The Nature of a Crime

Two hours after its ultimatum to the Czechs had expired, Heinrich Himmler's Gestapo unbagged a weasel that smelled to heaven. The assassins of Reinhard Heydrich, announced the Gestapo, had been discovered in a Prague church and "shot while resisting arrest." Snorted the BBC: "Embittered and frightened by Czech resistance, Nazi authorities let themselves indulge in vain and useless threats."

Czechs-in-exile hoped that this marked the end of perhaps the chillest atrocity chapter in modern history. But, two days later, the killings started anew. The German radio announced the execution of the onetime puppet Premier of Bohemia-Moravia, General Alois Elias, who had been sentenced to death eight months earlier.

Score of killings in revenge for Heydrich's assassination: 508-to-1.

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