By Kerry, Caitlynn, Ryan and Daniel The Gestapo

Who were the Gestapo? The Gestapo were the secret police. There job was to find information about about opposition- AKA anyone who disliked the Nazi’s or were Jewish, homosexual, or anyone the Nazi’s considered undesirable. They had the power to instantly arrest anyone who was suspected of being against the Nazi’s- anyone who made so much as a joke about Hitler could be arrested. The first head of the Gestapo was Rudolf Diels, but for most of it’s existence the Gestapo was headed by Heinrich Muller.

What did they do? Their job was to round up anyone who was considered a threat to the German government, such as Jewish people, Communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals or anyone who ‘challenged’ the Nazi party. All local police forces were given the task of creating lists of people in their locality who may have been considered enemies of the state- these lists were then given to the Gestapo.

What did they look like? Since they were spying on German people, many members of the Gestapo wore ordinary clothing. This created further fear because there was no way of knowing if the man behind you on the bus, or sitting next to you in a café, was a member of the Gestapo. It stopped people speaking openly about almost anything. Some members did wear uniform. They were generally grey with leather boots, button up jackets and coats and Nazi armbands.

Methods of torture They used torture to get confessions during interrogation. They forced people to spend eight hours a day in a freezing cold bath. They turned up heat in people’s cells where a prisoner they wanted answers from was staying. Pregnant women gave accounts of a Gestapo officer placing a pillow under her stomach and then proceeding to beat her. They used whips, handcuffs, and beat people. They pulled out people’s teeth. People were forced to stand for hours with their hand on top of their head. They used archive rods, so that people were bound by their arms and legs raised up, which was one of the most used methods. A man was made to lie on his stomach while two officers beat his back with clubs.

Why were they so effective? The Gestapo were very effective in wiping out opposition because they didn’t wear uniform, so no one had any idea who they could trust and stopped speaking out in case of arrest. They also tapped phones, read letters and raided homes, so no one could even put anything in writing for fear. There were accounts of walking by the Gestapo headquarters and hearing screams from tortured prisoners. It was very public that people were tortured and made people very afraid. Nazi produced propaganda made people believe that the Gestapo were everywhere, always watching, even though there were only 45000 of them in reality.