The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945 (59 page)

Y9 Ibid. 361; the quotation is from an SD report of 27 Nov. 1939.

Kershaw, 'German Popular Opinion', 370. Cf. the important contemporary opinion survey of Michael Muller-Claudius, Der Antisemitismus and das deutsche Verhdngnis (Frankfurt, 1948), 15 5 ff.

' The theme is a recurrent one in the creative literature on the Nazi era; for an analysis see Frederick J. Harris, Encounters with Darkness: French and German Writers on World War II (Oxford, 1983), 97ff.

z Barrington Moore, jun., Terror and Progress USSR (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), 159, noted in his book on the Soviet system that 'the population undoubtedly exaggerates the number of informers and is encouraged in this exaggeration' by the regime.

Friedrich Zipfel, Gestapo and Sicherheitsdienst (Berlin, 1960), 5.

'Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, 189, suggests that 'the Gestapo became extraordinarily efficient by reason of rumours and fears'.

Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, 157.

'For a description of the material see Mehringer. 'Die bayerische SPD'. 328-9.

' See e.g. Marie Vassiltchikov, Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945 (New York, 1987), 83, for the denunciation of her mother, a White Russian Princess; for another occasion see Tatiana Metternich, Purgatory of Fools (New York, 1976), 99. Peter Hoffmann, German Resistance to Hitler (Cambridge, Mass., 1988), 72-3, remarks: The Army and its officer corps, however, were largely immune to Gestapo surveillance and penetration and to the influence of the Nazi Party. The social fabric of the Army officer corps and its code of ethics left little room for informers.'

Reck-Malleczewen, 202.

Cf. Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, 195, or the story of Gestapo man Heinrich Baab in Kay Boyle, The Smoking Mountain: Stories of Germany During the Occupation (New York, 1963), 3ff.

Z Hans Robinsohn, Justiz als politische Verfolgung: Die Rechtsprechung in 'Rassenschandefdllen' beim Landgercht Hamburg 1936-1943 (Stuttgart, 1977), 81ff. Cf. Gunther Wcisenborn 'Reich Secret', in Eric H. Boehm (ed.), We Survived: Fourteen Histories of the Hidden and Hunted of Nazi Germany (Santa Barbara, 1985), 197, and id., Der lautlose Aufstand: Bericht uber die Widerstandsbewegung des deutschen Volkes 1933-1945, 4th edn. (Frankfurt, 1974), 43ff•

'Sarah Gordon, Hitler, Germans, and the 'Jewish Question' (Princeton, 1984), 213.

Reinhard Mann, Protest and Kontrolle, 300

14 Broszat, 'Politische Denunziationen', 2211I. For the post-war legal problem of dealing with the matter see Hans Carl Nipperdey, 'Die Haftung fur politische Denunziationen in der Nazizeit', in H. C. Nipperdey (ed.), Das deutsche Privatrecht in der Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts: Festschrift fur Heinrich Lehmann zum 8o. Geburtstag, i (Berlin, 1956), 285-307.

3 Moritz and Noam, NS-Verbrechen vor Gericht, 238 ff

is See his essay in Reinhard Mann, Protest and Kontrolle, 287 IT.

" Mann, Protest and Kontrolle, io5 n.27. Cf. Reinhard Mann (ed.), Die Nationalsozialisten: Analysenfaschistischer Bewegungen (Stuttgart, iy8o), 9 if.

" Reinhard Mann, Protest and Kontrolle, 293. V-Mann/-Leute is the short form for Ver- trauensmann/-Ieute or 'confidential agent(s)'.

" Rolf Hochhuth, Eine Liebe in Deutschland (Reinbek bei Hamburg, z 980) esp. pp. 11.5 if.

'y See Peukert. Die KPD, i 16f. I discuss the use of such words as 'instruments' to refer to the terror in my 'Terror System'.

