Editing Reinhard Heydrich (section)

===Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia===
{{further|Resistance in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1972-039-26, Reinhard Heydrich im Prager Schloß crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1.02|Heydrich (''left'') with [[Karl Hermann Frank]] at [[Prague Castle]] in 1941]]
On 27 September 1941, Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector of the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] (the part of [[Czechoslovakia]] incorporated into the Reich on 15 March 1939) and assumed control of the territory.<ref>{{cite web|title=Czech State Gets Gestapo Master; Heydrich, Chief Lieutenant of Himmler, Succeeds Von Neurath as Protector|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/09/28/archives/czech-state-gets-gestapo-master-heydrich-chief-lieutenant-of.html|agency=AP|work=The New York Times|date=28 September 1941|access-date=1 October 2024}}</ref> The Reich Protector, [[Konstantin von Neurath]], remained the territory's titular head, but was sent on "leave" because Hitler, Himmler, and Heydrich felt his "soft approach" to the [[Czechs]] had promoted anti-German sentiment and encouraged anti-German resistance via strikes and sabotage.{{sfn|Williams|2003|p=82}} Upon his appointment, Heydrich told his aides: "We will Germanize the Czech vermin."{{sfn|Horvitz|Catherwood|2006|p=200}}

Heydrich came to [[Prague]] to enforce policy, fight resistance to the Nazi regime, and keep up production quotas of Czech motors and arms that were "extremely important to the German war effort".{{sfn|Williams|2003|p=82}} He viewed the area as a bulwark of [[German nationalism|Germandom]] and condemned the Czech resistance's "stabs in the back". To realise his goals, Heydrich demanded racial classification of those who could and could not be [[Germanized]]. He explained, "Making this Czech garbage into Germans must give way to methods based on racist thought."{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=140}}

Heydrich started his rule by terrorising the population: he proclaimed [[martial law]], and 142 people were executed within five days of his arrival in Prague.<ref name="1.heydrichiada">{{cite web |last1=Šír |first1=Vojtěch |title=První stanné právo v protektorátu |url=https://www.fronta.cz/dotaz/prvni-stanne-pravo-v-protektoratu |website=Fronta.cz |access-date=24 June 2018 |language=cs |date=3 April 2011|trans-title=The First Martial Law in Protectorate }}</ref> Their names appeared on posters throughout the occupied country.{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=143}} Most of them were the members of the resistance that had previously been captured and were awaiting trial.

According to Heydrich's estimate, between 4,000 and 5,000 people were arrested{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=143}} and between 400 and 500 were executed by February 1942.<ref name="1.heydrichiada" />{{efn|name=deathcamp}} Those who were not executed were sent to [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp]], where only four per cent of Czech prisoners survived the war.{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=143}} Czech prime minister [[Alois Eliáš]] was among those arrested the first day. He was [[People's Court (Germany)|put on trial]] in Berlin and sentenced to death, but was kept alive as a hostage. He was later executed in retaliation for Heydrich's assassination.<ref name="vets">{{cite web |last1=Jedlička |first1=František |title=armádní generál in memoriam Alois Eliáš |url=https://www.vets.cz/vpm/alois-elias-355/ |website=vets.cz |publisher=Spolek pro vojenská pietní místa, o.s. |access-date=24 June 2018 |language=cs}}</ref><ref name="vlada">{{cite web |title=Ing. Alois Eliáš |url=https://www.vlada.cz/cz/clenove-vlady/historie-minulych-vlad/prehled-vlad-cr/1939-1945-protektorat-cechy-a-morava/rudolf-beran/alois-elias-45302/ |website=vlada.cz |publisher=[[Government of Czech Republic|Vláda České republiky]] |access-date=24 June 2018 |language=cs}}</ref><ref name="lidovky">{{cite news |last1=Zídek |first1=Petr |title=Pohnuté Osudy: Alois Eliáš. Generál v srdci nepřítele s cenou tří divizí |url=https://www.lidovky.cz/alois-elias-general-s-cenou-tri-divizi-dxk-/lide.aspx?c=A150802_205022_lide_ELE |access-date=24 June 2018 |work=Lidovky.cz |date=16 August 2015 |language=cs}}</ref>

