Reinhard Heydrich: The Biography, Vol. 1: The Road to War Hardcover – January 1, 2001

REICHSPROTECTER,BUTCHER OF PRAGUE,OBERGRUPPENFUHRER,THE HANGMAN,ETC.,REINHARD TRISTAN EUGEN HEYDRICH WAS KNOWN BY MANY TITLES,BOTH OFFICIAL AND OTHERWISE DURING HIS BRIEF AND EVENTFUL LIFE.THE AUTHOR CAPTURES THIS COMPLEXITY WITH REMARKABLE OBJECTIVITY IN A VERY HANDSOME VOLUME FILLED WITH UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHS AND DOCUMENTS.WHILE OTHER REVIEWERS HAVE FAULTED THE AUTHOR'S APPROACH THIS READER FOUND IT REFRESHING

just as its description,I like it a lotXD

Since there isn't a wealth of first-hand material on Reinhard Heydrich, this book didn't add anything new. The large number of photographs are the only thing that sets it apart from other biographies.The writer/author seems to not want to offend anyone so it comes across as bland. In my humble opinion, he seems to have relied exclusively on the letters and writings that Lina Heydrich produced in the 1950's. Which at face value would seem to be a goldmine. Instead, she was out to whitewash history by that point.The first volume is under 150 pages. Add that to the information it contains and it falls short. If you want a more in-depth picture of Heydrich...this isn't it. Gerwarths "Hitler's Hangman" is much better.The other thing to consider about this book is the cost. If you want both volumes...be prepaired to pay for them. With each priced at around $70, they are only for the serious WWII students.After reading the 1st volume, I am not sure I will purchase the 2nd volume.

This volume which came out in 2003, is a companion to Volume 1 (2001) on Heydrich by the same author/historian. Where the former covers Heydrich's early life through May 1939, this one picks up in the summer of 1939 and covers his life until his death in June 1942. The book is detailed and does dispel myths which are associated with Heydrich by earlier works.There are nine chapters in the book after an introduction, as follows:Heydrich's War - covering the false flag "Operation Cangoods" and the war in Poland.The Jewish Question - the beginning of the Holocaust.The Final Solution - covering the Holocaust.The Wannsee Conference - discusses the meeting and includes the actual protocol from the conference.Reichprotektor (of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) - appointed and governing the SS state.Anthropod - detailed section on the assassination attempt; his medical care and includes a copy of the complete autopsy after Heydrich's death.The Martyrs of Prague - the hunt and fate of the soldiers from Czechoslovakia's army-in-exile.Meine Treue - Heydrich's funeral and life reviewed.AftermathThe book is coffee table size with many photos. It was the best book on Heydrich prior to Robert Gerwarth (2011). "Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich". New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11575-8. With that said, I can still recommend this book and Volume 1.