21 Cf. Jorg Kammler, 'Nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung and Gestapo-am Beispiel der Staatspolizeistelle fur den Regierungsbezirk Kassel', in Eike Hennig (ed. ), Hessen unterm Hakenkreuz: Studien zur Durchsetzung der NSDAP in Hessen, 2nd edn. (Frankfurt, 1984). 5o6ff.: Gerhard Hoch. Zwolf wiedergefundene /ahre: Kaltenkirchen unter dem Hakenkreuz (Bad Bramstedt, [5980]). 231; Dieter Rebentisch and Angelika Raab, Neu-Isenburg zwischen Anpassung and Widerstand (NeuIsenburg, 1978), 104ff. See the eyewitness accounts of Peter Bruckner, Das Abseits als sicherer Ort (Coburg, 1980) 145: Reck-Malleczewen, 69 ff.; and Dietrich Gustrow, Todlicher All tag: Strafverteidiger im Dritten Reich (Berlin, 1981), 148ff. Note also Bernt Engelmann, Im Gleichschritt marsch (Cologne. 1981), ch.4.

21 HStA D: Gestapo 17. 922. (Dusseldorf. Sept. i939).

zz See StA W: Gestapo 753 for one of the rare denunciations from the SD. The denouncer was married, Protestant, and not a Party member.

1i Gisevius, 101-2.

24 Ibid. io5.

17 See e.g. Thomas Mann's daughter, Erika Mann, School for Barbarians: Education under the Nazis (London, 1939), 18ff.

28 Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, 157.

z5 Golo Mann, Deutsche Geschichte des 19. and 20. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt, 1967), 8 r r.

26 See Stern, Dreams and Delusions, 169-70.

32 For the laws see Hirsch, Majer, and Meinck (eds.), 90-I, 453-4•

See the discussion in Peter Huttenberger, 'Heimtiickefalle vor dem Sondergericht Munchen 1933-1939 • in Broszat et al. (eds.). Bayern in der NS-Zeit iv (1981). 43511.

zv StA W: Gestapo 5217.

"' Ibid. 5168.

Best, 42.

35 The quotation is from Lothar Gruchmann, /ustiz im Dritten Reich: Anpassung and Unterwerfung in der Ara Gartner (Munich 1988). 835.

See e.g. Bay HStA: MA 1o6682: RP report, Schwabia/Neuburg, Augsburg, 6 July 1933: GSA: HA/Rep. 9oP: Gestapo Dusseldorf, 5 May 1935.

" Bay HStA: MA 106677: RP report, Upper and Middle Franconia, 6 October 1933.

" Broszat, 'Politische Denunziationen', 223-4.

38 Broszat, 'Politische Denunziationen', 223: the date of the decree was 28 Apr. 1934.

40 Sopade, iv (Nov. 1937), 1555ff., suggests that the regime could no longer rely on voluntary denunciations as in the early years.

av Richard Grunberger, A Social History of the Third Reich (Harmondsworth, 1974), 146.

11 BAK: R58/275. 202-4. 3 Sept: 1939: Chef Sipo to Stapo(leit)stellen.

BAK: R58/264. 192: Frick to Reich sstatthalter, io Jan. 1939.

#1 See Hirsch, Majer, and Meinck (eds.), 456-8.

For the public appeals see Deutschkron. 59.

45 Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers, 363ff. For a critique see Jane Caplan, 'Politics and Polyocracy: Notes on a Debate', in Charles S. Maier et al. (eds.). The Rise of the Nazi Regime: Historical Reassessments (Boulder, Colo., 1986), 51ff.

nn See Mason, Arbeiterklasse, iff.

47 For the decree see Hirsch, Maier, and Meinck (eds.), 458-9, and Joseph Wulf, Presse and Funk im Dritten Reich: Ein Dokumentation (Frankfurt, 1983). 378.-9-

4' The letter is in C.F. Latour, 'Goebbels' "Aul3erordentliche Rundfunkmal3nahmen" 19391942', VJZ ii (1963), 419-20.

""See the correspondence from Curtner, Lammers, Schlegelberger, Schacht, Rosenberg, Rust, and Muhs, ibid. 43off.

S" See Deutschkron, 60.

Heinz Boberach (ed.), Richterbriefe: Dokumente zur Beeinflussung der deutschen Rechtsprechung 1942-1944 (Boppard, 1975), 171.

'' William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary (New York, 1940,214-15 (emphasis original).

See Engelmann, Im Gleichschritt, ch. 4.

5' Ibid. 171-z.

See Jdrg Schadt (ed.), Verfolgung and Widerstand unter dem Nationalsozialismus in Baden (Stuttgart, 1976), 303ff., for an interview with the head of the Karlsruhe Gestapo on 20 June 1934, carried in the Neue Mannheimer Zeitung.

