HEYDRICH SHOT IN PRAGUE

Southland Times, Issue 24756, 29 May 1942, Page 5

HEYDRICH SHOT IN PRAGUE

Protector Wounded

(Rec. 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, May 27. Reinhard Heydrich, Deputy Chief of the Gestapo and Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, was shot and wounded in Prague as he was leaving by motorcar for Berlin. Heydrich, who has a reputation for fiendish cruelty second to that of no other Nazi, was, according to an official statement, fired at by two men armed with automatic rifles. Prague radio says that a state of emergency has been proclaimed throughout the Protectorate. A reward of between £60,000 and £70,000 is being offered for the capture of his assailants. Anyone aiding them will be shot with his whole family. CURFEW PROCLAIMED No civilians are permitted to leave their houses tonight between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. All bars and places of amusement must close. Transport has been stopped. Heydrich a fortnight ago was appointed Gestapo Commissar-General of the occupied territories and he toured Paris, Brussels and The Hague to see that the security service was working satisfactorily. According to Prague radio, Heydrich notified the Protectorate Government yesterday of a pending reconstruction of the administration of Bohemia and Moravia in accordance with Hitler’s decree. The nature of the decree has not yet been announced. Heydrich also told Czech Ministers that Czech youth would shortly be conscripted for war service. Heydrich’s reputation is such that he is known to his countrymen as Der Henker” (the hangman). • Dismissed from the German Nayy in 1931 for moral delinquency, he joined the Nazis the following year and after Hitler came to power he rose rapidly in the Gestapo. His term, as Protector of Bohemia and Moravia has been marked by excessive cruelty.