The Gestapo, an acronym derived from the German Ge Heime Sta ats po lizei meaning "Secret State Police" was the political police the Third Reich. Founded by Hermann Göring in Prussia, then spread its power under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler, the entire Reich and territories invaded by Germany during the Second World War. Integrated Reinhard Heydrich RSHA, it was headed by Heinrich Müller from 1934 to 1945. Responsibility to fight against internal and external opponents, real or imagined, then against the opponents of the Nazi regime or the resistance in occupied countries, it was synonymous with terror and arbitrariness in Germany and in much of Europe . She played a key role in the extermination of European Jews, particularly through its Amt B4, headed by Adolf Eichmann.
Active until the last days of the Nazi regime, she was condemned as a criminal organization at the Nuremberg trials.
Context
From Spartacus uprising actions of the Freikorps, the assassination of Walter Rathenau in the Beer Hall Putsch, the Weimar Republic is marked by a profound instability and frequent political violence, during which illustrated Sturmabteilung including the Nazi party. The unit of German state implements a strategy directed primarily against the Communists and the Nazis, executed by the regular police, as in Bavaria, or the political police, as in Prussia. For its part, initiated by Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi party to acquire a domestic security service, the Sicherheitsdienst, told Reinhard Heydrich.
Göring and the creation of the Gestapo
"For weeks, I have personally worked in the reorganization to succeed in creating, myself, of my own and my own initiative, the service of the Gestapo. This instrument, which inspires a deep terror to the enemies of the state, has contributed mightily to the fact that we can not talk today about a communist or Marxist danger in Germany or Prussia
In the Nazis came to power in January 1933, they set up a policy of repression following three areas: the separation, confinement and elimination of political opponents outside any legal framework, led by SA and SS, with the opening of the first concentration camps, the establishment of a legal framework to give suppression legal framework, the creation of a body dedicated to the political police, the Gestapo future.
Member of the Reichstag and the Prussian Landstag member since May 1928, President of the Reichstag in 1932, Minister without Portfolio, Commissioner of Aviation and Interior Minister of Prussia in the government of Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering takes the reins of the Prussian police, the largest in Germany, 12 February 1933, he began immediately Nazification. In this operation the police to gauge feelings Republicans, it offers a valuable, that Rudolf Diels of . Head of the Political Section of the Prussian police, the Amt IA, who fought Nazis and Communists with energy efficiency and, Diels puts its files in the service of new power. From February 22, Göring increasing its forces by appointing members of the SA and Stahlhelm, police auxiliaries.
Immediately after the proclamation of emergency laws of 28 February 1933 to defend the people and the state, officially justified by the Reichstag fire, the Prussian police took part, with sides of the SA and SS in the first major roundup of opponent held in Berlin on the night of February 28 to March 1, 1933. From that moment, the Gestapo "could act without restriction and without liability, practicing secret arrest and imprisonment without charges, without evidence, without a hearing. No court could not oppose or direct the release and demand a reconsideration of the matter. " Rudolf Diels in 1934
Göring was appointed Minister-President of Prussia March 5, 1933, while retaining his position as President of the Reichstag, it is as he passed, March 23, when opening the new parliamentary session law covering crimes committed in a patriotic intent, completed on 23 June by the amnesty of convictions against the Nazis before taking power.
The Gestapo was officially established April 26, 1933 and is headed by Göring himself, with Diels as his deputy. In the process, the Gestapo, whose activities are limited Berlin until officially opening an office in each district Prussian and implements, in the month of June, a network monitoring and public denouncement. It dismantles the organization Clandestine Communist Party but also investigating the activities of SA, Goering perceived as a rival, and it closed down or transferred to the SS, concentration camps or "private."
Following maneuvers Wilhelm Frick, who does not accept that the Gestapo is beyond its authority, Diels is revoked in September 1933, to be replaced by Paul Hinkler, notorious alcoholic whose mandate lasts less than a month before the return according to Diels , which immediately stop its ephemeral successor. To avoid the recurrence of such jolts, the Gestapo officially withdrawn the powers of the Ministry of Interior, 30 November 1933 to recover only the Minister President of Prussia, that is to say, Hermann Goering. On 1 April 1934, Diels was again sacked, to be replaced, April 20, by Heinrich Himmler, Göring, however, officially retaining the direction of the Gestapo.
