what are considered the largest sapphires in the world.

Hydrich does not miss the political opportunity.

He presents Venuslas who was assassinated in the 10th century after a conspiracy led by his brother Bolislav as a ruler friendly to Germany brought down by supporters coming from the east.

Under that interpretation, the protectorate created by Hitler would not be a new imposition but the correction of an ancient injustice.

The jewels, when not on display, are kept under seven locks, a traditional reference to the seven seals of the apocalypse.

The keys must be distributed among seven different people beginning with the head of state himself.

In this ceremony, President Emil Hatcher hands the keys to Hydrich.

Heddrich theatrically returns three of them with a precise remark.

He should see this act as a sign of trust and also as an obligation.

But Hydrich ignores another tradition associated with the crown.

Legend holds that anyone who places it on their head without being the rightful heir is marked to die.

According to the version that circulates afterward, Heddrich puts it on without hesitation.

Beyond the ceremonial, the new course of action is defined immediately.

In his first official appearance, Heddrich gathers military and party leaders at Churnin Palace.

Carl Herman Frank greets him with the Nazi salute.

Taking notes is forbidden, but his secretary, placed out of sight, records the speech in shorthand.

The text survives.

In that intervention, he makes clear the immediate priority, securing political control of the protectorate and neutralizing any form of opposition.

The Gestapo immediately sets in motion a more refined system of terror.

One of its new tools is so-called protective custody, the right to arrest anyone without formal cause for an indefinite period.

Around it, a rapidly growing network of informants emerges.

Attracted by money, favors, or simple calculation, many place themselves at the service of Heddrich and Frank.

Safe houses of the resistance begin to disappear one after another.

Each infiltrated cell reduces the available space to hide and maneuver.

Over the months, Hydrich not only enjoys the power of his position, he also benefits from everything surrounding it.

He acquires the Penske Brisani estate on the outskirts of Prague, far more attractive for his private life than the rigid environment of Shernin Palace in Radkani.

Lena Heddrich, for her part, moves comfortably as hostess to obedient checks and German visitors.

At first, Heddrich imagines a life constantly traveling back and forth between Prague and Berlin by plane.

Lena opposes this.

Tired of her husband’s absences, both for work and his affairs, she imposes another decision.

The family will settle in Prague.

Hydrich also adapts his public image.

He is portrayed as a family man in domestic scenes alongside Lena and their children Claus, Haida, and Silka.

The photographs show him in black shorts and a gray wool jacket with metal buttons.

She appears in a skirt, floral blouse, and white kneeh high socks.

A deliberate image of normality and closeness is thus constructed.

However, while this family portrait circulates, London receives a different kind of report.

Czech intelligence services warn the exiled government that Hydrick’s policy of carrot and stick applied to industrial workers is working better than expected.

Rather than fueling resistance, it weakens it.

For Hitler, however, the word protectorate already sounds too mild.

On the Eastern Front, the campaign that had promised to be resolved in 7 months is bogged down in the winter before Moscow.

The stalemate demands a brutal response in the rear as well.

On the same day Hydrickch is due to depart for Berlin, Himmler sends an urgent telegram to Prague ordering the arrest of 10,000 hostages among the Czech intelligencia.

In addition, he demands that 100 of them be executed that same night.

It is precisely in the face of decisions like this that the Czech government in exile activates its long-prepared plan to assassinate Hydrich in order to revive resistance.

Within the clandestine circles in Prague itself, many are horrified.

They fear that German retaliation will be unbearable and ask the British to suspend the operation.

London refuses.

Up to that point, the operational record of the Czech exile has not been impressive.

An agent had already been parachuted in to report from Prague, but he lasted only 2 weeks before falling into the hands of the Gestapo.

From there, the matter is taken over by Francisc Moravec, former head of Czech intelligence before the occupation.

In March 1939, Moravec had fled to Great Britain with 10 other men carrying valuable files that he handed over to MI6.

