Section B: The Police state

The role of the Gestapo 

1. The Gestapo (Secret Police) were set up by Hermann Goering in 1933 as a non-uniformed secret police force. By 1936, it was run by Himmler’s deputy, Reinhard Heydrich. 

2. The main aim of the Gestapo was to identify opponents of the Nazi government through spying, tapping phones and, most effectively, a network of informants. 

3. There were only about 30,000 Gestapo officers for a population of 80 million, so they relied on people’s fear of not knowing who was in the Gestapo. 

4. By 1939 the Gestapo were arresting 160,000 people a year for ‘political crimes’. It is estimated 80% of these were discovered through the informant network rather than the Gestapo officers themselves. 

The role of the SS 

1. The SS (Schutzstaffel or Protection Squad) was originally set up as a personal bodyguard for Hitler in 1925. Control passed to Heinrich Himmler in 1929. In 1932 Himmler started to distinguish the SS as an elite separate from the SA, by giving it distinctive black shirts and making it the private police force of the Nazi party. 

2. After the Night of the Long Knives the SS became increasingly powerful and grew from a few thousand to 240,000 members by the end of the 1930s. It was given overall control of all police and security services. 

3. Himmler wanted to keep the SS as a ‘racially pure elite’ and recruits had to prove their ‘Aryan ancestry’ and marry only ‘racially pure’ wives.  

4. As the power of the SS grew, its power started to overlap with other elements of the police state, leading to chaotic changes of command and a lack of clarity over who was responsible for what.  

The role of the SD  

1. The SD (Sicherheitsdienst or Security Force) was formed by Himmler in 1931 as a security force for the Nazi party to monitor its opponents. 

2. The SD were uniformed political police who kept a detailed card index of all suspected opponents of the Nazi regime at Nazi Party headquarters in Munich. It was led by Himmler’s deputy, Reinhard Heydrich. 

3. As Himmler’s power grew, so did his rivalry with Heydrich, and the SD was increasingly sidelined.  

Concentration camps 

1. By 1939, 150,000 people were under ‘protective arrest’ for ‘political crimes’. Very quickly the space in existing prisons had run out so new prison camps, known as concentration camps, were set up to cope with the numbers. 

2. The first camp set up in 1933 was at Dachau, near Munich. It was followed by Sachsenhausen, just outside Berlin and Moringen, a camp for women.  

3. The camps were built in isolated areas outside major cities, so most people would never have seen one, but their existence was publicised to strike fear into potential opponents. 

4. There were 20,000 people in six camps by the beginning of 1939. Most of the inmates were political opponents, particularly Communists and Socialists. There were also ‘undesirables’ such as alcoholics and homosexuals and minority groups such as the Jewish people. 

The legal system, judges and the law courts 

1. All judges had to be a member of the newly set up National Socialist League for the Maintenance of the Law. If the judges gave verdicts that displeased the Nazis, they could have their membership removed, effectively sacking them as judges. 

2. The Nazis abolished trial by jury. The tame judges would decide innocence and guilt as well as the punishments. 

3. Finally, Hitler set up a separate court system for ‘political crimes’ known as the ‘People’s Court’. Judges for these courts were hand-picked and trials held secretly with no right of appeal. 

4. Punishments became harsher. Between 1934 and 1939 534 people were executed for political offences, compared to eight between 1930 and 1932. The number of crimes that carried the death penalty increased from three to 46 between 1933 and 1939. 

5. However, the Nazi control over the legal system was not absolute, and people were on occasion still acquitted (found not guilty) of political crimes 

Nazi policy towards the Catholic Church 

1. The Catholic church owed allegiance to the Pope and had their own schools so were potentially a threat to Hitler’s control of the population. 

2. Hitler reached a Concordat (agreement) with the Pope in July 1933, in which Hitler promised to allow Catholic religious freedom and schools to operate in return for priests avoiding discussing politics and swearing an oath of allegiance to the State. 

3. Hitler did not keep the agreement. Catholic schools were closed or brought in line with Nazi ideas, the Catholic Youth League was banned and any critical Catholic priests were sent to concentration camps. 

4. By 1937, Pope Pius XI realised the Concordat was worthless so issued a critical public statement (Papal Bull) known as ‘With Burning Anxiety’ criticising Nazi policies. 

Nazi policy towards the Protestant Church 

1. The Protestant church became divided between those who accepted the Nazis as a better alternative than Communism (the Reich Church) and those who resisted Nazi ideas (Pastors Emergency League or PEL). 

2. The pro-Nazi Reich Church was set up by Ludwig Muller in 1936. Nazi swastikas were displayed in churches, Jewish people banned from attending and the Jewish teachings of the Old Testament removed. 

3. In 1933, many Protestant pastors, such as Martin Niemoller, refused to cooperate and spoke out against Nazi policies. By 1937, Niemoller was in a concentration camp and the PEL was banned.