Explora uno de los capítulos más impactantes de la historia del siglo XX: La Búsqueda Histórica de Reinhard Heydrich. Este documental ofrece una visión educativa y detallada sobre la vida y el papel clave de Reinhard Heydrich durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, reconocido por su participación en la organización de políticas del régimen nacionalsocialista.
A través de una narrativa documental rigurosa, se analizan los esfuerzos internacionales que siguieron a la guerra para llevar a la justicia a los responsables de crímenes contra la humanidad. Este contenido se enfoca en cómo surgieron los llamados "cazadores de nazis", investigadores y agentes comprometidos con la memoria histórica, que trabajaron incansablemente para esclarecer los hechos y capturar a figuras responsables.
El documental no busca glorificar la violencia ni revictimizar, sino ofrecer una herramienta educativa que permita a las nuevas generaciones comprender la magnitud de los eventos históricos y la importancia de la justicia post-conflicto. Con testimonios verificados y análisis de expertos, este material contribuye al estudio de la historia contemporánea y promueve la reflexión sobre los derechos humanos y la memoria histórica.
Una producción que invita al análisis crítico, el respeto por la verdad y el rechazo de toda forma de extremismo. Ideal para estudiantes, historiadores y público en general interesado en el contexto global del siglo XX.
#HistoriaContemporánea, #JusticiaHistórica, #DocumentalEducativo
A través de una narrativa documental rigurosa, se analizan los esfuerzos internacionales que siguieron a la guerra para llevar a la justicia a los responsables de crímenes contra la humanidad. Este contenido se enfoca en cómo surgieron los llamados "cazadores de nazis", investigadores y agentes comprometidos con la memoria histórica, que trabajaron incansablemente para esclarecer los hechos y capturar a figuras responsables.
El documental no busca glorificar la violencia ni revictimizar, sino ofrecer una herramienta educativa que permita a las nuevas generaciones comprender la magnitud de los eventos históricos y la importancia de la justicia post-conflicto. Con testimonios verificados y análisis de expertos, este material contribuye al estudio de la historia contemporánea y promueve la reflexión sobre los derechos humanos y la memoria histórica.
Una producción que invita al análisis crítico, el respeto por la verdad y el rechazo de toda forma de extremismo. Ideal para estudiantes, historiadores y público en general interesado en el contexto global del siglo XX.
#HistoriaContemporánea, #JusticiaHistórica, #DocumentalEducativo
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TVTranscript
00:30The Nazi hunters, to the hunt of Reinhard Heydrich.
00:49They called him the executioner.
00:53Reinhard Heydrich.
00:56This prominent Nazi became one of the most hated men in all of occupied Europe.
01:04He was the true brain of the so-called Final Solution.
01:09The man who began to manage the idea of the Holocaust, the murder of 6 million Jews.
01:17Heydrich would rule Czechoslovakia occupied with an iron fist, ending the lives of thousands of citizens.
01:30His ambition did not know limits.
01:35He even aspired to replace Adolf Hitler.
01:42He thought he was untouchable.
01:46But in London, a high-level attack squad did not think the same.
01:52His goal was the execution of Heydrich.
01:56A special team of Czech assassins of Churchill's secret army was infiltrated in occupied Europe.
02:06His mission was very simple.
02:09Look for Reinhard Heydrich and kill him.
02:13In the end, the Nazi hunters would get their man.
02:22But the price was terrible.
02:31The revenge of the German soldiers meant the death of hundreds of people.
02:36That left in the air an uncomfortable question.
02:40Was it worth the hunt of that Nazi?
02:55May 1942.
02:58A spring day in the lady's house.
03:01Reinhard Heydrich, a savage leader of what had once been Czechoslovakia,
03:08left his house one morning, located on the outskirts of the city.
03:13The driver of his powerful Mercedes 320, enters Prague.
03:22Heydrich is taken to the hospital, where he will be treated.
03:27He will not be able to walk for a long time.
03:31He will not be able to walk for a long time.
03:35He will not be able to walk for a long time.
03:39Heydrich had a very tight schedule.
03:44He had to take a plane to meet Hitler himself in Berlin.
03:49Everything was about to go up.
03:57It was already past ten in the morning and he was almost an hour late.
04:02He had to hurry.
04:09The local drivers kept their distance.
04:13Everyone knew that getting close to Heydrich was a danger.
