Inside the National Socialist terror state, from torture techniques to the horrors of the Final Solution
Inside Hitler’s secret police, from their insidious rise with the Third Reich combating enemies within to the brutality of Nazi occupation in the east
From its bloody inception to its much overdue demise, the Nazi state was profoundly concerned with its appearance. In few domains was this obsession so consequential as that of the much-feared secret police force – the Gestapo. Unlike other uniformed branches of the regime, however, these ruthless plain-clothed enforcers shied away from the public pageantry favoured by the National Socialist system. No mass Gestapo formations would participate in the annual party rallies. Instead relying on a carefully stagemanaged and systematically disseminated image formed in the shadows to establish a reputation of omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. An intentionally vague arena leaving ample room for fears and assumptions.
This devoted cadre of ideological policemen would be used by the regime to extinguish dissent, further Nazi expansion, and pacify populations in occupied territories.
Providing the bureaucratic framework on which the Holocaust was built.
Such was the extent of the Gestapo’s unbridled brutality that the spectre of this organisation still overshadows the European continent. Although the stories of the savagery of its methods remain true – emblematic of the interplay of bureaucracy and atrocity that marked the Nazi regime’s existence – the idea of its pervasiveness, in particular, deserves closer inspection.
Founded 27 April 1933, shortly after the Nazi seizure of power, the Gestapo – an abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police) coined as shorthand by a postal clerk – was initially a consolidation of the intelligence and political police in Prussia, the largest of Germany’s states. Overseen by Hermann Göring, interior minister of Prussia and future Luftwaffe chief, this new organisation would grow to become a mechanism for exercising control over all of German society and ensuring complete obedience to the National
Socialist ideal. The ultimate administration of this political police force would involve much internal wrangling, as Heinrich Himmler – then in charge of the police force in Bavaria, Germany’s second largest state – sought to wrestle control from Göring. By April 1934, Himmler was awarded command of the political police as head of the German police in all states outside of Prussia; two days later his deputy, Reinhard Heydrich, was appointed chief of the Gestapo. Heydrich would bring with him the ambitious workaholic Heinrich Müller – later to become chief of the Gestapo from 1939 – a dedicated police officer from Bavaria with a proven record of confronting left-wing groups.
Although the organisation had been involved in facilitating the Nazi takeover – with the first Gestapo chief, Rudolf Diels, tasked with interrogating the young Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, held responsible for the 1933 Reichstag fire – the first major test of its true dedication to the cause would come in June 1934. In seizing control of Germany, the Nazis had turned against old enemies, exacting revenge on the so-called ‘November Criminals’ who were said to have betrayed the country during the First World War. With equal viciousness they would turn against those within the party who stood as a threat to the continuity of the regime. The Gestapo’s participation in the decapitation of the Sturmabteilung
(SA) leadership in 1934 – commonly known as Night of the Long Knives – served not only to prove the organisation an essential tool deathly loyal to the Führer in purging enemies within the Nazi rank and file, but also an important administrative purpose. The Gestapo, and Hitler’s bodyguard unit – the Schutzstaffel (SS) – were technically subordinate to the Sturmabteilung at this time. Participating in the bloodletting of the Brownshirts – with the Gestapo providing information and the SS carrying out executions – meant that both organisations could free themselves from the obstacle of being administered by the SA leadership.
While the SS eventually sought to position itself as the soul of the National Socialist movement, it was the Gestapo that would come to serve as its heart. The SS was tasked with maintaining the purity of the blood, while the Gestapo was more concerned with keeping the blood pumping in the name of the the German people.
“By april 1934, himmler was awarded command of the political police”
Speaking to Gestapo staff in October 1934, Himmler described the action against the Sturmabteilung leadership as “the worst day that could happen to a soldier in his life”. And that “having to shoot one’s own comrades… is the most bitter experience that can happen to a person”. Outlining his idyllic vision of the agency, he added, “The nation must believe that if someone is pulled in he has been justly pulled in; they must believe that in all other matters, if they don’t harm the state, the members of the Secret State Police will behave in a friendly way, that they have warm hearts and an absolute sense of justice.”
By 1936, the Gestapo would emerge as an independent organisation – subordinate to
Heinrich Himmler as head of the SS, who was directly answerable only to Adolf Hitler. With the passage of the so-called Gestapo Law, Hitler had unified all police forces in Germany and named Himmler as the chief of the German Police.
the Power of the gestapo
This law ensured the complete autonomy of the Gestapo to act without judicial review or be accountable to any civil authority, stating that “neither the instructions nor the affairs of the Gestapo will be open to review by the administrative courts” while the organisation was tasked with searching “for any intention which would endanger the state”.
From 1936, the right to act with impunity became a Gestapo prerogative. Individuals threatening the unity of the National Socialist state would fall under its remit merely by their thoughts or intentions – rather than their actions. Before even committing a crime an individual could be dealt with – based on the most minor evidence. Although this served largely as a way of fast-tracking known enemies into detention rather than dealing with new ones guilty of the variety of new offences introduced by the state.
