The Gestapo: The Nazi's Machine Of Terror

The SS and Gestapo (secret police) acting under the orders of Himmler, made terror a regular occurrence and a matter of state policy. Any sort of opponents were beaten and regularly thrown

In the beginning Adolf Hitler couldn 't run all of germany by himself so he elected officials to take charge while he was worrying about taking over the world. “Heinrich Himmler who was appointed Reichsfuhrer- SS in 1929 and from its very inception he saw the SS as an elite force, as an elite unit, the party 's "Praetorian Guard," with all SS personnel selected on the principles of racial purity and unconditional loyalty to the Nazi Party” (Holocaust Education). Himmler took his job very seriously, he took barely trained bodyguards and turned them into an elite force who was know as “Schutzstaffel or SS “. There was nothing that Himmler didn 't do that impress the fuhrer,”Thanks to his control of the police Himmler was able to build up the concentration camps, in order to provide “protective custody” for political suspects.” Since Hitler and Himmler were

Gestapo,was a German secret police force, which was created in 1933 after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

One was Irma Grese, known as the “Beautiful Beast”(Degob.org), she was a tall,blonde haired female guard that was feared by the prisoners. Part of the reason she was so cruel was possibly the way she grew up. At age 13 she lost her mother, after elementary school she immediately began work. She ended up in control of one of the concentration camps when she was the head of road construction and was promoted. Some of the things she did to the prisoners included; beating and killing prisoners for no reason, often for fun. She would also stomp on prisoners that were on the ground with her boots. Another cruel Nazi official was Herman Goering. He created the gestapo, as well as establishing one of the most feared secret police in Nazi Germany, he would steal millions of pounds(currency) from the Jewish victims. One of the other horrible Nazi officials was Paul Gobbels(Listverse). He was the administrator of propaganda. He was responsible for all of the awful hate messages sent through Germany meant to turn the public on the Jewish population. Those were the other side of the Nazi officials whom should be punished for the crimes they

“As an army political agent, he joined the small German Workers’ Party in Munich (September 1919).”(1) The German Workers’ party was like a small private club that met in secret to talk about different things. Which sounds like they were up to no good. “In 1920 he was put in charge of the party’s propaganda and left the army to devote himself to improving his position within the party, which in that year was renamed the National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi).”(1) That group was the start of something horrid. It was the start of the Nazi regime. Hitler worked his way up the chain of command in the group. “In July 1921 he became their leader with almost unlimited powers.”(1) It only took around two years to become the leader of that group. Which again shows that he can weave his way to the top from being nothing. “With his charismatic personality and dynamic leadership, he attracted a devoted cadre of Nazi leaders, men whose names today live in infamy—Johann Dietrich Eckart (who acted as a mentor for Hitler), Alfred Rosenberg, Rudolf Hess, Hermann

His speech, “We Had the Moral Right” was dedicated to other SS guards. Himmler had no guilt killing thousands of Jews. Himmler believed that killing the Jews was the best thing for Germany because they were able to take the Jews wealth away and were able to give that wealth back to Germany (Duiker, 2017, 667). The purpose of Himmler’s speech was to inform other SS guards that what they were doing the right thing: destroying the Jews so Germany and other Europeans can have a better life. After reading all of the sources, Himmler was just as evil as Hitler. The fact that Himmler had no guilt about destroying all the Jews and could give a speech on it, showed that he was truly

Heinrich Himmler was born on October 7, 1900, in Munich, Germany where he grew up to become the second most powerful man in the third Reich. His cause of fame was due to his control over the SS and Gestapo, as well as his jurisdiction concerning the holocaust. Himmler was given control of the SS, also known as the Nazi Party in 1929. Since he had authority, he began to expand his influence across Europe. In the late summer of 1941, Himmler got the approval to organize a mass murder among the Jewish people. With inspiration of exterminating the Jews, Himmler delivered a speech to SS officers in Poznan, October 4, 1943. This speech elaborated about his beliefs and order of conquered people. This speech motivated the Schutzstaffel to kill approximately eleven million people. (Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, Heinrich Himmler) Himmler announced his speech in German. Inconveniently, I can’t understand German, however, this article accurately translates Himmler’s speech from German to English. My source is are from original documents on the holocaust, found in Trial of War Criminals Before the Nurnberg Military Tribunals – Washington, U.S Govt. Print. Off., 1949-1953, Vol. XII, p.232, and Himmler, Reichsfuehrer SS-P. The purpose of this source was to manipulate people into thinking that Jews were an inferior race and a threat to German policies.

