Gestapo

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An acronym for Geheime Staatspolizei ("Secret StatePolice"), Gestapo was the name of the political policeof Nazi Germany. This agency operated within thecountry to root out and eliminate opposition to thegovernment and the Nazi Party, and, outside thecountry, in the occupied territories, Gestapo agentswere responsible for suppressing resistance andunderground movements and for directing andto a large extent executing the mass arrest of Jewspursuant to the Final Solution.The Gestapo had its origin on April 26, 1933,when Hermann Göring, at the time minister ofthe interior for Prussia, assumed personal controlof the political and espionage units of the regularPrussian police, built them up with a large cadre ofNazis, then consolidated and reorganized the unitsas the Gestapo. At about the same time, HeinrichHimmler, chief of the Schutzstaffel (SS), andhis principal lieutenant, Reinhard Heydrich, didthe same with the Bavarian police and then withthe police forces of the other German Länder("states"). In April 1934, Adolf Hitler gave Himmlercommand over Göring's Gestapo, and, twoyears later, on June 17, 1936, Himmler wasappointed Reichsführer in charge of the state police.Thus, Himmler came to control both the SS and the Gestapo. He assigned command of the Gestapoto Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller and joined theGestapo to the Kriminalpolizei ("Criminal Police")within a newly created organization, the Sicherheitspolizei(Sipo, or "Security Police"). In 1939, theSS was extensively reorganized, and Sipo was combinedwith the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) ("SecurityService"), the SS intelligence department, tocreate the Reichssicherheitshauptamt ("ReichSecurity Central Office") commanded by Heydrich.The consolidation of these various forces didnot submerge the Gestapo, which retained a highprofile throughout the war years, but it did createconfusion, competition, and duplication of effortamong the agencies. Doubtless, this was less abureaucratic misstep than a deliberate attempt toadd a layer of security by causing one agency continuallyto look over the shoulder of another.The Gestapo had virtually limitless power,including the authority of preventative arrest. Itsactions were outside the conventional judicial systemand could not be appealed through the courtsor, indeed, to any authority. Gestapo agents sweptup political dissidents, social undesirables, uncooperativeclergy, "dangerous" intellectuals, homosexuals,and, of course, Jews. These individualswere customarily "deported" to concentrationand extermination camps. Working in conjunctionwith the SS, the Gestapo was also responsiblefor the suppression of resistance and partisanactivities in the occupied territories. Gestapoagents were charged with executing reprisal actionsagainst civilians in the occupied territories as ameans of suppressing the resistance. Gestapoagents were also attached to the SS Einsatzgruppenthat followed closely behind the regular GermanArmy in Poland and Russia, their mission to roundup and summarily murder Jews as well as othersdeemed undesirable. Adolf Eichmann was aGestapo officer, who headed Bureau IV B4, whichwas responsible for the mass deportation of Jewsfrom occupied countries to the death camps ofPoland.