In March 1942, further sweeps against Czech cultural and patriotic organisations, the military, and the intelligentsia resulted in the practical paralysis of the London-based Czech resistance. Almost all avenues by which Czechs could express the Czech culture in public were closed.{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=140}} Although small disorganised cells of [[Resistance in German-occupied Czechoslovakia#Consolidation of resistance groups: ÚVOD|Central Leadership of Home Resistance (Ústřední vedení odboje domácího, ÚVOD)]] survived, only the communist resistance was able to function in a coordinated manner (although it also suffered arrests).{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=143}} The terror also served to paralyse resistance in society, with public and widespread reprisals by the Nazis against any action resisting German rule.{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=143}} Heydrich's brutal policies during that time quickly earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Prague".{{sfn|Paces|2009|p=167}} The reprisals are referred to by Czechs as the ''Heydrichiáda''.{{sfn|Roberts|2005|p=56}}

As Acting Reich Protector of [[Bohemia]] and [[Moravia]], Heydrich applied [[carrot-and-stick]] methods.{{sfn|Williams|2003|p=100}} Labor was reorganised on the basis of the [[German Labour Front]]. Heydrich used equipment confiscated from the Czech gymnastics organisation [[Sokol (sport organization)|Sokol]] to organise events for workers.{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=144}} Food rations and free shoes were distributed, pensions were increased, and (for a time) free Saturdays were introduced. [[Unemployment insurance]] was established for the first time.{{sfn|Williams|2003|p=100}} The [[black market]] was suppressed. Those associated with it or the resistance movement were tortured or executed. Heydrich labelled them "economic criminals" and "enemies of the people", which helped gain him support. Conditions in Prague and the rest of the Czech lands were relatively peaceful under Heydrich, and industrial output increased.{{sfn|Williams|2003|p=100}} Still, those measures could not hide shortages and increasing inflation; reports of growing discontent multiplied.{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=144}}

Despite public displays of goodwill towards the populace, privately Heydrich was very clear about his eventual goal: "This entire area will one day be definitely German, and the Czechs have nothing to expect here." Eventually up to two-thirds of the populace were to be either [[Generalplan Ost|removed to regions of Russia]] or exterminated after Nazi Germany won the war. Bohemia and Moravia faced annexation directly into the German Reich.{{sfn|Garrett|1996|p=60}}

The Czech workforce was exploited as Nazi-conscripted labour.{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=144}} More than 100,000 workers were removed from "unsuitable" jobs and conscripted by the [[Ministry of Labour]]. By December 1941, Czechs could be called to work anywhere within the Reich. Between April and November 1942, 79,000 Czech workers were taken in this manner for work within Nazi Germany. Also, in February 1942, the work day was increased from eight to twelve hours.{{sfn|MacDonald|1989|p=133}}

Heydrich was, for all intents and purposes, military dictator of Bohemia and Moravia. His changes to the government's structure left President [[Emil Hácha]] and his cabinet virtually powerless. He often drove alone in a car with an open roof{{snd}}a show of his confidence in the occupation forces and in his government's effectiveness.{{sfn|Williams|2003|p=141}}

By 3 October 1941, Czechoslovak [[military intelligence]] in London had made the decision to kill Heydrich.<ref>{{cite web |title=Plán atentátu (anniversary) |url=https://www.fronta.cz/kalendar/plan-atentatu |website=Fronta.cz |access-date=24 June 2018|language=cs}}</ref><ref name="Stehlík">{{cite journal |last1=Stehlík |first1=Eduard |title=SOE a příprava atentátu na Reinharda Heydricha |journal=Paměť a Dějiny |date=2012 |volume=2 |page=4 |trans-title=SOE and the preparation of Reinhard Heydrich's assassination |url=https://www.ustrcr.cz/data/pdf/pamet-dejiny/pad1202/003-015.pdf |publisher=[[Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes|ÚSTR]] |language=cs}}</ref>