The Nazi police state

Key learning points

1. Hitler’s regime built a police state using the SS, Gestapo, SD and concentration camps to control the German population.
2. The SS oversaw other Nazi security bodies and controlled policing, intelligence, racial policy and concentration camps.
3. The Gestapo, Germany’s secret police, monitored people and used fear and denunciations to arrest citizens without trial.
4. The SD gathered vast amounts of intelligence, helping to create a society gripped by paranoia and silence.

Keywords

• Police state - a country where the government uses the police and security forces to control every part of people’s lives through fear, surveillance and arrest

• Concentration camp - a place where large numbers of people are kept as prisoners in extremely bad conditions, especially for political reasons

• Intelligence - information collected by a government or security organisation to identify threats and control opposition, often using spying or surveillance

• Secret police - a police force that works in secret to spy on, arrest, and punish people who are seen as enemies of the government, often using illegal methods

• Denunciations - public accusations made by ordinary citizens to Nazi authorities, reporting others for disloyalty to the regime; these reports, often driven by personal motives, fuelled widespread fear and paranoia

Common misconception