Hitler's Hangman by Robert. Gerwarth Page A
Authors: Robert. Gerwarth
Tags: Yale University Press
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after the war,
Heydrich was considered a liberal by his colleagues and shunned for that
very reason.86 Interestingly enough, his future wife Lina gave a similar
assessment of his early lack of interest in politics. After the war, Lina
maintained that ‘politically he was clueless . . . He regarded all parties,
particularly the Nazi Party, with arrogance and considered politics itself to
be vulgar. In this connection he acted very much the snob and regarded
his naval career as the most important thing. The rest didn’t count.’87
Perhaps even more important for his outsider status than his apparent
indifference to politics was the re-emergence of rumours about his alleged
Jewish family background. ‘In our class’, one fellow officer cadet recalled,
‘Heydrich was more or less regarded as a Jew because another crew
YO U N G R E I N H A R D
37
comrade from Halle told us that his family was actually called “Süss” and
that this was widely known in Halle.’ Over the following years, his fellow
cadets would call Heydrich the ‘white Jew’ or ‘white Moses’. In order to
counter the rumours, Heydrich maintained that he had been a member of
the anti-Semetic German Nationalist Protection and Defiance League in
Halle – an organization that rejected Jews as members and which had
been abolished after the Rathenau assassination in 1922. Although prob-
ably untrue, the claim seems to have improved Heydrich’s standing among
his peers.88
Heydrich’s position further improved after a two-month stint on the
sailing vessel Niobe in the summer of 1923, after which he was transferred
to the cruiser Berlin . It was here, on the Berlin , that Heydrich met and
befriended the future head of Nazi Germany’s military intelligence
agency, Wilhelm Canaris, then the first officer on board. Canaris impressed
the young Heydrich with his military experience: as a navigating lieu-
tenant aboard the small cruiser Dresden during the Battle of the Falklands
in 1914 he had managed to escape from internment in Chile in 1915
before returning home to Germany. Canaris in turn instantly warmed to
the shy young man with musical inclinations and he became Heydrich’s
mentor over the coming years. From 1924 onwards, he frequently invited
Heydrich to his house in Kiel, where Reinhard and Canaris’s wife, Erika,
played the violin together in a private string quartet and often entertained
members of Kiel’s social establishment.89
Heydrich also played music outside the Canaris household. According
to Hertha Lehmann-Jottkowitz, a student at the Kiel Institute for Global
Economics in the later 1920s, she first met Heydrich when he played the
violin at the home of a mutual friend and amateur cellist. Lehmann-
Jottkowitz remembered Heydrich as an extremely sensitive violinist who
displayed a tenderness and sentimentality that deeply impressed his audi-
ences. In conversation he gave the impression of being a ‘superficial sailor’
who had little to contribute to discussions, but he was completely trans-
formed once he started playing the violin or discussed musical subjects.90
The final component of Heydrich’s officer training was a six-month
stint on the Schleswig-Holstein , the flagship of the German North Sea
Fleet. In the summer of 1926, he went on a training cruise through the
Atlantic and into the Western Mediterranean, visiting Spain, Portugal
and the island of Madeira, where he apparently caused a minor scandal in
the Officers’ Mess when a British officer’s wife refused to accept his invita-
tion to dance with him.91 Following the completion of his training aboard
the Schleswig-Holstein , Heydrich was promoted to second naval liutenant.92
After his promotion, he appears to have received more recognition from
his colleagues and was less frequently the butt of jokes. His comrade and
38
HITLER’S HANGMAN
roommate on the Schleswig-Holstein , Heinrich Beucke, recalled that
after his
Heydrich was considered a liberal by his colleagues and shunned for that
very reason.86 Interestingly enough, his future wife Lina gave a similar
assessment of his early lack of interest in politics. After the war, Lina
maintained that ‘politically he was clueless . . . He regarded all parties,
particularly the Nazi Party, with arrogance and considered politics itself to
be vulgar. In this connection he acted very much the snob and regarded
his naval career as the most important thing. The rest didn’t count.’87
Perhaps even more important for his outsider status than his apparent
indifference to politics was the re-emergence of rumours about his alleged
Jewish family background. ‘In our class’, one fellow officer cadet recalled,
‘Heydrich was more or less regarded as a Jew because another crew
YO U N G R E I N H A R D
37
comrade from Halle told us that his family was actually called “Süss” and
that this was widely known in Halle.’ Over the following years, his fellow
cadets would call Heydrich the ‘white Jew’ or ‘white Moses’. In order to
counter the rumours, Heydrich maintained that he had been a member of
the anti-Semetic German Nationalist Protection and Defiance League in
Halle – an organization that rejected Jews as members and which had
been abolished after the Rathenau assassination in 1922. Although prob-
ably untrue, the claim seems to have improved Heydrich’s standing among
his peers.88
Heydrich’s position further improved after a two-month stint on the
sailing vessel Niobe in the summer of 1923, after which he was transferred
to the cruiser Berlin . It was here, on the Berlin , that Heydrich met and
befriended the future head of Nazi Germany’s military intelligence
agency, Wilhelm Canaris, then the first officer on board. Canaris impressed
the young Heydrich with his military experience: as a navigating lieu-
tenant aboard the small cruiser Dresden during the Battle of the Falklands
in 1914 he had managed to escape from internment in Chile in 1915
before returning home to Germany. Canaris in turn instantly warmed to
the shy young man with musical inclinations and he became Heydrich’s
mentor over the coming years. From 1924 onwards, he frequently invited
Heydrich to his house in Kiel, where Reinhard and Canaris’s wife, Erika,
played the violin together in a private string quartet and often entertained
members of Kiel’s social establishment.89
Heydrich also played music outside the Canaris household. According
to Hertha Lehmann-Jottkowitz, a student at the Kiel Institute for Global
Economics in the later 1920s, she first met Heydrich when he played the
violin at the home of a mutual friend and amateur cellist. Lehmann-
Jottkowitz remembered Heydrich as an extremely sensitive violinist who
displayed a tenderness and sentimentality that deeply impressed his audi-
ences. In conversation he gave the impression of being a ‘superficial sailor’
who had little to contribute to discussions, but he was completely trans-
formed once he started playing the violin or discussed musical subjects.90
The final component of Heydrich’s officer training was a six-month
stint on the Schleswig-Holstein , the flagship of the German North Sea
Fleet. In the summer of 1926, he went on a training cruise through the
Atlantic and into the Western Mediterranean, visiting Spain, Portugal
and the island of Madeira, where he apparently caused a minor scandal in
the Officers’ Mess when a British officer’s wife refused to accept his invita-
tion to dance with him.91 Following the completion of his training aboard
the Schleswig-Holstein , Heydrich was promoted to second naval liutenant.92
After his promotion, he appears to have received more recognition from
his colleagues and was less frequently the butt of jokes. His comrade and
38
HITLER’S HANGMAN
roommate on the Schleswig-Holstein , Heinrich Beucke, recalled that
after his
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