Many historians regard Heydrich as the darkest figure within the Nazi regime ; Adolf Hitler described him as " the man with the iron heart " . He was the founding head of the '' Sicherheitsdienst '' ( Security Service , SD ) , an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to the Nazi Party via arrests , deportations , and murders . He helped organise '' Kristallnacht '' , a series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9 – 10 November 1938 . The attacks were carried out by SA stormtroopers and civilians and presaged the Holocaust . Upon his arrival in Prague , Heydrich sought to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation by suppressing Czech culture and deporting and executing members of the Czech resistance . He was directly responsible for the '' Einsatzgruppen '' , the special task forces that travelled in the wake of the German armies and murdered more than two million people by mass shooting and gassing , including 1.3 million Jews
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Reinhard Heydrich