Europe

Grave of top Nazi Reinhard Heydrich dug up in Berlin

Heydrich died in 1942, but grave markings were removed after war

Heydrich chaired the 1942 Wannsee conference which finalized plans for the extermination of all European Jews in what is now referred to as the Holocaust. (Photograph: Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Heydrich chaired the 1942 Wannsee conference which finalized plans for the extermination of all European Jews in what is now referred to as the Holocaust. (Photograph: Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Tue Dec 17 2019 - 07:09

The grave of a top Nazi leader buried anonymously in the heart of the German capital has been dug up, but his bones have been left undisturbed.

Police spokeswoman Heidi Vogt told the B Z newspaper that a worker at the Invalidenfriedhof cemetery in Berlin discovered on Thursday that the grave of Reinhard Heydrich had been dug up.

Heydrich, a high-ranking SS officer involved in planning the Holocaust, was killed by resistance fighters in Prague in 1942.

The grave of a top Nazi who helped plan the Holocaust and was assassinated by British-trained agents during World War II has been dug up in the night . Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images
The grave of a top Nazi who helped plan the Holocaust and was assassinated by British-trained agents during World War II has been dug up in the night . Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

He was buried with great fanfare in Berlin at the time, but after the war the grave’s markings were removed so it would not become a rallying point for neo-Nazis.

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Ms Vogt told B Z there were no immediate suspects.