The Gestapo In Nazi Germany

The GeheimeStaatspolizei or Gestapo was Nazi Germanys secret police , founded in 1933 by Herman Goring the Gestapo fell under the SS to the point that The Gestapo was administered by officers of the SS. For most of its existence Heinrich Himmler directly controlled the Gestapo as he was appointed Chef der Deutschen Polizei thus controlling all police units within Nazi Germany. The Gestapo acted outside of the normal judicial process as it acted above the law and had rights of imprisonment or execution without trial, brutality was permitted in the ranks of the Gestapo thus one of the reasons for which the Gestapo became so infamous. The Gestapo played the main role in keeping Nazi Germanys population at bay and in the deportation of the sub-humans.
The Nazis mainly dealt with Jews , Gypsys ,Homosexuals and political opponents all considered sub-human races. Homosexuality under the third Reich was deemed to be un Aryan as it was harshly punished "We must exterminate these people root and branch... the homosexual must be eliminated." During the Nazi regime homosexuals were harshly targeted as their behavior was considered intolerable as it went against the Nazi ideals of a pure Aryan society and of German tradition, they were mainly targeted by Volksgemeinschaft the pinnacle of the Nazi social organization. To prevent and eradicate homosexuality the death penalty was instituted in Hitler’s 1941 order , the youth mainly was spared from executions as normally they would be scared straight but in the SS the rule was fiercely enforced. On October 1st 1936 the Nazi Party introduced a new department – the Reich Central Office for Combatting Homosexuality and Abortion. The Gestapo was given the task of hunting out homosexuals they did this by keeping lists of all men engaged in homosexual activity also known as “pink lists” they also closed Bars and clubs driving homosexuals underground, destroying their networks of support. the Gestapo issued a directive indicating that men convicted of homosexuality could be incarcerated in concentration camps. Between 1933 and 1945 the police with mainly the help of the Gestapo arrested an estimated 100,000 men as homosexuals. Most of the 50,000 men sentenced by the courts spent time in regular prisons, and between 5,000 and 15,000 were interned in concentration camps. 1938 there was an all-time high in arrests for homosexual charges 8,562 were found guilty of homosexual practices. Overall the Gestapo weren’t as effective/significant to some extent in the battle against