Volume I: The Road to WarThis is the first volume of an absolutely indispensible two-volume series on SS Obergruppenfuehrer Reihard Heydrich, "the ideal National Socialist" (as he was eulogized by the Nazi press) or, as Hitler referred to him, "the man with the iron heart."I call these books indispensible because they are almost unique. They are neither the normal, scholarly biography (exhaustive; text-heavy; often boring) nor the coffee-table variety (all pictures, no substance); rather, they blend a terse but thorough look at Heydrich's life in words with a staggering array of beautiful B/W pictures of Heydrich, his family, and his confederates, as well as numerous documents, covering every aspect of his personal and professional life.Volume I, "The Road to War", follows Heydrich's life from his birth in 1904 in Halle, Saxony, to his appointment in 1939 as chief of the Reich Security Main Office, an umbrella organization which included the Gestapo and the SS Intelligence organization, the SD....an appointment which made him arguably the most powerful man in Germany behind Hitler himself.The author, Max Williams, has harsh words for Heydrich's previous biographers, Calic and Whiting, who wrote rather lurid and, Williams alleges, prejudiced and factually innacurate works on his subject. Williams clearly admires Heydrich to a degree, and I don't know what his historical credentials are, but his scholarship is sound. He takes the radical approach of simply describing what happened without the "distractive commentary" (moralizing) which is always stuck all over books of this type like bubblegum on a shoe. Furthermore, and crucially, he produces literally reams of original documents from various "archiv" in Germany to document his claims, something which most "credible historians" seem to have a serious aversion to.Physically the book is pleasing to behold -- as well it should be, for the price! The paper is heavy and sleek, the uncountable (I mean there are hundreds) photos in excellent detail and the binding sturdy as boot leather. Those who enjoy the study of NS-period uniforms will revel in the detail and clarity of the pictures, which document the whole history of SS regalia from 1931 - 1939. Williams has managed to recover handsome studio portraits of even obscure SS and SA men, NSDAP and government officials, police generals....on and on. There are many photos of Heydrich's wife, Lina, and his two children, as well.The price of these volumes is prohibitive, but I don't regret buying them for an instant. This type of well-researched, unjudgemental history is almost non-existent when it comes to the leading figures of the NS movement, and is sorely needed, especially with the English-speaking historical crowd so lazy, and the Europeans terrorized into political conformity by draconian laws restricting their speech. Heydrich isn't presented here as "Evil Henchman" (as Charles Wighton called him) or "Henchman of Death" (as Charles Whiting called him) but rather simply as Reinhard Heydrich, the man. Judging him is left to you.As Williams himself says in his opening: "It is hoped this study will dispel the myths associated with Reinhard Heydrich's life, and in turn, offer an informative biography to both the specialized historian and the general reader." Hope fulfilled.------Volume II: EnigmaThis is the second volume in a marvelous two-book set offered by Ulrich Publishing about the notorious SS Obergruppenfuehrer, Reinhard Heydrich.As I stated in my review of the companion volume, these books are indispensible to any serious student of the senior leadership of the National Socialist state. They are not only written in a crisp, informative and nonjudgmental style, they are so laden with rare and often previously unpublished photos and documents that a reader giving a casual flip through them might mistake them for some kind of SS yearbooks.The first volume, "The Road to War" dealt with Heydrich's personal and professional life up to the outbreak of World War II. The second, substantially longer, deals with his wartime service -- first as head of the RHSA (a catch-all organization which included the Gestapo and the SS intelligence and security service, the SD) and later as Reichs-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. The details of Heydrich's 1942 murder at the hands of British-trained Czech assassins, the police hunt for the killers, and Heydrich's elaborate state funeral (presided over by Hitler and Himmler personally)take up the latter third of the book, in exacting and impressive detail. Heydrich's fascinating personal life is examined with similar care.The "Heydrich" series works extremely hard to showcase Heydrich the man -- in word, in photo, and in deed. The head of a massive intelligence and police network (he more or less founded INTERPOL) he was also one of the finest swordsmen in the world, a superb violinist, a noted equestrian and a skilled fighter pilot, holding a reserve commission in the Luftwaffe. Indeed, Heydrich was the National Socialist version of a Rennaisance man: he even managed to win an Iron Cross in Russia while on leave from the SS.Williams seems to admire Heydrich more than a bit, and he works hard to show him as a complex man, ruthlessly competative, yet smitten with his wife and loving with his children, but no punches are pulled showing his dark side. Heydrich's organization of the SS Einsatzkommando (charged with wiping out the Polish intelligencia) and his participation in the "Endlosung" are well documented, as is his organization of execution squads for innumerable Soviet officials during the invasion of the USSR. What is missing is moral indignation from the author. Williams simply lays out Heydrich's life like a deck of cards, and lets you, the reader make your own conclusions. Doubtless he will be villified for this, because God knows most historians think their audience needs to be told what to think, but the approach is courageous and refreshing.Heydrich has been described as "the pivot on which the Third Reich turned." At the height of his power he was arguably more powerful than Himmler, Goering or Bormann and as these volumes show, he was probably smarter than all of them combined. The speed with which he crushed a highly organized and well-financed resistance movement in the former Czechoslovakia demonstrated that he knew how to apply both the carrot and the stick. What he might have accomplished (and perpetrated) had he lived longer is mere speculation, but Williams does a terrific job of delivering the story of what was, in both words and pictures.

It's a book that is very big in size with lots of really good photos and great quality paper but it's the first book from max Williams and shows it, I'm glad I have both volumes his later book is much better with plenty more photos, I've you like this period of history then you won't be disappointed by either of his books on Heydrich.

look at the world and tell me the pleasures of sanity! Now i am off to listen to Schuberts piece of Viennese sentimental bollox!

I agree with David Jacobs - too little commentary & analysis, with a lot of emphasis on photographs & copies of documents. Mr Williams gives the impression of admiring Heydrich, which is unfortunate if untrue. This is NOT a book for a first time reader of anything to do with the SS - you might end up thinking they managed a kindergarten not the Holocaust.It is not good enough to be critical of what other memoirs of the period say (Williams rightly mentions Schellenberg), yet take everything that Lina Heydrich tells us as the gospel truth. The woman had a vested interest in making her husband appear less dreadful than he was - after all she conned the post-war German government into giving her a pension!