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Category » Nazi Perpetrators. Principal Officials of the Third Reich. Third Reich Power Structure. Index of Principal Nazi. Heads of the German Armed Forces. The Einsatzgruppen. Hungarian Authorities. Reserve Police Battalion In this department were handled matters concerning prisoners of war. I learned from this department that instructions and orders by Reichsfuehrer Himmler, dating from and , existed according to which captured Soviet Russian political Commissars and Jewish soldiers were to be executed.
Koenigshaus had to prepare the orders for execution and submitted them to the chief of section IV, Mueller, for signature. These orders were made out so that one order was to be sent to the agency making the request and a second one to the concentration camp designated to carry out the execution.
The PWs in question were at first formally released from PW status, then transferred to a concentration camp for execution. These teams were assigned to the camp commanders and had the job to segregate the PWs who were candidates for execution, according to the orders that had been given, and to report them to the Office of the Secret Police Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt.
The camp commandant was to be informed that the prisoners were being handed over under the operation "Kugel". On the journey the prisoners of war were to be placed in irons. The Stalag was to be informed of the recapture and asked to surrender them with the words "Stufe III". On 27 July an order from the 6th Corps Area Command was issued on the treatment of prisoners of war, which provided that prisoners of war were to be discharged from prisoner-of-war status and transferred to the GESTAPO if they were guilty of crimes, had escaped and been recaptured, or refused to work or encouraged other prisoners not to work, or were screened out by Einsatzkommandos of the SIPO and SD, or were guilty of sabotage.
No reports on transfers were required PS. Prisoners of war sent to Mauthausen concentration camp under it were regarded as dead to the outside world and were executed. The first concentration camps were established in at Dachau in Bavaria and at Oranienburg in Prussia. The GESTAPO had the sole authority to take persons into protective custody, and orders for protective custody were carried out in the State concentration camps.
The GESTAPO issued the orders establishing concentration camps, transforming prisoner of war camps into concentration camps, designating concentration camps as internment camps, changing labor camps into concentration camps, setting up special sections for female prisoners, and so forth.
D; D The Chief of the Security Police and SD ordered the classification of concentration camps according to the seriousness of the accusation and the chances for reforming the prisoners from the Nazi viewpoint.
During the war it was the policy not to permit the prisoners to know the period of custody and merely to announce the term as "until further notice". When orders were received from the GESTAPO headquarters in Berlin to commit persons who had been arrested to concentration camps, an entry was made in the Haftbuch to that effect. The reason assigned for the arrest and commitment of persons to concentration camps usually was that, according to the GESTAPO, the person endangered by his attitude the existence and security of the people and the State.
Further specifications of grounds included such offenses as that of "working against the Greater German Reich with an illegal resistance organization," "being a Jew," "suspected of working for the detriment of the Reich," "being strongly suspected of aiding desertion," "because as a relative of a deserter he is expected to take advantage of every occasion to harm the German Reich," "refusal to work," "sexual intercourse with a Pole," "religious propaganda," "working against the Reich," "loafing on the job," or "defeatist statements.
L; L The telegram stated:. The order further provided that Eastern or foreign workers who had escaped or broken the labor contracts were to be sent to the nearest concentration camps as quickly as possible, and that inmates of detention rooms and educational work camps who were fit for work should be delivered to the nearest concentration camps.
On 23 March , Mueller issued another directive referring to said directive of 17 December , in which he stated that measures are to be carried out until 30 April More explicit instructions were given as to which concentration camps the slave laborers were to be sent.
He said:. On 25 June , Mueller issued an order stating that the decrees of 17 December and of 23 March had achieved the intended goal. Poles released after an imprisonment of over six months were to be transferred to the GESTAPO for internment in a concentration camp for the duration of the war. The arrest of Jews and their shipment to annihilation camps was carried out under the direction of Eichmann, head of the section handling Jews in the Gestapo.
Eichmann estimated, and so reported to Himmler, that 4,, Jews were killed in the annihilation camps in the East, in addition to the 2,, Jews shot by the Einsatz Groups. The extermination of Jews in the annihilation camps was accomplished mainly after the beginning of , during the time Kaltenbrunner was the Chief of the Security Police and SD.
On 26 November , Fritz Sauckel transmitted a letter to the president of provincial employment offices in which he stated that he had been advised by the Chief of the Security Police and SD RSHA under date of 26 October that during the month of November the evacuation of Poles in the Lublin district would begin in order to make room for the settlement of persons of the German race.
