The Gestapo was the secret police of fascist Germany.
The term "Gestapo" is an acronym for Geheimstaatspolizei - German means secret state police. Along with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the security service, the Kriminalpolizei (KriPo), the criminal police, and the Ordnungspolizei (OrPo), the order police, the Gestapo formed an important part of a rather large Nazi police organization.
It was responsible for the fight against counterintelligence and illegal actions against the state and the Nazi party.
Thus, the Gestapo was directly involved in both the Nazi repression and the Holocaust. This police unit was different from others in that it was not subject to any judicial or legal rules.
The Gestapo could commit acts of any degree of cruelty without fear of any opposition from society.
Creation of the Gestapo
The Gestapo was officially created on April 27, 1933 by Hermann Goering, who united the state and political police of the largest and most powerful German state, Prussia.
Promotional video:
The law establishing his powers described his mission as follows: "to ensure an effective fight against any activity aimed at the existence and security of the state."
As part of the Nazi consolidation of power, all German police units were united. By 1934, the Gestapo was headed by SS leader Heinrich Himmler; after the adoption of the "Gestapo laws" in 1936, it became a national agency, and Himmler was appointed chief of the German police.
Previously, there was no general state police in Germany. Each province had its own police force. For example, Himmler created his own version of the Gestapo in the province of Bavaria by 1933.
Germany, like many European countries, had a long history of political police during the empire. Her tactics were to monitor organizations and individuals that were suspected of hostility to the state or posed a threat to order, as well as the use of coercive measures against them.
Thus, the Gestapo fully continued the traditions of the previous German police - both the personnel and the organization of work were the same. This continuity also reflects the concept of Gleischaltung (seizure of control over social and political processes).
The most famous leader of the Gestapo was Heinrich Müller, who made a career in the Munich police.
How the Gestapo worked
The Gestapo differed from other police units in that its mission was not only a police function: the Gestapo was an integral part of the Nazi party, with the authority to act outside the law to combat activities that the party considered dangerous.
One of the first tasks of the Gestapo was to eliminate any potential resistance to Hitler's takeover of power in 1933.
Political enemies for the Gestapo officers were mainly communists, social democrats, liberals, and there were others, but initially the list did not include Jews.
Protective arrest
One of the most effective weapons of the Gestapo was the Schutzhaft, or "protective arrest". In common practice in other countries, this term means that a witness or any other person is taken into custody to protect them from a real threat, the Nazis used this concept in a completely different way.
They argued that because the enemies of the state are so hated, they should be arrested to protect them from the righteous wrath of well-meaning German citizens.
This twisted logic allowed the Gestapo to channel all its energy into arresting people and holding them in concentration camps such as Dachau indefinitely, without trial or investigation. By the end of the summer of 1933, approximately 100,000 Germans were in prison and 500-600 were killed.
Eliminating opposition
The repressive force of the Gestapo far exceeded its numbers. In 1944, 32,000 people worked there, of whom only 18,500 were actually engaged in "police activities." The rest of the work was done by the local population, scribbling denunciations and working as informers.
Domestically, the Gestapo focused on eliminating organizations that oppose the regime, persons accused of resisting, bringing charges of violation of morality, that is, for unauthorized relations with the "racially flawed", eliminating all kinds of "inconsistencies."
Gestapo during the Holocaust
After being incorporated into the Reich SS General Directorate of Security (RSHA), the Gestapo became known as "Section IV" and was officially given the authority to organize what was later called the Holocaust. Gestapo offices were established throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, where the Gestapo helped the SS, military occupation authorities, and Nazi civilian administrators to round up and deport Jews and persecute the resistance movement. In addition, the Gestapo held positions in concentration camps.
Lower Gestapo ranks were assigned to the infamous Einsatzgruppen ("deployment groups", death squads), whose hands killed more than 1.5 million Jews in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. In addition, SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for coordinating the mass deportation of European Jews to death camps, led the Gestapo sector IVB4. Almost always, the Gestapo worked closely with the Security Police, SD, as well as local SS and military leaders, eliminating resistance to the regime and promoting anti-Jewish policies.