POLICE STATE

• ROLE OF SS

  • Created in 1925 to act as Hitler's personal bodyguards. Members had to be both ‘racially pure’ and radically loyal to the NSDAP
  • Himmler became leader of the SS from 1929. The SS wore black uniforms(diff from SA)
  • ROLES:
  • Protect Hitler and other Nazi leaders
  • Provide security during political meetings
  • Urge people to subscribe to the Nazi newspaper
  • Marry ‘racially pure’ wives to create ‘racially pure’ children
  • Manage and control other police forces
  • The SS were responsible for carrying out the arrests and murders of SA members during the NOLF
  • 1925 - 240 members, 1939 - 290,000 members
• ROLE OF SD, 1931

  • Heydrich was placed in charge
  • They gathered intelligence on anyone they suspected or knew opposed the Nazi Party, which included:
  • Existing and new Nazi Party members
  • Leaders and activities within other political parties
  • Minority groups such as Jewish people, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Freemasons
  • Government officials 
  • Heydrich and the SD were responsible for compiling a list of SA members to be targeted during the Night of the Long Knives
  • The SD became the only police agency to collect and manage intelligence from 1934
  • 1932 - 33 members, 1939 - 4,000 members.
• ROLE OF GESTAPO

  • By 1934, Heydrich led the Gestapo
  • They were infamous for wearing plain clothes to avoid being identifiable.
  • ROLES:
  • Tapping phones and spying on opponents
  • Arresting, questioning and torturing suspects:
  • Around 160,000 people were arrested in 1939 for political crimes
  • Sending people directly to concentration camps using protective custody
  • Releasing information about concentration camp conditions to spread fear
  • 1937 - 6,500 , 1939 - 20,000
  • Only around 10% of political crimes committed were discovered by the Gestapo, compared to 80% reported by ordinary citizens
• CONCENTRATION CAMPS

  • Most arrests made by the police services were related to ‘political crimes’, which involved speaking out against the Nazi Party
  • Dachau was opened in 1933 and became the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany:
  • Concentration camps were created to imprison many groups:
  • Minority groups such as Jewish people and Jehovah’s Witnesses
  • ‘Undesirables’ such as homosexuals, prostitutes and Romani
  • Political opponents, including journalists, writers, intellectuals and communists
  • Conditions in concentration camps were awful and inmates were forced to do hard labour
• JUDGES AND LAWYERS

  • Judges and lawyers were required to prioritise the interests of the Nazi Party above all else:
  • Judges joined the National Socialist League for the Maintenance of the Law
  • Judges were dismissed if they did not join
  • Lawyers joined the German Lawyers Front
  • Judges had to wear the swastika from 1936
  • Judges decided the outcome of cases, not the jury
• LAW COURTS

  •  Trial by jury was removed so that judges could decide the outcome of the case
  • The People’s Court was introduced to hear cases of treason:
  • Judges radically loyal to the Nazi Party were selected
  • Trials were held in secret
  • The right to appeal was removed
  • Control of the legal system led to a rapid rise in the number of political opponents executed:
  • Between 1930 and 1932, only eight people were executed
  • Between 1934 and 1939, this increased to 534 people