Konrad Henlein

Dr.Jur. Konrad Ernst Eduard Henlein (1898-1945) was the most important pro-Nazi politician in Czechoslovakia and leader of Sudeten German separatists. Through his actions, which included both conventional political activism and violent agitation, Sudetenland was finally allowed to secede from Czechoslovakia in 1938, and annexed to Germany. For his efforts, Henlein became a general in the SS and Gauleiter of the Sudetenland. He was captured by American forces in 1945, and committed suicide by slitting his wrists with broken glass.

Konrad Henlein in Hitler's War
Konrad Henlein (1898-1938) had fled to Germany in 1938 after an unsuccessful coup in Czechoslovakia. He was followed there by a Czech nationalist named Jaroslav Stribny, who shot Henlein to death.

Henlein's death came concurrent with the Munich Conference. German leader Adolf Hitler had hoped to actually instigate full war with his enemies over the Sudentenland issue, but Britain and France had both been willing to appease him. But when all parties learned of the assassination during the conference, Britain's Neville Chamberlain and France's Edouard Daladier could not believe that Hitler was not somehow responsible for Henlein's death, thus granting Hitler the casus belli he wanted for war.