History of the Gestapo

Last night I finished reading The Gestapo: A History of Horror by Jacques Delarue.

In short, this is the history of the Gestapo from before it's founding to the fall of the Third Reich.

It's important to point out that the author was a part of the French Resistance, so to him it wasn't just an academic question, but an actual part of his life. This affects the book in two ways.

First, a good portion of the book concerns the activities of the Gestapo in France, which is fine, but I would have liked an overview of it's activities in the other occupied countries as well. They are mentioned in passing, but nowhere near at the same level as France.

Second, it gets a bit preachy at times. Ideally a historical work should remain neutral at all times, and let the facts, good and bad speak for themselves. In my opinion, you don't need to state that the actions taken by the Nazi secret police were bad, but seeing that the author was directly affected by the Gestapo, I get it. And it doesn't happen all that much.

I liked this book. I have read several other books about the Third Reich and the S.S. and some have been a real slog to get through. This one is very easy, not just to read, but also to keep track of. The author repeats events and dates just enough to help you understand what happened when and how it affected other events. This makes it all easy to follow.

I also liked the way the book keeps up the bigger picture as this gives perspective. It's easy to think that the Nazi big wigs were a team, but in reality they were a loose confederation of warring chieftains, viciously fighting each other for prestige and power.

If you are interested in the dark chapter of human history that is Nazi Germany, then I would say it's essential to dive into Gestapo's history since it was one of the principal tools used to keep the regime in power. I guess there could be better books out there, but The Gestapo: A History of Horror is absolutely good enough. It doesn't go too deep, it is more of an overview, but this is essential or everything would get hopelessly bogged down.

I guess the take-away here is that I recommend this book.

Until next time, have a great week!