The Man With the Iron Heart - Nancy Dougherty

A fascinating portrait of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the darkest figures of Hitler's elite, featuring words with those who knew him best, including in-depth and rare interviews with his wife, Lina. He was called the 'Hangman of the Gestapo' and the 'Butcher of Prague'. He had a reputation as a ruthlessly efficient killer and was known as an exemplar of Nazi ideals. He was the head of the SS and the Gestapo, second in command to Heinrich Himmler and supposedly in line to succeed the Fuhrer. His orders set in motion the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938 and he was the lead planner of the Final Solution, which led to the murder of millions of Jews across Nazi-occupied Europe. Hitler called him 'the man with the iron heart'. This incredible biography explores who Reinhard Heydrich was, how he came to be and what led him to do what he did. Using in-depth research, Nancy Dougherty (and, following her death, Christopher Lehman-Haupt), paint a detailed picture of Heydrich as never seen before. Through extensive interviews with those who knew him best, including his wife Lina von Osten Heinrich, we hear about his rarefied musical family origins and ugly-duckling childhood, his failed Naval career and struggles to find employment, and finally his meteoric rise through the Nazi high command and his time within the Third Reich. The Man With the Iron Heart is an astonishing journey into the depths of Nazi evil and a powerful insight into one of humanity's darkest figures.