Assess the significance of the Gestapo

The Gestapo was Nazi Germany’s feared secret police. Its main purpose was to hunt out those considered a threat to Nazi Germany according to Hitler which included: Jews, homosexuals, political opponents and anybody who questioned the Nazi rule. In this essay I will be assessing the significance of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany by evaluating how different factors, such as the organisation of the Gestapo, the fear it created amongst the German people and the persecution of Jews, homosexuals and political opponents, affected the German people, how it helped the Nazi Party maintain control of Germany and how it helped the Nazi Party achieve its aims.
One of the factors that made the Gestapo significant was the fear it created amongst the people. The Gestapo used fear as its most powerful weapon, Hitler’s aim was to use the Gestapo to create a “Terror State”. The Gestapo had secret informers everywhere, but no one knew who they were, and once someone was taken by the Gestapo they were never seen again. Anyone who spread anti-Nazi propaganda in public would receive a letter demanding an appearance at the Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin. The Gestapo prison center in Berlin became well known as a place where people outside could hear screaming coming from the prisoners. Gestapo interrogation methods included: electric shocks, drowning the prisoner in ice-cold water, beatings, hanging by arms and burning flesh.Their methods were deliberately publicised, to spread the message that the people should be loyal to the state. Many people were scared of being caught so they told the Gestapo about others disobeying the law. Terror made the Gestapo very significant and powerful because it helped the Nazi party maintain control and the fear of being caught by the Gestapo reduced the number of people standing against the Nazi regime. It made it very difficult for opponents of the regime to spread their opinions, because it was too risky to meet and organize political groups, making them weaker and isolated. However, one could argue that for Germans that were not associated with opposition, the level of fear was less. Less than 2 percent of the Germans from Cologne, Krefeld, Dresden or Berlin had ever been interrogated by the Gestapo, so not everybody was affected. Despite this evidence from particular cities it seems extremely unlikely that the average German citizen wouldn’t have at least been aware of how the Gestapo treated the opposition even if they were not directly affected by it. Fear was significant to a large extent since overall it affected the whole German population and was the main reason that the Gestapo was significant in Nazi Germany.In this aspect of their work, the Gestapo was very successful because they became notorious for their brutal treatment, even though it’s hard to judge the extent to which ordinary Germans lived in a state of fear. Perhaps many people felt a general sense of being watched rather than a fear of being tortured.