Heydrich Was the CEO of a Holocaust Project

Berlin: July 31, 1941

To: Chief of the Security Police and the SD, SS Major General Heydrich

As a supplement to the task which was entrusted to you in the decree dated January 24, 1939, to solve the Jewish question by emigration and evacuation in the most favorable way possible, given present conditions, I herewith commission you to carry out all necessary preparations with regard to organizational, substantive, and financial viewpoints for a total solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe.

Insofar as other competencies of other central organizations are affected, these are to be involved. I further commission you to submit to me promptly an overall plan showing the preliminary organizational, substantive, and financial measures for the execution of the intended final solution of the Jewish question.

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This letter officially appointed Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich the CEO of the “Final Solution” project (in a few weeks it became the “Holocaust Project”). Contrary to some misconception, Goring knew perfectly well that the “Final Solution” would result in total annihilation of Jews under German control.

Knew perfectly well, because prior to that time, Heydrich had been tasked with similar solutions three times – and in all cases the answer was the same: “kill them all”. Hence, there was no doubt that the answer would be the same.

Heydrich became the expert in serial mass murder after his Einsatzgruppen killed over 100,000 “potential Resistance activists” in occupied Poland. In early April of 1941, Heydrich was tasked by Hitler (most likely, via Hermann Goring) to come up with answer to the existential question: what to do with Jews in occupied Soviet territories after the invasion of the USSR.

Heydrich’s solution was simple and brutal – all male Jews of military age were to be ruthlessly shot. Himmler, Goring and Hitler (in that order) agreed – and the first stage in the “Holocaust by Bullets” was the result.

After the invasion of the Soviet Union another existential question was asked by Der Fuhrer: what to do with ALL Soviet Jews: men, women, children and the elderly. Heydrich (predictably) gave the same answer: shoot them all.

Himmler, Goring and Hitler (in that order) agreed – and Himmler (who had the authority over all security matters in the occupied territories of the USSR) tacitly approved mass murder of all Jews. In August of 1941, Himmler made it official.

This appointment gave Heydrich enormous power in the Reich – which ultimately led to his murder (no, he was killed not by British assassins – but by his brethren).