The takeover by the SS and integration RSHA
While Göring in Prussia organized the Gestapo, Heinrich Himmler gradually takes control of fonts Other German states: in March 1933 he was appointed prefect of police in Munich, then a month later, President of the Bavarian police, in the months that followed, he took control of fonts Hamburg, Mecklenburg, Lübeck, Thuringia. In spring 1934, he directed all German police, with the exception of Prussia. Emerged victorious in a power struggle that pitted him against Kurt Daluege protege, Wilhelm Frick, Himmler unifies all German police upon his appointment to Berlin and extends the scope of the Gestapo in all of Germany; to head the central Gestapo, he named his closest deputy, Reinhard Heydrich, head of SD already. Heydrich takes as Executive Assistant to the Gestapo a former member of the Criminal Police of Munich under the Weimar Republic, Heinrich Müller, who had shown particularly in the fight against the Communists.
On 17 June 1936, Himmler was appointed head of all German police (Chef der Deutschen Polizei) it controls Ordnungspolizei Kurt Dalueget and Sicherheitspolizei, which includes the Gestapo and Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), directed by Arthur Nebe. The SIPO is responsible for fighting against the enemies of the state: Kripo continues "individuals who subsequently degeneration physical or moral community are separated from the popular and violent in their interest, the measures taken to protect the public interest, "the Gestapo caring" individuals who, as agents of enemies of the National Socialist German people, want to destroy national unity and destroy the power of the state. On 22 September 1939, the SIPO is incorporated, with the SD, the RSHA, under the leadership of Heydrich, Ernst Kaltenbrunner then .
Tasks and powers
"The Gestapo has the task of searching all the intentions that put the state in danger, and fight against them to collect and exploit the results of investigations to inform the government authorities to keep abreast of findings important to them and provide them with impulses "(Hermann Goering Decree of 10 February 1936.)
The absence of any legal framework, before the decree of Göring's Gestapo does not act 1933. On the basis of the decrees of February 28, 1933 et8 March 1934, which set up the detention of protection (Shutzhaft), it can imprison or detain a concentration camp whomever it pleases, without time limitation, without charge and without trial. The lack of judicial control over the actions of the Gestapo was officially confirmed on 10 February 1936 by a law which states that "the orders and affairs of the secret police are not subject to the review of administrative tribunals" , legislation that merely confirms an opinion of the Administrative Court of Prussia in 1935, that a detention of protection can not be challenged in court.
The role of the Gestapo
Through the party apparatus Nazi Gauleiter in Blockleiters of the Gestapo in Germany has "tens of thousands of ears and eyes alert. "Now independent, the SS can carry out its task. The Nazi party being recognized party, the Gestapo continued to relentlessly hunt down political opponents, particularly members of the KPD. Similarly, those who are not in the ideal of the Nazi party called the Volksgemeinschaft (the community of the people), are quickly identified and intercepted. We began to concentrate minorities in particular to the Jews. The party will make available to the Gestapo a legal basis for the arrests multiply: September 19, 1935, are passed the Nuremberg Laws under which it is stipulated that all marriages between Jews and Germans is strictly prohibited. A general climate of terror moved to Germany.
While the police appear in propaganda films as close to the people, denunciations multiply. During the summer of 1936, Himmler was appointed Chief der Deutschen Polizei (police chief of all of Germany) but Heydrich, his right arm which actually run. In addition, the Ministry of the Interior still has significant control. Intellectuals SS have a role more and more decisive in the Nazi machine from the late 1930s. Werner Best, a lawyer and technocrat SS is one of them. He attends Heydrich as head of the Gestapo until 1940. Franz Six is itself the developer of Gegnerforschung (section of the Gestapo who tracks the enemies of the Reich) and recruited by Heydrich in the SD.
In 1938, following the Anschluss, the Austrian left leaders were arrested. The following year, the Gestapo lists the Czech opponents to remove.
