[40], Polish agents also gathered detailed information about the morale of German soldiers in the East. [25] Shortly thereafter, Himmler created the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; Criminal Police), merging it with the Gestapo into the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; Security Police), under Heydrich's command. [160], The Gestapo maintained police detective ranks which were used for all officers, both those who were and who were not concurrently SS members. Hitler vehemently rejected the centuries' old Habsburg pluralist principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages. [43] The Maier group informed very early about the mass murder of Jews. Thereafter, there was a show trial overseen by Roland Freisler, followed by their execution. However, certain Polish information about the movement of German police and SS units to the East during 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union was similar to information British intelligence secretly obtained through intercepting and decoding German police and SS messages sent by radio telegraphy. Secret State Police), abbreviated Gestapo (German: [tapo]; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. Abfraction is a common dental problem caused by the flexing of teeth during biting and . It was viewed negatively by Hitler. [115] The majority of Gestapo informers were not full-term employees working undercover, but were rather ordinary citizens who chose to denounce other people to the Gestapo. Later, nurses, kindergarten teachers, and trained female commercial employees with an aptitude for police work were hired as female detectives after a two-year course as Kriminaloberassistentin and could promote to a Kriminalsekretrin. [37] However, the total number of people who disappeared as a result of this decree is not known. Some pastors, like the Protestant clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer, paid for their opposition with their lives. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene mixed up gazpacho and the Gestapo while criticizing Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [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. The resistance group, later discovered by the Gestapo because of a double agent of the Abwehr, was in contact with Allen Dulles, the head of the US Office of Strategic Services in Switzerland. [84] The Gestapo cracked down ruthlessly on dissidents in Germany, just as they did everywhere else. Hitler, accompanied by the SS and the Gestapo, arrested and murdered important SA leaders who may or may not have been in connection with Rhm in any way. The Poles identified and tracked German military trains to the Eastern front and identified four Order Police battalions sent to occupied areas of the Soviet Union in October 1941 that engaged in war crimes and mass murder. Himmler was nominally subordinate to Frick as police chief, but as Reichsfhrer-SS, he answered only to Hitler. [61] In 1934, a special Gestapo office was set up in Berlin to deal with homosexuality. [124], An examination of 213 denunciations in Dsseldorf showed that 37% were motivated by personal conflicts, no motive could be established in 39%, and 24% were motivated by support for the Nazi regime. In 1936 the Gestapoled by Himmlers subordinate, Gruppenfhrer Heinrich Mllerwas joined with the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police) under the umbrella of a new organization, the Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo; Security Police). Before 1929, the SS wore uniforms similar to the SA. Answer (1 of 3): The SS Schutz Staffel were originally Hitler's bodygaurd. However, very few arrests were made. Meaning Protective Echelon in German, the SS was made up of fervently anti-Semite Germans who possessed deep racial hatred. The force was created by Hermann Gring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organisation. Nevertheless, in practice there was jurisdictional overlap and operational conflict between the SD and Gestapo. Differences among: KRIPO, SIPO, GESTAPO & SD - Axis History Forum The SS - Definition & Facts They nearly drowned suspects in ice-cold water, gave them electric shocks, hung them by their wrists, or beat them savagely. The Gestapo was the political police force of the Nazi state. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. [42] Habsburg loyalist Karl Burian's (who was later executed) plan to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna represented a unique attempt to act aggressively against the Gestapo. He had to count on his senior officials support for his rule, and he gave the go-ahead for the plan to put Rhm out of the picture once and for all. Though the Gestapo, the SS, and the SA were all created to serve Hitler and his Nazi regime, they differed somewhat in their functioning and the way they were controlled. Sabotage efforts were undertaken by members of the Abwehr (military intelligence) leadership, as they recruited people known to oppose the Nazi regime. During World War II, the Gestapo played a key role in the Holocaust. [86] A year after the organisation's inception, Gring wrote in a British publication about having created the organisation on his own initiative and how he was "chiefly responsible" for the elimination of the Marxist and Communist threat to Germany and Prussia. SS vs. Gestapo - VS Pages [61] Homosexuals were correspondingly considered a threat to the Volksgemeinschaft (National Community). Owing to its relatively small sizeapproximately 