Final stage: Judgement

Protective custody

As a means of indeterminate detention, the protective custody order was a method of expediting the Gestapo’s approach to transforming German society. Imprisonment was usually imposed in a concentration camp, such as Dachau or Sachsenhausen. While the acquisition of prisoners fell under the control of the Gestapo, their detention following arrest and a protective custody order meant they would be transfered into the hands of the SS.

execution

Although death in Gestapo custody was not uncommon as a result of torture or interrogation, the execution of prisoners would often take place within the realm of the concentration camp at the hands of the SS or in an execution house following a trial. Towards the end of the Second World War, when the Gestapo was tasked with countering defeatism in the population, officers would bypass the first stages and pronounce judgement before personally executing individuals.

the People’s court

Where it was seen necessary to make a spectacle of the accused, as in the case of the July 1944 assassination attempt plotters, the Gestapo could send individuals to the People’s Court for public pronouncement. Members of the White Rose resistance group were also found guilty in the People’s Court, after Gestapo arrest. Two thirds of the individuals found not guilty would be subsequently arrested by the Gestapo and sent to concentration camps regardless.

release

When the offence committed was not considered sufficient to warrant further action the individual could be released. First-time offenders, specifically those who joked about the regime, were often released, so long as there were no obvious ties to dissident organisations. Releasing a suspect back into the general population could also send a message to a dissident group that the individual had been turned and was now working for the state – making them ineffective.