He attended an elite military academy, the National Political Institutes of Education (Napola) in Ballenstedt/Saxony-Anhalt[1]. Aspiring to be an officer, Heinz joined the Heer (army) as a signals NCO with the 23rd Potsdamer Artillery Regiment in 1941, and he participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa. On 10 January 1942, he was captured by Soviet forces and sent to the Moscow military prison Butyrka, where he died, aged 21, after interrogation and torture.