Heydrich...A Walk in the Black Forest

“Heydrich…A Walk in the Black Forest” is the story of Reinhard Heydrich’s rise to power through the ranks of the SS to become the most feared man in the Third Reich and eventually heir-apparent to Adolf Hitler himself. There have been surprisingly few publications on Heydrich, and few of them have properly examined his ten-year rise from nowhere, from obscurity to Wannsee. To many people he is virtually unknown.

The other biographies have been academic works… straight-forward factual accounts of his career. “A Walk in the Black Forest” takes a very different approach. I wanted to know more than just what he did: I wanted to know why he did it, how he got away with it, and what happened to the people who stood in his way. I wanted to walk around Heydrich, to view him from other angles.

“A Walk in the Black Forest” concentrates on the human element, on the characters involved, many of them Nazis, who were there at the time and actually knew the man. Few of them ever really understood what motivated him, but at least they left us their memoirs, or were interviewed by journalists, biographers and the military after the war. Using this wide-ranging material, I have tried to write an accessible, approachable book aimed at a wide audience, male and female, many of whom might normally cross the street to avoid “serious” history; all without compromising on research and factual accuracy.

For the most part the quoted dialogue emanates from those present at the time, much of it from Heydrich’s own deputy, though at times I have used a slight element of dramatic licence and make no apologies for that.

I must also thank Len Deighton for his invaluable assistance and advice

David Challice

January 2013

“Impressive” Robert Hale

“Fast moving and mainstream. Measured and illuminating” Len Deighton

“Well researched” Cassell

“Fascinating” Transworld