Gestapo Documentary
Dave
surprising (to me). The documentary asserted that the Gestapo was in
charge of drafting foreign workers/slave laborers and controlling them
in Germany. This seems a bit far afield from a political secret
police, but one never knows in Nazi Germany. Was this information
correct?
Marlock
an imdb link please.
Eddie
wrote:
It was shown in between segments of WWII in HD on the History Channel.
Eddie
William Black
It actually sounds about right.
The German state security apparatus operated a number of 'offices'.
The state secret police (Gehiem Stats Politzi ?) was office IV (the
Roman number4)
They weren't just political police, they were the secret police, they
did all the dirty work...
The area that dealt with deportations was office IV b
Eichmann was head of IV b IV, the office that dealt with Jewish
deportations.
--
William Black
"Any number under six"
The answer given by Englishman Richard Peeke when asked by the Duke of
Medina Sidonia how many Spanish sword and buckler men he could beat
single handed with a quarterstaff.
Michele
news:49b09448-afba-4b09...@y32g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
The byzantine workings of the Nazi administrative system are too complex for
a TV show.
The terminology used above is too vague.
"Drafting" could cover very different procedures, carried out by different
agencies, depeding on the country. A Gastarbeiter from a friendly country
would come in willingly, or almost so, with no Gestapo involvement, through
the Labor organization led by Sauckel. A former Polish POW would be handed
over by the Wehrmacht, not by the Gestapo. Civilians could be rounded up at
random from the streets later in the war, and the Gestapo did not field the
manpower for such dragnets; they would be carried out by the SS, or the
Police, or the regular Heer, depending on where and on who was available.
Responsibilities overlapped everywhere and agencies competed for manpower.
"Controlling" is also vague. Slave labor could be managed by Sauckel's
outfit, or by the Organisation Todt, or directly by the SS and managed by
their own economic department or "leased" to other agencies and even private
firms, or by the Wehrmacht on military projects etc. Again the Gestapo was a
secret police, it could never field enough men to oversee the army of
slaves.
If however by "controlling" one means, "intervening in case of suspicion of
security issues", then yes, the Gestapo would - if informed by the managing
agency, which could very well not be the case. Remember, those agencies
spent a lot of effort on turf wars.
Don Phillipson
news:49b09448-afba-4b09...@y32g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
Probably not. The majority of people with "foreign worker"
documentation appeared to have been recruited by either
collaborating governments (e.g. Vichy France) or local
German occupation authorities (as in Poland.) Most
known "slave laborers" were drafted from concentration
camps under SS control.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)