32,000 personnel at the end of 1944the Gestapo relied extensively on the use of denunciations from among the local German populace in order to conduct its investigations. Though all largely contributed to Hitlers rise to power and his abuse of that power, the three organizations differed slightly in their functions. [121] 80% of all Gestapo investigations were started in response to information provided by denunciations by ordinary Germans; while 10% were started in response to information provided by other branches of the German government and another 10% started in response to information that the Gestapo itself unearthed. [25] The idea was to fully identify and integrate the party agency (SD) with the state agency (SiPo). In this article, we will explore the differences between Gestapo and SS, and shed light on their respective histories and legacies. We hope the above sections have made the identification of all three organizations clearer. "Secret State Police"), abbreviated Gestapo (/stpo/ g-STAH-poh, German: [tapo] (listen)),[3] was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The SA was formally declared not to be a criminal organization by the International Tribunal, and had officially ceased to exist in 1945. Female youth leaders, lawyers, business administrators with experience in social work, female leaders in the Reichsarbeitsdienst and personnel administrators in the Bund Deutscher Mdel were hired as detectives after a one-year course, if they had several years professional experience. As Evans makes clear, "it was not the ordinary German people who engaged in surveillance, it was the Gestapo; nothing happened until the Gestapo received a denunciation, and it was the Gestapo's active pursuit of deviance and dissent that was the only thing that gave denunciations meaning. The term Abwehr (German for defense) was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only.After February 4, 1938, its name in title was Foreign Affairs/Defense Office of the Armed Forces High Command (Amt Ausland/Abwehr im Oberkommando der . [66] According to Gestapo case files, the majority of those arrested for homosexuality were males between eighteen and twenty-five years of age. [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. They were taught that the SS was not only an elite group in the Nazi regime, but also in all of humanity. Rhms leadership and not-so-secret desire of merging with the Army made many senior Nazi officials feel threatened. It had the authority of preventive arrest, and its actions were not subject to judicial appeal. The SS was also known as the parent organization of the Secret State Police, the Gestapo, and was responsible for organizing mobile killing units that went on a murder rampage in the occupied territories. After the Supreme Leader (Hitler), came senior groups, lower groups, regiments, battalions, and troops, to name a few parts of the structure of the SA. Read on for the difference between the three ruthless organizations. Himmler also gained authority over all of Germany's uniformed law enforcement agencies, which were amalgamated into the new Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; Order Police), which became a national agency under SS general Kurt Daluege. However, with the Abwehr and GFP being flooded with work, the situation changed and the SS shrewdly used the opportunity to gain a foothold in Belgium. Rhm harbored the same intentions. [5] Up to 30 April 1944, at least 6,639 persons were arrested under Nacht und Nebel orders. [104] Additional staff were added in March 1938 consequent the annexation of Austria and again in October 1938 with the acquisition of the Sudetenland. The Gestapo also cooperated extensively with the Ordnungspolizei for operations inside Germany and in the occupied territories. The Abwehr was a German intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944. Difference Between SS and Gestapo In that bureaucratic maze, the functions of the Gestapo often overlapped with those of other security departments, with which the Gestapo had both to cooperate and compete. [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. [137] Lastly, the Gestapo's effectiveness, while aided by denunciations and the watchful eye of ordinary Germans, was more the result of the co-ordination and co-operation amid the various police organs within Germany, the assistance of the SS, and the support provided by the various Nazi Party organisations; all of them together forming an organised persecution network. [127] As time went by, anonymous denunciations to the Gestapo caused trouble to various NSDAP officials, who often found themselves being investigated by the Gestapo. What was the difference between the SD and the Gestapo? The killed SA members were further demeaned by making their homosexuality public. Whereas the Gestapo agents, were mostly of police background. Abfraction vs Abrasion: When To Use Each One In Writing [6] This gave Gring command of the largest police force in Germany. [113] In Germany proper, many towns and cities had fewer than 50 official Gestapo personnel. "[145] Nonetheless, German authorities ordered the mobilisation of reserve Polish police forces, known as the Blue Police, which strengthened the Nazi police presence and carried out numerous "police" functions; in some cases, its functionaries even identified and rounded up Jews or performed other unsavory duties on behalf of their German masters. To ensure that history does NOT repeat itself, it is vital that we realize that humanity is above all, and not any one race or ethnic group. After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Hermann Gringfuture commander of the Luftwaffe and the number two man in the Nazi Partywas named Interior Minister of Prussia. The SD sleeve diamond (SD Raute) insignia was worn on the lower left sleeve, even by SiPo men who were not in the SD. 