Gestapo

The {{Audio|De-Gestapo.ogg|Gestapo}} (acronym of Geheime Staatspolizei; "secret state police") was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Under the overall administration of the SS, it was administrated by the RSHA and was considered a dual organization of the Sicherheitsdienst and also a suboffice of the Sicherheitspolizei.

History

The Gestapo was established on April 26, 1933, in Prussia, from the existing organization of the Prussian Secret Police. The Gestapo was first simply a branch of the Prussian Police, known as "Department 1A of the Prussian State Police".

Related Topics:
April 26 - 1933 - Prussia - Prussian Secret Police

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Its first commander was Rudolf Diels who recruited members from professional police departments and ran the Gestapo as a federal police agency, comparable to several modern examples such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Gestapo's role as a political police force was only established after Hermann Göring was appointed to succeed Diels as the Gestapo Commander, in 1934. It was Göring was invented the term "Gestapo" (at first called Gestapa) and urged the the Nazi government to expand Gestapo power out of Prussia to encompass all of Germany. To this, Göring was mostly successful except in Bavaria, where Heinrich Himmler (head of the SS), served as the Bavarian Police President and used local SS units as a policial police force.

Related Topics:
Rudolf Diels - Police - Federal Bureau of Investigation - Hermann Göring - Bavaria - Heinrich Himmler

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In April of 1934, Göring and Himmler agreed to put aside all differences (due in large part to a combined hatred of the Sturmabteilung) and Göring handed over full command of the Gestapo to the authority of the SS. At that point, the Gestapo was combined into the Sicherheitspolizei and considered a sister organization to the Sicherheitsdienst or SD.

Related Topics:
Sturmabteilung - Sicherheitspolizei - Sicherheitsdienst

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The role of the Gestapo was to investigate and combat "all tendencies dangerous to the State." It had the authority to investigate treason, espionage and sabotage cases, and cases of criminal attacks on the Nazi Party and on Germany.

Related Topics:
Treason - Espionage - Sabotage - Nazi Party - Germany

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The law had been changed in such a way that the Gestapo's actions were not subject to judicial review. Nazi jurist Dr. Werner Best stated, "As long as the ... carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally." The Gestapo was specifically exempted from responsibility to administrative courts, where citizens normally could sue the state to conform to laws.

Related Topics:
Judicial review - Werner Best - Sue

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The power of the Gestapo most open to misuse was "Schutzhaft" or "protective custody" — a euphemism for the power to imprison people without judicial proceedings, typically in concentration camps. The person imprisoned even had to sign his or her own Schutzhaftbefehl, the document declaring that the person desired to be imprisoned. Normally this signature was forced by beatings and torture.

Related Topics:
Euphemism - Concentration camp - Torture

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Increasing power under the SS

Laws passed in 1936 effectively gave the Gestapo carte blanche to operate without judicial oversight. A further law passed in the same year declared the Gestapo to be responsible for the set-up and administration of concentration camps. Also in 1936, Reinhard Heydrich became head of the Gestapo and Heinrich Müller chief of operations. Adolf Eichmann was Müller's direct subordinate and head of department IV, section B4, which dealt with Jews.

Related Topics:
1936 - Carte blanche - Concentration camp - Reinhard Heydrich - Heinrich Müller - Adolf Eichmann - Jew

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During World War II, the Gestapo was expanded to around 45,000 members. It helped control conquered areas of Europe and identify Jews, Socialists, homosexuals and others for forced deportation and murder.

Related Topics:
World War II - Europe - Socialist - Homosexual

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At the Nuremberg Trials, the entire organization was indicted and convicted of crimes against humanity.

Related Topics:
Nuremberg Trials - Crimes against humanity

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Keeping Hitler in power

By February and March 1942, student protests were calling for an end to the Nazi regime. Despite the significant popular support for the removal of Hitler, would-be revolutionaries were stalled into inaction by the well-placed fear of reprisals from the Gestapo. In fact, reprisals did come in response to the protests. Fearful of an internal overthrow, the forces of Himmler and the Gestapo were unleashed on the opposition. The first five months of 1943 witnessed thousands of arrests and executions as the Gestapo exercised a severity hitherto unseen by the German public. Student leaders were executed in late February, and a major opposition organization, the Oster Circle, was destroyed in April 1943.

Related Topics:
1942 - 1943 - Oster Circle

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The German opposition was in an unenviable position by the late spring and early summer of 1943. On one hand, it was next to impossible for them to overthrow Hitler and the party. On the other hand, because of the Allied demand of unconditional surrender, and therefore no opportunity for a compromise peace, there seemed to be no other alternative but to continue the military struggle.

