Gestapo
The Gestapo, or Geheime Staatspolizei, was the secret police force of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, playing a central role in the regime's oppressive tactics. Established under Hermann Göring, it evolved into a powerful tool for Adolf Hitler, who considered it a crucial weapon against perceived enemies of the state, including political dissidents, Jews, Romani people, and other marginalized groups. Despite being a relatively small force, the Gestapo wielded immense power, operating above the law and often employing brutal methods such as torture and intimidation to enforce compliance and silence opposition. It relied heavily on a network of informants among the German populace, creating a pervasive atmosphere of fear and distrust. The Gestapo was closely linked to the administration of concentration camps, facilitating the deportation and extermination of those deemed undesirable by the Nazis. Following the collapse of the Nazi regime, key figures associated with the Gestapo faced justice at the Nuremberg Trials for their roles in these atrocities. The legacy of the Gestapo remains a chilling reminder of state-sponsored terror and the dangers of unchecked authority.
Gestapo
The Gestapo served as the secret national police force of Germany’s Third Reich from 1933 until the fall of the Nazi regime in 1945. The term "Gestapo" is not a German word, but instead is an acronym for the unit’s official name Geheime Staatspolizei. Throughout the course of the Gestapo’s history, this brutal police force underwent several changes in bureaucratic leadership and organization. Nevertheless, Adolf Hitler personally regarded the Gestapo as his "deadliest weapon" during his reign of terror as the Chancellor of Germany, given that this secret police force was given unlimited authority to root out actual and perceived enemies of the Nazi regime. Enemies included including communists, critics and members of the resistance, Jews and Romani, homosexuals, and others deemed undesirable by Hitler. Gestapo agents also played a critical role in the operation of the concentration camps. The Gestapo was one of the most potent symbols of Nazi terror.
Brief History
Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party came to power in 1933, when the Nazis won a majority in the Reichstag (Germany’s parliament). Although Hitler had the goal of establishing supreme rule over Germany, considerable anti-Nazi opposition still existed during the early months of his regime from other political parties and a segment of the German public. In order to consolidate his power, Hitler knew he needed a secret police force to identify and crush all opposition. In April 1933, Hermann Göring—whom Hitler had appointed Minister of the Interior for Prussia (Germany’s largest province)—revamped the police force he controlled by expelling officers not affiliated with the Nazi Party and replacing them with Nazis. This ensured their political allegiance to both Göring and Hitler. Göring also implemented a new policy that prohibited police from arresting Nazi storm troopers (popularly known as Brownshirts) for harassing or inflicting violence upon German citizens.
This newly overhauled police force was named the Genheime Polizei Amt (Secret Police Office), but it was quickly renamed because its initials (GPA) too closely resembled that of the Soviet Union’s (Nazi Germany’s bitter enemy to the east) secret police force, the GPU. As such, the unit was renamed Genheime Staatspolizei. The shorthand name "Gestapo" was first used by a German post office looking for a shorter name that could be guaranteed to fit the stamping on a regular-sized envelope.
A rivalry emerged within the Nazi administration between Göring and Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel (SS), which served as Hitler’s personal security force. Himmler was concerned that Göring’s Gestapo could potentially undermine his own authority, and he set his sights on gaining control over the Gestapo. Such infighting among Nazi senior officials was not uncommon, as Hitler encouraged such rivalries by demonstrating fluctuations in favoritism among his administration as a means of cultivating greater loyalty toward him and fending off the potential for other high-ranking Nazis to unite against him. Himmler was given control over the Gestapo in 1936, and he appointed Reinhard Heydrich as Chief of the Gestapo. Also in 1936, the Nazi-controlled Reichstag enacted the Gestapo Law, which stated that "Neither the instructions nor the affairs of the Gestapo will be open to review by the administrative courts." Thus, the Gestapo had been given free rein to operate above the law, without any threat of scrutiny or punishment, paving the way for the numerous atrocities committed over the next decade.
Overview
The Gestapo was always a relatively small unit, with its size ranging between 8,000 to 40,000 agents, yet it exerted complete control over the German public and the regions conquered by the Nazis during World War II. Gestapo officers consisted of both visibly armed, uniformed agents and undercover officers. In addition, the Gestapo relied on a network of more than 100,000 informants, who provided agents with information on individuals who held anti-Nazi feelings or were believed to be unsupportive of the Nazi regime. These informants were common, everyday German citizens—the so-called Good Germans—whose collaboration with the Gestapo remained hidden from their families, friends, and neighbors. Persons suspected of being enemies of the state received a knock on their door or received a letter in the mail from the Gestapo and were taken into custody; most often they faced imminent torture and execution. This climate of fear swept through Germany and ensured the German public’s compliance with the Nazi regime, even if individuals did not personally approve of Hitler or his ambitions.
The Gestapo’s headquarters in Berlin served as an infamous torture center where suspected dissidents were brutalized and killed. Gestapo agents, knowing they were above the law, routinely coerced confessions out of those they arrested. Some of the torture techniques the Gestapo used included beatings, electrical shocks to an individual’s hands, chest, or genitals, submerging detainees in cold water, and burning the detainee’s skin. Following the Nazi conquest of France in 1940, the Gestapo office that was built near the Eiffel Tower erected reinforced walls to minimize the volume of screaming that could be heard outside.
By 1941, Gestapo agents oversaw the concentration camps where Jews, Romani, and homosexuals had been sentenced. The Gestapo arranged for the relocation of persons deemed undesirable by the Nazis to these death camps. In fact, an entire section of the Gestapo was devoted exclusively with handling the "Jewish problem." Adolf Eichmann assumed responsibilities for transporting Jews, via railway, to the concentration camps for extermination.
With Hitler’s suicide and the subsequent fall of the Nazi regime in April 1945, the rest of the world learned the extent of atrocities committed by the Gestapo. At the Nuremberg Trials, Göring was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. However, he committed suicide the day before he faced execution. Likewise, Himmler committed suicide after being captured by British forces. Eichmann fled to Argentina, but was extradited to Israel in 1961, where was tried and convicted for crimes against humanity. Eichmann was executed by hanging on June 1, 1962.
Bibliography
Butler, Rupert. The Gestapo: A History of Hitler’s Secret Police. Havertown: Casemate, 2004. Print.
Dams, Carsten, and Michael Stolle. The Gestapo: Power and Terror in the Third Reich. New York: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.
"The Gestapo: Nazi Germany’s Secret Police." HistoryFollower.com, April 24, 2013. Web. 5 July 2015.
Mann, Chris, and Matthew Hughes. Inside Hitler’s Germany. London: Windmill, 2015. Print.
Manvell, Roger, and Heinrich Fraenkel. Goering: The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader. New York: Skyhorse, 2011. Print.
"The Triumph of Hitler: The Gestapo is Born." HistoryPlace.com, 2001. Web. 5 July 2015.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Final Solution: Overview" WWW.USHMM.org, June 20, 2014. Web. 5 July 2015.