Description
Book SynopsisThis book is an examination of the everyday operations of the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police. How were the Gestapo able to detect the smallest signs of non-compliance with Nazi doctrines, especially `crimes'' pertaining to the private spheres of social, family, and sexual life? How could the police enforce policies such as those designed to isolate the Jews, or the foreign workers brought to Germany after 1939, with such scrupulousness and apparent ease? Robert Gellately argues that the key factor in the `successful'' enforcement of Nazi racial policy was the willingness of German citizens to provide the authorities with information about suspected `criminality''. He does not charge the nation with `collective guilt'', but demonstrates that, without some degree of popular participation in the operations of institutions such as the Gestapo, the regime would have been seriously hampered not only inside Germany, but also in many of the occupied countries.
Trade Review`well-written and scholarly ... This book deserves a wide readership because it helps redress the balance of much current research.' History Today
`well-written and scholarly ... This book deserves a wide readership because it helps redress the balance of much current research.' History Today
`Gellately's observations are valuable and disturbing.' Times Literary Supplement
Table of ContentsList of maps; List of tables; Abbreviations and glossary; Introduction; I. The Gestapo: The emergence of the Gestapo; Local organization of the Gestapo and police network; II. German Society: Würzburg and Lower Franconia before 1933; Anti-Jewish actions in Lower Franconia after 1933; III. Enforcing Racial Policy: The Gestapo and social co-operation: the example of political denunciation; Racial policy and varieties of non-compliance; Compliance through prssure; 'Racially foreign': racial policy and Polish workers; Epilogue and conclusion; Bibliography; Index
