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On
April 28th, 1942, the Czech President, Emil Hacha, presented Reinhard Heydrich with a
fully equipped hospital train for the Russian front as a birthday gift to
Hitler. Here Heydrich makes his acceptance speech and inspects the train. Heydrich's voice was quite high-pitched for so large a man. He had
been ridiculed because of it, and seldom spoke in public.
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| Herr Staatswohl, mit herzigen Dank nehme ich diesen so vollkommen ausgestatteten Zug als Geschenk Böhmen und Mähren an den Führer entgegen. Auch ich bin der Überzeugung, daß damit seitens der Bevölkerung Böhmens und Mährens sinnbildlich jene aufrichtige Gesinnung und Reichstreue zum Ausdruck kommt, die Sie, Herr Staatspräsident, in echter Wenzel-Tradition verkörpern. Ich werde dem Führer Tatsache und Sinn dieses Geschenkes berichten. | Mr. President, with heartfelt thanks I accept this completely equipped train as a gift for the Führer from Bohemia and Moravia. Also I am convinced that symbolically it expresses on the part of the population of Bohemia and Moravia the sincere fundamental attitude of fidelity to the Reich that you embody in true St. Wenceslaus tradition, Mr. President. I will report to the Führer this gift and its significance. |
Heydrich and
Hacha stand before the Bohemian Crown. A bejeweled cross adorned the crown,
along with a thorn, presumably from Christ's crown of thorns. The Bohemian Crown also
bore a curse: any unauthorized man who wore it would die a violent death within
a year, followed by his eldest son. (At far right is SS General Karl Hermann
Frank, who was hanged for war crimes in 1946.)