Before escaping, he had left on Czech territory the embryo of an armed resistance, the Obrana Narada with access to 100,000 rifles, 10,000 machine guns, and a sabotage unit formed by regular army officers.

Much of this material falls into Gustapo hands, and the training of new agents inside the country becomes almost impossible.

Moravec then seeks help from the British Special Operations Executive created in 1940 to direct and supply resistance movements in occupied Europe.

10 young unmarried men are selected for intensive training in parachuting, surveillance, sabotage, firearms, and survival.

For the specific mission against Hydrich, cenamed Anthropoid, Moravec chooses Yan Kubis from Moravia and Ysef Gabch, a half Slovak locksmith.

Both are in their early 20s and know perfectly well that once the mission is completed, their chances of survival will be minimal.

They are assisted by Ysef Valk, a member of another group called Silver A, equipped with a powerful transmitter for intelligence work.

As often happens in parachute operations, several landings fall outside the intended zone.

Some agents are captured by the Gustapo and later executed.

The survivors move from one safe house to another, patiently studying the protector’s routine.

Kubis and Gabchic, who had never been in Prague before, prepare every detail.

At first, they consider blowing up Hydrickch’s special train between Prague and the Czech border, but this option is discarded because his train journeys are too irregular.

The ambush must take place on his daily road route between his residence and his office.

Moravec identifies an ideal spot, the sharp bend on Vholisak Street before the Troja Bridge.

There, due to the slope and a tram stop, any car must slow down.

One of Hydrick’s habits facilitates the plan.

Although at Churnin Palace and his estate, he moves with strong protection.

Outside those spaces, he often travels without escort in his open top 3.

5 L Mercedes.

He trusts his driver, the burly Klein, the pistols they both carry, and the fear his name inspires.

Unlike the vehicles of other Nazi leaders, his car has no reinforced armor.

Hitler has reprimanded him several times for this carelessness, but Hydrich changes nothing.

He also does not vary his route or change his distinctive license plate SS3.

He even insists on carrying two visible penants on the Fender, the SS flag and that of the Reich Protector.

Moravec’s conclusion is simple.

Hydrich in his arrogance does not believe anyone would dare attack him because he knows too well the reprisals that would follow.

And it is precisely this that makes the ambush possible.

On the morning of May 27th, 1942, Heddrich slightly alters his routine, but not his behavior.

He dismisses his escort early, spends more time than usual with Lena and his children, and before leaving for Berlin, departs as usual for his office in Prague.

He sits next to Klene in the open Mercedes.

At the Vholovic Kakbend, the chosen ambush point, Ysef Gabchic waits with his automatic weapon, and Yan Kubis holds a specially prepared bomb.

Both feel the tension settle into their hands as the car is delayed.

Then at 10:32, Ysef Valk gives the agreed signal with a mirror as the vehicle approaches.

Another observer standing alone on the sidewalk switches his newspaper from one arm to the other.

That is the second signal.

Kubis suddenly hears the approaching tram and realizes the coincidence will complicate everything, but there is no longer any room to withdraw.

Gabchic has drawn the British-made Sten submachine gun and aims just as the Mercedes reaches his position.

Kubis shouts, “Now!” Gabchick pulls the trigger.

The weapon jams.

Heddrich instantly perceives the threat.

Had he ordered Klein to accelerate, he would probably have saved his life.

Instead, he makes two decisive mistakes.

He yells at the driver to stop and leans up inside the car, turning himself into a perfect target.

As the Mercedes breaks sharply, Cubis throws the bomb toward the front left side, but the device lands slightly short of the target.

Passengers on the tram will later state that the explosion produced a huge flash and shattered the window panes.

Hydrich steps out of the wrecked car firing as he runs.

Kubis also flees, catches a glimpse of his target for an instant, slips between two trams, and mounts the bicycle they had prepared in advance to escape downhill.

