The notorious head of the Nazi state security services, Reinhard Heydrich, who was assassinated in Prague in 1942.

Historical society lecture on one of Hitler’s henchmen

Supreme Court Judge, Mr Peter Charleton will deliver a lecture on Reinhard Heydrich to Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society at The Greville Arms Hotel, Mullingar on Wednesday next, January 25 at 8pm.

Mr Justice Charleton was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Michael D Higgins in 2014 and has presided over some of the major criminal cases in the state in the interim. He is a widely published author on various aspects of civil and criminal law, and is one of the most respected members of the judiciary. He is also a keen historian and has published recently on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Mr Justice Charleton’s theme for the lecture is the assassination of one of the most feared men in 20th-century Europe, Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich was one of Adolf Hitler’s most notorious henchmen and was chief of the Gestapo and the Third Reich’s state security apparatus.

Heydrich also served Hitler as the ruthless overlord of Nazi-occupied Bohemia and Moravia (formerly Czechoslovakia) and was a leading planner of the Holocaust.

Mr Justice Charleton has a specialist interest in Heydrich and will facilitate a multimedia presentation on his life, assassination and the dreadful consequences which followed. All are welcome to the lecture on January 25 next, and refreshments will be served.

Mr Justice Peter Charleton.