04:23However, a deadly squad was waiting for him a few kilometers ahead.
04:29Four murderers were waiting for the car of Reinhard Heydrich.
04:34Four Czech soldiers trained by the British intelligence service.
04:42Their mission was to kill the executioner.
04:46And they knew that they would most likely not come back alive.
04:53As he passed through the streets of Prague, the Mercedes had to slow down.
04:58It was about to start a chain of events,
05:02whose repercussions would be among the most atrocious and wild of the war.
05:12The Mercedes changed gear and was about to take a very tight curve.
05:19Heydrich was a few seconds away from being killed.
05:28But it was too late.
05:38The ties of Reinhard Heydrich with evil had begun at an early age,
05:43in the city of Hague, near Leipzig.
05:48His father, Bruno, was a musician.
05:52And he had been accused of being a Jew,
05:54something that was supposed to be the subject of racist comments.
06:00That set the young Heydrich on fire,
06:03and marked the beginning of an early obsession with the races.
06:12During the years that followed the First World War,
06:15Germany was plunged into a deep chaos.
06:18The nation was decomposed,
06:20and in the streets there were continuous battles.
06:26There was only poverty and despair.
06:38Heydrich was attracted by the right-wing politics of the Freikorps,
06:43a patriotic militia that openly declared war on socialists and communists.
06:51In search of law and order, he enrolled in the navy in 1922,
06:56and found his north in the strict military discipline.
07:04Being a cadet on the Berlin training cruise,
07:08Heydrich met Wilhelm Canaris,
07:11the man who would change his life forever.
07:14Canaris introduced him to the turbulent world of war,
07:17and Heydrich acquired very useful knowledge for his future,
07:21and both became allies and friends.
07:28Heydrich quickly ascended in the hierarchy of the navy,
07:32but his reputation as a womanizer was his doom.
07:40In May 1931, he was expelled by the French,
07:43after marrying two women at the same time.
07:47One of them had turned out to be the daughter of an official veteran of the navy.
07:56He had become unemployed in a country with a very high unemployment rate.
08:14But then he ran into Adolf Hitler.
08:17The Nazi Party offered him the opportunity to start over.
08:21In June 1931, he joined the National Socialist Party,
08:26and became a member in 544,916.
08:35An old acquaintance of Hitler,
08:38gave him a meeting with Heinrich Himmler.
08:48Himmler was one of the most powerful figures within the Nazi Party.
08:53He was head of the SS, Adolf Hitler's personal guard.
09:09Himmler was pleasantly impressed by Heydrich.
09:13His knowledge in the branch of espionage could be very useful for the SS.
09:20The former officer of the naval intelligence, 26 years,
09:24four less than Himmler, was recruited instantly.
09:33At the beginning of the 30s,
09:35the ranks of the SS already reached 50,000 soldiers.
09:40Within them, Heydrich was assuming more and more responsibilities.
09:52He was awarded the leadership of the SD, the SS security service.
09:57The SD was the first intelligence department of the Nazi Party.
10:01Its immediate function was to collect information
10:05that could be used for blackmail and intimidation.
10:09Heydrich developed a vast file with cross-references,
10:13as well as a detailed list of alleged enemies of the Nazi Party.
10:18The SD security service soon demonstrated its usefulness.
10:31Hitler! Hitler!
10:38In January 1933,
10:41Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
10:46Now that the Nazis were in power,
10:49the files created by Heydrich were used to locate the enemies.
10:55Many would be shot,
10:58others imprisoned.
11:01And some murdered.
11:05In 1934, Heydrich took charge of the Gestapo,
11:10the state's secret police.
11:13Now it had an immense power.
11:17And a little later, he established friendship with Adolf Hitler himself.
11:31He began to go to Berghof,
11:34Hitler's private residence in the Obersalber.
11:41And he became part of the closest circle to Hitler.
11:45In those meetings, all members of the Nazi hierarchy
11:50and their respective families were also present.
11:54The list of guests included the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.
12:00The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joachim von Ribbentrop.
12:04And his architect, Albert Speer.
12:09Heydrich was now one of Hitler's favorites.
12:13And he was prepared to assume his role
12:16in the development of the infamous Nazi policy.
12:20On November 9, 1938,
12:24was a date that will go down in history.