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Opposition from within Germany

Despite fear of the Gestapo, some German people did speak out and show signs of protest during the summer of 1943. Despite the mass arrests and executions of the spring, the opposition still plotted and planned. Some Germans were convinced that it was their duty to apply all possible expedients to end the war as quickly as possible, that is, to further the German defeat with all available means.

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The fall of Mussolini gave the opposition plotters more hope to be able to achieve similar results in Germany and seemed to provide a propitious moment to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime. Several assassination attempts were made on Hitler. Most notable of these was Operation Valkyrie, in which several of Hitler's top generals attempted a coup d'état. On July 20 1944, Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg brought a bomb-laden suitcase into a briefing room where Hitler was holding a meeting. The bomb went off and several were killed. Hitler, along with several others, was wounded, but his life was saved by the conference table, which absorbed the blast. 7,000 people were arrested and 5,000, including von Stauffenberg, were executed in connection with the coup, some within twenty-four hours.

Related Topics:
Mussolini - Operation Valkyrie - Coup d'état - July 20 - 1944 - Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg

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During June, July, and August, Himmler's forces continued to move swiftly against the opposition, rendering any organized opposition impossible. Arrests and executions were common. Terror against the people had become a way of life. A second major reason was that the opposition's peace feelers to the western Allies did not meet with success.

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This was in part due to the aftermath of the Venlo incident of 1939, when Gestapo agents posing as anti-Nazis in the Netherlands kidnapped two British Secret Intelligence Service officers lured to a meeting to discuss peace terms. That prompted Churchill to ban any further contact with the German opposition. In addition, the British and Americans did not want to deal with anti-Nazis because they were fearful that the Russians would believe they were attempting to make deals behind their backs.

Related Topics:
Venlo incident - 1939 - Netherlands - Secret Intelligence Service

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Nuremberg Trials

Between 14 November, 1945, and 1 October, 1946, the allies also established an International Military Tribunal (IMT) to try 24 major Nazi war criminals and six groups. They were to be tried for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Related Topics:
14 November - 1945 - 1 October - 1946 - International Military Tribunal

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Leaders, organizers, instigators, and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit the crimes so specified were declared responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan. The official positions of defendants as heads of state or holders of high government offices were not to free them from responsibility or mitigate their punishment; nor was the fact that a defendant acted pursuant to an order of a superior to excuse him from responsibility, although it might be considered by the IMT in mitigation of punishment.

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At the trial of any individual member of any group or organization, the IMT was authorized to declare (in connection with any act of which the individual was convicted) that the group or organization to which he belonged was a criminal organization. And where a group or organization was so declared criminal, the competent national authority of any signatory was given the right to bring individuals to trial for membership in that organization, in which trial the criminal nature of the group or organization was to be taken as proved.

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These groups, the Nazi leadership corps, the Reich Cabinet, the German General Staff and High Command, the SA (Sturmabteilung), the SS (Schutzstaffel-including the Sicherheitsdienst, or SD), and the Gestapo (Secret Police), had an aggregate membership exceeding two million, and it was estimated that approximately half of them would be made liable for trial if the groups were convicted.

Related Topics:
Nazi leadership corps - Reich Cabinet - German General Staff and High Command - SA - SS - Sicherheitsdienst - Gestapo

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The trials began in November 1945, and on October 1, 1946, the IMT rendered its judgment on 21 top officials of the Third Reich. The IMT sentenced most of the accused to death or to extensive prison terms and acquitted three. The IMT also convicted three of the groups: the Nazi leadership corps, the SS (including the SD), and the Gestapo. Gestapo members Hermann Göring and Arthur Seyss-Inquart were individually convicted by the IMT.

Related Topics:
October 1 - Hermann Göring - Arthur Seyss-Inquart

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Three groups were acquitted of collective war crimes charges, but this did not relieve individual members of those groups from conviction and punishment under the Denazification program. Members of the three convicted groups were subject to apprehension and trial as war criminals by the national, military, and occupation courts of the four allied powers. And, even though individual members of the convicted groups might be acquitted of war crimes, they still remained subject to trial under the Denazification program.

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Today

After the Nuremberg Trials, the Gestapo ceased to exist.

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In 1997, Cologne, Germany, transformed the former regional Gestapo headquarters in that city, the EL-DE Haus, into a museum to document the organization's past actions.

Related Topics:
1997 - Cologne - EL-DE Haus

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Although it has historical meaning, today it is sometimes considered vulgar and offensive, especially by those who were psychologically traumatized, tortured, or otherwise hurt by the Gestapo. Mention of the word Gestapo, even when using the word as a reference to any sort of unrestricted police, is widely considered to be improper.

Related Topics:
Vulgar - Offensive - Torture - Police

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In various countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the term is used offensively to denote all police forces, especially the communist-era riot police like ZOMO.

Related Topics:
Central - Eastern Europe - Riot police - ZOMO

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