Heydrich Arrives in Prague

On 27 September 1941, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and one of the most feared men in the Nazi regime, arrives in Prague. He has just been appointed Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, replacing Konstantin von Neurath, judged too lenient by Berlin. His mission is twofold and urgent: contain Czech unrest and run the Protectorate's industrial arsenal at full capacity, where the Škoda Works and the foundries supply the Wehrmacht engaged in the Soviet Union.

The situation Heydrich discovers worries the Reich. Since the summer, go-slow strikes have multiplied, sabotage has struck the railways and the armament lines, and output is falling. German intelligence is questioning the attitude of the autonomous government itself: Prime Minister Alois Eliáš and the network of the internal resistance, in contact with the government-in-exile in London led by Edvard Beneš, are at the heart of the reports flowing back to Berlin.

Heydrich holds full police powers and almost total latitude over the course of action to take. Several levers are open to him, each affecting public order, the population's morale and the war effort differently, and each carrying its own risks. The new Protector must settle on his line from his very first hours in Prague.