[18] Rhm's position was menacing as more than 4.5 million men fell under his command once the militias and veterans organisations were absorbed by the SA,[19] a fact which fuelled Rhm's aspirations; his dream of fusing the SA and Reichswehr together was undermining Hitler's relationships with the leadership of Germany's armed forces. In December, 1932, Schleicher became chancellor. [50] Meanwhile, the SA and police occupied trade union headquarters, arrested functionaries, confiscated their property and assets; all by design so as to be replaced on 12 May by the German Labour Front (DAF), a Nazi organisation placed under the leadership of Robert Ley. 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. Nominally under the Ministry of the Interior, Germanys police, including the political police, the detective force, and the uniformed police forces, were now unified under Himmler. Abwehr. 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 killing units wiped out entire villages as a result. Heinrich Himmler [5] Contrary to popular perception, the Gestapo was actually a relatively small organization with limited surveillance capacity; despite this the Gestapo proved extremely effective due to the willingness of ordinary Germans to snitch on fellow citizens. Secret State Police), abbreviated Gestapo (German: [tapo]; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. TL;DR: The Gestapo was the secret police that hunted down enemies of the Reich, while the SS were the brain-child of Himmler, a specially trained division of the military which participated in everything from invasions to crimes against humanity. Heydrich, named chief of the Gestapo by Himmler on 22 April 1934, also continued as head of the SS Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst; SD). [24], On 17 June 1936, Hitler decreed the unification of all police forces in Germany and named Himmler as Chief of German Police. Even a Gestapo Agent would understand it now! On 26 April 1933, Gring merged the two units as the Geheime Staatspolizei, which was abbreviated by a post office clerk for a franking stamp and became known as the "Gestapo". Burian's group had also set up a secret courier service to Otto von Habsburg in Belgium. 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. Answer (1 of 3): The SS Schutz Staffel were originally Hitler's bodygaurd. The name Gestapo is an abbreviation for its official German name "Geheime Staatspolizei." The direct English translation is "Secret State Police." The Gestapo was not the first political police force in German history. [56][b], In an effort to counter the strength and influence of spiritual resistance, Nazi records reveal that the Gestapo's Referat B1 monitored the activities of bishops very closelyinstructing that agents be set up in every diocese, that the bishops' reports to the Vatican should be obtained and that the bishops' areas of activity must be found out. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. From 27 September 1939, it was administered by the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). [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. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. [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. The SD sleeve diamond (SD Raute) insignia was worn on the lower left sleeve, even by SiPo men who were not in the SD. In 1931, the SA was handed over to Ernst Rhm, who headed it till his murder in 1934. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The Best History Museums to Virtually Tour During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Virtual Reality Experiences That Let You See History Up Close, The Most Accurate Movies Based on History Worth Seeing, Drive Thru History: A Brief Guide to the Online Courses, History of Mobile Phones: From Bulky to Ubiquitous, History of Forensic Science: From the Ancients to the Present, Tom Holland Historian: Major Works of the BBC Presenter, Arresting anyone who is a threat to the Nazi regime, Jews, other colored people, Complete authority of concentration camps, Defend Nazi rallies, disrupt political opponents, Policemen, ex-criminals, not necessarily Nazis, Strictly anti-Jewish, with a pure Aryan ancestry. Meaning Protective Echelon in German, the SS was made up of fervently anti-Semite Germans who possessed deep racial hatred. Copyright Historyplex & Buzzle.com, Inc. The stricter laws did not apply to lesbians as their behaviour was never officially criminalised, even though their behaviours were labelled "deviant". The ordinary uniformed ones doing office jobs were called Algemeine SS or ordinary SS The size of the SS increased dramatically and eventually had 38 Divisions of which half were not German. [112], Contrary to popular belief, the Gestapo was not the all-pervasive, omnipotent agency in German society. 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. After initial successes, the organization was expanded during the Franco-Prussian . Rhm himself was arrested, put into prison and given a chance to commit suicide. [32] Although the Sicherheitspolizei was officially disbanded, the term SiPo was figuratively used to describe any RSHA personnel throughout the remainder of the war. Confidential office hostile foreigners, Occupied territories France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Denmark (D4), Department E (Security and counterintelligence), Viktor Harnischfeger (Dsseldorf Gestapo Criminal Commissar). The SS has been held responsible for some of the most horrific crimes ever committed in the history of the world. Schleicher and Bredow tried to control the activities of the National Socialist . At that time, the SS consisted of approximately 300 members. [140] To this end, the Gestapo was "a vital component both in Nazi repression and the Holocaust. Himmler was nominally subordinate to Frick as police chief, but as Reichsfhrer-SS, he answered only to Hitler. Abfraction is a common dental problem caused by the flexing of teeth during biting and . However, these tactics were quite useful for the rise of the Nazi movement. 