The continued repression
The growing opposition against the brutality of the police state. The combination of White Rose, directed by Sophie and Hans Scholl, a critic of Stalingrad slaughter and deportations. Reported, they were arrested by the Gestapo and then beheaded 22 February 1943 near Munich.
secret police tracking down foreign radio listeners, whose use is strictly prohibited and is recognized as an act of treason. American music lovers (jazz and swing) are also hunted because the plan does not listen to the "music negro. "Finally, mixed marriages are analyzed in detail. In Frankfurt, Heinrich Baab ordered the arrest of Jews married to Aryans: the city will find tens of thousands of arrests (1941-1943). In the month of August 1943, Himmler was appointed Reichs-und Preussischer Minister des Innern (Interior Minister): It is now the undisputed master of the German police state.
omnipotence and fall
During 1939, officers of the Gestapo are coming to their men to war. Müller coordinates Operation Tannenberg to be a pretext to attack Poland without scruple in September. On June 4, 1942, Heydrich died following an attack in Prague. This event intensified violence and arrests. Himmler takes over interim leadership of the RSHA until January 1943, at which time Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds him. In retaliation for the death, near the Czech capital, the SS and the Gestapo shave map of the village Lidice by shooting all the men and deporting women and children.
In Poland, for example in Lublin, the chief of the Gestapo Gudenlach Oswald murdered tens of thousands of innocents and organizing a massive anti-Jewish raid between 3 and 4 November 1943, over 43,000 people are murdered.
In Paris, it Obersturmbannführer Kurt Lischka who leads the Gestapo from the fall of 1940 by moving Saussaies Street (8th arrondissement). The French Prime Minister, Pierre Laval, is agreement with the Nazis to carry out effectively the arrest of Jews by French police with a total 80,000 French Jews were deported.
In France, she also sometimes load control and censor the mail (work generally performed by the Wehrmacht): it folds controlled affix a stamp circle containing the legend "Geheime Staatspolizei" with the German eagle in the center to cross game.
The deportation and extermination of European Jews
Between autumn 1939 and spring 1940, Hitler wanted to win the war quickly. He ordered the removal of 70 000 persons by the Einsatzgruppen (SS commandos) in Eastern Europe particularly Ukraine and Belarus. Units SS and the Gestapo lend hand to the mobile units to exterminate the men of fighting age.
With the conscription of resources of the National Society of French Railways (SNCF), is particularly within the Gestapo in the service IV.B.4 led by Adolf Eichmann , that are held all transportation of prisoners to concentration camps. The Centre also carries out arrests of Jews - who now must wear a yellow star - and political opponents in Germany and conquered territories.
31 July 1941, Heydrich established a plan for the elimination of the Jews "large scale" Operation Reinhard. The objective is to plan the extermination of 2 million Polish Jews. During the fall, Himmler ordered its creation. January 20, 1942, Mueller was present at the Wannsee conference, during which one coordinates Endlösung ( Final Solution). The draft is circulated within the Gestapo, auxiliary missed its implementation. Heydrich wanted to make his police nor the Volksgemeinschaft models, but "political police" real players in the Final Solution.
The Gestapo works without any court itself decides on sanctions. She became famous in Germany first, then throughout occupied Europe by ruthless terror engendered by his methods. She epitomizes the arbitrary and horror of the Nazi forces. The Gestapo is a font of spirits, with informants in all strata of the population. German police officers or 1,500 police officers present on French territory, plus 40,000 ancillary of various origins, including crime.
In April 1942, Himmler Hitler gets that police powers are transferred the military in general of police SS Karl Oberg. The Gestapo can then apply to France the methods used in Germany and other occupied territories. From June 10, the central Nazi advised him to use torture during interrogations to extract confessions and information to recalcitrant prisoners. This is particularly true of the Gestapo chief in Lyon, Klaus Barbie to be the executioner of Jean Moulin .
end of 1944, the Gestapo refocuses its shares on Germany. In 1945, the mood of the Apocalypse, which marks the final months of the Reich, the machine to sow terror escapes control. Plus the end nears, it is risky, whether you are military or civilian, to express any doubt about the "final victory". Common sense goes for defeatism. And the Gestapo, which now everyone is a potential culprit, strikes blows. This does not include most of his men, senior officials to the simple, to prepare for the postwar period. They erase the traces of their actions, destroy evidence of their atrocities.
History of the Gestapo - 144 min
History of the Gestapo - 144 min
After 1945, there remains a small part thousands of records compiled by the secret police. The Gestapo men change their identity or flee through support networks that allow them to gain safe countries, mostly in Latin America. Those who did not leave Germany argue, several years after the end of the war, their civil servant status. They are reinstated, often in positions of command. Among the Allies, after some trial and difficult to hear some executions, pragmatism prevails. Many veterans of the Gestapo find employment in the intelligence services of various countries. To the chagrin of the "Nazi hunter" Simon Wiesenthal like, and all those who do not accept that these criminals escape prosecution.
Gestapo Hitlers Secret Police (English) 51 min
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