terror

• SS formed in 1925 but only had 250 members but by 1933 had 52,000 and established reputation of commitment to Nazi's
• the SD internal security police created by Himmler. By 1936 all police powers unified under Himmler's control
• Kripo was maintenance of general law and order and 1936 linked with gestapo. Reputation of brutality
• SD responsible for intelligence and security; used block wardens and informers. People could not trust anyone and everyone told the authorities about everyone else
• by 1934 many people in 'wild camps' (concentration) were released and put into a prototype concentration camp near Munich. Then the Nazi's created more.
• Prisoner's slept on wooden blocks, worked 12 hour shifts and punishable by death if refused
• the regime did not try and keep the early concentration camps a secret. up until 1936 no more than 6000 prisoner's. by 1939 had 21,000.
• in 1938 Waffen SS had 14,000 soldiers: racially pure and committed to Nazi's.
• the SS was a huge organisation with 250,000 in 1939 and Kogon in the 1950s called it 'a state within a state'.
• by the end of the war the SS had created commercial organisations of 150 firms, using slave labour
• Jacques Delarue in 1962 said 'the gestapo is everywhere'
• The gestapo only had 40,000 agents with 40-50 agents in Frankfurt or Hamburg. However there work was prompted by informers who were scared of being informed on themselves.
• from 1939 Judges had to study Nazi beliefs
• 2 million block wardens in Germany
• by January 1945 714,211 inmates in concentration camps
• conscription re-introduced in 1935 increasing the army to 550,000