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). Soon afterward, Gring detached the political and intelligence sections from the police and filled their ranks with Nazis. The Gestapo was somewhat of a division of the SS, making SS the parent organization. Fearful of an internal overthrow, the forces of the Gestapo were unleashed on the opposition. The SD was mainly an information-gathering agency, while the Gestapoand to a degree the Criminal Police (Kriminalpolizei or Kripo)was the executive agency of the political police system. SIPO was the security police involved in protecting the security of the country it was state funded. What was the difference between the SS and the Gestapo in terms of who [16], By the spring of 1934, Himmler's SS controlled the SD and the Gestapo, but for him, there was still a problem, as technically the SS (and the Gestapo by proxy) was subordinated to the SA, which was under the command of Ernst Rhm. The Geheime Staatspolizei (German pronunciation: [ham tatspolitsa] (listen); transl. 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". For the most part, members of the church did not offer political resistance but simply wanted to ensure that organizational doctrine remained intact. 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. [34] The specific internal departments of Amt IV were as follows:[95], In 1941 Referat N, the central command office of the Gestapo was formed. The force was created by Hermann Gring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organisation. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Our site includes quite a bit of content, so if you're having an issue finding what you're looking for, go on ahead and use that search feature there! According to the trials that were held after Germanys defeat in the war, the SS was responsible for a majority of the crimes committed in Nazi Germany. Gradually, with time, the SS became one of the most-feared organizations in Germany. [104] In 1939, only 3,000 out of the total of 20,000 Gestapo men held SS ranks, and in most cases, these were honorary. These were Waffen S. The SS Schutz Staffel were originally Hitler's bodygaurd. Rhm harbored the same intentions. [33] In January 1943, Himmler appointed Ernst Kaltenbrunner RSHA chief; almost seven months after Heydrich had been assassinated. 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. Corrections? to the Allies. [115] The District Office in Nuremberg, which had the responsibility for all of northern Bavaria, employed a total of 80100 full-term informers between 1943 and 1945. Hitler's Two Armies - HistoryNet It ransacked homes, tortured people, deported them to concentration camps, and also killed them for no apparent reason. Gestapo | Definition, History, Facts, & Tactics | Britannica PDF Right: GESTAPO HEADQUARTERS IN BRUSSELS - DocDroid [46] Because the Gestapo seemed omniscient and omnipotent, the atmosphere of fear they created led to an overestimation of their reach and strength; a faulty assessment which hampered the operational effectiveness of underground resistance organisations. The Gestapo committed widespread atrocities during its existence. Some participants were sent to concentration camps. The Gestapo operated without civil restraints. In this Historyplex write-up, we have distinguished the three organizations based on their formation, objectives, and responsibilities, to name a few factors. They were taught that the SS was not only an elite group in the Nazi regime, but also in all of humanity. Hosted by Andrey. [125] The Gestapo always showed a special interest in denunciations concerning sexual matters, especially cases concerning Rassenschande with Jews or between Germans and foreigners, in particular Polish slave workers; the Gestapo applied even harsher methods to the foreign workers in the country, especially those from Poland,[126] Jews, Catholics and homosexuals. The resistance group, later discovered by the Gestapo because of a double agent of the Abwehr, was in contact with Allen Dulles, the head of the US Office of Strategic Services in Switzerland. These groups became a special focus of the Gestapo because of their insurrectionist goalsthe overthrow of the Nazi regime, the re-establishment of an independent Austria under Habsburg leadershipand Hitler's hatred of the Habsburg family. [58], In Dachau: The Official History 19331945, Paul Berben wrote that clergy were watched closely, and frequently denounced, arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps: "One priest was imprisoned in Dachau for having stated that there were good folk in England too; another suffered the same fate for warning a girl who wanted to marry an S.S. man after abjuring the Catholic faith; yet another because he conducted a service for a deceased communist". Later, nurses, kindergarten teachers, and trained female commercial employees with an aptitude for police work were hired as female detectives after a two-year course as Kriminaloberassistentin and could promote to a Kriminalsekretrin. The SD and Gestapo did have integration through SS members holding dual positions in each branch. "[135] The involvement of ordinary Germans in denunciations also needs to be put into perspective so as not to exonerate the Gestapo. These units traveled to villages in the German-occupied regions and shot down civilians, men, women, and children included, and buried them in mass graves.