The Poles who were evacuated as a result of this measure were to be put into concentration camps for labor so far as they were criminal or asocial. The remaining Poles who were suitable for labor were to be transported without their families into the Reich, there to be put at the disposal of the Labor Allocation Offices to serve as replacements for jews eliminated from the armament factories.
During the program of mass murder carried out by the Einsatz Groups in the East was modified, and orders were issued to round up hundreds of thousands of persons for the armament industry. On 18 June secret orders were issued from the Chief of the Security Police and SD, signed by Mueller, to prevent the return of Eastern emigrants and civilian workers from the Reich to the East, and to keep them in German war production. On 18 October , Hitler ordered that all members of Commando units, even when in uniform, or members of sabotage groups, armed or not, were to be exterminated to the last man by fighting or by pursuing them.
Even if they wished to surrender, they were not to be spared. Members of such Commandos, acting as agents, saboteurs, etc. On 26 June , WFST issued an order in which it was stated that enemy paratroopers landing in Brittany were to be treated as commandos, and that it was immaterial whether the paratroopers were in uniform or civilian clothes.
The order provided that in cases of doubt enemy soldiers who were captured alive were to be handed over to the SD for examination as to whether the Fuehrer Order of 18 October was to be applied or not. They wore a uniform which was American or Canadian; brown-green color, shirt, and cloth cap. Eight or ten days after their arrival the execution order came in by telegraph or teletype. Standartenfuehrer Ziereis came to me into my office and told me now Kaltenbrunner has given the permission for the execution.
This letter was secret and had the signature: signed Kaltenbrunner. Then, these people were shot according to martial law and their belongings were given to me by 1st Sgt. On 10 August , Himmler issued an order to the Security Police stating that it was not the task of the Police to interfere in clashes between Germans and English and American terror flyers who had bailed out. On 12 June the Chief of the SD-Abschnitte Koblenz stated that the Army had issued a similar order, namely, that German soldiers were not to protect enemy flyers from the populace and that the Army no longer attached value to enemy flyers taken prisoner.
On 7 December Hitler issued the directive, since called the "Nacht and Nebel Erlass" Night and Fog Decree , under which persons who committed offenses against the Reich or occupation forces in occupied territories, except where death sentence was certain, were to be taken secretly to Germany and surrendered to the Security Police and SD for trial or punishment in Germany.
An executive ordinance was issued by Keitel the same date, and on 4 February the directive and ordinance were published to the police and the SS. In compliance with the above directive, the military intelligence turned over cases, other than those in which the death sentence was probable, to the GESTAPO and the Secret Field Police for secret deporting to Germany. After the civilians arrived in Germany, no word of the disposition of their cases was permitted to reach the country from which they came, or their relatives.
Even when they died awaiting trial, the SIPO and SD refused to notify the families, so that anxiety would be created in the minds of the family of the arrested person. Even where there were courts capable of handling emergency cases, the GESTAPO conducted its own executions without regard to normal judicial processes.
On 18 September , Thierack, the Reich Minister of Justice, and Himmler came to an understanding by which antisocial elements were to be turned over to Himmler to be worked to death, and a special criminal procedure was to be applied by the police to the Jews, Poles, gypsies, Russians, and Ukrainians who were not to be tried in ordinary criminal courts.
This order provided that ordinary criminal procedure would not be applied against Poles, Jews, gypsies, and other Eastern people, but that instead they would be turned over to the police. Such persons of foreign extraction were to be treated on a basis entirely different from that applied to Germans.
In the case of punishable offenses committed by a person of alien race the personal motives actuating the offender must be completely eliminated. The only standard may be that German civil order is endangered by his action, and that consequently preventive measures must be taken to prevent the recurrence of such risks.
In other words, the action of a person of alien race is not to be viewed from the angle of judicial expiation, but from the angle of the police guard against danger.
On 19 July , the Commander of the SIPO and SD for the District Radom published an order transmitted through the Higher SS and Police Leaders to the effect that in all cases of assassination or attempted assassination of Germans, or where saboteurs had destroyed vital installations, not only the guilty person but also all his or her male relatives should be shot and the female relatives over 16 years of age put into a concentration camp.
In the summer of , the Einsatzkommando of the SIPO and SD at Luxembourg caused persons to be confined at Sachsenhausen concentration camp because they were relatives of deserters and were, therefore, "expected to endanger the interest of the German Reich if allowed to go free. Preparations were to be made for total clearance of the prisons should the situation at the front necessitate such action. In the case of sudden emergency precluding the evacuation of the prisoners, they were to be shot and their bodies buried or otherwise disposed of, the buildings to be dynamited, and so forth.