The true power of the Gestapo was most apparent in its authority to arrest and detain suspects indefinitely without trial. The imposition of so-called ‘Protective Custody’ (Schutzhaft) existed as the most significant instrument in the arsenal of the Nazi secret police, ensuring that the organisation was able to quickly dispatch anyone considered an enemy of the regime with little concern for anything other than its own efficiency. Unlike the Stalinist Soviet system of the time that preferred public show trials – with foregone conclusions – the
Nazi stranglehold on society would be frequently performed in the shadows, providing cover for the numerical deficiencies of the organisation that largely relied on denunciations from the populace or fellow Nazi party officials. At its peak the Gestapo employed only about 40,000 individuals, including office personnel. But each Gestapo agent operated like a spider at the centre of a large web of spies and informants – allowing fear and horror to weave its way through the public mind. Following the purge of the Brownshirts in 1934, Nazi officials certainly knew that there was a responsibility to denounce enemies within their own ranks to the Gestapo. They were aware of the consequences if they did not, but also aware of the reward of being seen as true servants of the machinations of the Third Reich when they did, which was also a powerful motivator.
“each gestapo agent operated like a spider at the center of a large web of spies”
the gestapo in germany
Nowhere in Germany were the enemies of
National Socialism safe from the Gestapo. Communists, Social Democrats, and other political enemies of the regime were monitored, arrested and subject to indefinite detention – often leading to their death.
Catholic priests critical of the regime would be investigated, murdered or deported to concentration camps. Homosexuals tortured, imprisoned, and killed. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma/sinti, so-called “Asocials” and the workshy found themselves targets of the Gestapo. Sharing political jokes could lead to imprisonment. Questioning the Party’s wisdom or failing to return the ‘Heil Hitler’ greeting would prompt further investigation. The Gestapo would seek to combat the ‘Anglophiliac tendencies’ of the swing dance youth, where jazz and swing music were seen as an expression of opposition to the regime.
In 1940 the organisation even began to target clairvoyants and astrologers to try to paint the flight of Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess as a result of his occult beliefs. Anyone guilty of spreading rumours about the state or making derogatory remarks about the Nazi leadership could be targeted by the Gestapo, following a law introduced in 1934 criminalising ‘malicious gossip’. Listening to foreign radio after the start of the Second World War in 1939 was said to endanger the war effort by undermining the will of the German people to fight.
The Extraordinary Radio Measures of 1939 made listening to enemy broadcasts an offence punishable by hard labour, sharing information with others from the broadcasts was a capital offence. Within the first year of the law’s introduction some 4,000 people were arrested and prosecuted for radio crime.
Although this was more severely punished than malicious gossip, defeatism would come to be considered an even greater offence. In reality the attempted pacification of the German population by the Gestapo hardly meant true adherence to Nazi doctrine, beyond what was displayed in public. Although, the presence of such a haunting image of a political police within German society did succeed in creating a Panopticon effect whereby this seemingly monolithic agency turned the populace into a self-policing body.
Driven by the assumption that the Gestapo was all-seeing and all-knowing, citizens would seek to denounce each other before being denounced themselves. Constantly vigilant and uniformly fearful. Around 80 per cent of Gestapo cases would begin with denunciations.
Torture of prisoners has since been considered widespread during Gestapo interrogations, although what constituted acceptable methods was clearly outlined in prisoners records, which often featured blank spaces or short phrases seemingly indicating a lack of details. In reality this is a likely indication of the use of ‘extraordinary measures’. While members of the so-called Volksgemeinschaft might be treated more fairly, it seems there was tacit understanding that the courtesy of kindness need not apply to certain officially undesirable groups. Detainees at the Gestapo central prison on Prinz-albrecht Strasse in Berlin would be photographed as part of their admission – and often displayed the signs of maltreatment on their faces. As with other official actions – such as the planning and implementation of the Holocaust - the activities of the Gestapo would often be internally described using euphemisms. As such torture was referred to as ‘enhanced interrogation’ (verschärfte vernehmung), to shield the perpetrators from the reality of their crimes and disguise the offences from any later scrutiny. A Gestapo memo dated 12 June 1942 explaining new regulations regarding torture techniques by secret police chief Heinrich Müller outlined what was considered acceptable without further approval from senior officers. Reduction of rations, sleep deprivation, and blows with a stick (although any more than 20 would require a doctor to be present). In practice, the oversight of a superior officer was very rarely required.
“the gestapo became a sharpened tool exported to other lands”
the gestapo in the occupied territories
Despite the intermittent official pandering to civility, the Nazis did little to publicly conceal the existence of their repressive apparatus. While the world continued to deal with Hitler’s government as if it were a legitimate regime, there would later be disbelief when the same methods were introduced in an attempt to pacify populations in the wake of the Nazi onslaught. From an instrument of terror forged within Germany – the Gestapo became a sharpened tool exported to other lands as they were absorbed by the Nazis’ expansionist advances.
