Yayyyy, I have another book review to share! I haven’t written one since my very first, and that was my review of Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory; read that here! Today, I’m going to be talking about this chilling account of what is “the most terrifying embodiment of a government’s disregard for the value of human life, the Gestapo…” When I read that first sentence on the inside flap of this book at Barnes & Noble a few months ago, I knew I had to take this book home with me.
As I mentioned in my review of Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory, I’ve long since been fascinated with World War 2 History and have watched countless documentaries that have taught me about the horrors committed by Himmler, Eichmann, Goering, and the rest. However, I don’t think I’ve ever learned about the Gestapo in such detail until I read this book.
I couldn’t put this down. Page after page exposed the Gestapo in compelling detail. As I read this, I felt like I was watching these events occur in real time: sometimes, as an outsider, looking at Germany with the limited knowledge that I had of what was really occurring on the inside, and other times, as an insider, watching Germany fall apart and all semblance of a republic shattered before my very eyes.
It was really hard to be super brief in this review; there was so much information that I felt needed to be shared. Read the quotes & my final thoughts if you just want to get a feel for the book and my take on it.
About the Author:
Jacques Delarue was a member of the French Resistance, and he also held a career with the Surete Nationale (the civil police in French-speaking countries). Delarue used many unpublished works as well as personal notes—from the leaders of the Gestapo and war criminals—from the trials that occurred in France. It is from these “contacts” that Delarue has been able to recreate what the Gestapo looked like in its organization, its involvement in France, and backstory to other “little known events.”
Summary
I’m not going to break down each section thoroughly because that would make this far too long, so I simply listed all five parts to the book. My main focuses are the preface and introduction since they are centered more around morality, the value of history, and the ideology that was the driving force of the Gestapo. (Of course, these topics are also discussed as they are relevant to each section in the book, but the obvious core of those parts is to factually tell the Gestapo’s story.)
The preface…
emphasizes the urgent need to recall and be fully aware of the evils of the past. It briefly explains how virtually every aspect of German life was either absorbed by Nazism or destroyed by it. The German people had a rich, deep, and long history of a “solid legal tradition,” which made them a formidable foe for the Gestapo—at first. Once the Nazis had managed to do away with the judicial system, which had to be deviously attacked from within, Germany’s citizens lost all semblance of justice.
The “legal tangle which ensured the great power of the Party’s organizations”; the surveillance of all Germans; the indoctrination of their youth; the military occupation of European countries; the absorption of S.S. into the Gestapo; the evil persecution of the Jews; and the unjust deportations were all caused and handled by the Gestapo. They stopped at nothing to commit these atrocities, and we do a great disservice to mankind if we forget what Nazism was or if we water down its evil.
The introduction…
explains, in brief, how the Gestapo was able to find the footing to gain power. “Never has such an organization attained such complexity, been vested with such power, and reached such a pitch of ‘perfection’ in efficiency and horror.” Our author explains that he has attempted to “’dismantle’ [the Gestapo’s] mechanism” in order to convey just how it managed to propel itself to power. “National Socialism was born from the complex of defeat.” The loss of World War 1 was unacceptable to the German Army.
They had long considered themselves elite, the masters of Germany and her “serf” people (because of this Hitler would see them as a threat later on, giving the Gestapo total control), and thus the new Republic was brought about in a state of upheaval as the military disdained their defeat and already began to talk of treason. The Republican government consistently remained unaware of the underlying turmoil, and this would prove to be fatal. The enemies of this new regime—those who wanted to return to the old ways—worked from within and used “soothing words” to mask their intentions and their revolt.
Nazism was appealing to the military: the focus on the “national interest,” the lack of a constitution and free press, and the advocacy for the Fatherland were the perfect recipe for extreme nationalistic sentiment. Add to this the racial ingredients of pure blood, Nordic supremacy, and the degradation of “inferior” races, and the resulting concoction is a dynamic poison that can kill a Republic.
Hitler, Goering, and Roehm are also introduced here and their rise to prominence and power explained. The use of democratic processes that were knavishly employed to (ironically) do away with democracy are detailed, and the introduction closes with Hitler and the Nazis in power—something that they will not lose until the end of the War.
1: The Birth of the Gestapo, 1933-34 // 2: The Gestapo Perfects its Methods, 1934-36 // 3: The Gestapo prepares for the Invasion, 1936-39 // 4: The Gestapo at War, 1940 // 5: The Hell of the Gestapo, 1940-44 // 6: Collapse of the Gestapo, 1944
Quotes
“Every totalitarian regime, whether it claims to be right or left, relies upon a powerful political police force to ruthlessly crush dissent.”
“Soon the last direct witnesses, the last victims of this fiendish organization, will have disappeared. The young generation must learn how all this was possible, and how a totalitarian system works from the inside.”
“[The men who directed German police services in France were] sometimes obtuse, sometimes intelligent, always lacking in character, without moral fiber, incapable of distinguishing between the ideas of good and evil, obedient only to their orders.”
“Most of the accused felt no remorse and seemed incapable of appreciating their situation. The proceedings taken against them for their crimes seemed to them an act of vengeance exercised by the conqueror on the conquered and, paradoxically, it was in this view that they accepted their fate, for this was an idea they could understand.”
“‘The body bears the imprint of the inner forces which animate it,’” the enlightened theosophist, Jakob Boehme, wrote… It is consoling to think that murderers bear the stigmata of brutality. The majority of Nazi leaders conform to this rule: Roehm had the head of a killer, Bornann’s physiognomy was more than disturbing; Kaltenbrunner and Heydrich had the faces of cold-blooded murderers, as we might expect.”
Final Thoughts:
Read this if you can!!! I can’t recommend it enough. It’s easy to follow; it’s gripping, and the more knowledge we can gain from this period in history, the better. Over and over, I was taken aback at the sheer acts of evil committed by these wicked men. They literally stopped at nothing to achieve their ends; all options of brutality were on the table.
The aggression of the Gestapo, the reluctance or inability to act by the Western powers, and the disbandment of all justice within Germany made for a world that was darkened by a thick, seemingly never-ending, cloud of despair. The blood and ashes of six million Jews cried out from their desecrated graves.
We should never forget the atrocities of World War 2. It is equally evil to forget the Holocaust as it is to compare trivial matters to it. (They’re not mutually exclusive either.) As we have become more and more divided (unfortunately), it has become easy for certain political groups to equate the administrations of their political opponents to Hitler and his totalitarian evils. Not only is this a logical fallacy in the form of false equivalence (as well as an ad hominem & red herring), making it an inarguable and irrational position to take, it is indicative of a world that is less sensitive to true evil. Already, two-thirds of millennials don’t know what Auschwitz is. How is this possible?? How have we failed our youth so tragically? Where are our parents or teachers? This generation and those who come after it have to know about what really happened during the Second World War and why it happened.
I could elaborate further on the dangers of this, but I’ll leave it at that, and I’ll close with one last quote from the book:
Those who are unaware of the past are condemned to relive it. Let us not forget that it is only by some miracle that humanity avoided total annihilation.