The basic Gestapo law passed by the government in 1936 gave the Gestapo carte blanche to operate without judicial reviewin effect, putting it above the law. Copyright Historyplex & Buzzle.com, Inc. During World War II the Gestapo suppressed partisan activities in the occupied territories and carried out reprisals against civilians. The SS remained in existence until the end of the war. The Gestapo was responsible for keeping a close watch on Hitlers personal safety, as well as ensuring the safety of the most important Nazi officials. [47], Shortly after the Nazis came to power, they decided to dissolve the 28 federations of the General German Trade Union Confederation, because Hitlerafter noting their success in the works council electionsintended to consolidate all German workers under the Nazi government's administration, a decision he made on 7 April 1933. What was the difference between the SD and the Gestapo? Opposition became more difficult. The Best History Museums to Virtually Tour During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Virtual Reality Experiences That Let You See History Up Close, The Most Accurate Movies Based on History Worth Seeing, Drive Thru History: A Brief Guide to the Online Courses, History of Mobile Phones: From Bulky to Ubiquitous, History of Forensic Science: From the Ancients to the Present, Tom Holland Historian: Major Works of the BBC Presenter, Arresting anyone who is a threat to the Nazi regime, Jews, other colored people, Complete authority of concentration camps, Defend Nazi rallies, disrupt political opponents, Policemen, ex-criminals, not necessarily Nazis, Strictly anti-Jewish, with a pure Aryan ancestry. The Schutzstaffel has also been held responsible for planning, coordinating, and implementing the Final Solution, in which countless Jews and people of other seemingly undesirable ethnic groups were murdered. Bauz, Ingrid; Sigrid Brggemann; Roland Maier, eds. Abwehr | Encyclopedia.com Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Abwehr. [119] For information about what was happening in German society, the Gestapo continued to be mostly dependent upon denunciations. [73] From the mid-1930s into the early 1940svarious groups made up of communists, idealists, working-class people, and far-right conservative opposition organisations covertly fought against Hitler's government, and several of them fomented plots that included Hitler's assassination. After the Gestapo uncovered the "Operation Seven" funds that had been sent abroad for the emigrants, Bonhoeffer and his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi were arrested in April 1943. We've created informative articles that you can come back to again and again when you have questions or want to learn more! Abwehr - Wikipedia The SA was formally declared not to be a criminal organization by the International Tribunal, and had officially ceased to exist in 1945. Nearly all of them, including: the Rmer Group, Robby Group, Solf Circle, Schwarze Reichswehr, the Party of the Radical Middle Class, Jungdeutscher Orden, Schwarze Front and Stahlhelm were either discovered or infiltrated by the Gestapo. In this Historyplex write-up, we have distinguished the three organizations based on their formation, objectives, and responsibilities, to name a few factors. [35] During the Holocaust, Eichmann's department within the Gestapo coordinated the mass deportation of European Jews to the Nazis' extermination camps. [20] Several Nazi chieftains, among them Gring, Joseph Goebbels, Rudolf Hess, and Himmler, began a concerted campaign to convince Hitler to take action against Rhm. Already in early June, "[135] The involvement of ordinary Germans in denunciations also needs to be put into perspective so as not to exonerate the Gestapo. [156], In 1997, Cologne transformed the former regional Gestapo headquarters in Colognethe EL-DE Hausinto a museum to document the Gestapo's actions. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [33] In January 1943, Himmler appointed Ernst Kaltenbrunner RSHA chief; almost seven months after Heydrich had been assassinated. [143] Correspondingly, Gestapo offices were established in a territory once occupied. Under the leadership of Rhm, the number of employees in the SA increased dramatically. Although an agent in uniform wore the collar insignia of the equivalent SS rank, he was still addressed as, e.g., Operation Crossbow Preliminary missions for the Operation Overlord, https://english.radio.cz/petscheks-palace-once-headquarters-nazi-secret-police-8575365, USHMM, "Law and Justice in the Third Reich", US National Archives, "German Police Records Opened at the National Archives", Avalon Project, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, The National Socialist Document Center of Cologne, "From Nazi to Criminal to Post-War Spy: German Intelligence Hired Klaus Barbie as Agent (20 January 2011)", "Press Release nr00-52: German Police Records Opened at the National Archives", Festung Furulund magasinet Dagbladet.no, Collection of testimonies concerning Gestapo activity in occupied Poland during WWII in "Chronicles of Terror" database, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gestapo&oldid=1151862694, Reactionaries, liberals and opposition (A3). [145] Many of the auxiliary police personnel operating on behalf of German Order Police, the SD, and Gestapo were members of the Schutzmannschaft, which included staffing by Ukrainians, Belorussians, Russians, Estonians, Lithuanians, and Latvians. This led to corresponding arrests, being sent to concentration camps and execution. The difference between SS and the Gestapo The Gestapo is an organization of the police that existed only around 1934-1939 while the SS exited longer for about sixteen years between 1929 and 1945, before being abolished. It was also largely responsible for planning and carrying out the Holocaust. The sole purpose of SS is supposedly to protect the top leader Nazi Hitler. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Hermann Gring, then Prussian minister of the interior, detached the political and espionage units from the regular Prussian police, filled their ranks with thousands of Nazis, and, on April 26, 1933, reorganized them under his personal command as the Gestapo. Read on for the difference between the three ruthless organizations. Sign up to receive the latest and greatest articles from our site automatically each week (give or take)right to your inbox. [65] If homosexuals showed any signs of sympathy to the Nazis' identified racial enemies, they were considered an even greater danger. Meaning Protective Echelon in German, the SS was made up of fervently anti-Semite Germans who possessed deep racial hatred. The Schutzstaffel, Sturmabteilung, and Geheime Staatspolizei played different and yet equally vital roles in Nazi Germany. [50] Meanwhile, the SA and police occupied trade union headquarters, arrested functionaries, confiscated their property and assets; all by design so as to be replaced on 12 May by the German Labour Front (DAF), a Nazi organisation placed under the leadership of Robert Ley. For the wider use of "Secret Police", see, Suppression of resistance and persecution, General opposition and military conspiracy, Population ratios, methods and effectiveness, Operation Crossbow was one preliminary missions for, Bonhoeffer was an active opponent of Nazism in the German resistance movement. However, it was an important part of the brutal attacks against Jews in Germany. However, very few arrests were made. The right collar patch was black without the sig runes. The Gestapo aided and supported the mobile killing units, and even provided its men for the same. Nominally under the Ministry of the Interior, Germanys police, including the political police, the detective force, and the uniformed police forces, were now unified under Himmler. Wilhelm Canaris - Jewish Virtual Library [129] After that year, political investigations declined with only 18 investigations in 1938, 13 in 1939, two in 1941, seven in 1942, four in 1943 and one in 1944. [148] Other Danish civilians, like in many places across Europe, acted as Gestapo informants but this should not be seen as wholehearted support for the Nazi program, as motives for cooperation varied. [46] Because the Gestapo seemed omniscient and omnipotent, the atmosphere of fear they created led to an overestimation of their reach and strength; a faulty assessment which hampered the operational effectiveness of underground resistance organisations. by Wilfried Abenaschon 13 Aug 2002, 02:31, Post In December, 1932, Schleicher became chancellor. The Gestapo committed widespread atrocities during its existence. [62] From the Nazis rise to national power in 1933, the number of court verdicts against homosexuals steadily increased and only declined once the Second World War started. [118] Many of the local offices were understaffed and overworked, struggling with the paper load caused by so many denunciations. Post the Night of Long Knives, the SA had downsized in its power and value. After the war ended, the Gestapo was declared a criminal organisation by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at the Nuremberg trials, and several top Gestapo members were sentenced to death. [116], According to Canadian historian Robert Gellately's analysis of the local offices established, the Gestapo wasfor the most partmade up of bureaucrats and clerical workers who depended upon denunciations by citizens for their information. [98] The Gestapo also maintained offices at all Nazi concentration camps, held an office on the staff of the SS and Police Leaders, and supplied personnel as needed to formations such as the Einsatzgruppen. [5] Contrary to popular perception, the Gestapo was actually a relatively small organization with limited surveillance capacity; despite this the Gestapo proved extremely effective due to the willingness of ordinary Germans to snitch on fellow citizens. [44][45][a], Early in the regime's existence, harsh measures were meted out to political opponents and those who resisted Nazi doctrine, such as members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD); a role originally performed by the SA until the SD and Gestapo undermined their influence and took control of Reich security. When Rhm refused to commit suicide, he was shot by two SS officers. The power of the Gestapo was used to focus upon political opponents, ideological dissenters (clergy and religious organisations), career criminals, the Sinti and Roma population, handicapped persons, homosexuals, and above all, the Jews. (2013). [121], The popular picture of the Gestapo with its spies everywhere terrorising German society has been rejected by many historians as a myth invented after the war as a cover for German society's widespread complicity in allowing the Gestapo to work. On one hand, it was next to impossible for them to overthrow Hitler and the party; on the other, the Allied demand for an unconditional surrender meant no opportunity for a compromise peace, which left the military and conservative aristocrats who opposed the regime no option (in their eyes) other than continuing the military struggle. At that time, the SS consisted of approximately 300 members. Hitler wanted an organization not similar but somewhat linked to the SA that would personally guard Hitler and other important Nazi officials. Together, they began convincing Hitler of Rhm being a threat to the Nazi regime, his hunger for more power, and his supposed plans to overthrow Hitler. [119] Gellately has also suggested that the Gestapo was "a reactive organisationconstructed within German society and whose functioning was structurally dependent on the continuing co-operation of German citizens". The SS - Definition & Facts Many of the men employed by the Gestapo were former criminals and extremists who were ideal for committing the atrocities the Nazi regime had planned. [91], As a result of its 1936 merger with the Kripo (National criminal police) to form sub-units of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; Security Police), the Gestapo was officially classified as a government agency.