The changes involved in creating the Nazi Police State

The Nazi Police State was one of the key fundamental parts of the Nazi Party and its reign that allowed them to pursue the Nazism ideas that they did. The Nazi Police State was created out of a combination of old, traditional systems and additions the Nazis made to them as well as the combination of their own party police systems into one big arsenal known as the police state. One of the changes the Nazis made to create the Police State was the addition of the SS. The SS was originally created as a private bodyguard for Hitler and other important or influential Nazi leaders.

It however did not stay this way and the SS grew from 500 men to 50,000 strict Aryans. Physical standards were very strict. They replaced the SA’s brown uniforms with black ones, to distinguish themselves as a separate organisation. They became the main means of terrorising the German population into obedience. They were fiercely loyal to Hitler, and swore oaths that gave Hitler ultimate control. They remained loyal to the Nazi Party, and played a large role in getting rid of Rohm, leader of the SA.

They ran the concentration camps, boosting free labour. The SS consolidated the Nazis power because it allowed Hitler to kill, imprison or arrest anyone he wanted, as the SS was positioned as above the law, and they were fiercely loyal to Hitler, he had complete control of Germany and its people as the SS were so brutal they could do far beyond what the law stated. The Gestapo was also created, and stood alongside the SS and the SA, as the official secret police of Nazi Germany.

They were originally the Prussian Secret police, run by Hermann Goering. After June 1936 it became the official State Secret Police run by Hendric Himmler. They could strike anywhere at any time against ordinary Germans without them knowing. They used ‘any method they could’ to snoop on their victims. They ‘spied’ on ordinary Germans, and used ‘phone tapping’ to get a much broader reach at Nazi objectifies, as well as intercepting mail and using a huge network of ‘informers’, ‘everywhere’ in Germany.

They found many objectifies who did their best to conceal their protests. The Gestapo enhanced the SS because the SS was able to target any of those visibly speaking out against Nazism, and the Gestapo was able to capture those who snuck under the radar. It was an addition to the SS that increased the scale and force of the Nazi Police State. The Law Courts and all legal systems were also technically added to the Nazi police state.

The Nazis did not get rid of Germany’s existing legal and police systems, instead adding their own forces to the system and completely taking control of it. This allowed them to appear to the public as less than dictators, and let them hide their doings behind a system that the public once trusted, rather than introducing a new system that the public knew would be crude. They took complete control by putting the police under the command of the SS, and forcing the judges from the legal system to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler.

The conventional courts could be used by the Nazis directly against their own opponents, arresting them under minor technicalities such as ‘currency violations’ and such – hiding behind the conventional legal system. This allowed the Nazis to consolidate their power legally behind a system that the public once trusted to be a fair and democratic one. Rather than creating a new system they hid behind the existing ones, exploiting it under minor technicalities and having people killed for them. It allowed them to secretly increase their legal power.

It allowed arrests, for example, made by the SS and Gestapo to be followed through in court without doubt and a fair trial, in favour of Nazism. In conclusion, many changes were made to the police system in Germany to make it become the Nazi Police System. They created new groups, like the SS and Gestapo, that interleaved with each other to reach a broad breadth of power, and by incorporating the legal system into the Nazi Police State, they were able to categorically make convictions without a fair trial, allowing them to do pretty much what they wanted.