12:27The Crystal Night, or Night of Broken Crystals,
12:31witnessed the looting of hundreds of shops and synagogues
12:35regenerated or frequented by Jews.
12:39And Hitler was one of them.
12:42And Hitler was one of them.
12:45And Hitler was one of them.
12:50That night marked the beginning of a new and dark era.
12:56Under the orders of Heydrich,
12:5930,000 Jews were arrested.
13:02Many of them were sent to concentration camps,
13:06huge prisons where the enemies of the state were locked up.
13:14The old and expelled officer of the Navy
13:16had become a bureaucrat of racial hatred.
13:21At Hitler's request,
13:24the SS applied a more systematic approach to the so-called Jewish problem.
13:28Heydrich was appointed leader of the Jewish section of the Security Service.
13:35By then, his functions consisted
13:38simply in forcing Jews to leave Germany.
13:41Heydrich established in Berlin
13:43the Reich Central Office for the Immigration of Jews.
13:47His accomplice in that task was Adolf Eichmann.
13:54Eichmann had developed a series of proposals
13:57to expel the Jews from Germany.
14:00He even devised a plan to resettle them
14:03on the island of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean.
14:07However, the most used method
14:10was to force Jews to emigrate to other countries,
14:14through intimidation and violence.
14:21But Hitler's ambitions
14:24would soon make the actions against Jews
14:27acquire a sinister charisma.
14:37September 1939.
14:40Europe was plunged into war.
14:45For Heydrich, a lover of action and evil character,
14:49war offered the world an endless number of interesting possibilities.
14:57It was much more attractive than any bureaucratic activity.
15:06Although he exceeded the usual age,
15:09in 1940 he prepared himself as a war pilot.
15:13He wanted to show that the SS were formed by elite warriors,
15:17not by mere political soldiers.
15:27A few months later, he already piloted a Messerschmitt 110
15:31and carried out nearly 100 combat missions
15:33in the Norwegian airspace.
15:50In 1941, when Hitler's Operation Barbarossa
15:54erupted in Russia, Heydrich,
15:57taking the opposite to Hitler,
16:00returned to combat.
16:03He landed in southern Russia aboard a Messerschmitt 109.
16:12His actions were rewarded with several medals,
16:16but that was his end as a fighter.
16:24He was shot down behind enemy lines.
16:28And although he managed to return to German positions,
16:31he would never be allowed to fly again.
16:36He returned to bureaucratic work,
16:39and to one of the problems that the Nazis had to face,
16:43the Jews.
16:51Hitler's armies were taking over vast areas in Eastern Europe,
16:56and the large number of Jews who were falling into their hands
16:59began to constitute a problem.
17:02What could they do with them?
17:05Forced immigration was totally ruled out,
17:08so they opted for extermination.
17:13The SS action squads, the Einsatzgruppen,
17:17followed Hitler's orders.
17:21First, they shot thousands of Jews in Bologna.
17:30But that meant a problem
17:33even for the stubborn members of the Einsatzgruppen.
17:37Killing so many people was charging a high price
17:41in the state of mind of the soldiers.
17:44It was necessary to develop a different procedure,
17:47more surgical.
17:52Heydrich was commissioned to develop a final solution
17:56to the Jewish question.
18:00In June 1942, in Wannsee,
18:03on the outskirts of Berlin,
18:06Heydrich organized a secret conference
18:09to finalize the details of the final solution.
18:13He suggested an industrialized mass murder,
18:17exterminating all European Jews in gas chambers.
18:22To do this, it would be necessary to create
18:25a series of special extermination camps,
18:27which were built in Poland,
18:30between Blinka, Sobibór,
18:33Belszec, Majdanek,
18:36and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
18:41Up to 12,000 Jews could be killed
18:44in those camps in just a few hours.
18:52To orchestrate the transfer of the Jews
18:54to the human goods,
18:57Heydrich chose his old companion,
19:00Adolf Eichmann.
19:07Russian prisoners,
19:10gypsies, and political prisoners were also transferred to the camps.
19:18At the command of that lethal machine
19:21was Reinhard Heydrich,
19:25the blood of 6 million Jews
19:28stained his hands.
19:39Heydrich was duly rewarded for this.
19:44In September 1941,
19:47he was appointed Reichsprotektor in Funciones
19:50of Bohemia Moravia,
19:52an ancient territory of Czechoslovakia
19:55captured by the Nazis two years earlier.