In similar circumstances, the Jews who were still employed in the armament industries or in other work were to be dealt with in the same way.
The liberation of prisoners or Jews by the enemy was to be avoided at all costs. On the eastern front the victims were required not only to give up all their personal possessions, but even to remove their outer garments prior to being murdered.
In connection with the program of confiscation of scientific, religious, and art archives and objects, an agreement was entered into between Rosenberg and Heydrich, under which the SD and Rosenberg were to cooperate closely in the confiscation of public and private collections. Orders of this kind will, in the future, also be transmitted to the State Police District Office concerned.
In this case, too, there is no objection to spreading the rumour of this increased punishment. On 12 June the Chief of the Security Police and SD, through Mueller, published an order authorizing the use of third degree methods in interrogating where preliminary investigation indicates that the prisoner could give information on important facts such as subversive activities, but not to extort confessions of the prisoner's own crimes. The order stated in part:. In all other cases, my permission must first be obtained.
On 24 February the Kommandeur of the SIPO and SD for the district Radom, "in view of the variety of methods used to date in third-degree interrogations and in order to avoid excesses," published an order issued by the BdS Cracow based on regulations in force for the Reich which followed closely the limitations laid down in the above decree of 12 June The persecution of the Jews under the Nazi regime is a story of increasingly severe treatment, beginning with restrictions, then seizure and spoliation of property, commitment to concentration camps, deportation, slave labor, and finally mass murder.
Section B of the SD dealt with problems of nationality, including minorities, race and national health, immigration, and resettlement. The GESTAPO was charged with the enforcement of discriminatory laws, such as those preventing Jews from engaging in business, restricting their right to travel, and prohibiting them from associating with gentiles. L; L; L As many Jews were to be arrested in all districts as the available jail space would hold. Well-to-do Jews were to be singled out for arrest, and primarily only healthy male adults of not too advanced age.
Immediately after completion of the arrests, the competent concentration camp was to be notified in order to provide for speediest transfer of Jews to the camps. The report stated in part:. The figures given in the reports shops destroyed, dwelling houses set on fire or destroyed, only indicate a fraction of the actual damage caused, as far as arson is concerned. Due to the urgency of the reporting, the reports received to date are entirely limited to general statements such as 'numerous' or 'most shops destroyed.
In addition 11 parish halls, [Gemeindehauser] cemetery chapels and similar buildings were set on fire and 3 more completely destroyed. The latter were arrested for their own safety. Those killed and injured are Jews. One Jew is still missing. The Jews killed include one Polish national, and those injured include 2 Poles. In February or March , according to Gottfried Boley, Ministerialrat in the Reich Chancery, a conference on the solution of the Jewish problem, attended by representatives of the ministries, was called by Kaltenbrunner as Chief of the Security Police and SD.
Boley states:. In his opening remarks Eichmann referred to former conferences that had taken place in the office of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, and that on this occasion he wished to discuss the matter in a more basic manner. He stated that the Jewish question had to be solved in a quick and proper way. Representatives of the Chief of the Security Police and SD who attended the conference made it clear to those present that the remaining Jews had to be sent forcibly to concentration camps or be sterilized.
Those present at the conference must have carried away the impression that the objectives were the extermination of the Jewish people. The deportation of Jews into concentration camps was part of the program for slave labor. Jews not fit for work were screened out at extermination centers, such as Auschwitz, and the remainder were taken into concentration and work camps. In Galicia, the deportation of Jews was carried out during the period from April to June At the end of that time Galicia had been entirely cleared of Jews.
In all, , Jews were deported from Galicia alone. In connection with the deportations, Jewish property was confiscated, including furniture, clothing, money, dental fillings, gold teeth, wedding rings, and other personal property of all kinds. The Security Police participated in this action along with other police and SS detachments. In Warsaw the Security Police played a responsible role in the segregation of the Jews and placing them in the Ghetto, in the subsequent removal of the Jews to concentration camps, and in the final clearance of the Ghetto.
The Ghetto was established in November of Over , Jews were deported from it between July and October , and 6, more were deported in January Thousands of Jews were killed in the action. About 7, were transported to "T. II" where they were exterminated. The remaining 40, to 45, were placed in concentration camps. In Hungary the deportation of Jews was again carried out by Eichmann.
The struggle was designed to weaken the churches and to lay a foundation for the ultimate destruction of the confessional churches after the end of the war.
