History Nazi Police State

The Gestapo

• The Secret State Police Commanded by REINHARD HEYDRICH

• Sweeping powers – they could arrest on suspicion and send people to concentration camps without trial or even explanation.

• 40,000 agents for the whole of the country, even large cities such as Frankfurt or Hamburg had just 40-50 agents.

The police and the courts

• Top jobs in local police forces were given to high-ranking Nazis, reporting to Himmler.

• The police added ‘political snooping’ to their normal law and order role. - Strict instructions to ignore crimes committed by Nazi agents.

• The Nazis also controlled the magistrates, judges and the courts, which meant that opponents of the Nazis rarely received a fair trial.

The SS

• 1925 – formed from fanatics loyal to Hitler

• 1934 – after virtually destroying the SA in 1934 (NOTLK) it grew into a huge organisation with many different responsibilities

• Led by HEINRICH HIMMLER and 52,000 members

• All SS men were Aryans, highly trained and fiercely loyal to Hitler

Responsibilities and divisions of SS

Prime responsibilities:

i)    destroying opposition

ii)   carrying out Nazi racial policies

• Death’s Head units – responsible for the concentration camps and the slaughter of the Jews

• Waffen SS – special SS armoured regiments which fought alongside the regular army

Concentration Camps

• Set up almost as soon as Hitler took power, at first in disused factories and warehouses

• They were soon purpose-built, usually in rural areas, and run by SS Death’s Head units

• Prisoners were forced to do hard labour, very limited food, beatings and random executions

• Jews, Socialists, Communists, trade unionists, churchmen and anyone else brave enough to criticise the Nazis ended up there

4 main functions of the SS-Police system

• Intelligence gathering

• Disciplining the opposition: torture chambers and concentration camps were set up in 1933 to deal with political opponents

• In 1936 the number of inmates was limited to about 6,000 — rapidly increased after when Nazis used Dachau as model to formalise their system of CCs.

• MILITARY ACTION BY THE WAFFEN SS – racially ‘pure’ units, fanatically loyal and committed to Nazi ideology.

During the war it developed into a “second army”: committed, brutal and militarily highly rated. By 1944 the Waffen SS rivalled the position of the German army.

The SS state

Kogon: “State within a state”

250,000 by 1939

ECONOMY – responsible for the creation of the ‘New Order’ in the occupied lands of eastern Europe. By the end of the war the SS had created a massive commercial organisation of over 150 firms, which exploited slave labour to extract raw materials and manufacture textiles, weapons and household goods.

IDEOLOGY & RACE – the Death’s Head units carried out the racial policy of extermination, firstly through the mobile murder squads (Einsatzgruppen), then the concentration camps.

TRADITIONAL VIEW – THE ALL-KNOWING TOTALITARIAN POLICE STATE

By Delarue

• Gestapo the all-seeing force which knew about everything that was going on in Germany.

• This view was encouraged by the Gestapo – if people believed this to be true, opposition would be much less likely.

• This interpretation was also popular in post-war Germany.

REVISED VIEW – THE LIMITATIONS OF GESTAPO POLICING

By Mallman and Paul

Limited manpower – 40,000 agents for the whole of Germany. Large cities like Frankfurt or Hamburg (with about half a million people) were policed by just 40-50 agents.

Majority of work for the Gestapo was actually prompted by public informers (between 50 – 80%, depending on the area). Such denunciations were often mere gossip, which generated enormous paperwork for limited return.

The Gestapo had relatively few ‘top agents’ so it coped by over-relying on the work of the state police (Kripo).

LATEST PERSPECTIVE – CONCENTRATION ON SPECIFIC ENEMIES

By Johnson

Accepted the limitations of the Gestapo, and argued that it did not impose a climate of terror on ordinary Germans.

Instead, it concentrated its job of surveillance and repression on specific enemies:

• The political left

• Jews

• Religious groups and asocials

Claims that the Nazis and the German population formed a grim ‘pact’ – the population turned a blind eye to the Gestapo’s persecution and in return the Nazis overlooked minor transgressions of the law by ordinary Germans.

3 main instruments of Nazi control in German7

SS, the army, and the gauleiters

Nazi guiding principle

“Tolerance is weakness”

4 fundamental principles to which the SS was committed

• The protection of Germany from racial corruption

• The cultivation of a fighting spirit among its members

• Loyalty to the German state

• Absolute obedience to the orders of the Führer

Unified armed forces of Nazis

Wehrmacht

The army oath

Hitler regarded military strength as an expression of German greatness

He did not want the army being an independent organisation that could challenge his authority — he made the army feel that they had a special relationship with him

Made them take on oath of “unconditional loyalty to the person of the Führer”

Army welcomed this because although it was tied to Hitler, it made itself independent of the Nazi Party.

Von Blomberg pledged alliance: “The Wehrmacht… will express its gratitude by its devotion and fidelity.

Army scandals

Despite this oath, Hitler was concerned that as long as the army stayed independent, it represented a source of potential opposition.

He knew that the army generals (who were from Prussian aristocracy) regarded him as an Austrian upstart who had never risen above the rank of private.

Blomberg, Hitler’s first Field Marshal, whose newly wife was rumoured to be a former prostitute.

Von Frtisch, Commander-in-chief of the German Army, was accused of consorting with a male prostitute.

Himmler and Goering exploited the scandals to suggest Wehrmacht was corrupt at the very top — Hitler dismissed both of them and took title of Commander in chief. Hitler was the active commander of Germany’s armed forces — it consolidated and increased his power.