"Hitler's Hangman" promotional photograph

Promotional photograph depicting a scene from the film “Hitler’s Hangman.” The film was retitled “Hitler’s Madman” and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1943. The film is a fictionalized portrayal of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and its aftermath. Heydrich was Heinrich Himmler’s second-in-command and chief of the Reich Security Main office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA), which was the major implementer of the systematic murder of European Jews. He was especially brutal, earning the nicknames “The Hangman of Europe” and “Hitler’s Hangman.” Under Heydrich’s leadership, over 34,000 Jews were deported from Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. On May 27, 1942, two British-trained Czech agents rolled a hand grenade under Heydrich’s vehicle. Splinters from the resulting explosion led to an infection that killed him. On June 10, 1942, in retaliation for Heydrich’s death, the Nazis targeted the village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia. 192 men and boys were executed by firing squad, and 203 women were deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp, 60 of whom died in the camp system. Additionally, 82 children were likely deported to Chelmno and killed in mobile gas chambers. The Germans then destroyed the buildings and razed the town.

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