Hollywood depicts the Gestapo as thugs notorious for their craven brutality, their secret raids, their torture and sundry other horrible deeds done to innocent civilians in the heart of the night.
They’re the malicious villains in every period film and quite a few modern stories as well.
Actually, the Gestapo were nothing more than the German FBI. They were not violent or aggressive. All they did was transcribe things told to them by regular people living next door, working in the office across the street, shopping in the same stores you frequent.
All the information gathered by the Gestapo was given to them freely and willingly by private citizens, with no coercion or convincing of any kind. All the Gestapo did was sort and categorize the information, then issue a warrant when enough evidence was in hand.
There were no malicious assaults. There was always bounteous evidence; voluminous evidence – far more than enough for any jury – evidence provided by the accused peers, personal testimony, eye witness testimony, irrefutable testimony.
The Gestapo simply took the evidence and enforced the law. It was the population as a whole who were the judge, jury and executioner.
These days we call it political correctness. If you go against the grain you’re branded, informed upon, and eventually destroyed by the authorities as a lunatic, a criminal, a petty miscreant or just an unwelcome troublemaker.
Pity we don’t have the same system for our own neighborhoods, to root out the crack houses, the petty thiefs, the drug dealers and the misfits from our own communities. At least Germany enforced their laws. We don’t even do that, and that puts the criminal elements in control.
We all live in fear, every day, every hour.