Heinrich Himmler : A Life (143 page)

52
. Mammach,
Widerstand
, 51.

53
. Ibid.

54
. Ibid. 53.

55
. Mehringer, ‘KPD in Bayern’, 85 ff.

56
. Ibid. 135.

57
. BAB, R 58/2271, Deputy Chief and Inspector of the Gestapo, 12 July 1935; Johannes Tuchel, ‘Gestapa und Reichssicherheitshauptamt. Die Berliner Zentralinstitutionen der Gestapo’, in Gerhard Paul und Klaus-Michael Mallmann (eds),
Die Gestapo. Mythos und Realität
(Darmstadt, 1995), 84–100, here 91 f.

58
. BAB, R 58/389, note for Heydrich, 18 September 1935; see also Tuchel,
Konzentrationslager
, 312.

59
. Duhnke,
KPD
, 201. According to a survey initiated by the KPD party leadership, at the end of 1935, of 422 leading functionaries (members of the Central Committee, the district headquarters, and the mass organizations) 119 had been arrested and 24 killed; 125 had emigrated and around 10 per cent had left the party as a result of the persecution (Mammach,
Widerstand
, 57).

60
. Browder,
Foundations
, 197 has provided various examples. Thus the political police in the two small Lippe states were subordinated to the Prussian Gestapo in March and April 1935 to act as branches of it; in order to enhance the authority of the Gestapo leadership, already in May 1934 the Gestapo had begun to promote individual local branch offices to regional branches with authority over neighbouring Stapo local branches. Internally they were repeatedly instructed to avoid committing arbitrary acts against prisoners, and in September 1935 Best ordered that in future press statements about ‘measures taken by the state police’ should be made more convincing (BAB, R 58/243, 20 September 1935).

61
. Browder,
Foundations
, 196 f.; on Best’s appointment see Herbert,
Best
, 147 f.

62
. However, he had been unable to achieve his original intention of promoting the Gestapa to be a ministry. The regulation that the chief of the Gestapo should himself decide what action was required to combat all ‘activities threatening the state’ was somewhat modified by the formula, ‘in agreement with the Minister of the Interior’. While the law envisaged closer links between the district offices of the Stapo and the district governors (Regierungspräsidenten) (
PrGS
1936, 21 f.), this aim was undermined by various decrees implementing the law signed by Göring which, in particular, qualified the requirement contained in the law for the Stapo offices to report to the provincial governors (Oberpräsidenten) and receive instructions from them
(BAB, R 58/241, Position of the Oberpräsidenten vis-à-vis the Organs of the Gestapo, 10 February 1936, and 2 April 1936 re: the Ending of the Situation Reports of the Regierungspräsidenten, published as doc. no. 8 in Plum, ‘Staatspolizei’). The complaint of the Oberpräsident of the province of East Prussia to the Prussian Prime Minister dated 28 March 1936 clearly shows how the offices of the state police in East Prussia managed to remove themselves from the authority of the internal state administration (GStA, Rep 90 P 3). On this question see Gruchmann, ‘Justiz’, 559, and Browder,
Foundations
, 214 ff. See also Göring’s instructions of 29 February 1936 (BAB, R 58/243): ‘The Regierungspräsidenten shall inform the Gestapa about the political situation and about political events through bi-monthly situation reports and reports of events. The Gestapa shall determine the details of what these reports are to cover […] The district offices of the Gestapo shall inform the Geastapa and the responsible Oberpräsidenten and Regierungspräsidenten about the political situation and political events. The Gestapa shall determine the details of what these reports are to cover.’

63
.
Das Schwarze Korps
, 8, 15, 22, and 29 May 1935.

64
. See above all the following articles: ‘Die Gestapo’ (the style of the article suggests that Werner Best was the author),
Völkischer Beobachter
, 23 January 1936; Reinhard Heydrich, ‘Die Bekämpfung der Staatsfeinde’,
Deutsches Recht
, 1936, 121–3 (April 1936); Werner Best, ‘Die Geheime Staatspolizei’,
Deutsches Recht
, 1936, 125–8 (April 1936); id., ‘Der Reichsführer SS and Chef der Deutschen Polizei’,
Deutsches Recht
, 1936, 257–8 (July 1936); Himmler’s speech of 5 March 1936 (BAB, NS 19/4003) is also available as a booklet:
Rede des Reichsführers-SS vor den Preußischen Staatsräten. 5. März 1936 im Haus der Flieger
(1936).