° Cf. Moore, Terror, 159, on the USSR under Stalin: 'There is enough evidence from persons

See e.g. StA W Gestapo 5988, case Oct. 1939•

"' HStA D: Gestapo 65053. This case is discussed in ch. 6.

57 See Reinhard Mann, Protest and Kontrolle, 294, chart 4: and see ch. 7 below.

5' HStA D: RW 36/7, 5.

who have been associated with the secret police. either as victims or officers, to indicate clearly the reliance on quantity.'

fi' Hiittenberger. 51 7. See the collection in /ustiz and NS-Verhrechen: Sarnmlung deutscher Strafurteile wegen ns. Totungsverbrechen 1945-1966. 24 vols. (Amsterdam, 1968(.

Huttenberger, 517-18. Early in 1939, from exile in Zurich, Erika Mann interviewed a woman married to a Munich medical doctor, who complained that they lived 'in constant danger-of arrest at any moment, denounced by anyone who finds it worth his while, for some unfortunate remark he may or may not have made. If my husband has to press a Nazi patient for his bill we live in fear of his saying we've made fun of the Fiihrer or joked about the Minister of Propaganda. And if that happens we'll both be arrested with no one to ask why-and our son would have to manage for himself (E. Mann, 4).

Grunberger, i45•

Hiittenberger, 518.

Ibid. 469-70.

" Christabel Bielenberg, Ride Out the Dark: The Experiences of an Englishwoman in Wartime Germany (1968: Boston, 1984). 237.

fi, Huttenberger, 471.

'" Reck-Malleczewen, 70-1.

`9 Ibid.

Broszat, 'Politische Denunziationen', 232.

71 Broszat, 'Politische Denunziationen', 225ff.

72 Cf. Meyer, 77ff. Frohlich, 172ff.; Mehringer, 'Die KPD', 226ff.; Merson, 50ff.

75 Ibid. 121-2.

76 But for an example of such 'idealism' see GOstrow, Todlicher Alltag, 145ff. A nanny reported the medical doctor she had taken care of 'to win him back again for the Fiihrer'.

77 Reinhard Mann, Protest and Kontrolle, 295, table 37.

73 Vogt, in Peukert and Bajohr, 140. Cf. Sopade, ii (Sept. 1935). 1o57ff., for similar views.

74 Peukert, Die KPD, 12 1.

7' Reichsgesetzblatt, 1 (25 July 1933). para. 7.

'y HStA D: RW34: Cologne Gestapo.

StA W: Gestapo 10937.

s0 Leonard Gross, The Last Jews in Berlin (Toronto, 1983), 6o.

82 BAK: R58/243. 317-18; Berlin, 24 Feb. 1941. Chef Sipo to Stapo(leit)stellen.

StA W: Gestapo 1936.

Ibid. 12049.

85 Boberach (ed.). Richterbriefe. 363ff.

StA W: Gestapo 18o89: case in spring 1940.

"See Harvard Law Review, 64 (1951), 1oo6-7.

xx Cf. StA W: Gestapo 1927: 9873; 16714.

se Ibid. 11294.

See chs. 6, 7.

Ibid. 8279. For additional cases of anonymous tips and the Gestapo in Wurzburg see Frohlich. 138 ff.

StA W: Gestapo 3596.

Ibid. 2555.

"' Ibid. 9529.

va Ibid. ioi8i; 9873.

Hh Richard Cobb, The Police and the People: French Popular Protest 1789-1820 (Oxford, 1970), 8o. See the differentiated remarks of Elton, 3 74-5.

y' StA W: Gestapo 18039; cf. 16835.

9tl Reinhard Mann, Protest and Kontrolle. 300-1.

99 IMT xx. 128.

wl Ibid. 13060.

104 Ibid. 7949•

1D5 Ibid. 13574.

""' Broszat, 'Politische Denunziationen', 223.

"" StA W: Gestapo 3391.

"" Ibid. 5457.

"" Ibid. 11gg1.

"s See e.g. Ernst Schmidt, Lichter in der Finsternis: Widerstand and Verfolgung in Essen 19331945, 2nd edn. (Frankfurt, ig8o), 213ff.

i'6-see Peukert, Volksgenossen. 246ff.; for an outline of the law see Hirsch, Majer, and Meinck (eds.), 252ff.