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. Here are some examples of how abfraction and abrasion might be used in a sentence: Examples Of Using Abfraction In A Sentence. Answer (1 of 4): It was of a piece with the Nazi governing policy: the Fhrerprinzip that created a a plethora of government agencies engaged in non-stop internecine bureaucratic turf wars. [147], In places like Denmark, there were some 550 uniformed Danes in Copenhagen working with the Gestapo, patrolling and terrorising the local population at the behest of their German overseers, many of whom were arrested after the war. Gestapo | Holocaust Encyclopedia It became known as Amt (Dept) 4 of the RSHA and was considered a sister organisation to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service). This article was most recently revised and updated by, Gestapo - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). [14] Himmler and Heydrich both immediately began installing their own personnel in select positions, several of whom were directly from the Bavarian Political Police, such as Heinrich Mller, Franz Josef Huber and Josef Meisinger. Schleicher and Bredow tried to control the activities of the National Socialist . Members of the three convicted groups, however, were subject to apprehension by Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France. [94], The Gestapo became known as RSHA Amt IV ("Department or Office IV") with Heinrich Mller as its chief. [107], The Canadian historian Robert Gellately wrote that most Gestapo men were not Nazis, but at the same time were not opposed to the Nazi regime, which they were willing to serve, in whatever task they were called upon to perform. Hitlers rise to power and his rule in Nazi Germany has been attributed to the aid and support of several people, with three organizations playing a vital role the SS, the SA, and the Gestapo. After another two or three years in that grade, the female detective could advance to Kriminalobersekretrin. [63], Between June 1942 and March 1943, student protests were calling for an end to the Nazi regime. An organization that would become one of the most-feared ones in Nazi Germany was created so as to strengthen Nazi rule by weeding out anyone who could be perceived as a threat to the Party. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Also known as the Storm Troopers or the Brownshirts (they were called the Brownshirts because of their brown uniforms), it was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party, whose violent tactics played a huge role in Hitlers rise to power in Germany. Omissions? [24], On 17 June 1936, Hitler decreed the unification of all police forces in Germany and named Himmler as Chief of German Police. TL;DR: The Gestapo was the secret police that hunted down enemies of the Reich, while the SS were the brain-child of Himmler, a specially trained division of the military which participated in everything from invasions to crimes against humanity. At the beginning of the war, the Gestapo employed about 40,000 men. For the most part, members of the church did not offer political resistance but simply wanted to ensure that organizational doctrine remained intact. According to the trials that were held after Germanys defeat in the war, the SS was responsible for a majority of the crimes committed in Nazi Germany. [107] Over time, membership in the Gestapo included ideological training, particularly once Werner Best assumed a leading role for training in April 1936. The Gestapo was somewhat of a division of the SS, making SS the parent organization. [33] After Heydrich's 1942 assassination, Himmler assumed the leadership of the RSHA until January 1943, when Ernst Kaltenbrunner was appointed chief. [68] During the first five months of 1943, the Gestapo arrested thousands suspected of resistance activities and carried out numerous executions. This prompted Winston Churchill to ban any further contact with the German opposition. [18] Rhm's position was menacing as more than 4.5 million men fell under his command once the militias and veterans organisations were absorbed by the SA,[19] a fact which fuelled Rhm's aspirations; his dream of fusing the SA and Reichswehr together was undermining Hitler's relationships with the leadership of Germany's armed forces. Department C (Administration and Party Affairs), central administrative office of the Gestapo, responsible for card files of all personnel including all officials. Varying degrees of pacification and police enforcement measures were necessary in each place, dependent on how cooperative or resistant the locals were to Nazi mandates and racial policies. The Geheime Staatspolizei (transl. 