‘Excellent’ – Robert Kee, Observer
‘the most complete account to date . . . an impressive job, by turns subtle in its political analysis and gripping in its narrative drive’ – New York Times
‘Callum MacDonald has discovered much new material . . . and is an expert story-teller’ – Daily Telegraph
‘A nail-bitingly suspenseful account’ – Publishers Weekly
On 4 June 1942 one of the most powerful figures of the Nazi regime died in agony from wounds sustained during an assassination attempt in Prague. This is the story of the killing of Reinhard Heydrich, a man of extraordinary intelligence, ruthlessness and ambition who had risen from obscurity to become head of the Nazi security police and Governor of Bohemia-Moravia. Regarded by many as Hitler’s most likely successor, he was feared and hated even by other high-ranking Nazi officials.
Heydrich’s death caused shockwaves throughout the Nazi leadership, provoking ferocious reprisals against Czechs and Jews. Those who carried out the assassination were hunted down, and, trapped like rats in the cellar of a Prague church, committed suicide rather than face the certainty of torture and execution at the hands of the SS.
Based on original archive material, interviews with surviving members of the Special Operations Executive, who trained the Czech assassins in the UK, and Czech military intelligence, Callum MacDonald’s book is a well-researched and gripping account of one of the most audacious assassinations of the Second World War.
Before his death in 1996, Callum MacDonald was an historian at the University of Warwick. His publications include The Lost Battle: Crete, 1941, The United States, Britain and Appeasement and Korea: The War before Vietnam, as well as numerous articles on appeasement and the origins of the Second World War.
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