19:58Bohemia Moravia would become his personal home.
20:04Heydrich decided to use with the Czechs
20:07the tactics he had perfected in the Gestapo.
20:15But he ignored that, far from there,
20:18a plot was being organized against him
20:20at that very moment.
20:29In Great Britain, a new government was created for Czechoslovakia,
20:33under the leadership of Dr. Benes,
20:36who will try to return freedom to his country and his people.
20:44In 1940, London became the seat of the Czech government in exile.
20:50On the front, Eduard Benes,
20:53the national president to whom the Nazis had forced to resign.
20:57Those exiles were eager to participate in the war.
21:02The Czechs, who had fled to the west,
21:05fought enrolled in the British army from the beginning of the war.
21:09It was the first time that the army of our allies in Czechoslovakia
21:13has received the visit of the Prime Minister,
21:16who, along with Dr. Benes, presided over the military parade.
21:20In 1941, the first Czechoslovakian mixed brigade
21:24had 3,300 men.
21:31They had prepared themselves thinking about the moment
21:34when they would liberate their homeland.
21:39Meanwhile, a group of volunteers
21:42faced the enemy in an unconventional way.
21:50In July 1940, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
21:55formed an enigmatic body, the Special Operations Corps.
22:04Its objective was to dignify Europe,
22:07carrying out sabotage operations
22:10and supporting local resistance movements.
22:13It became known as the Secret Army of Churchill.
22:21Numerous paratroopers were launched behind the enemy lines
22:25to fight from the inside against the German occupation.
22:34Communication channels were opened with names.
22:37Numerous people from all over the world
22:39met with numerous experts
22:42and tons of weapons were dropped on enemy territory.
22:48The Special Operations Corps had an arsenal of special weapons,
22:53pistols with silencer, briefcases,
22:56and explosive cigarettes, tear gas,
23:00and even explosive rats.
23:03The most versatile weapon, by far,
23:06was the 9mm Sten machine gun.
23:11Very resistant and easy to transport due to its easy disassembly,
23:15it would become the favorite weapon of the Special Operations Corps.
23:24At the end of the summer of 1941,
23:27Venice began to prepare for the war.
23:29In 1941, Venice began to worry
23:33when it found out what Heydrich was doing in his country.
23:41A few days after settling in Prague,
23:44the army stopped thousands of Czechs
23:47and dismantled the resistance encampment.
23:53The future for Heydrich's prisoners was very dark.
23:56They would have to face interrogations from the Gestapo,
24:00summary executions,
24:04or ride in a cattle wagon that would lead them to the field of Mauthausen,
24:08to a safe death.
24:14The Czech Jews received the same ruthless treatment.
24:18First, Heydrich ordered that all of them
24:22take the yellow star of David.
24:27Then he established a huge ghetto in the city of Theresienstadt,
24:32where more than 140,000 Jews settled.
24:45In early October 1941,
24:48Heydrich and Eichmann organized a conference in Czechoslovakia
24:52on the Jewish problem.
24:54Heydrich proposed to deport 90,000 Jews to a shelter
24:58and then exterminate them.
25:01Eichmann affirmed,
25:04if we calculate well the transport times,
25:07each Jew will be able to carry a suitcase with his belongings
25:10that does not exceed 50 kilos,
25:13and to facilitate our task, food for two weeks.
25:24To buy the silence of the rest of the Czech population,
25:28Heydrich improved food rations
25:31and launched a campaign against the black market.
25:38The Minister of Propaganda, Josef Goebbels,
25:41underlined that Heydrich plays cat and mouse with the Czechs
25:45and they swallow everything in front of their eyes.
25:55In London,
25:58Benes wants to put an end to that situation
26:01and decides to resort to the Special Operations Corps.
26:06Benes and his team developed a series of measures
26:10that included the assassination of important Czech collaborators.
26:14However, two objectives were set for Major Kaladok.
26:18There were two possible options.
26:21The first, Karl Hermann Frank,
26:24Secretary of State and Chief of Police
26:27in the occupied Czech territories.
26:30Frank had suppressed student demonstrations in 1939
26:35and executed many Czech nationalists and intellectuals.
26:40The second option was his superior,
26:43Reinhard Heydrich himself.
26:46In the end, they aimed as high as possible.
26:48The chosen one was Heydrich.