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. [104][e] Some locals aided the Gestapo, whether as professional police auxiliaries or in other duties. [7][8] He originally wanted to name it the Secret Police Office (Geheimes Polizeiamt), but the German initials, "GPA", were too similar to those of the Soviet State Political Directorate (Gosudarstvennoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie, or GPU). When asked for identification, an operative was required only to present his warrant disc and not a picture identification. It successfully thwarted Operation Valkyrie, wherein an attempt to assassinate Hitler was made by some senior Nazi officials themselves. In 1929 General Kurt von Schleicher combined all service units under his Ministry of Defence. [90] Less than two weeks later in early May 1933, the Gestapo moved into their Berlin headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Strae 8. Opposition became more difficult. by Schmauser 13 Aug 2002, 13:44, Post However, these internal departments remained and the Gestapo continued to be a department under the RSHA umbrella. Many others were beaten and tortured to death. Student opposition leaders were executed in late February, and a major opposition organisation, the Oster Circle, was destroyed in April 1943. Abwehr. While they may seem very similar, they actually differed in the roles they played. [157], After the war, U.S. Counterintelligence Corps employed the former Lyon Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie for his anti-communist efforts and also helped him escape to Bolivia. [70], Between 1934 and 1938, opponents of the Nazi regime and their fellow travellers began to emerge. [51] For their part, this was the first time the Gestapo operated under its new name since its 26 April 1933 founding in Prussia. At that time, the SS consisted of approximately 300 members. Joins the Abwehr Schrader escaped from the Concentration Camp in 1934. The Gestapo operated without civil restraints. After his escape, he rejoined the army as a Hauptmann, with seniority dating from May 1st of 1934. . He appointed General Ferdinand von Bredow, as head of Abwehr. Soon afterward, Gring detached the political and intelligence sections from the police and filled their ranks with Nazis. Meanwhile, there was also a great deal of overlapping of authority on many of these matters too. The gestapo were Nazi Germany's brutal secret-police. [29] The Gestapo was specifically exempted from responsibility to administrative courts, where citizens normally could sue the state to conform to laws. [25] This action effectively merged the police into the SS and removed it from Frick's control. [21] Both the SD and Gestapo released information concerning an imminent putsch by the SA. Some participants were sent to concentration camps. Differences between SD & GESTAPO: practical point of vue - Axis History Historian George C. Browder contends that there was a four-part process (authorisation, bolstering, routinisation, and dehumanisation) in effect which legitimised the psycho-social atmosphere conditioning members of the Gestapo to radicalised violence. Already in early June, [77] Later, the British and Americans did not want to deal with anti-Nazis because they were fearful that the Soviet Union would believe they were attempting to make deals behind their back. Employing biological metaphors, Best emphasised a doctrine which encouraged members of the Gestapo to view themselves as 'doctors' to the 'national body' in the struggle against "pathogens" and "diseases"; among the implied sicknesses were "communists, Freemasons, and the churchesand above and behind all these stood the Jews". [64][c] Between 1933 and 1935, some 4,000 men were arrested; between 1936 and 1939, another 30,000 men were convicted. The Gestapo was established in 1933 by Hermann Gring, with the aim of consolidating Nazi . The Gestapo had its own system of arrests, judiciary, and execution. Gestapo, abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei (German: Secret State Police), the political police of Nazi Germany. Without the help, support, and co-operation of these organizations, perhaps Hitler wouldnt have been able to spread the terror he did, for whatever reasons. [25], The Gestapo had the authority to investigate cases of treason, espionage, sabotage and criminal attacks on the Nazi Party and Germany. Abwehr | Encyclopedia.com The SA, or the Sturmabteilung, were formed in Munich, Germany, in 1921 by Adolf Hitler himself. [112], Contrary to popular belief, the Gestapo was not the all-pervasive, omnipotent agency in German society. [131] Failing that, torture and planting evidence were common methods of resolving a case, especially if the case concerned someone Jewish. [118] The information supplied by denunciations often led the Gestapo in determining who was arrested. It was officially declared to be a criminal organization and banned in Germany by the International Tribunal in 1945, and some of its surviving officials were arrested, tried, and executed for inhuman war crimes. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Burian's group had also set up a secret courier service to Otto von Habsburg in Belgium. Denunciation was the exception, not the rule, as far as the behaviour of the vast majority of Germans was concerned. The SD and Gestapo did have integration through SS members holding dual positions in each branch. [16], By the spring of 1934, Himmler's SS controlled the SD and the Gestapo, but for him, there was still a problem, as technically the SS (and the Gestapo by proxy) was subordinated to the SA, which was under the command of Ernst Rhm. [87] Describing the activities of the organisation, Gring boasted about the utter ruthlessness required for Germany's recovery, the establishment of concentration camps for that purpose, and even went on to claim that excesses were committed in the beginning, recounting how beatings took place here and there.
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