65
.
Völkischer Beobachter
, 23 January 1936: ‘The state must not be content with investigating crimes of high treason and treason that have already taken place and punishing the offenders. It is much more important to pre-empt such crimes and thereby to destroy the roots of these threats to the state.’

66
. In his articles in the
Deutsches Recht
Best opposed any attempt at subjecting the political police to ‘legal norms’ (April 1936); they required no ‘specific legitimation by law’ in order to be able to carry out their duties (July 1936).

67
. The term ‘State protection corps’ (Staatsschutzkorps) is used in an article in the
Völkischer Beobachter
of 23 January 1936; it refers to the Gestapo. In his series of articles in
Das Schwarze Korps
of May 1935 Heydrich had already referred to the SS, insofar as it was serving in the state police, as the ‘domestic political protection corps of the National Socialist state’ (29 May 1935).

68
. The Gestapo article in the
Völkischer Beobachter
of 21 January 1936 states that the Gestapo knows that it ‘must directly hurt a large number of people’.

69
. Published as a booklet: Heinrich Himmler,
Die Schutzstaffel als antibolschewistische Kampforganisation
(Munich, 1936).

70
. BAB, NS 19/4003.

71
. See above p. 183.

72
. In his letter to the Reich Finance Minister of 21 September 1935 Frick demanded the reintegration of the political police into the general police and the transfer of the police from the states to the Reich (BAB, NS 19/3581, also in R 18/5627; see also Tuchel,
Konzentrationslager
, 313). In November 1935 Frick sent the head of the Reich Chancellery, Hans Heinrich Lammers, a memorandum composed by Daluege which was intended to prove the need to transfer the police to the Reich (BAB, R 43 II/391). It is unclear whether at this point Frick was fully informed about the shift in power relations in Himmler’s favour that had already occurred. See also doc. PS-775, in
IMT
, vol. 26, pp. 289 ff., undated memo by Daluege in which he presented the alternatives of locating responsibility for all questions involving the political police either with the Reich Interior Minister or with the Gestapa, which in this case would become a Reich ministry.

73
. BAB, NS 19/1447, 18 October 1935; see also Herbert,
Best
, 169.

74
. The mention of Frick’s ‘Gestapa edict’ must refer to his letter of 21 September 1935 (see n. 72); see also Tuchel,
Konzentrationslager
, 313.

75
. BAB NS 19/3582, note by Himmler 18 October 1935. The minute states: ‘There were lengthy discussions about the question of the leadership academies, internal unrest and the Verfügungstruppe, about the question of the asocial elements and how to secure them in special re-education camps, as well about tougher action against the communists. The Führer approved the leadership schools in principle and, within the framework of the consolidation of the whole of the police force, they are to become the responsibility of the Reichsführer-SS either in the role of a state secretary in the Interior Ministry or directly under the Führer.’ See Wegner,
Politische Soldaten
, 109. The mention of ‘approval for the leadership academies’, which had in fact already been founded, must refer to their financing being taken over by the state.

76
. Browder,
Foundations
, 207; Peter Hoffmann,
Die Sicherheit des Diktators. Hitlers Leibwachen, Schutzmaßnahmen, Residenzen, Hauptquartiere
(Munich, etc., 1975), 51 ff.; BAB, R 18/5627, note by Pfundtner for Frick, 21 October 1935, and R 43 II/102, Lammers to Himmler, 22 October 1935; NS 19/2196, Himmler’s minute after his interview with Hitler, 18 October 1935: ‘After Lammers had been immediately summoned the security commando was subordinated to the Reichsführer-SS.’

77
. BAB, NS 19/1269, two letters to the Reich Minister of Justice, 6 November 1935; see also Tuchel,
Konzentrationslager
, 315 f.

