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Headquarters of the Nazi Gestapo (secret state police) and of the
Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). Berlin, Germany, date unknown.
(Photo courtesy of DIZ Muenchen GMBH, Sueddeutscher Verlag Bilderdienst / USHMM)
On September 27, 1939, Chief of the SS and German Police Heinrich Himmler established the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), a formal fusion of the Security Police (SIPO) and the Security Service (SD) in order to deal with the Reich’s political and ideological enemies. Among the RSHA’s seven offices were the Gestapo and Criminal Police (Kripo); the offices had multiple departments and sub-departments that were assigned various duties. Under the leadership of Reinhard Heydrich, the RSHA became a central force for anti-Jewish violence and terror and was charged with the task of the annihilation of the Jews.
One of the most brutal and notorious departments in the RSHA was the Jewish affairs sub-department (Section IV-B-4), led by Adolf Eichmann. Section IV-B-4 administered the deportation and “resettlement” of Jews to ghettos, forced labor camps, and killing centers and carried out what the Nazis called the “Final Solution.” The RSHA was also responsible for security within the Reich and all conquered territories; it supplied troops to the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads), which swept behind the German army (Wehrmacht) in the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, murdering Jewish men, women, and children en masse. The RSHA was also in charge of resettling ethnic Germans in conquered Polish territories (after having deported Poles from these areas) under the so-called Generalplan Ost, a plan that saw Germany’s expansion to the east in order to achieve greater Lebensraum (living space) for the German people.
The RSHA was established mere weeks after Germany’s invasion of Poland and the start of World War II in 1939. This timing is significant because it shows the ideological underpinnings of the war. In addition to being responsible for the annihilation of the Jews, the RSHA was also responsible for identifying and dealing with enemies of the Reich. The subsequent establishment of the RSHA shortly after the invasion of Poland is critical in understanding the Nazi war strategy and post-war plans were conceived in the incipient stages of Germany’s war.
When discussing this topic with your students, you might address the following points: How did Germany’s war strategy derive from Nazi ideology? Why were Poland and the Soviet Union strategic countries for Germany to conquer? How did the Nazis view the Poles and the Soviets? What effects did the war have on the evolution of the “Final Solution”?
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