Heinz Siegfried Heydrich (born 29 September 1905 in Halle an der Saale, died 19 November 1944, East Prussia, aged 39) was the son of Richard Bruno Heydrich

Richard Bruno Heydrich

Richard Bruno Heydrich was a German opera singer , and composer.-Early career:...

 and the younger brother of SS General Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...

. After the death of his brother, Heinz Heydrich helped Jews escape the Holocaust.

Youth

Heinz Heydrich was born in Halle an der Saale

Halle, Saxony-Anhalt

Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...

 to composer Richard Bruno Heydrich

Richard Bruno Heydrich

Richard Bruno Heydrich was a German opera singer , and composer.-Early career:...

 and his wife Elisabeth Anna Maria Amalia Krantz. Her father was Eugen Krantz, director of the Dresden Royal Conservatory.
The Heydrich family were well-to-do Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

s. The father, Richard Bruno Heydrich

Richard Bruno Heydrich

Richard Bruno Heydrich was a German opera singer , and composer.-Early career:...

, was an opera singer, the founder of a music conservatory in Halle, and a German Nationalist who instilled patriotic ideas in the minds of his three children. The Heydrich household was very strict and the children were frequently disciplined. As a youth, Heydrich engaged his older brother, Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...

, in mock fencing

Fencing

Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...

 duels.

Career in the SS

Heinz Heydrich was an Obersturmführer

Obersturmführer

Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...

 (lieutenant), journalist and publisher of the soldiers' newspaper, Die Panzerfaust. He was at first a fervent admirer of Hitler. But before Reinhard Heydrich’s State funeral in Berlin in June 1942, Heinz Heydrich had been given a large packet containing his brother's files, released from his strongbox at Gestapo Headquarters, 8, Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. Heinz had shut himself away in his room with the papers. Next morning his wife noticed that her husband had sat up all night burning the documents from the package. Heinz, on leave from the front, could not be engaged in conversation, his wife remembered; he seemed to be elsewhere mentally, and like stone. The files in the package were probably Reinhard Heydrich’s personal files, from which Heinz Heydrich understood for the first time in all its enormity the systematic extermination of the Jews, the so-called Final Solution

Final Solution

The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...

. Thereafter, Heinz Heydrich helped many Jews escape by forging identity documents and printing them on Die Panzerfaust presses.

Suicide

When in November 1944 an economic commission headed by a State Attorney investigated the editorial staff of Panzerfaust, Heinz Heydrich thought he had been discovered and shot himself in order to protect his family from the Gestapo. Ironically, the attorney knew nothing about the forgeries, and was only trying to find out the reason for shortages in paper supplies. Heinz Heydrich is buried in the Soldatenfriedhof (soldiers cemetery) Riesenburg, according to the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)

Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)

The Deutsche Dienststelle is a German Agency based in Berlin which maintains records of members of the former German Wehrmacht who were killed in action. Formerly called the Wehrmachtsauskunftstelle this agency also provides information about the fate of foreign and German soldiers as well as...

.

Family

Heinz Heydrich had five children. His oldest, Peter Thomas Heydrich (1931–2003), was a well-known German cabaret singer, and wrote a book about his childhood, father, and uncle. In the book, Peter Heydrich describes how, as a youth, he enjoyed the fame of being a “crown prince,” the nephew of Reinhard Heydrich. During boyhood, he thought of his uncle as a successful sportsman and a sensitive musician. In Prague, Peter observed that his uncle had become a “high animal.” Peter derived many privileges from being Reinhard Heydrich’s nephew. Even after the war, Peter still felt some pride in the familial relationship, if not so openly. But finally, Peter Heydrich had to admit that Reinhard Heydrich was a protean schemer, who planned and executed the Holocaust and other crimes.