American Detective Novels and Reinhard Heydrich

Simon Sebag Montefiore:

“...Heydrich was born of musical parents in the city of Halle, near Leipzig, in 1904. His father was a Wagnerian opera singer and the respected headmaster of the Halle Musical Conservatory while his mother, who was extremely strict and regularly beat her son, was a talented pianist. Young Heydrich was never popular among his peers, who nicknamed him Moses because of (untrue) rumors that he had Jewish ancestry.

Deeply sensitive about these rumors, in his teens Heydrich came to believe in the supposed inherent superiority of the Germanic people, but he was totally uninvolved in politics until a social-professional scandal ended his naval career. After the First World War, Heydrich joined the navy where the ambitious but sensitive officer who played violin beautifully was teased for his supposed Jewish origins. He had just become engaged to Lina Von Osten when he was cashiered from the navy for a simultaneous sexual relationship with another woman. In 1931, at age twenty-seven, he joined the SS, impressing Heinrich Himmler during his interview with his knowledge of secret police techniques derived from his obsessional reading of American detective novels and police procedures. In 1933 he was promoted to brigadier general and given the responsibility of setting up the SD, the SS security service, where he identified the administrative talents of Adolf Eichmann, who became the Jewish expert of the SS....”

(‘Titans of History’, 2012)

"The German editions have a Weimar tinge: cocktail party meets official injustice. Chandler spent some time in Germany as a young man, then later in life joined up with the Canadian army (B.C. unit) to fight the Germans in WWI. So, you know, it was a complicated relationship."

(from

‘The Long Goodbye: The 49 Best Covers from Around the World’: Beautiful and Bizarre Visions of Raymond Chandler's Classic, March 26, 2018 By Dwyer Murphy)

The Long Goodbye was first published in 1953, long after  Himmler and Heydrich were dead. It is used only for illustration.