Several terms redirect here. For the wider use of 'Secret Police', see Secret police. It is not to be confused with Gestapu in Indonesia.
Gestapo
Geheime Staatspolizei
Gestapo headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8 in Berlin (1933)
Agency overview
Formed
26 April 1933; 91 years ago (1933-04-26)
Preceding agency
Prussian Secret Police (founded 1851)
Dissolved
8 May 1945; 78 years ago (1945-05-08)
Type
Secret police
Jurisdiction
Germany and Occupied Europe
Headquarters
Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8, Berlin 52°30′25″N13°22′58″E / 52.50694°N 13.38278°E / 52.50694; 13.38278
Employees
32,000 (1944 est.)[1]
Ministers responsible
Hermann Göring 1933–1934, Minister President of Prussia
Wilhelm Frick 1936–1943, Interior Minister
Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the German Police, 1936–1945; Interior Minister, 1943–1945
Agency executives
Rudolf Diels (1933–1934)[2]
Reinhard Heydrich (1934–1939)
Heinrich Müller (1939–1945)
Parent agency
Allgemeine SS
Reich Security Main Office
Sicherheitspolizei
The Geheime Staatspolizei (German pronunciation:[ɡəˈhaɪməˈʃtaːtspoliˌtsaɪ]ⓘ; transl. "Secret State Police"), abbreviated Gestapo (/ɡəˈstɑːpoʊ/gə-STAH-poh, German:[ɡəˈʃtaːpo]ⓘ),[3] was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organisation. On 20 April 1934, oversight of the Gestapo passed to the head of the Schutzstaffel (SS), Heinrich Himmler, who was also appointed Chief of German Police by Hitler in 1936. Instead of being exclusively a Prussian state agency, the Gestapo became a national one as a sub-office of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; Security Police). From 27 September 1939, it was administered by the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). It became known as Amt (Dept) 4 of the RSHA and was considered a sister organisation to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service).
The Gestapo committed widespread atrocities during its existence. The power of the Gestapo was used to focus upon political opponents, ideological dissenters (clergy and religious organisations), career criminals, the Sinti and Roma population, handicapped persons, homosexuals, and, above all, the Jews.[4] Those arrested by the Gestapo were often held without judicial process, and political prisoners throughout Germany—and from 1941, throughout the occupied territories under the Night and Fog Decree (German: Nacht und Nebel)—simply disappeared while in Gestapo custody.[5] Contrary to popular perception, the Gestapo was actually a relatively small organization with limited surveillance capability; despite this, the Gestapo proved extremely effective due to the willingness of ordinary Germans to report on fellow citizens. During World War II, the Gestapo played a key role in the Holocaust. After the war ended, the Gestapo was declared a criminal organisation by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at the Nuremberg trials, and several top Gestapo members were sentenced to death.
[ɡəˈhaɪmə ˈʃtaːtspoliˌtsaɪ] ; transl. "Secret State Police"), abbreviated Gestapo (/ɡəˈstɑːpoʊ/ gə-STAH-poh, German: [ɡəˈʃtaːpo] ), was the official secret...
James Drescher (born August 12, 1965), better known as Jimmy G or Jimmy Gestapo and also known as Jimmy Spliff, is the lead singer for New York based hardcore...
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countesses of the Gestapo (French: Les comtesses de la Gestapo) were elite adventuresses of the Paris demimonde protected by the French Gestapo and large-scale...
Inside the Gestapo: Hitler's Shadow over the World is a 1939 book partially published in serial form in the Manchester Guardian, and then in full by Pallas...
(5 April 1897 – 5 February 1977) was an interrogation specialist of the Gestapo. He headed the special commission responsible for the search and arrest...
December 1900 – 18 November 1957) was a German civil servant and head of the Gestapo in 1933–34. He obtained the rank of SS-Oberführer and was a protégé of...
I Escaped from the Gestapo is a 1943 film from King Brothers Productions, directed by Harold Young about a forger forced to work for Nazi spies. It stars...
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detachment was a special police unit which was established by the German Gestapo in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia during World War II...
and extermination camps. Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) organisations. They were tasked with the...
The Carlingue (or French Gestapo) were French auxiliaries who worked for the Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst and Geheime Feldpolizei during the German occupation...
Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization and the Gestapo (formed in 1933) was considered its sister organization through the integration...
significant collateral damage. The target of the raid was the Shellhus, used as Gestapo headquarters in the city centre. It was used for the storage of dossiers...
Holocaust. Heydrich was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (including the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD). He was also Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy/Acting...
advisers came to Portugal to help the PVDE adopt a model similar to the Gestapo. During World War II, the PVDE experienced its most intense period of activity...
World War II. He is chiefly known for his single-handed attack on the Gestapo headquarters in Brussels in German-occupied Belgium. Baron Jean de Selys...
The Kempeitai (Japanese: 憲兵隊, Hepburn: Kenpeitai) was the military police of the Imperial Japanese Army. The organization also shared civilian secret police...
spelled Krüger) (1 July 1909 – 8 February 1988) was a German captain of the Gestapo in occupied Poland during World War II, involved in organizing the string...
that Gus would show interest in wanting him on the team, was captured by Gestapo agents, they divert course to a Nazi-controlled section of the Canary Islands...
(SS) paramilitary force under Himmler and its Security Service (SD), and Gestapo (secret police) under Reinhard Heydrich. Göring's personal police battalion...
Stalag Luft III murders were war crimes perpetrated by members of the Gestapo following the "Great Escape" of Allied prisoners of war from the German...
July 21, 1942, stipulating that parachutists should be handed over to the Gestapo. Shortly after World War II, at the Nuremberg Trials, the Commando Order...
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