Nya: Well sir the purpose of the Gestapo was to cause destruction which persecuted Germans, and opponents of the regime, and Jews. Later the Gestapo had a role in carrying out the Nazi 's “Final Solution”. When the Gestapo was told to guard the ghettos they had to impose labor, causing starving, and disease in an effort to kill many Jews that inhabited the ghettos

Heinrich Himmler was one of the main causes for cruelty in World War II because he was a designer and overseer of the concentration camps, he performed many torturous experiments, and he had the most power in the Nazi party behind Adolph Hitler. First off, Himmler's background changed drastically through becoming a Nazi. To start, when Himmler became a Nazi, he changed his religion from Catholicism to German Mythology (Historpedia, 4). He believed that a true German soldier should be all-around dedicated in every aspect of their life to their job. Also, when Himmler was in college he had a Jewish fraternity leader.

Police terror is seen when violence and terror are used to force complete obedience and to crush any opposition to the government, usually involving brutal force or even murder. The only goal of using police terror is to protect the interests of the government, not the citizen’s. This would strengthen a leader’s power due to the complete annihilation of opposition, leading to a boost in support for the leader, as those who would be opposed would not dare speak out for fear stemming from the police. Specifically, Hitler had established the Sturmabteilung, or SA, which was the Nazi party’s own personal police force. This police force was led by Ernst Rohm, and was used to defend themselves during meetings, as well as to scare and terrorize the meetings of other political parties in order to disperse them, so that there were no meetings of those opposed to the Nazi party (Growing Fascism in Germany Lecture Notes, February 15, 2017).

Leaders used scapegoats as common enemies to unite the masses against. Hitler used propaganda to villainize minorities, portraying them as animals, unfit to socialize with white “Aryans,” and corrupt. In Germany these minorities faced the constant threat of Hitler’s police force. Hitler’s police force, or Gestapo, arrested perceived enemies before they committed crimes. These Gestapo sent opposing political party members, Jews, “work shy,” homosexuals, and professional criminals to harsh concentration camps. In these camps, inhumane punishments were common, long laborious work was expected, food and water was few and far in between, and deaths occurred on a daily basis. Neighbors and friends disappeared in the middle of the night to concentration camps. People did not stand up to the Gestapo due to the fear of being persecuted themselves. This gave an undeniable power to Hitler. To prevent being targeted, the people united against these minorities. All perceived enemies could mercilessly killed without protest. Along with executing political enemies,

Racial matters were mostly dealt with the Allgemeine-SS. It was divided into many other sub-groups, from which the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA: Reich Security Central Office) was the most important. This group controlled the Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo: Security Police), which consisted of the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo: Criminal Police) and the infamous Gestapo which was led by Heinrich Mueller. The Sicherheitsdienst (SD: Security Service) was another sub-group of the RHSA that specialized in intelligence and espionage.

Reinhard Heydrich was the leader of the SD and the Gestapo. He was very dedicated to the Nazi cause and fit the physical standards of an Aryan through making him a true Nazi soldier (“Heydrich”). He created the SD Intelligence agency for Heinrich Himmler since there was no intelligence agency (“Heydrich”). Created secret agency called RSHA which combined many agencies such as the Gestapo, and KRIPO, Kriminalpolizei (“Heydrich”). Heydrich implemented the Final Solution under his rule where, “14,000 German and Austrian Jews and more than 20,000 Czech Jews were deported from Theresienstadt to the Lodz ghetto, to the Government General, and to the Reich Commissariat Ostland.” He was another main figure during the Holocaust and the Final Solution due to

Gestapo Although the Gestapo is generally associated with SS Leader Heinrich Himmler, it was actually founded by Hermann Göring in April 1933. Upon becoming Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler had appointed Göring as Minister of the Interior for the State of Prussia, Germany's biggest and most important state, which controlled two thirds of the country, including the capital, Berlin, and the big industrial centers. As Minister of the Interior, Göring thereby had control of the police.

When one thinks of the most evil and powerful person through history, one often thinks of Adolf Hitler. However, most of the feats accomplished by Hitler would have been impossible without the help of his lesser known right-hand man, Heinrich Himmler. Deemed “the second most powerful man in Germany during World War II” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), he helped Hitler carry out his brutal genocide of the Jewish religion. Heinrich Himmler played an extremely important role in the Holocaust.