DISCLAIMER: I READ THIS BOOK FOR A CLASS I WAS TAKING THIS SEMESTER AND IT MADE ME REALLY DEPRESSED FOR A MONTH.
I wrote a paper on it. It was a good paper. I'm going to copy and paste it and you can browse it at your convince. Note: The introduction is weak and I'm too lazy to edit it. You may skip to the end for my closing remarks if you wish.
Robert Gellately book The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945, explores the Gestapo’s role in German culture and enforcing racial policy during between 1933 and 1945. He starts with the basics functions of the Gestapo and expands into an in depth look at the role the Gestapo had in racial policy. Through an in depth look of how the Gestapo function within German society, one may discern how much involvement they have with racial policy.
In order to understand the Gestapo, one must first look at how it functioned internally. Today we recognize the Gestapo as a large spy ring, or secret police; that operated within Germany and its conquered territory during the Second World War, but it finds its roots in a state run police force. This was not uncommon in Germany, which “had a long tradition of police surveillance of political affairs” (Gellately, 21). The Gestapo formed in 1933, after the Nazis took over. Under the Nazis the “local branches across the country had built up considerable expertise and were by the beginning of 1933, sophisticated and highly professional” (21). Soon after Hitler’s appointment they became a nation political police force, prior to this time had been impossible. On the “26[th of] April 1933 by special law for the establishment of a Secret State Police Office (Gestapa)” (29), and with it the Gestapo took form.
Although the Gestapo worked within the framework of the National Socialist Party in Germany, they keep their identity partly separate. Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the Gestapo, had close ties with both the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei (National Socialist German Work’s Party, or the Nazi Party), hereafter referred to as the NSDAP, and Hitler himself and was one of the major ties between the Gestapo as an organization and the NSDAP. Heydrich, however, did not share this affection for the NSDAP.
During the second chapter of Gellately’s book entitled Local Organization of Gestapo and Police, Gellately talks at length about Heinrich Müller. Müller was “born in Munich on 28 April 1900, the son of Catholic parents” (55). After World War I, where he, “as a flyer, earned decorations, among them the Iron Cross (1st Class)” (55), he joined the “Munich Metropolitan Police” (55), where he rose through the ranks quickly and later joined the “political police department, where he specialized in left-wing parties and groups” (55), so it made sense why he would be a good addition to the Gestapo. The NSDAP were not as enamoured by this decision as Himmler and Heydrich were, especially when “later (1939) [Müller] became head of the Gestapo under Himmler and held the position throughout the war-years” (55). At the time when Müller was first introduced into the Gestapo force in Munich, Himmler, “with the able assistance of Heydrich […] recruited 152 ‘well-trained’ persons from various levers of service and branches of the Munich police; […] some were in the Nazi party, but most were not” (55). The problem with these appointments and the appointments was that “when it came to selection of these officials, he took no political considerations into account” (56). Müller was not “a member of the NSDAP before 1933 – nor was he at the time of his political evaluation- and was no active in any of its affiliated organizations” (56). Because of this “the local party district headquarters recommended that Müller should not get the promotion […] in 1937, because he had done nothing of merit for the Nazi cause” (56); he did, however, receive the promotion “without party approval, in part because his chief Heydrich thought it an advantage not to have connections to the Party. Heydrich wanted to curtail the influences of the NSDAP almost from the day Hitler was appointed Chancellor” (56). By curbing the influence the NSDAP party has within the Gestapo, Heydrich and helps to explain some of their actions in relation to racial policy. Müller was not the only ranking member of the Gestapo that did not conform to party lines, Franz Josef Huber (56-57) also followed in this trend.
The Gestapo worked to gather information about the citizens through spy networks. There were various levels of spies, with variable credibility. The Gestapo relied heavily on population participation to work to its peak performance. Of course, this caused many problems with people ratting out their husbands, wives, and neighbours to be put in a more favourable position themselves. In the book Gellately discusses Walter Weyrauch`s discoveries in 1945 about the Frankfurt Gestapo, who has around 1, 200 paid informers at one time (62). Unfortunately “the Gestapo case-files are rare sources: they were destroyed nearly everywhere” (130), which makes this harder to prove with concrete evidence as explored by Gellately. Along with some records of paid informants, the Gestapo also use a method called “political denunciation” (132) to gain information about citizens who may or may not be suspect. These denunciations started 26% of the “initiation of a Proceeding with the Düsseldorf Gestapo. This was “key link in the three-way interaction between police, people and policy in Nazi Germany” (136), and without it the system wouldn’t work. Without neighbours, husbands, and wives denouncing their neighbours and loved ones, the Gestapo would not have any concrete reasons to investigate anyone and the NSDAP would not know if their policy was being effective. Of course, there was many problems with this system. Gellately cites many examples of couples accusing each other of going against NSDAP policy to better themselves; for example, “in order to obtain a favourable divorce settlement” (148). This “developed a kind of auto-policing, or at least an auto-surveillance system” (258) which greatly helped the Gestapo.