While the organisation may have been expected to maintain a level of respectability within Germany, the widening of its scope to occupied territories saw it operating more in line with the famous maxim of Roman Emperor
Caligula, “I do not care if they love me, so long as they fear me.” Gestapo forces would enter Austria, Czechoslovakia and
Poland at the same time as the fighting troops. Establishing authority in the newly conquered territories would be paramount.
Like in Germany, the Gestapo drew on informants in the local population
– collecting confessions, gossip and denunciations – and were aided by local police forces. When France’s turn came in
1940, however, the German military would insist that Himmler’s terror troops remain in the rear – shocked as they were at the police commandos’ behaviour in Poland.
While Gestapo officers were largely deskbound in their early years, leaving to perform police duties and deal with suspects, they would be essential to the Nazi extermination projects carried out in Eastern Europe. The many atrocities carried out by the Nazi regime – the whole scale murder of Polish intelligentsia, the attempted eradication of European Jews – would not have been possible without the connivance and support of the
Gestapo. With many officers involved in the Special
Extermination Squads (Einsatzgruppen) and roundup of racial enemies for execution, others formed the bureaucratic backbone of the operation. Systematic reprisals against the civilian populations of occupied countries would be carried out by Gestapo death squads and hostage taking was not uncommon.
Within weeks of the invasion of Poland in September 1939, Himmler and Heydrich sought to further centralise their control over police actions at home and in the occupied countries.
The Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service) and Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police, the Gestapo and the regular police, the Kripo) would be merged
into the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (the Reich Main Security Office/rsha), with its offices in a building on Prinz-albrecht-straße in central Berlin. The Gestapo would be from then included as Department IV – although because of the frequent changes in structure of the Nazi secret police and intelligence forces many of the tasks the organisation was assigned would intersect with other departments. Despite this the Gestapo remained the pivot on which the other pieces moved. It was thus not uncommon for Gestapo officers to also hold rank within the SS or SD while carrying out their duties – sometimes adopting uniforms whilst engaged in the east so as to not be confused for partisans.
Working under Gestapo chief, Heinrich Müller, in 1939 was a German-austrian SS officer named Adolf Eichmann – an efficient and energetic organiser tasked with running the Central
Office for Jewish Emigration. Following the establishment of the RSHA, Eichmann would be assigned to Department IV B4 – the Gestapo Office of Jewish Affairs –coordinating with police agencies and regional government officials to organise the deportation and extermination of millions of European Jews. Both Eichmann and Müller would also attend the infamous Wannsee Conference in January 1942 to formulate the
“Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, alongside RSHA chief Heydrich. When in September 1941, the chemical pesticide Zyklon B was introduced for the purpose of industrial killing at Auschwitz, it would be a Gestapo commission that would identify 600 Soviet prisoners as “fanatical communists” – destined to become the first victims of the horrific method.
The progress of the Second World War only served to accelerate the brutality by which the Gestapo dealt with dissent – responding to the mounting chaos with increased security measures, public executions, and mass arrests. In 1941 Hitler issued the Night & Fog Decree (Nacht und Nebel) authorising anyone “endangering German security” to be disappeared without a trace.
Approximately 7,000 individuals would be arrested in western Europe and face special kangaroo courts, many executed and many more sent to concentration camps without their families or loved ones aware of their fate. A further illustration of the ruthlessness of the Gestapo’s resolve came in 1944, when Heinrich Müller issued an injunction known as the “cartridge directive”. This stipulated that Soviet POWS who had assisted in the identification of political commissars for the purpose of their execution should also be executed on the grounds that they were Geheimnisträger (bearers of secrets).
an end With horror
Soon the restraint that the Gestapo offered in its early years when dealing with ‘racial comrades’ at home would melt away in the chaos of the end of the war. In September 1944, Gestapo officers were authorised to carry out summary executions of looters – previously only allowed for foreign cases but now applicable to German citizens. Defeatism and questioning the methods of the regime would also be more swiftly dealt with. In March 1945 when a local fireman near Bochum spoke out against the Gestapo execution of three captured British airmen, he was himself executed. A fate that would befall thousands more German citizens at the hands of the Gestapo as the regime convulsed in its dying throes.
The existence of this secret political police organisation had always served to expose the major contradiction inherent in the National Socialist totalitarian system. Despite its projections of power, the success of the Nazi regime needed to be enforced, not only rooting out perceived enemies but simultaneously demanding total loyalty from the populace. Responding to even minor infractions as if they were a metastasizing cancer threatening to overwhelm the whole.
Concerned that without the suppression of dissent that the mask might fall – and the idea of the popularity and righteousness of the Nazi regime with it. In the bodies left behind and the minds irreparably scarred, the price paid as Hitler’s terror corps sought to pacify first German society and the European continent was incredibly high.
“approximately 7,000 individuals would be arrested in western europe”