Gabchic meanwhile runs through the first curious onlookers who begin to gather.

Klene tries to pursue him but his size works against him and he is also hit by a bullet.

Heddrich remains motionless for a few seconds with a dark stain spreading across his uniform.

Then he places his hand on his right hip and drags himself back toward the Mercedes.

Among those present, a blonde woman recognizes him.

She takes control of the scene, stops a floor wax delivery van, and orders the driver to take him to the hospital.

Heddrich manages to climb in with difficulty, but the pain overwhelms him, and he collapses in the back.

As soon as the cart pulls away, almost all the witnesses disappear.

The first to arrive are German soldiers returning from a training exercise.

They find the Mercedes wrecked and Klein out of his mind, muttering that the protector has been shot.

Shortly after, Carl Herman Frank receives the alert and sends the SS toward the site of the attack and the Bulfka hospital.

At the explosion site, Hines von Panvitz, head of the Gustapo’s anti-sabotage unit, takes charge.

His men find a woman’s bicycle, a man’s cap, a light raincoat, the Sten submachine gun that failed, empty shell casings, and two briefcases, one of them containing an undetonated bomb.

The identification is immediate.

The weapons are British.

At the hospital, isolation is total.

The other patients are removed from their rooms to leave Hydrickch alone, surrounded by doctors, SSmen, and Gustapo agents.

The preliminary examination reveals fragments of wire, felt, leather, and glass deeply embedded in the spleen and liver.

Even so, the propaganda machine begins to circulate reassuring statements.

They speak of a promising evolution of a patient responding to treatment.

But in Berlin, Himmler acts as he usually does in crisis.

First he becomes paralyzed, then he panics.

Instead of letting the Bulfka hospital work, he begins calling doctors and surgeons from across the Reich and the occupied territories to travel to Prague.

Heddrich holds on for a week.

His condition gradually worsens.

Finally, on June 4th, 1942, after a final meeting with Himmler, he dies.

In the hospital record, an employee writes next to his full name, Reinhardt Tristan Ogen Hydrich, a dry phrase, cause of death, infection of the wound.

The regime turns the farewell into a grand ceremony.

For 2 days, the body remains on display while Reich newsreel cameras film without pause.

Then the coffin covered with Nazi symbols crosses the Charles Bridge, leaves Prague, and is taken to Berlin.

It first passes through the central security headquarters, then the Reich Chancellory, and finally arrives at the Invalid Cemetery.

In London, the comment is blunt.

One of the most dangerous men of the Third Reich has received a gangster’s funeral.

Reprisals begin immediately.

The Gestapo carries out more than 13,000 arrests and around 600 people are executed simply for illegal possession of weapons.

The death penalty is applied to anyone who has shown even the slightest criticism of the regime.

The best known act of revenge is the destruction of Liiche northwest of Prague.

Carl Herman Frank claims the village’s inhabitants helped the paratroopers.

That accusation is enough.

All the men are murdered in a massacre that lasts 10 hours.

The women are sent to the Ravensbrook camp.

The children, except for a few considered racially suitable, are deported to die in gas chambers.

15 days later, another village, Lazaki, suffers a similar fate.

There, the radio transmitter of a member of the silver A group had been hidden, later located and destroyed.

Nine houses around the mill are surrounded, the inhabitants expelled, the adults shot, and 13 children sent first to Prague and then to the Chelno camp in Poland.

As the operation expands, the perpetrators of the attack activate their first escape plan.

They cross the river toward the new town and find refuge in the crypt of the Orthodox Church of St.

Sirill and Methodius on Rlova Street.

But every clandestine operation risks having a weak link.

And Operation Anthropoid is no exception.

One of the members of another group, Sergeant Carol Cura, breaks the most basic rule.

Do not seek refuge among family or acquaintances.

Consumed by fear at the scale of the reprisals, Kura goes to his mother’s house in southern Bohemia.

