The Gestapo ( ; abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei, "Secret State Police") was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of SS national leader, Heinrich Himmler who in 1936 was appointed Chief of German Police (Chef der Deutschen Polizei) by Hitler. In 1936, Himmler made it a suboffice of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) ("Security Police"). Then from 27 September 1939 forward, it was administered by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) ("Reich Main Security Office") and was considered a sister organization of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) ("Security Service").
Read more about Gestapo: History, Organization, Daily Operations, Cooperation With The NKVD, Counterintelligence, Principal Agents and Officers
Famous quotes containing the word gestapo:
“I can grouse about the food, and the C.O. and anything I blame please. And that’s more than you with your Gestapo and your storm troopers and your Aryan bourgeois. Ahhh, nuts. What’s the good of talking to you. You can’t even begin to understand democracy. We own the right to be fed up with anything we damn please and say so out loud when we feel like it.”
—Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)