THE Northern Echo, October 10, contained a book review written by Gavin Engelbrecht on Reinhard Heydrich, the former chief of Hitler’s SS and Gestapo.

I found the title of this book, Hitler’s Hangman, to be misleading because Heydrich was not a hangman, nor did he hang anyone.

Nevertheless, he was responsible as head of the SS for the death by shooting of millions of Russian soldiers, noncombatants and unarmed civilians.

This war criminal oversaw the creation of the Einsatzgruppen mobile killing squads, who were tasked by Hitler with carrying out the mass murder of Jews, communist functionaries and unarmed civilians.

Heydrich was assassinated by the British Special Operations Executive in 1942, but before his death he was in part responsible for the establishment of six notorious concentration camps and the death of some 12 million people, including an estimated three million children.

An interesting fact about the Holocaust is the stance taken by the Jehovah’s Witnesses who were the only recognisable group in Europe who refused to heed Hitler’s messages and took no part in any killings or atrocities.

The Jewish community in Germany were never a threat to the German State, they were lawabiding citizens whose forbears had fled the unemployment, poverty and religious discrimination that existed in 17th Century Russia. In all respects, Jews can be compared favourably to the English Quakers who fled England during the same period and are credited today with the establishment of America as an English colony.

ER Wilson, Leeds.