26:55The assassination was contemplated by the Special Operations Corps
26:59only one more time.
27:03And it was against Hitler himself.
27:06The so-called Operation Hoxley
27:09consisted of infiltrating a small team of men
27:12in the mountains of Obersalzberg
27:14and killing Führer with a shot during his Matutin walk.
27:19But the security was tight.
27:22Finally, it was decided that Hitler should stay alive
27:25because it was thought that this would shorten the duration of the war.
27:39In the case of Heydrich,
27:41the Czech government in exile
27:44thought it convenient to carry out an attack
27:47despite the possible retaliation.
27:51Meanwhile, Heydrich enjoyed his status
27:54at the top of the Nazi hierarchy,
27:57alien to the plan that was being born to end his life.
28:03Ten men were proposed,
28:06all of them single and belonging to the Czech mixed brigade.
28:12Their preparation included physical exercises,
28:15armed struggle
28:18and firing practices.
28:23Two of those ten men were chosen to participate in the mission.
28:27Jan Kubis,
28:30former sergeant in Moravia and separated from the Nazi army in 1939.
28:35And Karel Szoboda,
28:38former member of the French Foreign Legion.
28:41Szoboda was injured during training
28:44and was replaced by Josef Gapchik,
28:47former comrade of his in the foreign legion.
28:50The code name of the mission was Entropoid Operation.
28:57In November 1941,
29:00everything was ready.
29:03Kubis and Gapchik were prepared.
29:07However, the beginning of the mission
29:09was delayed due to meteorological implements.
29:24Finally, on the night of December 28, 1941,
29:28seven Czech agents boarded a bomber in Halifax.
29:32Together with Kubis and Gapchik,
29:35five agents of a special group were traveling,
29:38whose code name was Silver.
29:41Their function was to establish radio and intelligence networks
29:45to improve communications with London.
29:53There were also on board other 17 paratroopers.
29:57Agents specially prepared to revitalize
30:00the resistance movement supported by Heinrich.
30:13The bomber headed for the city of Pilsen,
30:16about 95 kilometers west of Prague.
30:27The team was thrown far from the target.
30:30All its members arrived safe and sound to the mainland
30:34and took refuge quickly in a cave.
30:46Kubis and Gapchik established contact with the resistance
30:50and disappeared in the heart of Prague.
30:56It was time to choose the moment,
30:59the place and the method to kill Heinrich.
31:02It took five months to prepare the operation.
31:06The first idea was to attack the private train of the Reichsprotektor.
31:09The attack would be carried out on a secondary track.
31:27The plan was to shot an anti-tank projectile against his wagon.
31:30But they did not know if they would hit the correct wagon.
31:39The result was too uncertain.
31:44The team then thought of making the train derail,
31:48but after rehearsing with an army wagon,
31:51they found that the damage was minimal.
31:55A new plan had to be devised.
32:01Meanwhile, the objective of Kubys and Gapchik,
32:05led by Heinrich, had developed a sinister project.
32:11With the excuse of a study to eradicate tuberculosis,
32:15a classification would be made of all Czech citizens
32:18according to their race and nationality.
32:21In this way, they could establish which groups of the population
32:24were suitable to be Germanized.
32:29Anyone who was not considered suitable
32:32would be sent to a concentration camp to be executed.
32:39The end of spring was approaching.
32:42Kubys and Gapchik were about to find the perfect method
32:46to assassinate their target.
32:49They had been closely following the movements of Heinrich,
32:52day by day, and thanks to this, they had devised an attack plan.
32:58However, their mission was not well seen by everyone.
33:03Several agents had very serious reprisals.
33:09Contact with London was constant.
33:12Multiple messages urged to put an end to the Anthropoid Operation,
33:16but the advice fell into the bag.
33:19The Czech government in exile had made a decision.
33:24On May 20, Venice gave green light to the operation.
33:33Meanwhile, Himmler visited Heinrich in Prague.
33:37He was struck by the excessive confidence that he was moving.
33:41He urged him to at least shield his car.
33:45But Heinrich did not pay attention.
33:48He was sure he had the Czechs under control,
33:51and he proposed to show it.
33:56That bravado would cost him dearly.
33:59His assassins were ready.
34:03His plan was complicated, but it offered many guarantees of success.
34:07Heinrich lived in a small village,
34:1025 kilometers from Prague,
34:13and every day he moved to the castle of Hradcany,
34:16the old seat of power in Prague.