Section C2 of the SD dealt with education and religious life. In the Bavarian Political Police placed three ministers in protective custody for refusing to carry out the order of the Government to ring church bells on the occasion of the death of Hindenburg. The SD "church specialists" were to be temporarily transferred to the same posts in the GESTAPO and operate an intelligence service in the church political sphere there.
SD files concerning church political opposition were to be handed over to the GESTAPO, but the SD was to retain material concerning the confessional influence on the lives of the people. The notes on the speeches delivered at this conference indicate that the GESTAPO considered the church as an enemy to be attacked with determination and "true fanaticism.
The ultimate objective was stated to be the destruction of the confessional churches. This was to be brought about by the collection of material through the GESTAPO church intelligence system to be produced at a proper time as evidence for the charge of treasonable activities during the German fight for existence.
It was stated to be impractical to deal with political offenses under normal legal procedure owing to lack of political perception which prevailed among the legal authorities. The following punishments were to be applied to priests according to individual circumstances: warning, fine, forbidden to preach, forbidden to remain in parish, forbidden all activity as a priest, short-term arrest, protective custody.
Retreats, youth and recreational camps, evening services, processions and pilgrimages were all to be forbidden on grounds of interfering with the war effort, blackouts, overburdened transportation, etc.
The result of this treatment of the Church in the sphere of "religious life" remained the province of the SD. The evidence shows that the GESTAPO was created by Goering in Prussia in April for the specific purpose of serving as a police agency to strike down the actual and ideological enemies of the Nazi regime, and that henceforward the GESTAPO in Prussia and in the other States of the Reich carried out a program of terror against all who were thought to be dangerous to the domination of the conspirators over the people of Germany.
Its methods were utterly ruthless. It operated outside the law and sent its victims to the concentration camps. Behind the scenes, operating secretly, the SD, through its vast network of informants, spied upon the German people in their daily lives, on the streets, in the shops, and even within the sanctity of the churches. The Gestapo would imprison with trial and send those accused to concentration camps. Fear spread further through the use of early morning arrests and rumours of conditions in concentration camps.
In reality the fear of Nazi security forces was exaggerated with such small numbers of officers being employed. However, they provided the illusion of control over a population terrified of being found out and arrested. Company Reg no: VAT reg no It was issued on February 28, This decree suspended individual rights and legal protections, such as the right to privacy. This made it easier for the police to investigate, interrogate, and arrest political opponents.
Police could now read private mail, secretly listen to telephone calls, and search homes without warrants. The Nazi regime wanted to establish a centralized political police force that would answer directly to Nazi leadership. To create this, they had to reform the existing decentralized police system. This process took several years. It included Nazifying the entire police system. In the early s, political policing remained tied to local governments. Thus, it was subject to local power struggles.
By the end of , however, the Nazi regime had created a strong, centralized political police force under SS leader Heinrich Himmler. This political police force was the Gestapo. The position of the Gestapo was further strengthened in the summer of At that time, it was combined with the criminal police Kripo.
Together they formed a new organization called the Security Police SiPo. It was still referred to as the Gestapo. The Gestapo was staffed by plainclothes policemen, often called Gestapo agents. Most of these men were professionally trained. They often had worked as detectives or political policemen during the Weimar Republic. He went on to become the head of the Gestapo in But not all Gestapo agents were longtime policemen.
These SD men were Nazi ideologues with little or no police training. The Gestapo united the knowledge of professional policemen with the zeal of Nazi ideologues.
These behaviors included everything from organized political opposition to individual critical remarks about the Nazis. The government even defined belonging to certain categories or groups of people as threatening. To combat this wide array of potential threats, the Nazi dictatorship gave the Gestapo enormous power. One way in which the Gestapo carried out its mission was by enforcing new Nazi laws. Some of these laws broadly defined criticism of the regime as a security threat.
For example, a December law made it illegal to criticize the Nazi Party or the Nazi regime. But the Gestapo went much further than monitoring individual behaviors.
They implemented Nazi ideology, which defined entire groups of people as racial or political enemies. Membership in the Communist Party or a Jewish background was enough to make someone a threat to the state and subject to Gestapo attention.
During the s, the vast majority of Aryan Germans did not encounter or even expect to encounter the Gestapo. The Nazi regime gave Gestapo agents a great deal of power to decide the fate of the people they arrested. Most notably, the Gestapo had the power to send people directly to a concentration camp. Protective custody allowed the Gestapo to bypass the court system. Those placed in protective custody could not consult a lawyer, appeal their sentence, or defend themselves in court. The Gestapo even used protective custody to override court decisions in some cases.
As an institution, the Gestapo was not subject to legal or administrative oversight. The Gestapo had the final word.
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