The Autopsy of Reinhard Heydrich

Overview

Reinhard Heydrich died on 4 June, 1942, eight days after assassination attempted on him in Prague by two members of the Czechoslovak army in Great Britain. The text of his autopsy report became available only in 2004. From the pathologist’s view, the autopsy and the report show several unusual features:

– The autopsy was performed early, only some 4 hours after death.

– It was performed not in an autopsy room, but in the hospital director’s office.

– There was only a partial autopsy; the head and the neck organs were not examined.

– The report lacks description of external examination; only the operation wounds are described.

– The weights of the organs are not given.

– And particularly:
The autopsy did not reveal the cause of death.