34:22The daily car ride was the moment of the day
34:25when Heinrich was most vulnerable.
34:28The best place to ambush him was a very closed curve
34:32on the lowest part of a hill,
34:35where the Mercedes would have to stop.
34:38A man would be at the top of the hill
34:41and would make a signal when he saw the Mercedes approaching.
34:45A second man would cross the street
34:48almost at the end of the descent
34:51to force the car to slow down even more.
34:54And on the lowest part of the hill, near the curve,
34:57the two assassins would be placed.
35:00Their weapons would be a Sten machine gun
35:03hidden under a gabardine,
35:07and a modified type 73 hand grenade
35:10hidden in a briefcase.
35:13Its detonation is instantaneous,
35:16so it is essential to hit the target.
35:19On the morning of May 27,
35:22Gatchik and Kubis quietly left their respective houses
35:25and headed for Prague.
35:28Two other men set out for the agreed destination.
35:36Josef Balchik would be in charge
35:39of warning from the top of the hill
35:42if he had launched the parachute with Kubis and Gatchik
35:45five months before in the Silver mission
35:48and if he had met them again while fleeing the Gestapo.
35:51The last man, Adolfo Palca,
35:54was an officer of the Special Operations Corps.
35:57He would slow down the descent of Heinrich's car
36:00before it reached the closed curve.
36:07In the district of Lipen in Prague,
36:10everyone was in the exact same place.
36:15Gatchik prepared his Sten machine gun.
36:18Kubis, his grenade.
36:21They just had to wait.
36:29Every second that passed increased the risk of raising suspicions.
36:37Finally, shortly after 10.30,
36:40Balchik made the signal that the Mercedes was approaching.
36:45A few seconds later, Palca crossed the street
36:48and a tram got in the way before reaching the curve.
36:54Gatchik took a step forward
36:57but the Sten did not work.
37:01Instead of accelerating, Heinrich ordered his driver
37:04to brake.
37:07Kubis threw the grenade he was hiding in his briefcase.
37:14Despite being hit by the machine gun,
37:17Heinrich decided to face those men.
37:29Kubis fled.
37:34Gatchik was chased by Heinrich's driver.
38:05Heinrich, seriously injured,
38:08was transferred to the nearby hospital in Bulovka.
38:14Metal fragments from the grenade,
38:17the seat and his own uniform
38:20had reached his vital organs.
38:23Now his life was hanging by a thread.
38:27The news of the attack soon reached
38:30all corners of Germany.
38:36When they heard of Himmler in the headquarters,
38:39some declared that he broke into tears.
38:44Five days later,
38:47Himmler visited his comrade in the hospital.
38:51Everything indicated that Heinrich would recover.
38:54But with the passage of time,
38:57the wounds became infected.
39:00By not having penicillin,
39:03there had been a poisoning of the blood,
39:06the feared septicemia.
39:09Reinhard Heinrich died on June 4, 1942,
39:12eight days after the attack.
39:24His coffin toured the streets of Prague
39:27and was then transferred to Berlin.
39:32Despite his criminal history,
39:35many Czechs took to the streets to express their respect.
39:47In Berlin, his coffin was exposed to the public
39:50covered with a flag with the swastika.
39:55The SS Honor Guard was led by Himmler.
40:08Himmler also gave the speech in his honor.
40:13Führer himself paid tribute to the sons of the deceased.
40:17But those events did not silence the suspicions
40:20that Himmler had been somehow linked to his death.
40:31Rumors circulated that Himmler had allowed Heinrich to die
40:34because he considered him a threat.
40:40And that Himmler's doctor,
40:43responsible for operating Heinrich in Prague,
40:46had received orders that the patient should not be recovered.
40:51What was certainly true was that Heinrich had died.
40:54The hunt for his murderers had begun.
41:01The man chosen to locate the murderers
41:04was the Nazi Secretary of State Karl Hermann Frank.
41:07The man to whom the Czech government in exile
41:11had decided not to kill.
41:14The reward offered was one million marks.
41:18All that helped the Czech agents would be executed.
41:23And a message spread by radio to the whole city
41:26to declare martial law,
41:29mark a curfew and warn the country of the state of siege.
41:40A manhunt had begun.
41:43Three battalions of the army were sent to Prague.
