CZECH ATTEMPT TO KILL GESTAPO CHEF

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 124, 28 May 1942, Page 7

CZECH ATTEMPT TO KILL GESTAPO CHEF

HATED HEYDRICH

Wounded And Reported

Out Of Danger

United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. noon. LONDON, May 27.

Berlin announced that Reinhard Heydrich, Czech Gestapo chief, was wounded in an attempt against his life at Prague. He is now out of danger. Prague radio says a state of emergency was proclaimed throughout the protectorate. A reward is being offered for the capture of the assailants of Heydrich, which is equivalent to £60,000 or £70,000 sterling at pre-war exchange. Anyone aiding the assailants will be shot with the whole of his family. No civilians are permitted to leave their houses to-night between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. to-morrow. All bars and amusements must close. Transport has been stopped.

Heydrich a fortnight ago was appointed Gestapo Commissar-Ceneral for occupied territories. He toured Paris. Brussels and The Hague to see if the security service was working satisfactorily.

According to Prague radio Heydrich notified the protectorate Government of the pending reconstruction of the administration of Bohemia and Moravia in accordance with Hitler's decree. The nature of the decree so far has not been announced.

Heydrich also told Czech Ministers that the Czech youth would shortly be conscripted for war service.

_ Reinhard Heydrich is described in the U.S. magazine Time as a lean, mean Cjpslano man. whom even the Germans call Henker -'the Executioner." He was appointed as Reich Protector of Bohemia and .Moravia after von N'eurath. Coldeyed. thin-lipped, he is the right arm of Heinrich Himmler, the Gestapo chief, and a master of the art of terror. He headed the Berlin office of the Gestapo in 1934, later becoming Chief of Security Police. In September. 1941, he was sent to Norway crush the strike wave.

Broadcasting from its secret headquarters, the Czech Station of National Liberation called the new Protector "the bloodiest man of all the bloody Nazis," and warned Czechs not to be provoked into premature uprisings.

The Czechs did not have long to wait for provocation; Gestapo man Hevdrich established himself in the Chernin Palace and went to work. Before noon on the day of his appointment he proclaimed a state of civil emergency in six key districts of Bohemia and Moravia. Next he proceeded to arrest the puppet Premier Alois F.lais on charges of "preparation to commit treason and high treason." He rounded out his day by executing six men. Twenty-four more, including two generals, were sentenced to death for plotting the overthrow of the Protectorate.

As the third anniversary of Munich rolled by, Czechs reflected on how incredibly long three years could seem.

Heydrieh has been called the Butcher of Moravia for having executed over 2000 people within a fortnight of his appointment as the protector of German-occupied territories.