History Channel - The Gestapo Hitlers Secret Police (HC) (2006) Part 2 The Sword is Unsheathed

Very few state organisations in history have instilled fear into citizens like the Gestapo, Adolf Hitler's secret police. During the darkest days of the Third Reich, the most dreaded sound was a knock at the door after dark. Everyone who lived under Nazi rule lived in fear of the secretive agents known colloquially as “V-Men”. Hitler called them his “deadliest weapon”, and without them the Fuhrer's ambition could never have been realised. Until now, their full story has not been told. Within six years of its inception, the Gestapo had grown from a regional secret police force into a crucial executive arm of the Nazi Party. By the outbreak of World War II, it had evolved into a wide-reaching organisation whose success in crushing resistance to the state was unparalleled. As the war in Europe raged, the Gestapo extended their operations to include areas under German control, leading to a new era of terror which culminated in Hitler's 'Final Solution'. This fascinating documentary from History explores the inner workings of the Gestapo, from its origins to its rise to prominence as Hitler's main instrument of fear – a sinister organisation that held the power of life and death over millions.

Part 2 The Sword is Unsheathed

With opposition quelled in Germany and the annexed territories of Austria and the Sudetenland, Hitler's plans could proceed. When the Nazis faked incidents at the border with Poland, it gave them the excuse to invade. And the Gestapo, the Secret State Police, was at the heart of it. The Gestapo's role changed from merely “protecting” the state from dissent to enabling its expansionist policies. As the Reich took over new territories, the Gestapo expanded its policies of seeking out enemies–dissenters, spies working for the Allies, and organized resistance. When security chief Heydrich was assassinated in Prague, the Gestapo carried out the brutal revenge. But it viewed its ultimate enemy as the Jew and death-squads, the Einsatzgruppen spent much time tracking them down and deporting them to the death camps. Hitler placed this task in the hands of the Gestapo, and the chief bureaucrat of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann, was Muller's special protege.

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