116 StA W: Gestapo 2038.

"'" Quoted in Broszat, 'Politische Denunziationen', 228.

Boberach (ed.). RichterbrieJe, 363ff. In case 3 the wife of the merchant had turned him in earlier for listening to foreign radio when she felt he was about to beat her.

Hiittenberger, 5 18.

''' StA W: Gestapo 6962.

See e.g. Peukert, Volksgenossen. 246fT.; Gisela Bock. Zwangssterilisation on .Nationalsozialismus: Studien zur Rassenpolitik and Frauenpolitik (Opladen, 1986), 178ff.; Hans-Walter Schmuhl. Ras- senhygiene, Nationalsozialisnws. Euthanasie: Von der Verhutung zur Vernichtung 'lebensunwerten Lebens' (Gottingen, 1987), 151 ff.: Angelika Ebbinghaus et al., Heilen and Vernichten im Mustergau Hamburg (Hamburg, 1984).

For earlier enforcement problems see Michael Kunze. Highroad to the Stake: A Tale of Witchcraft. trans. W. E. Yuill (Chicago, 1987). P. xii.

See Joseph Walk (ed.). Das Sonderrecht fur die Juden im NS-Staat (Heidelberg. 1981), xi.

Allgemeine Erla/isamnilung.pt. z, ed. RHSA (t 944) in 117.

'See Ernst Noam and Wolf-Arno Kropat. Juden vor Gericht 1 9-3-3-z 945: Dokumente aus hessischen Justizakten (Wiesbaden. 1975), to9ff.. and Wilhelm Stuckart and Hans Globke, Kommentare zur deutschen Rassengesetzgebung i (Munich. 1936), 40ff.

' For some of the ways the charges were used see Fred Hahn. Lieber Sturrner! Leserbriefe an das NS-KarnpJblatt 1924 his 1945 (Stuttgart, 1978), 229ff. For reflections on the effects on the language see Victor Klemperer, LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperil. Die Sprache des Dritten Reichs (Frankfurt. 1982), 183ff.

' Gordon, 2 1 3.

" See StA W: Gestapo 3705: 495 3: 4202. For additional information on the fates of the Jews and the Wurzburg Gestapo, including false charges of 'race defilement', see Adler, 692ff.

StA W: Gestapo 8135. In this case from Unsleben in late 1938 it was alleged (among other things) that a neighbour said that (at some point) Hitler went with Jewish women, in the course of counter-accusations in a libel action.

StA W: NSDAP/GL/I/3.

" The files are in the Myers Collection at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, CF. StA M: NSDAP 318, letter of 5 Feb. 1936, which suggests how denunciations were also used to settle issues within the Party.

z Gordon. 213. maintains that all were 'guilty', and that those who got off had managed to cover their tracks'. This explanation is too speculative. She also claims that in all cases' the accused 'were denounced by one (and frequently two) "witness(es)". but unless three "witnesses" corroborated the charges, the Gestapo dismissed the accused with the usual stern warning'. This claim is not accompanied by supporting documentation. Gordon seeks correlational support for her assertion that even those who got off lightly were guilty by drawing up 'statistical profiles' of the accused and comparing these to the sociological structure of the area. Gestapo practices make this procedure even more problematical than it might be otherwise. For example, a casefile held by a Gestapo post might pertain to 'criminal' deeds committed elsewhere, and copies of a case could be sent to one's home area as a matter of record after the entire case had run its course elsewhere. Some of Gordon's 'illustrative cases' of opponents (pp. 233ff.). for example, pertain to non-resident persons who were by chance picked up by a branch of the Dusseldorf Gestapo. See HStA D: Gestapo 37661: the 'Catholic salesman' (mentioned in Gordon, p. z 35) was born in Bielefeld and lived in Berlin. but was caught helping a Jew, also from Berlin, at the border-crossing in Kleve. See also HStA D: Gestapo 46,339 for another example (Gordon, p. a 36 n. 8 3). For initial sceptical responses to this treatment of the sources see the review by Jill Stephenson in History. 71 (1986). 338-9; also George Steiner, 'Enormities beyond Measure', Times Literary Supplement (13 July 1984)• 793.