No surprises here, with the secret police force used to ensure the Nazis' complete domination over the German populous topping the list. Established in April 1933 upon Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, the Gestapo aggressively enforced Nazi rule over the general populous as a secret police force, intelligence agency and extermination squad for 12 years until the end of World War II. While first segregating and subjugating the dissidents, eventually the Gestapo helped round up the remaining Jews and other "undesirables" who would perish during the Holocaust. Their remit expanded from the German borders to the occupied territories as well, with the Gestapo hunting down dissidents in Poland, France and the USSR, among others. The Gestapo proved so crucial to the implementation of the Holocaust, in fact, that several of its members were tried and executed for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials. A secret police, an intelligence agency, an extermination squad, a paramilitary force and an important player in the implementation of the Final Solution - the Gestapo was the ultimate secret police force to be fearful of.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.