Organization
On January 1933, Hermann Göring, Hitler's minister without portfolio, was appointed the head of the Prussian Police and began filling the political and intelligence units of the Prussian Secret Police with Nazi Party members. On 26 April 1933, he reorganized the force's Amt III as the Gestapo, a secret state police intended to serve the Nazi cause. In 1936, the Gestapo was moved from the Prussian Interior Ministry to the Reich Interior Ministry and combined with the Kripo (National criminal police) to form the SiPo, Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police). Classed as a government agency, it was nominally under the control of the Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick. However Himmler, who had been appointed Chef der Deutschen Polizei (Chief of German Police) by Hitler, controlled the SS, the Gestapo, the Orpo (uniformed police) and all investigation units. Although technically subordinate to Frick, he answered only to Hitler.
The SiPo was placed under the direct command of Reinhard Heydrich who was already chief of the Nazi Party's intelligence service, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). The idea was to fully combine the party agency, the SD, with the SiPo, the state agency. SiPo members were encouraged to become members of the SS. However in practise, the SiPo and the SD came into jurisdictional and operational conflict. Gestapo and Kripo had many experienced, professional policemen and investigators, who considered the SD to be an incompetent agency run by amateurs.
In September 1939, the SiPo together with the SD were merged into the newly-created Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA: Reich Main Security Office). Both the Gestapo and Kripo became distinct departments within the RSHA. Although the Sicherheitspolizei was officially disbanded, the term SiPo was figuratively used to describe any RSHA personnel throughout the remainder of the war.
The Gestapo became known as Amt IV ("Department or Office IV") with Heinrich Müller as its chief. In 1942 Ernst Kaltenbrunner became the RSHA chief after Heydrich was assassinated in Prague. The specific internal departments of Amt IV were as follows:
Read more about this topic: Gestapo
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