[94], The Gestapo became known as RSHA Amt IV ("Department or Office IV") with Heinrich Mller as its chief. The force was created by Hermann Gring in 1933 by combining the various security police agencies of Prussia into one organisation. In 1936 the Gestapoled by Himmlers subordinate, Gruppenfhrer Heinrich Mllerwas joined with the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police) under the umbrella of a new organization, the Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo; Security Police). When Rhm refused to commit suicide, he was shot by two SS officers. "[101], According to regulations issued by the Reich Security Main Office in 1940, women who had been trained in social work or having a similar education could be hired as female detectives. To claim that Josef Jakobs was a "Gestapo agent" is to fail to understand the difference between the Secret State Police and the Army. The Nazi Party felt the need for a secret police organization, and hence, the Geheime Staatspolizei was born in 1933. The Gestapo were has always done only a dirty job in cooperation with the . After Germany conquered Poland (in the autumn of 1939), Gestapo officials believed that they had neutralised Polish intelligence activities. The Gestapo is a short-lived police organization that existed around 1934-1939 only while the SS is longer since they existed for sixteen years around 1929-1945 before being abolished. [128], Of the political cases, 61 people were investigated for suspicion of belonging to the KPD, 44 for the SPD and 69 for other political parties. Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Gring along with some Army officials began plotting Rhms downfall. The SA was formally declared not to be a criminal organization by the International Tribunal, and had officially ceased to exist in 1945. [86] A year after the organisation's inception, Gring wrote in a British publication about having created the organisation on his own initiative and how he was "chiefly responsible" for the elimination of the Marxist and Communist threat to Germany and Prussia. [121], The popular picture of the Gestapo with its spies everywhere terrorising German society has been rejected by many historians as a myth invented after the war as a cover for German society's widespread complicity in allowing the Gestapo to work. [28] He answered to Heydrich, Heydrich answered only to Himmler, and Himmler answered only to Hitler. [25] Shortly thereafter, Himmler created the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; Criminal Police), merging it with the Gestapo into the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; Security Police), under Heydrich's command. In the occupied territories, the formal relationship between local units of the Gestapo, criminal police, and SD was slightly closer. In 1929, Heinrich Himmler was appointed as the head of the SS. by Starinov 12 Aug 2002, 21:51, Post Before 1929, the SS wore uniforms similar to the SA. [25], The Gestapo had the authority to investigate cases of treason, espionage, sabotage and criminal attacks on the Nazi Party and Germany. The members of the SA were largely former soldiers, ruffians, and men of violent natures, whose job was to originally protect the Nazi rallies, fight people from the leftist parties, and physically assault political opponents. [4] Those arrested by the Gestapo were often held without judicial process, and political prisoners throughout Germanyand from 1941, throughout the occupied territories under the Night and Fog Decree (German: Nacht und Nebel)simply disappeared while in Gestapo custody. [154], The IMT subsequently convicted three of the groups: the Nazi leadership corps, the SS (including the SD) and the Gestapo. [142] Whenever a region came fully under German military occupational jurisdiction, the Gestapo administered all executive actions under the military commander's authority, albeit operating relatively independent of it. [60], Violence and arrest were not confined to that opposing political parties, membership in trade unions, or those with dissenting religious opinions, but also homosexuality. [85], In January 1933, Hermann Gring, Hitler's minister without portfolio, was appointed the head of the Prussian Police and began filling the political and intelligence units of the Prussian Secret Police with Nazi Party members. The only thing distinguishing them was the black hat with a skull and bones on it. By 1932, the SA employed about 400,000 people and by the time Hitler had come to power in 1933, it consisted of over 10,00,000 people. Himmler was given command over Grings Gestapo in April 1934. [102], In 1933, there was no purge of the German police forces. Sign up to receive the latest and greatest articles from our site automatically each week (give or take)right to your inbox. We hope you enjoy this website. When Church leaders (clergy) voiced their misgiving about the euthanasia program and Nazi racial policies, Hitler intimated that he considered them "traitors to the people" and went so far as to call them "the destroyers of Germany". It ransacked homes, tortured people, deported them to concentration camps, and also killed them for no apparent reason. [24], On 17 June 1936, Hitler decreed the unification of all police forces in Germany and named Himmler as Chief of German Police. Though the Gestapo, the SS, and the SA were all created to serve Hitler and his Nazi regime, they differed somewhat in their functioning and the way they were controlled. It had the authority of preventive arrest, and its actions were not subject to judicial appeal. Varying degrees of pacification and police enforcement measures were necessary in each place, dependent on how cooperative or resistant the locals were to Nazi mandates and racial policies. Abfraction is a common dental problem caused by the flexing of teeth during biting and . However, very few arrests were made. We hope the above sections have made the identification of all three organizations clearer. Abwehr. Additionally, many of its members were handed over to the armed forces. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Uniforms worn by Gestapo men assigned to the Einsatzgruppen in occupied territories, were at first indistinguishable from the Waffen-SS field uniform. What is the difference between the SD and the Gestapo? Rhm wanted the SA to be run like the German Army, and he went about creating a structural hierarchy in the organization, a general staff, a training college, and placed Hitler himself at the very top of the hierarchy he had created. [160], The Gestapo maintained police detective ranks which were used for all officers, both those who were and who were not concurrently SS members. Deans were to be targeted as the "eyes and ears of the bishops" and a "vast network" established to monitor the activities of ordinary clergy: "The importance of this enemy is such that inspectors of security police and of the security service will make this group of people and the questions discussed by them their special concern". 6789 Quail Hill Pkwy, Suite 211 Irvine CA 92603. This represented a radical departure from German tradition, which held that law enforcement was (mostly) a Land (state) and local matter. [51] For their part, this was the first time the Gestapo operated under its new name since its 26 April 1933 founding in Prussia. by Walter Schellenberg 14 Aug 2002, 03:29, Post [43] The Maier group informed very early about the mass murder of Jews. [104][e] Some locals aided the Gestapo, whether as professional police auxiliaries or in other duties. In late 1933, the Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick wanted to integrate all the police forces of the German states under his control. In lieu of naming convention changes, the original construct of the SiPo, Gestapo, and Kripo cannot be fully comprehended as "discrete entities", since they ultimately formed "a conglomerate in which each was wedded to each other and the SS through its Security Service, the SD". The power of the Gestapo was used to focus upon political opponents, ideological dissenters (clergy and religious organisations), career criminals, the Sinti and Roma population, handicapped persons, homosexuals, and above all, the Jews. by Phil Nix 01 Feb 2004, 12:16. The word Gestapo is an abbreviation of the German term Geheime Staatspolizei, which translates to Secret State Police. He hoped to merge the SA with the Army under his own leadership and continued to urge for a second Nazi revolution, one that was socialist in nature. As the years progressed, the SA began to be overshadowed by the SS and the Gestapo. [15] Many of the Gestapo employees in the newly established offices were young and highly educated in a wide variety of academic fields and moreover, represented a new generation of National Socialist adherents, who were hard-working, efficient, and prepared to carry the Nazi state forward through the persecution of their political opponents. To understand the political system at the time in Germany, it can be helpful to learn about the differences between the functioning of the three organizations by identifying every individual organization properly. Hosted by Andrey. [41], In Austria, there were groups still loyal to the Habsburgs, who unlike most across the Greater German Reich, remained determined to resist the Nazis. The people who came under the suspicious category were political opponents, Jews, the Gypsies, people from other ethnic minorities, the disabled, the unemployed, and the homosexuals. [70], Between 1934 and 1938, opponents of the Nazi regime and their fellow travellers began to emerge. These three organizations always rivaled each other and their competences often overlapped. Nonetheless, operations performed either by German members of the Gestapo or auxiliaries from willing collaborators of other nationalities were inconsistent in both disposition and effectiveness. These cookies do not store any personal information. [42] Habsburg loyalist Karl Burian's (who was later executed) plan to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna represented a unique attempt to act aggressively against the Gestapo. [159], Leitstellung (district office) staff did wear the grey SS service uniform, but with police-pattern shoulderboards, and SS rank insignia on the left collar patch. On one hand, it was next to impossible for them to overthrow Hitler and the party; on the other, the Allied demand for an unconditional surrender meant no opportunity for a compromise peace, which left the military and conservative aristocrats who opposed the regime no option (in their eyes) other than continuing the military struggle. Read on for the difference between the three ruthless organizations. The Abwehr was a German intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944. [7][8] He originally wanted to name it the Secret Police Office (Geheimes Polizeiamt), but the German initials, "GPA", were too similar to those of the Soviet State Political Directorate (Gosudarstvennoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie, or GPU). [6] This gave Gring command of the largest police force in Germany. At the beginning of the war, the Gestapo employed about 40,000 men. Most SiPo members joined the SS and held a rank in both organisations. [94], At the trial of any individual member of any group or organisation, the IMT was authorised to declare (in connection with any act of which the individual was convicted) that the group or organisation to which he belonged was a criminal organisation. As I understand it the SD was focused on intellectual crimes, Jewish Question and foreign espionage, while the Gestapo concentrated on domestic political crimes and arresting Jews. The Poles identified and tracked German military trains to the Eastern front and identified four Order Police battalions sent to occupied areas of the Soviet Union in October 1941 that engaged in war crimes and mass murder. On June 17, 1936, Himmler, in addition to his position as head of the SS, took control of all German police forces, including the Ordnungspolizei (German: Order Police), with his appointment as Reichsfhrer SS and chief of the German police. Hitler vehemently rejected the centuries' old Habsburg pluralist principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages. The Geheime Staatspolizei (German pronunciation: [ham tatspolitsa] (listen); transl. