Foundations of the Nazi Police State: The Formation of SIPO and SD - Hardcover

Browder, George C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081311697X ISBN 13: 9780813116976

Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky, 1990

Synopsis

The abbreviation "Nazi," the acronym "Gestapo," and the initials "SS" have become resonant elements of our vocabulary. Less known is "SD," and hardly anyone recognizes the combination "Sipo and SD." Although Sipo and SD formed the heart of the National Socialist police state, the phrase carries none of the ominous impact that it should.
Although no single organization carries full responsibility for the evils of the Third Reich, the SS-police system was the executor of terrorism and "population policy" in the same way the military carried out the Reich's imperialistic aggression. Within the police state, even the concentration camps could not rival the impact of Sipo and SD. It was the source not only of the "desk murderers" who administered terror and genocide by assigning victims to the camps, but also of the police executives for identification and arrest, and of the command and staff for a major instrument of execution, the Einsatzgruppen.
Foundations of the Nazi Police State offers the narrative and analysis of the external struggle that created Sipo and SD. This book is the author's preface to his discussion of the internal evolution of these organizations in Hitler's Enforcers: The Gestapo and the SS Security Service in the Nazi Revolution.

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Reviews

In this scholarly examination of the struggle for police power in the Third Reich, Browder shows that Germany's SS-police system was created by Heinrich Himmler largely with his own resources and on his own initiative without direct support from Hitler until 1936. The author focuses attention on the evolution of the security police (Sipo) and the SD (the security service of the National Socialist Movement) up to 1936, when Himmler was appointed chief of German police, bringing together the party and state agencies that became central to the execution of terror and mass murder in the final nine years of the Reich. Browder, who teaches history at the State University of New York, sheds new light on Himmler's role as planner, organizer, political strategist, and his position in the complex web of rivalries that laid the foundations of the Nazi police state.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081311697X
• ISBN 13: 9780813116976
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 346