He realizes too late that the Gustapo will eventually find him.

Finally, he breaks down and enters the Gustapo headquarters in Prague to confess his indirect participation and in passing claim the 1 million crown reward offered for useful information.

At first, he only denounces Kubis and Gabchic, but his interrogators are convinced he knows much more.

After beatings, he also reveals the name and address of the Moravec family.

Key allies of the resistance and collaborators of the men of Anthropoid.

At 4 in the morning, several black cars break abruptly in front of the Moravec family home in the Zizkov district.

Inspector Oscar Flea leads the raid.

The Morave are forced to stand against the wall with their hands raised while agents search through cupboards and drawers.

The tension becomes unbearable as the interrogations begin.

The mother asks to go to the bathroom.

At first, they refuse.

When she insists again, a guard accompanies her.

Walking ahead of him, she manipulates the medallion around her neck, extracts a hidden capsule, and bites into it.

She collapses to the floor, foam coming from her mouth.

They are unable to revive her.

Her husband and her son Ata are taken in pajamas to Gustapo headquarters.

Flea calculates that the son who had often acted as a courier for the resistance will be the weakest point.

Entire teams of thugs beat him, threaten him, humiliate him, and force him to drink alcohol.

They also force him to repeatedly look at his mother’s corpse.

Finally, Ata breaks and reveals what he knows.

Among those revelations is the hiding place in the church.

The encirclement operation is massive.

19 officers, 740 non-commissioned officers and soldiers are deployed, all armed with rifles, grenades, and orders to capture the attackers alive for interrogation.

Fonpanit surrounds the area, enters the church and is met by a half asleep sacristen.

His group advances toward the altar with weapons ready.

Inside, the resistance fighters are divided between the upper nave and the crypt.

They are few but refuse to surrender.

Even when Kurder, handcuffed, shouts at them to give up and says nothing will happen to them, they do not yield.

The Gestapo deploys tear gas bombs.

When these prove ineffective, firefighters are called to flood the crypt through a ventilation grate.

Despite the rising water, the SS men who descend are met with gunfire.

Carl Herman Frank, impatient, overrides Von Panwitz’s caution and sends in his own SS combat unit.

The checks continue fighting to the end.

Some choose to take their own lives rather than be captured.

Others attempt an immediate breakout.

When the shooting finally stops, a detachment carefully enters the crypt.

There is no response.

Someone shouts a single word, “Finished.

” The bloodied bodies are brought out into view.

Among them is Gabchic.

Kubis, who had also swallowed a similar capsule, is taken still alive, to the hospital, where he loses consciousness and dies.

The identification of the corpses is carried out by Kura himself, still handcuffed.

Elsewhere in occupied Europe, the situation is no better for Germany.

In 1942, the Vermachar has lost more than 1 million men on the Eastern front, and Hinrich Himmler demands more recruits, not only for the Vaffan SS, but also for the security service and the Gestapo, which begin to feel the strain accumulated over years of repression and resistance.

In France, the task of expanding control falls to Carl Alrech Oberg, stationed in Paris at 57 Boulevard Lan.

From there, he pressures the Vichi collaborationist government and after the German occupation of the southern zone in November 1942, the presence of the Gestapo intensifies.

A systematic hunt for clandestine transmitters is launched and resistance networks begin to fall in Leon Marles and Tulus.

Hugo Gistler based in Vichi directs special command units deployed in the main military cities in Claremont Ferrron.

The university turned refuge for dissident becomes a resistance hub.

The response is immediate.

On November 25th, Gestapo and SD units launch a large-scale assault.

They search for files.

Professors, students, any useful trace.

In the attack, Professor Paul Colmp is killed.

Two students are wounded and teenager Louis Blanche is shot while trying to flee.

The result is decisive.

86 deported to concentration camps and by the end of the war more than 2,000 people from the region executed or deported in addition to numerous cases of torture and systematic violence.

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