The Gestapo: Hitler's Secret Police

The Sword Is Forged

0.045mNovember 24, 2004

The Nazis converted their country from a flawed democracy to a fascist dictatorship in which the rights of the individual were trampled in the interests of the state. Institutions and organizations were warped to serve this purpose, none more than the police. At first, it was the Storm Troopers of the SA, who beat, intimidated, and killed those who opposed the regime. But something more was needed than simple thuggery and the police were co-opted. The Gestapo, the Secret State Police, was the organization set up to perform this function. By reputation its network of black-clad officers spread everywhere; yet it was a small organization--at its height in 1941 there were only 8,000 officers. Program 1 shows the power struggle between the worst of Hitlers henchmen, Himmler and Heydrich on the one hand, and Goering on the other. And it introduces us to a mysterious figure, Heinrich Muller, a career policeman who became the ice-cold leader of the Gestapo.