The Gestapo: Power and Terror in the Third ReichThe Gestapo was the most feared instrument of political terror in the Third Reich, brutally hunting down and destroying anyone it regarded as an enemy of the Nazi regime: socialists, Communists, Jews, homosexuals, and anyone else deemed to be an 'anti-social element'. Its prisons soon became infamous - many of those who disappeared into them were never seen again - and it has been remembered ever since as the sinister epitome of Nazi terror and persecution. But how accurate is it to view the Gestapo as an all-pervasive, all-powerful, all-knowing instrument of terror? How much did it depend upon the cooperation and help of ordinary Germans? And did its networks extend further into the everyday life of German society than most Germans after 1945 ever wanted to admit? Answering all these questions and more, this book uses the very latest research to tell the true story behind this secretive and fearsome institution. Tracing the history of the organization from its origins in the Weimar Republic, through the crimes of the Nazi period, to the fate of former Gestapo officers after World War II, Carsten Dams and Michael Stolle investigate how the Gestapo really worked - and question many of the myths that have long surrounded it. |
Contents
Foundation and Early Years | |
Organizational Development | |
Gestapo Employees | |
The Modus Operandi | |
The Practice of Persecution in the Reich | |
The Gestapo in Europe | |
and Eastern Europe | |
The Gestapo after 1945 | |
What Remains of the Gestapo? | |
2005 | |
2021 | |
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The Gestapo: Power and Terror in the Third Reich Carsten Dams,Michael Stolle No preview available - 2022 |
Common terms and phrases
activities administration army arrested Auschwitz became Berlin brutal career command communist concentration camps cooperation crimes criminal police denazification denunciations deployment deported Deutsche district Eichmann Einsatzgruppen Einsatzkommandos executive extermination forced labourers Frankfurt am Main Geheime Staatspolizei German Police German Reich Gestapo chiefs Gestapo employees Gestapo im Zweiten Gestapo members Göring groups Hamburg head headquarters Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Müller Hermann Göring Hitler HSSPF ideological informants initially Inspector interrogation investigations Jewish Jews Kripo leadership military Müller Munich murder National Socialist Nationalsozialismus Nationalsozialistische Nonetheless NSDAP order police organization party Paul and Mallmann perpetrators persecution personnel police and SD police apparatus police officers political police Politische Polizei prisoners protective detention Prussian Gestapo regional Gestapo offices ReichsführerSS Reinhard Heydrich responsible role RSHA Schutzpolizei Secret State Police Security Main Office security police September Sicherheitspolizei socalled SS and Police structures surveillance Terror Third Reich took trial WaffenSS Werner Best Widerstand Wildt Zweiten Weltkrieg