Reich Main Security Office
The Reich Main Security Office or Reich Security Main Office (German: Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA) was a subordinate organization of the Allgemeine SS, nominally under the Ministry of the Interior, with headquarters in the Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8, Berlin and c. 50,648 employees throughout Europe as of February 1944.
History
The RSHA was created by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on 27 September 1939 through the merger of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, or Security Service/Agency) and the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo). The SiPo was composed of two sub-departments, the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo; "Secret State Police") and the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; "Criminal Police").
The Security Police, comprising the Gestapo (secret police) and the criminal police, was joined with the SD into one centralized organization designated the RSHA. The organization of the RSHA and the constantly shifting relationships between the Gestapo, the criminal police and the SD were almost incomprehensible in their complexity. In the RSHA, sections III (domestic intelligence) and VI (foreign intelligence) made up the operational elements of the SD, and sections IV (Gestapo) and V (criminal police) made up the Security Police. Section IV (Gestapo) of the RSHA, together with its many subordinate offices in the field, was an executive agency: it exercised its duty in actions. Section VI (foreign intelligence, SD), on the other hand, was involved in gathering information: it was the eyes and ears to section IV's hands and teeth.
The organization's stated duty was to fight all "enemies of the Reich" within and outside the borders of the German Empire. Included within the rubric of "enemies" were Jews, Gypsies and other "racially undesirables" as well as Communists and other secret organization members such as Freemasons; thus the RSHA coordinated activities among a number of different agencies with wide-ranging responsibilities.
The first director of the RSHA was SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, who led the organization until his assassination on 4 June 1942 in Prague. SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner replaced him for the remainder of World War II. The director of the RSHA oversaw the Einsatzgruppen squads that followed the campaign forces of the German army into the eastern territories.
Leadership
Minister responsible
- Heinrich Himmler (1939–1945)
RSHA executives
- Reinhard Heydrich (1939–1942), Head/Chief of SiPo and SD
- Heinrich Himmler (1942–1943), Acting Head/Chief of SiPo and SD
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1943–1945), Head/Chief of SiPo and SD
