To understand how the Gestapo spread fear throughout Europe, one must understand the beliefs and values of a newly-formed Gestapo Soldier. As the Daily Beast explains, “Ordinary policemen were transformed into ideological zealots, trained to root out communists, homosexuals, slaves, gypsies, the work shy… and persecute them without mercy.” The ordinary men, turned Gestapo, went to all ends to ensure that those whose ideals/personal qualities did not meet the Nazi/Aryan standards were eliminated, for the sake of a New Germany and the Master Aryan Race. Instilled with the radical ideologies …show more content…
With the fiercely loyal group of men mentioned above comprising their army, the Gestapo’s control of Europeans and rise to power made them one of the most feared forces in world history. The size of the Gestapo never reached the gargantuan amounts of the 150,000 Roman soldiers in the Roman Army or 870,000 soldiers serving Germany in World War I, but their influence over Germany trumped both the Romans and World War I German soldiers. Although several cities, of about 10,000, did not have any Gestapo soldiers stationed there, the amount of power the Gestapo held soon overshadowed the amount of men they had (“The Gestapo and German Society: Political Denunciation in the Gestapo Case Files”). For example, “What made the Gestapo feared was its power to imprison citizens/enemies in camps, torture them, and keep them for a long time. The prisoners had no trial” (The Daily Beast “The Gestapo Still Sets the Bar for Power”). With this incredible amount of …show more content…
As a result of the mass murders committed by the Einsatzgruppen, millions of Jews lived in terror, fearing for their safety. According to Jewishvitrtuallibrary.com, the Einsatzgruppen’s main job began with gathering the Jews or “outcasts” into ghettos, and eliminating them in mass shootings or sending the the “tainted” to concentration camps all around Eastern Europe. The Einsatzgruppen’s actions were swift, following a gather, steal, kill pattern that allowed the mobile firing squads to kill several thousands of people a day. Each city, Concentration Camp, and Jewish Ghetto lived in constant fear of the Gestapo coming to eliminate the “unworthy”. One example of the Einsatzgruppen’s fear-rising violence lasted through September 21st to September 27th, 1941. Everything began upon the attack of the city of Ejszyszki, Lithuania, where 3,446 Jews (989 men, 1,636, women, and 821 children) were rounded up into the city’s stables and starved for sixty hours (“Jewish Cemetery”). During this time, a group of young male Jews were ordered to dig holes in a cemetery for “a new housing area for the Jews”. The Gestapo had to order more reinforcements to help control the Jews and then proceeded to shoot several at a time in the holes dug by the young men (“Jewish Cemetery”). Ejszyszki is one of the many cities