Top Nazi officer Reinhard Heydrich's unmarked grave prised open in Berlin

Police do not know the perpetrator's motives, as no bones were removed
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Ted Hennessey16 December 2019

Police are investigating after the unmarked grave of a high-ranking Nazi leader was dug up in Berlin.

An employee at the Invalids' Cemetery in central Berlin found on Thursday that the anonumous grave of SS officer Reinhard Heydrich had been prised open.

No bones were removed, police say, but believe the person behind it must have had insider knowledge as the grave was levelled after the end of the Second World War.

This was carried out with by Allied occupation forces, who ensured the graves of prominent Nazis were unmarked, to avoid them being glorified. 

The offence of tampering with a grave can be prosecuted under a German law against "grave defilement".

Heydrich was a key organiser of the Holocaust, and was behind the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, where Hitler's "Final Solution" was planned.

He was nicknamed "the Butcher", and served as the Reich's third in command behind Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler.

In 1942, when ruling over Bohemia and Moravia in 1942, he was killed by British-trained Czech partisans, who attacked his limousine. The Nazis destroyed Lidice village in retaliation, murdering all the men and adolescent boys and sending the women and children to concentration camps.

A similar incident occurred in 2000, when a left-wing group reportedly opened the grave of Horst Wessel, a Nazi stormtrooper murdered in 1930.

The group said they threw Wessel's skull into the River Spree, but police denied their story, as the grave was that of Wessel's father, and no bones had been removed.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT