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The heroes who killed Hitler’s blond beast
Two new films – one starring Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy – explore the amazing true story of Churchill’s secret agents sent on a suicide mission to assassinate a Nazi general
Without doubt, it was one of the most daring missions of the Second World War. In December 1941 two agents parachuted into Czechoslovakia from an RAF bomber. Their task was to assassinate SS general Reinhard Heydrich, an architect of the Final Solution whose nicknames included The Hangman, The Blond Beast and The Butcher of Prague.
Czech soldier Jan Kubis, 28, and his 29-year-old Slovak comrade Josef Gabcik were trained by the British as parachutists and were working for Churchill’s Special Operations Executive, which carried out covert missions. They knew when they volunteered for Operation Anthropoid their chances of success – and survival – were slim.
Now this extraordinary story is the subject of two exciting new Hollywood films. First up is Anthropoid, with a cast of stars from recent British TV hits. Cillian Murphy (best known as Thomas Shelby, leader of the ruthless gang in BBC2’s Peaky Blinders) and Jamie Dornan (who played the serial killer in the BBC2 drama The Fall, as well as Christian Grey in Fifty Shades Of Grey) take the roles of Gabcik and Kubis, with Toby Jones (recently in BBC1 drama The Secret Agent) as Czech Resistance leader Jan ZelenkaHajsky. The second film, next year’s HHhH, is based on a novel by Laurence Binet and stars Rosamund Pike and Jack O’Connell.
Many sites in and near Prague remain as testament to the mission. I visited them and was also lucky enough to meet the last living parachutist who did the same training as Gabcik and Kubis in Britain. Jaroslav Klemes, a brigadier general, now 94, is a Czech national hero, and has a fondness for Britain, the country that gave him and his comrades refuge and training during his nation’s darkest period.
Reinhard Heydrich’s task in Czechoslovakia was to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation. While doing so he led a life of luxury in a villa known as the Lower Castle, nine miles from Prague. Built in 1833, its pillars and marble staircase speak of grandeur but the building has been left to rot. So I was stunned to find Heydrich’s private office intact, with its wood panelling and soundproofed walls. Heydrich no doubt savoured this villa all the more because it was confiscated from Jewish tycoon Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. Bloch-Bauer’s beautiful wife Adele was painted by artist Gustav Klimt.
The gates to the villa are flanked by ugly concrete boars and, at just after 10am on 27 May, 1942, Heydrich, aged 38, was driven past them down the drive and to his death. His arrogance was such that he believed no Czech would dare attack him, travelling in an open- top Mercedes. He knew he had pushed most of the nation into submission by his reign of torture and executions. Some of the horrific torture methods are chillingly portrayed in the film Anthropoid.
Agents Kubis and Gabcik had spent five months planning their hit since being parachuted in, having been kept hidden by members of the Resistance. They finally decided to ambush Heydrich on his route to work at a hairpin bend that forced his driver to slow down.
When Heydrich’s car braked on that day in May, Gabcik jumped out and aimed his Sten gun at the Nazi commander only for it to jam. Kubis then tossed a grenade at the car. It exploded against a wheel and the blast and shrapnel left Heydrich badly injured. Kubis made off on his bike, while Gabcik ran down a side street pursued by Heydrich’s chauffeur; Gabcik shot him in the leg and escaped.
In the three weeks after the attack the Nazis launched a massive man- hunt. Finally, Resistance soldier Karel Curda, eyeing the reward on offer, gave information to the Nazis that led to them finding the assassins hiding in the crypt of Prague’s Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral. Bullet holes still pockmark its walls from the siege of 18 June, 1942 when Kubis, Gabcik and five comrades tried to hold out against 750 SS soldiers. The two parachutists didn’t make it out, Gabcik shooting himself when he realised all was lost.
Heydrich had died eight days after the car attack. Hitler attended his funeral and, in the wake of his death, ordered reprisals, including the destruction of Lidice, a village near Prague the Nazis claimed was connected to the assassins. In total 5,000 people lost their lives as the Nazis took revenge. The bodies of Gabcik and Kubis are believed to lie in a mass grave in northern Prague. I ask General Klemes what he thinks of the campaign to exhume their bodies and rebury them with national honours. It appears that his own father, guillotined by the Nazis for helping Jews flee across the border, may lie in the same cemetery, and as he talks, emotion wells up. ‘Even though my father might be there I want to leave the hallowed ground alone. We should leave the dead resting,’ he says. General Klemes had extensive training in Britain, including unarmed combat. ‘I was trained to put explosives on trains, to be a telegraph operator and to perform intelligence exercises,’ he says. There have been critics of Operation Anthropoid who say the price of assassinating Reinhard Heydrich was too high. But Klemes is not one of them. ‘Heydrich was killing so many people it was worth the price, because the terror of his regime was so terrible.’ Spencer Bright Anthropoid is in cinemas now.
‘They knew their chances of success, and survival, were slim’