GESTAPO: Instrument of Tyranny

by Edward Crankshaw ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 1956

A history of the Gestapo has been based largely on the evidence of the Nuremberg Trials, and though a study of the men who shared with Hitler in its ugly hegemony and the techniques of terror they perfected, it is also an attempt to show that the Gestapo is not to be isolated as a scapegoat, for the acts it committed. It is impossible to disassociate the Gestapo from the Wehrmacht- or from the German people who must finally be answerable for its actions. Cronkshaw, a clear, cold, efficient analyst, traces the conquest of police power and the pattern of terror it developed, the men- from young toughs to gentlemen thugs- who officiated, its leaders- Himmler and Heydrich, Goering and Diels, its widening sphere of activity from within Germany to Poland and Western Russia, and finally the dossier of mass murder it compiled. Crankshaw's book, which is not only important as a document, is also a rebuttal to the apologists for Germany today, and a warning.

Pub Date: May 4, 1956

ISBN: 1853674818

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1956

Categories: NONFICTION