duplicated even the most elaborate and costly research projects; it fought the armed services for supremacy all along the line, and in the end was winning. The Gestapo was its spearhead. In the end, as Amt IV of the R.S.H.A. under its shadowy chief, Lieutenant General Heinrich Mueller, who reported directly to Heydrich, it dominated the whole of occupied Europe, and it contained the following sections and subsections, which illustrate its range:
All these came under Section IVA of the R.S.H.A. After the outbreak of war Section IVB was added to cover the occupied countries: IVB 1 for Western Territories; IVB 2 for Eastern; IVB 3 for South-eastern; IVB 4 for passes and identification. A special subsection, IVB A (
Arbeit
) was created to look after the employment of foreign workers; and another, IVB G (
Grenze
) to control Customs and frontier protection and inspection. R.S.H.A. Amt IVA 6a at the top of a letter-heading looks insignificant enough; but it stood for the immense system of card indices and dossiers which penetrated into the personal lives of every German citizen. R.S.H.A. Amt IVA 4b, again, was responsible for the rounding up, transportation, shooting, and gassing to death of at least three million Jews.
There was no murdering of Jews, except incidentally, in the early days of the new Gestapo. Himmler and Heydrich were still maneuvering for the absolute power which would make Auschwitz possible. The Jews could be picked offwhen the time came. Meanwhile there were heavier antagonists. The German people as a whole had to be regimented; the Army had to be put in its place (Himmler and Heydrich had no illusions about the enduring quality of the Armyâs gratitude to them for breaking the back of the S.A., especially when it dawned on the generals that Himmler was going to prove a far more dangerous and purposeful threat to the sovereignty of the Armed Forces than Roehm ever was); the power of the Churches had to be undermined.
For the purposes of general supervision and repression the Gestapo modeled itself closely on the Soviety Secret Police. Himmler had at his command an extremely able police-officer, Heinrich Mueller, who became known as Gestapo Mueller, a close and devoted student of Soviet methods. Mueller was impressed by the efficiency of the internal spy system which had been perfected by the Soviet Government, the effect of which, ideally, was to isolate the individual by making it impossible for anybody to trust anybody else. He set to work to reproduce this system in Germany by more economical means.
He built up a cell system which enrolled quantities of ordinary citizens as honorary part-time members of the Gestapo. Thus there was the
Blockwart
, the concierge, who had to report on the activities of every tenant in his apartment block. Every Air Raid Warden was also a corresponding member of the Gestapo. Every labor group had a Gestapo representative. And, on top of this, voluntary informers were encouraged by every possible means. As the Russians had discovered, there is nothing like the voluntary informer for creating a general atmosphere of unease and apprehension: he operates by personal spite, or by the desire to ingratiate himself with the authorities; he costs nothing; his information is usually valueless in any specific sense; but since every human being at some time commits some indiscretion, he enables the secret police to swoop where it is least expected (and often least needed) and give the desired impression of possessing an all-seeing eye.
As far as the regular membership was concerned, there was no difficulty in recruiting. Any regular police official was liable to find himself drafted into the Gestapo as a matter of routine posting; and although a handful of individualsat one time and another avoided such postings, by open refusal, or by subterfuge, the average police official seems to have taken it as part of the dayâs work and to have made no complaint, being prepared to
All these came under Section IVA of the R.S.H.A. After the outbreak of war Section IVB was added to cover the occupied countries: IVB 1 for Western Territories; IVB 2 for Eastern; IVB 3 for South-eastern; IVB 4 for passes and identification. A special subsection, IVB A (
Arbeit
) was created to look after the employment of foreign workers; and another, IVB G (
Grenze
) to control Customs and frontier protection and inspection. R.S.H.A. Amt IVA 6a at the top of a letter-heading looks insignificant enough; but it stood for the immense system of card indices and dossiers which penetrated into the personal lives of every German citizen. R.S.H.A. Amt IVA 4b, again, was responsible for the rounding up, transportation, shooting, and gassing to death of at least three million Jews.
There was no murdering of Jews, except incidentally, in the early days of the new Gestapo. Himmler and Heydrich were still maneuvering for the absolute power which would make Auschwitz possible. The Jews could be picked offwhen the time came. Meanwhile there were heavier antagonists. The German people as a whole had to be regimented; the Army had to be put in its place (Himmler and Heydrich had no illusions about the enduring quality of the Armyâs gratitude to them for breaking the back of the S.A., especially when it dawned on the generals that Himmler was going to prove a far more dangerous and purposeful threat to the sovereignty of the Armed Forces than Roehm ever was); the power of the Churches had to be undermined.
For the purposes of general supervision and repression the Gestapo modeled itself closely on the Soviety Secret Police. Himmler had at his command an extremely able police-officer, Heinrich Mueller, who became known as Gestapo Mueller, a close and devoted student of Soviet methods. Mueller was impressed by the efficiency of the internal spy system which had been perfected by the Soviet Government, the effect of which, ideally, was to isolate the individual by making it impossible for anybody to trust anybody else. He set to work to reproduce this system in Germany by more economical means.
He built up a cell system which enrolled quantities of ordinary citizens as honorary part-time members of the Gestapo. Thus there was the
Blockwart
, the concierge, who had to report on the activities of every tenant in his apartment block. Every Air Raid Warden was also a corresponding member of the Gestapo. Every labor group had a Gestapo representative. And, on top of this, voluntary informers were encouraged by every possible means. As the Russians had discovered, there is nothing like the voluntary informer for creating a general atmosphere of unease and apprehension: he operates by personal spite, or by the desire to ingratiate himself with the authorities; he costs nothing; his information is usually valueless in any specific sense; but since every human being at some time commits some indiscretion, he enables the secret police to swoop where it is least expected (and often least needed) and give the desired impression of possessing an all-seeing eye.
As far as the regular membership was concerned, there was no difficulty in recruiting. Any regular police official was liable to find himself drafted into the Gestapo as a matter of routine posting; and although a handful of individualsat one time and another avoided such postings, by open refusal, or by subterfuge, the average police official seems to have taken it as part of the dayâs work and to have made no complaint, being prepared to
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