Was the outcome worth it?

[STEED]

May 27th 1942 marks the 70th anniversary of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. The attempt to kill him failed, but badly wounded him for which eight days latter he would die.

Czech pride in Jan Kubis, killer of Reinhard Heydrich
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18183099

The price the Czech people paid was a terrible one.

[Jimbuna]

It was certainly worth it according to Denemarek.


Mr Denemarek himself miraculously escaped suspicion and survived. In a final ironic twist, after the war he was accused by the Communists of being a Nazi collaborator.
"Of course it was worth it, killing Heydrich," Mr Denemarek told the BBC.
"Even though it cost the lives of my family, my brother, my mother, my father and hundreds, thousands of other people."
"But as I always say - that's nothing compared to the losses we would have suffered if Heydrich had been allowed to live."

[Egan]

Just found out yesterday when the GF and myself were talking about this, that our friend's grandfather was one of the poor sods rounded up during the reprisals along with every tenth man from his village. He survived but was about the only one.

I am still in two minds about whether it was worth it. Heydrich's policy of playing to the average Czech worker by improving their rations and improving their working conditions, (whilst systematically removing Jews, Homosexuals, Intellectuals, trade unionists from every sphere of private and public life,) was certainly effective in cutting down on resistance in the country. A large part of the thinking behind the assassination was, of course, to force Nazi reprisals and kick start resistance again, and it worked.

The reprisals were utterly barbaric but I think it may well have been the correct option for the Allies. Also, given what I know about Heydrich, plenty of the rest of us benefited from his death. He had also mentioned to friends on at least one occasion that should anything happen to Hitler, he would be ready to 'step in'. I don't even want to imagine what it wold have been like with him as Fuhrer.