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Long Racism WW2 Gestapo PoliceSomething often overlooked about "Germany during WW2" is that the vast majority, like 90% of Germans...

Long Racism WW2 Gestapo Police

Something often overlooked about "Germany during WW2" is that the vast majority, like 90% of Germans never ever came in contact with the Gestapo, even if they were actively denounced by their neighbours. Like for listening to the BBC, or even of breaking the Nuremberg Laws (Rassenschande), bad-mouthing Hitler in public etc. These the Gestapo would investigate, but even in such cases the case would mostly be dropped because there wasn't the capacity to handle it. The majority of accusations wasn't even processed after a first reading.

Instead, the Gestapo and the entire police apparatus were focused on political criminality (socialists, communists), sexual delinquents and Jews. Those groups were entirely in the spotlight and every lead, no matter how small was meticulously followed up. Working methods and processes of intelligence gathering were changed to improve efficiency, to increase quotas, but only for this segment.

To the vastly overwhelming majority of Germans all of this happened beyond their horizon. They knew that the Gestapo was nasty and they could deplore the treatment of Gestapo victims even openly and sometimes very vocally. But they could also be pretty sure nothing would happen to them. A co-worker denounced numerous colleagues who had commented on Gestapo practices. The Gestapo briefly investigated and then dropped the case.

Popular depictions of Germany during the war make it seem as if the Gestapo had this web of informants, everywhere. Or somehow had tabs on every German. But that was simply not the case. What we do see is a state and police apparatus almost exclusively geared to policing very distinct groups of "others".

I write this in the context of the Dutch news yesterday that a police officer who was fined for racist behaviour during an arrest is now promoted to high rank in our nation's immigration police