This is the incredible true story of Operation Anthropoid, the Czech underground’s mission to assassinate Rheinhart Heydrich, the 3rd most powerful man in the Nazi Reich and the primary architect of the “Final Solution.” I was familiar with the broad historical strokes already, and this remarkable story has been told in other books and movies, but never in such a personal, firsthand manner. The story and characters unfold in the form of individual accounts from people who were actually there, which gives it a depth and meaning that a typical historical non-fiction account rarely provides.
While the planning, execution and repercussions of the assassination attempt is the heart of the story, it was all the lesser-known details and personal vantage points that make this such a compelling book. In fact, the titular assassination attempt is roughly in the middle of the narrative, and yet the most memorable parts of the story are on either side of the main event: the individual accounts of the participants, the Czech resisters’ harrowing infiltration into Prague, the planning and adjustments to the assassination plot as circumstances changed, the horrific, murderous retribution inflicted on the Czechs by the Nazis afterward, and the final confrontation between the Nazi’s and the Czech resistance fighters. Those are the details that stuck with me, in part because they were new to me, and in part because they were so intimately portrayed by actual survivors (including the author himself).
The narration is excellent, . It took me a moment or two to get acclimated to his cadence, but I quickly found myself completely immersed in his style of storytelling (and consistently impressed with his pronunciation of names and places). By the end of the audiobook I couldn’t imagine anyone telling this story better, and I have since searched out other books narrated by Mr. Kamish.
There is a lot going on in this book — including a number of people and places with Czech names that were unfamiliar to American ears — and as such it rewards attention. I could tell early in the narrative that this was not a book I wanted to drift in and out of. But I never found myself lost, and there were so many interesting people and events going on throughout the entire story that I never found myself drifting. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this review, and I’m glad I did because I might not have stumbled onto this great book otherwise. Now that you have, give it a try. It’s an amazing story, very well told.