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. [123] For example, of the 84 cases in Wrzburg of Rassenschande ("race defilement"sexual relations with non-Aryans), 45 (54%) were started in response to denunciations by ordinary people, two (2%) by information provided by other branches of the government, 20 (24%) via information gained during interrogations of people relating to other matters, four (5%) from information from (Nazi) NSDAP organisations, two (2%) during "political evaluations" and 11 (13%) have no source listed while none were started by Gestapo's own "observations" of the people of Wrzburg. Leading members of the most famous of these groups, the White Rose, were arrested by the police and turned over to the Gestapo. [81][82] Stauffenberg and his group were shot on 21 July 1944; meanwhile, his fellow conspirators were rounded up by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp. Together, they began convincing Hitler of Rhm being a threat to the Nazi regime, his hunger for more power, and his supposed plans to overthrow Hitler. While they may seem very similar, they actually differed in the roles they played. "Secret State Police"), abbreviated Gestapo (/stpo/ g-STAH-poh, German: [tapo] (listen)),[3] was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. Hitler initially refused to believe the claims against Rhm, even though his officials provided him with created evidence. Already in early June, He had to count on his senior officials support for his rule, and he gave the go-ahead for the plan to put Rhm out of the picture once and for all. Copyright Historyplex & Buzzle.com, Inc. [114] "V-men", as undercover Gestapo agents were known, were used to infiltrate Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and Communist opposition groups, but this was more the exception than the rule. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [63], Between June 1942 and March 1943, student protests were calling for an end to the Nazi regime. [124], An examination of 213 denunciations in Dsseldorf showed that 37% were motivated by personal conflicts, no motive could be established in 39%, and 24% were motivated by support for the Nazi regime. The Gestapo committed widespread atrocities during its existence. [72], In May 1935, the Gestapo broke up and arrested members of the "Markwitz Circle", a group of former socialists in contact with Otto Strasser, who sought Hitler's downfall. [25][26], The SiPo was placed under the direct command of Reinhard Heydrich who was already chief of the Nazi Party's intelligence service, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). Although an agent in uniform wore the collar insignia of the equivalent SS rank, he was still addressed as, e.g., Operation Crossbow Preliminary missions for the Operation Overlord, https://english.radio.cz/petscheks-palace-once-headquarters-nazi-secret-police-8575365, USHMM, "Law and Justice in the Third Reich", US National Archives, "German Police Records Opened at the National Archives", Avalon Project, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, The National Socialist Document Center of Cologne, "From Nazi to Criminal to Post-War Spy: German Intelligence Hired Klaus Barbie as Agent (20 January 2011)", "Press Release nr00-52: German Police Records Opened at the National Archives", Festung Furulund magasinet Dagbladet.no, Collection of testimonies concerning Gestapo activity in occupied Poland during WWII in "Chronicles of Terror" database, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gestapo&oldid=1151862694, Reactionaries, liberals and opposition (A3). "[136] The Gestapo's effectiveness remained in the ability to "project" omnipotencethey co-opted the assistance of the German population by using denunciations to their advantage; proving in the end a powerful, ruthless and effective organ of terror under the Nazi regime that was seemingly everywhere. [129] Most of the political investigations took place between 1933 and 1935 with the all-time high of 57 cases in 1935. The SS officer Werner Best, one-time head of legal affairs in the Gestapo,[30] summed up this policy by saying, "As long as the police carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally".[31]. Though all largely contributed to Hitlers rise to power and his abuse of that power, the three organizations differed slightly in their functions. However, this fact was cashed upon to invite empathy from the public as well as to add shock value. The Gestapo was officially declared to be answerable only and only to Hitler, and could not be reviewed by the judiciary in any way. [93], The creation of the RSHA represented the formalisation, at the top level, of the relationship under which the SD served as the intelligence agency for the security police. During World War II the Gestapo suppressed partisan activities in the occupied territories and carried out reprisals against civilians. The long-time head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Mller, was never found. [111] This admixture certainly shaped the Gestapo's public image which they sought to maintain despite their increasing workload; an image which helped them identify and eliminate enemies of the Nazi state. [54] The extreme anti-semitism and neo-pagan heresies of the Nazis caused some Christians to outright resist,[55] and Pope Pius XI to issue the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge denouncing Nazism and warning Catholics against joining or supporting the Party.
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