As the title suggests, a good portion of the book is spent on how the Gestapo helped to enforce racial policy. Gellately explores the repercussions of an Aryan German being involved in friendship and sexual relationship with both people of Polish decent and Jewish decent. This was considered both “race defilement” (160) and a “sin against blood” (232).
From ones knowledge about Nazi Germany, one would be aware of the fact that social mixing between the Jewish populous and the German populous was frowned upon, but as the first section of The Gestapo and German Society pointed out, the Western idea of what the Gestapo did in connection with the Jewish question isn’t always accurate. Gellately points out that the Gestapo did not play a leading role in enforcing racial and sexual policy, it was, in face, the public. The “’Gestapo’s own observations’, at least when it came to enforcing racial/sexual segregation [of the Jews and Germans] were responsible for initiating less than 1% of such cases” (162) whereas reports from the population accounted for 57% of the responsibility. This being said, during investigations 36% of all accusations of “Race defilement” and 45% of all accusations of “friendship to Jews” was “found to be baseless” (164, Table 4), so although there were many accusations from the public, many of them were false. The Gestapo did deal with theses, insofar as they were investigated, but after a claim was said to be true or false they had little more to do with it. A similar view was taken to racial policy in regards to the Polish workers, although Gellately does not provide statistics for cases reported and cases to be proven false.
Although there were punishments and repercussions were sever for race defilement involving the Germans and the Polish, they seemed to me more so with the Jews. Gellately gives several reasons for this indirectly. The Poles were brought into Germany as a supplement for their workforce. These was regarded as a “necessary evil” (250) and upon arriving to Germany the foreign workers were “explicitly made aware policies that had been designed to regulate their every move” (250), which puts them in a far different situation from the Jews, seeing that the Jew were already present. This, as far as racial policy goes, puts the Poles at a slight advantage because they are needed within the society.
Although, as the title suggests, this book is about racial policy, the way that Gellately deals with the way that the Gestapo approaches racial policy was overshadowed, in part, by his fantastic analysis of the way the Gestapo works generally. Not only does Gellately go into more depth about the everyday workings on the Gestapo, he also has more evidence to support it. As stated earlier, the chapter about the polish foreign workers, unlike that about the Jews, had no numerical evidence to support it. It did not go into as much depth about how much the Gestapo investigated these cases, how many were investigated and how many of them were proven to be true. Although both of these chapters were rich in case studies, they still did not have as many case studies as the chapter about political denunciation, making the writing in both of them weaker still. This, of course, is a biased view of the book. Reading about racial policy is hard and rather depressing, so the parts of the book that made it easier to ignore these functions of the Gestapo were easier to get through.
In addition, the opening chapters were far more engaging than the ones that followed. Gellately wrote these chapters in such a way that suggests that he may have more interest in the general workings of the Gestapo and its high ranking officers than the topic of the book. This is also where he brings up more of his in depth analysis of the Gestapo that he builds on in the following chapters.
The problem with any book on reads is who one would consider recommending it to. The obvious answer is always on who enjoys the subject matter, but as not many people enjoy reading length books about racial policy and how it was controlled, it is doubt that many people would want to jump at the opportunity to read this for pleasure. However, both the racial policy enacted by the NSDAP and the Gestapo are popular fields of study. The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945 outlines both in a way that it is accessible and offers insight into the inner workings of the Gestapo that aren’t normally looks at in commentaries. It would also be very useful to any university student who was writing a paper on the subject, but was not as knowledgeable of it as other in the field might be. Although it gives a lot of facts in quick succession and expects one to know a lot of terms, the footnotes are very useful and comprehensive, along with the glossary, index and map. The books lay out is quite agreeable and builds on its first points up to its last, and as any bibliophile would agree, organization is key in a good book no matter what the topic
The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial
Policy 1933-1945 by Robert Gellately is a well-organized book
about the Gestapo and their role in enforcing the racial policy. The focus he puts on the general functioning
of the Gestapo in the first section allows the reader to understand the later
actions of the Gestapo with greater ease. Through exploring the roots of the
Gestapo, Gellately accurately articulates the slight separation between the
Gestapo and the NSDAP and why Heydrich wanted it to be that way. The stress
Gellately puts on the fact that the Gestapo replied heavily on the support and
tips from the general public makes them seem like a less intimidating
organization than pop culture makes them out to be today. The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945
allows the reader to easily reach the end goal of the book; to have a better
understand of the Gestapo and its affects in racial policy.
Okay, if you read my essay, you know what I think. I found this book to be extremely depressing and would have rather it been written on the Gestapo minus the racial policy because the Gestapo was actually what I was interested in. That being said, this was a very well written book and it explores the Gestapo in an interesting and academic way. Despite the subject matter, I give this book 8.5 out of 10. I would not recommend this book for everyone. For further detail, please read my essay.
