Hitler's Hangman

The Life of Heydrich

By: Robert Gerwarth

Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan

Reinhard Heydrich is widely recognized as one of the great iconic villains of the 20th century, an appalling figure even within the context of the Nazi leadership. Chief of the Nazi Criminal Police, the SS Security Service, and the Gestapo, ruthless overlord of Nazi-occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and leading planner of the "Final Solution," Heydrich played a central role in Hitler's Germany. He shouldered a major share of responsibility for some of the worst Nazi atrocities, and up to his assassination in Prague in 1942, he was widely seen as one of the most dangerous men in Nazi Germany.

Yet Heydrich has received remarkably modest attention in the extensive literature of the Third Reich. Robert Gerwarth weaves together little-known stories of Heydrich's private life with his deeds as head of the Nazi Reich Security Main Office. Fully exploring Heydrich's progression from a privileged middle-class youth to a rapacious mass murderer, Gerwarth sheds new light on the complexity of Heydrich's adult character, his motivations, the incremental steps that led to unimaginable atrocities, and the consequences of his murderous efforts toward recreating the entire ethnic makeup of Europe.

©2011 Robert Gerwarth (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This admirable biography makes plausible what actually happened and makes human what we might prefer to dismiss as monstrous." ( The Wall Street Journal)

very good book but kind of boring

this is nothing against the author but I just found this book kind of boring.

this very interesting story on a truly evil person

This book is about a.man who was truly evil and helped to set up the Holocaust. Thank god for hos assination becuase who knows what additional evil he could have caused.

A dry recitation of facts

Seriously. This is a dry recitation of facts about Heydrich’s life. The author almost steadfastly refuses to ask “why?”. The author chose a narrow lane and stuck to it. The only things I can tell you about Heydrich is that he may have been motivated by power and that he was an absent husband and father.

Essential reading

Drawing on more recent scholarship than earlier accounts detailing the life and crimes of Reinhard Heydrich, this book is all the more terrifying a read. Heydrich has often been portrayed as arriving of arriving as Hitler's hang man fully formed. This excellent work shows the making of the monster, and should be read by anyone with a serious interest in where the very worst of Hitler's henchmen came from.

The hangman and the Jewish question

The book covered a great deal of the Jewish question but except for Himmler no one was more involved with said question. The author did cover his early years in the military but I would have liked more on his childhood.
This was a good biography and well worth the time the reader was excellent.

Not the best narrator. Pronunciations were distracting.

The story is a good listen, the narrator is not. He strongly emphasized certain words through the book and it was very distracting.

Progression of a man from bland to mass murderer

Heydrich himself is not very interesting. His role as a technocrat is what you learn about here. Somewhat slow at times, as when discussing his father's life and career. Narrator has annoying habit of pronouncing Heydrich as "HIYdrich!"

Outstandingly detailed and scholarly work.

From the onset, it’s very clear that the author has deployed a tremendous amount of primary research - archive communications to and from heydrich - and has relied less on secondary sources - biographies and testimonies from acquaintances. As a result, this is a clear, concise and objective study into how heydrich cultivated a police and security force and transformed it into a international ethic cleanser capable of transferring millions of people to prison, labour camps and death. We are left in no doubt that heydrich’s zeal and dedication was a primary factor in creating an organisation that was capable of punishing and murdering so many Jews and other Europeans with such diabolical consistency. A very thorough examination of a man with a murderous mission.

Interesting book

About 50 % biography and 50 % WW2 timeline. The reader has an annoying habit of speeding up and raising his voice when reading quotes and other parts. He also likes to make German sounds more harsh and loud than it is.

Amazing and terrifying

If you like ww2 history this book is for you. It gives you a rare glimpse into the mind and actions of one of the most evil members of the Nazi party.