Gestapo
Nazi political police
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Last Updated: Nov 22, 2018 See Article History
Alternative Title: Geheime Staatspolizei
Gestapo, abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei (German: “Secret State Policeâ€), the political police of Nazi Germany. The Gestapo ruthlessly eliminated opposition to the Nazis within Germany and its occupied territories and, in partnership with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD: “Security Serviceâ€), was responsible for the roundup of Jews throughout Europe for deportation to extermination camps.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Hermann Göring, then Prussian minister of the interior, detached the political and espionage units from the regular Prussian police, filled their ranks with thousands of Nazis, and, on April 26, 1933, reorganized them under his personal command as the Gestapo. Simultaneously, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, the Nazi paramilitary corps, together with his aide Reinhard Heydrich, similarly reorganized the police of Bavaria and the remaining German states. Himmler was given command over Göring’s Gestapo in April 1934. On June 17, 1936, Himmler, in addition to his position as head of the SS, took control of all German police forces, including the Ordnungspolizei (German: “Order Policeâ€), with his appointment as Reichsführer SS and chief of the German police. Nominally under the Ministry of the Interior, Germany’s police, including the political police, the detective force, and the uniformed police forces, were now unified under Himmler.
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