Gestapo

The Geheime Staatspolizei (English: Secret State Police; Gestapo) was a federal police agency in Germany during the time of National Socialism. The name itself came from the official abbrevation of "Geheimes Staatspolizei-Amt (GeStaPA)" and soon became "Gestapo". Under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel (SS), it was administered by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) (“head office of the Reich security service”) and was considered a dual organization of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (“security service”) and also a suboffice of the Sicherheitspolizei (SIPO) (“security police”).

In 1934, it came under the control of the SS and Heinrich Himmler. From 1934, it was one part of the Sicherheitspolizei (security police) together with the Kriminalpolizei (criminal police). From 1939, it was one part of the RSHA. The Ordnungspolizei (order police, the uniformed police) was not part of these organizations.

History

The organization was formed in 1933 by Minister-President of Prussia, Prussian interior minister and chief of the Prussian police Hermann Göring from the Prussian Secret Police, an organization of the Weimar Republic. 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 in the United States.

The Gestapo’s role as a political police force was only established after Hermann Göring was appointed to succeed Diels as Gestapo commander in 1934. Göring urged the new government to extend Gestapo power beyond Prussia to encompass all of Germany. In this Göring was mostly successful except in Bavaria, where Heinrich Himmler (Reichsführer SS) served as the Bavarian police president and used local SS units as a political police force.

In April 1934, Göring and Himmler agreed to put aside their differences and Göring transferred full authority over the Gestapo to the SS. At that point, the Gestapo was incorporated into the Sicherheitspolizei and considered a sister organization of the Sicherheitsdienst.

Increasing power under the SS

The Gestapo had the authority to investigate treason, espionage and sabotage cases, and cases of criminal attacks on the Party and Germany.

Laws passed in 1936 effectively gave the Gestapo carte blanche to operate without judicial oversight. The Gestapo was specifically exempted from responsibility to administrative courts, where citizens normally could sue the state to conform to laws.

A further law passed later in the year gave the Gestapo responsibility for setting up and administering concentration camps. Also in 1936, Reinhard Heydrich became head of the Gestapo and Heinrich Müller, chief of operations; Müller would later assume overall command after Heydrich's assassination in 1942. During World War II, the Gestapo was expanded to around 45,000 members.

Revisionism

Various aspects of the politically correct views on the Gestapo have been criticized. For example, a 2016 review of a book on the Gestapo stated:

"The Gestapo was an efficient police force, small in number, not the omnipresent terror arm of a terror state; scrupulous at all levels with facts and the accuracy of records, focusing on the recruitment of university graduates, particularly to doctoral standard, while retaining the services of mostly non-Nazi, Weimar-regime, career policemen; quick to arrive at conclusions based on objective investigation, and promptly dismissing most accusations brought to their attention without undue delay."

"McDonough alludes to the testimony of Dr. Werner Best, head of Gestapo administration and personnel in Berlin during 1936 to 1940. “It was Werner Best who originally shattered the myths surrounding the Gestapo, many years before historians ever dealt with the subject in detail.” In what McDonough calls a “revisionist interpretation” of the Gestapo, he states that Best’s testimony was clearly laid out. He stated that the Gestapo were the most poorly paid of the police, that they were understaffed, and half of those were in administration, that the impression of the Gestapo as a vast organization spying on the mass of Germans is incorrect. Gestapo agents were continually in contact with the families of inmates, who were kept informed about release dates. Gestapo officers advised families on welfare benefit entitlements while relatives were in custody. “Advanced interrogation techniques” were only used in serious cases of treason, under strict guidelines, and confessions were not extorted under questioning.

Karl-Heinz Hoffmann, a senior manager of the Gestapo, stated that protective custody was kept brief, internment to a concentration camp was recommended only for the most incorrigible, dangerous cases. Brutal treatment and torture were strictly prohibited. Cases of brutality went to criminal court. Hoffmann cited cases of two Gestapo officers in Düsseldorf who were sent to prison by a criminal court for mistreating prisoners. In Denmark, where Hoffmann later served with Werner Best, who was governor, Hoffmann stated that “enhanced interrogations” were used more frequently against the resistance, but even here were not extensive."

Further reading

• Frank McDonough: The Gestapo – The Myth and Reality of Hitler's Secret Police, Hodder and Stoughton, London 2015