78
. BAB, R 22/1467, Himmler’s agreement in principle of 6 January 1936, and R 22/5032, Gürtner to Frick, 27 March 1936, concerning the arrangement agreed in the meantime with Himmler. For further details see Gruchmann, ‘Justiz’, 571 ff.

79
. Edict Concerning the Appointment of a Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior,
RGBl
1933 I, 487 f.

80
. BAB, R 43 II/391, contains a copy of Himmler’s order of 26 June 1936, appointing Daluege and Heydrich as heads of the new main offices. There is also a copy of a Himmler order for the allocation of duties within the sphere of the Chief of the German Police in which he determined the respective responsibilities of the order and security police.

81
.
RMBliV
1936, Sp. 1339.

82
. Thus, for example, in a letter dated 10 December 1937 the Baden Gauleiter, Wagner, complained about the fact that ‘the Reich Governor who carries the political responsibility has no influence on the political police’ (Stolle,
Geheime Staatspolizei
, 95, quoting Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe, 233/27892).

1
. BAB, R 19/379. In the report in the
Völkischer Beobachter
about Himmler’s induction as Chief of the German Police the anti-Semitic statements in Himmler’s speech were excluded, probably in view of the caution being exercised in Jewish persecution in the Olympic year of 1936.

2
. Best, ‘Reichsführer SS’, referred here to the ‘potency of the State protection corps’, in that it ‘now links the German police with the ideological commitment of the SS’.

3
. Hans Frank
et al.
,
Grundfragen der deutschen Polizei. Bericht über die konstituierende Sitzung des Ausschusses für Polizeirecht der Akademie für Deutsches Recht am 11. Oktober 1936
(Hamburg, 1936), Himmler’s contribution, 11–16.

4
. Günter Neliba,
Wilhelm Frick. Der Legalist des Unrechtsstaates. Eine politische Biographie
(Paderborn, etc., 1992).

5
. ‘Aufgaben und Aufbau der Polizei des Dritten Reiches’, in Hans Pfundtner (ed.),
Dr.Wilhelm Frick und sein Ministerium. Aus Anlaß des 60. Geburtstages des Reichs und preußischen Ministers des Innern Dr. Wilhelm Frick am 12. März 1937
(Munich, 1937), 125–30, quotations 128–30.

6
. Reinhard Heydrich, ‘Aufgaben und Aufbau der Sicherheitspolizei im Dritten Reich’, ibid. 149–53, quotation 150. The volume also contained a contribution from Kurt Daluege: ‘Die Ordnungspolizei und ihre Entstehung im Dritten Reich’, 133 –45.

7
. Himmler,
Schutzstaffel
, 29.

8
. BAB NS 19/4004.

9
. Ibid.

10
. On the German Police Day see Robert Gellately,
Hingeschaut und weggesehen. Hitler und sein Volk
(Munich, 2002), 67 ff.

11
. On the Gestapo myth see Robert Gellately, ‘Allwissend und allgegenwärtig? Entstehung, Funktion und Wandel des Gestapo-Mythos’, in Gerhard Paul and Klaus-Michael Mallmann (eds),
Die Gestapo. Mythos und Realität
(Darmstadt, 1995), 47–70. Gellately has shown here and in his book
Hingeschaut
, with
numerous examples, that there was extensive reporting of the Gestapo and of the existence of concentration camps. As examples of such articles, in some cases by leading figures in the police apparatus, that often pointed the way ahead see Dr B. (Best), ‘Rechtsstellung des Reichsführers-SS und Chefs der Deutschen Polizei’,
Völkischer Beobachter
, 4 June 1937; Best, ‘Die präventive Aufgabe der Geheimen Staatspolizei’,
Frankfurter Zeitung
, 3 March 1938; Heydrich, ‘Die deutsche Sicherheitspolizei. Zum Tag der Deutschen Polizei’,
Völkischer Beobachter
, 28 January 1939, elucidates the concept of police preventive action; the article ‘Die SS-Totenkopfverbände’,
Völkischer Beobachter
, 26 January 1939, contains comments about the function of the KZ.