41:474,500 soldiers and the Gestapo
41:50combed the city and its surroundings.
41:54The foreign police carried out a detailed study of the crime scene.
41:59Each of the collected evidence was cataloged in detail.
42:05The murderers had left many clues,
42:08something that the Gestapo knew how to make the most of.
42:11The Nazi hunters became prisoners.
42:17The news asked for citizen cooperation.
42:28The authorities asked the Czechs to provide any clue.
42:32The Gapčík bicycle was shown.
42:36His gabardine.
42:40The Sten machine gun.
42:43And a gun.
42:45Even the type of grenade used by the murderers.
42:49The two suitcases contained evidence
42:52that incriminated the Czech dissidents.
42:57From then on, a series of events
43:00that questioned the whole operation.
43:06The small mining town of Lidice
43:09was chosen by the Nazis to carry out their revenge.
43:14Hitler gave orders to destroy the entire town.
43:29All the men over 16 years old
43:32were shot.
43:35A total of 199.
43:40The women were sent to the concentration camp in Ravensbruck,
43:43where death awaited them.
43:47Almost all the children of the town were transferred to Kenaizenau,
43:51another concentration camp.
43:54The town was completely devastated.
44:02Lidice would eventually become
44:05one of the most prominent symbols of Nazi barbarism.
44:11Meanwhile, in Prague,
44:13the murderers remained hidden
44:16with other agents in the church of St. Cyril.
44:22But the amount offered as a reward weighed too much
44:25and they were betrayed by one of their own.
44:29Karel Kurdar, one of the agents,
44:32gave the blow to the Germans.
44:38At 4.30 a.m. on June 18,
44:41the church was cordoned off.
44:44For two hours, Kubis, Opalka and a third man,
44:47Jaroslav Svart,
44:50faced the SS troops
44:53who had received orders to capture them alive.
44:58At the end of the confrontation,
45:01their bodies were dragged to the street.
45:07The four remaining members of the Special Operations Corps
45:10took refuge in the crypt.
45:13The firefighters tried to get them out
45:16by injecting pressure water.
45:23In the end, the Czech agents used their last bullets
45:27to take their lives.
45:31They had preferred to die than to be captured.
45:40They had succeeded.
45:43Heydrich, the sinister cataloger of citizens and mass murderer,
45:46was dead.
45:49But was it worth it?
45:52Himmler's problems with the Czechs had ended.
45:57The Nazi propaganda,
46:00spread by the news,
46:03continued to present the assassination
46:06as an atrocious act.
46:09The Czech nation continued to be united by pain.
46:19In July 1942,
46:22Jaroslav Hretjic, the Nazi appointed prime minister,
46:25finally revoked the martial law
46:28and gradually returned the normality to the city of Prague.
46:34The Special Operations Corps
46:37would play a smaller role
46:40in the final liberation of the country.
46:43The Germans attack the city.
46:46On this sixth day, more than 2,000 people have lost their lives.
46:49The days of the Nazi regime
46:52ended with the entry of the Russians.
46:55Prague is free.
46:58The troops of the Red Army enter the city.
47:01And with them, the units of the 1st Czechoslovak Army,
47:04which fought on its side from the Volga.
47:07In May 1945,
47:10the citizens of Prague organize a revolt
47:13against the Nazis to welcome the Red Army.
47:17Eduard Benes, president of Czechoslovakia,
47:20returns to his homeland.
47:23The people of Prague welcome their president,
47:26who has never stopped fighting for the freedom of his nation.
47:29After seven years of tyranny,
47:32Czechoslovakia becomes its own owner again.
47:38However, there were serious doubts
47:41about that Nazi hunt.
47:44The traitor Karel Kurda
47:47was assassinated, judged and executed.
47:52The assassins of Lidice would be persecuted.
47:5516 members of the death squads
47:58that had destroyed the people
48:01were led before the judge.
48:04His superior, Karl Hermann Frank,
48:07condemned to die in the orca,
48:10was executed in 1946.
48:13But for many, it was a mere consolation.
48:17Lidice remains a vivid memory
48:20of the true price of that death.
48:24About 5,000 Czechs were executed in revenge
48:27for the death of Heydrich.
48:30No one could deny that Reinhard Heydrich
48:33received what he deserved.
48:36But even today many wonder
48:39whether the hunt of that Nazi was really worth it.
48:47The End