2007-11-25 16:38:11 · 5 answers · asked by Jstevens 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
The Gestapo was an official state police force, which grew steadily through the years Hitler was in power, becoming part of the SS and absorbing local police forces.
The members and their actions were not a secret. In fact great attempts were made to publicize them and present them in a positive light to German citizens, who never the less knew that they were a force to be feared and one which no one wanted to have notice them.
Actually, for the damage they did, there were not that many of them and they relied a lot on informants and German people informing on their neighbors, and in some cases, family members, through fear of guilt by association.
2007-11-25 16:58:38 · answer #1 · answered by LodiTX 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Gestapo was formed in 1933 from the Prussian secret police. Hitler did not "tell" the people of Germany, but, like any secret police organization, the existence of the Gestapo became a known fact and feared because little else was known other than they were the secret police. Since the war didn't start officially until the invasion of Poland in 1939, the knowledge of the existence of the Gestapo was known before the war.
2007-11-26 01:00:24 · answer #2 · answered by Dalgor 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Gestapo was state police so they were every were.
2007-11-26 02:15:21 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Geheimes Staats Polizei were a fact of German life. Everybody knew of their existence
2007-11-26 01:55:30 · answer #4 · answered by brainstorm 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He didn't tell them, they made their own presence known.
2007-11-26 00:47:03 · answer #5 · answered by xtowgrunt 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