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Dear All, The assasination of Heydrich was recognised at the time and afterwards as being severely counter-productive, and not only in the way for Jews that Steve Paulsson has pointed out. The manner in which the operation was viewed in London by SOE cannot be wholly and properly seen because of our ridiculous (lack of) freedom of information regime. However it is significnat that after this date not a single additional operation of its kind was approved or planned from London. Resistance organisations were continually warned in British propaganda not to engage anything that would provoke events similar to what happened at Lezaky, Lidice and elsewhere. The swift and vicious reprisals launched in the Protectorate meant that the Czech underground never recovered. It is also quite probable that the change in policy caused by Heydrich's assasination and what followed had a great impact in other areas connected to the Holocaust. Lessons learnt from it were important in shaping the British propaganda response to the Warsaw ghetto uprising the following Spring. Resistance activities that were not tied to the specfic tasks of SOE were not to be highlighted or applauded for fear that they would encourage similar attempts which would lead to appalling reprisals which would in turn lead to the decimation of the organisations that had launched them. The tasks that these orgainsations were henceforth allotted by SOE were to conduct economic sabotage and prepare for the arrival of Allied troops. As ever, the acute and unique position of Jews was not seen as being so very different from that of gentile populations. Gabriel Milland Gabriel Milland Newman Research Student Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust Studies Leicester University UK email gabemil@delphi.com phone 0181 671 6803
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