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Reich Security Main Office
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==Formation and development == In 1934, the Nazi regime accelerated the centralization of state power, abolishing the sovereignty of Germany’s federal states and subordinating them directly to the Reich government. Even before the formal creation of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the Gestapo under Himmler had already asserted nationwide authority, laying the groundwork for a unified security apparatus. These moves toward central control were further reinforced by the establishment of the ''Volksgerichtshof'' as a political court to enforce Nazi ideology.{{sfn|Echternkamp|2018|p=23}} Then on 27 September 1939, Himmler officially established the RSHA.{{sfn|Echternkamp|2018|p=68}} His assumption of control over all security and police forces in Germany was a significant factor in the growth in power of the Nazi state.{{sfn|Broszat|1981|p=270}} With the formation of the RSHA, Himmler combined under one roof the Nazi Party's ''[[Sicherheitsdienst]]'' (SD; SS intelligence service) and the ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'' (SiPo; "Security Police"), which was nominally under the Interior Ministry.{{efn|The RSHA's purpose was "ostensibly to harmonize the activites of the SD, the Gestapo and the police," but instead merely added another layer of management to an already confusing and "overlapping array of agencies," according to historian David Cesarini.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=254}} }} The SiPo was composed of two sub-departments, the [[Gestapo|''Geheime Staatspolizei'']] (Gestapo; "Secret State Police") and the [[Kriminalpolizei (Nazi Germany)| ''Kriminalpolizei'']] (Kripo; "Criminal Police").{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=201, 469, 470}} In correspondence, the RSHA was often abbreviated to ''RSi-H''{{sfn|McNab|2013|p=41}} to avoid confusion with the ''[[SS Race and Settlement Main Office|SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt]]'' (RuSHA; "SS Race and Settlement Office"). The organization's main goal was to protect Nazi Germany against enemies "inside" the country but later became instrumental (by design) in dealing with any opposition in occupied territories.{{sfn|McDonough|2021a|p=436}} Dealing with any and all forms of "discontent with the war" was certainly one of its roles.{{sfn|Longerich|2019|p=656}} The creation of the RSHA represented the formalization, at the highest level, of the relationship under which the SD served as the [[intelligence agency]] for the security police. A similar coordination existed in the local offices, where the Gestapo, criminal police, and SD were formally separate offices. This coordination was carried out by inspectors on the staff of the local higher SS and police leaders. One of the principal functions of the local SD units was to serve as the intelligence agency for the local Gestapo units. In the occupied territories, the formal relationship between local units of the Gestapo, criminal police, and SD was slightly closer.{{sfn|IMT, "The Accused Organizations"}} The RSHA continued to grow at an enormous rate during [[World War II]] in Europe.{{sfn|Bracher|1970|p=353}} Routine reorganization of the RSHA did not change the tendency for centralization within [[Nazi Germany]], nor did it change the general trend for its members to develop direct relationships to [[Adolf Hitler]], adhering to Nazi Germany's typical pattern of the [[leader-follower]] construct.{{sfn|Williamson|2002|pp=34, 35}} For the RSHA, centrality within Nazi Germany was pronounced since the organization completed the integration of government and Nazi Party offices as to intelligence gathering and security. Departments like the SD and Gestapo (within the RSHA) were controlled directly by Himmler and his immediate subordinate SS-''[[Obergruppenführer]]'' and General of Police [[Reinhard Heydrich]]; the two held the power of life and death for nearly every German and were essentially above the law.{{sfn|Zentner|Bedürftig|1991|p=782}}{{sfn|Shirer|1988|pp=373, 374}} Other figures high in the RSHA like ''Gestapo'' chief and Heydrich's deputy [[Heinrich Müller (Gestapo)|Heinrich Müller]] were similarly empowered—evidenced after the invasion of the Soviet Union—when the latter was charged with evaluating thousands of Soviet soldiers, determining which among them was suitable to retain for reconstructive slave labor and who would be otherwise too dangerous and hence, outright murdered.{{sfn|Black|Gutmann|2017|pp=25–26}} Heydrich considered either task equivalently important.{{sfn|Black|Gutmann|2017|p=26}} Facing a shortage of personnel and vast occupied territories, German military officials in Ukraine initially created auxiliary units, which later fell under SS and Police Leaders (HSSPF) and RSHA authority. By early 1942, Heydrich, acknowledging staffing shortfalls, authorized Einsatzgruppen to recruit indigenous forces for security work, expanding upon earlier efforts like ''Einsatzgruppe A''. Under RSHA guidance, particularly Walter Schellenberg's Office VI, the RSHA also launched [[Operation Zeppelin (espionage plan)|Operation Zeppelin]], attempting (unsuccessfully) to recruit Soviet POWs and non-Russian ethnic groups for sabotage operations behind Soviet lines.{{sfn|Black|Gutmann|2017|p=27}} [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R98683, Reinhard Heydrich.jpg|thumb|[[Reinhard Heydrich]], the original chief of the RSHA, as an SS-''[[Gruppenführer]]'' in August 1940]] Heydrich remained the RSHA chief until [[Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich|his assassination in 1942]]. In January 1943 Himmler delegated the office to SS-''Obergruppenführer'' and General of Police [[Ernst Kaltenbrunner]], who headed the RSHA until the end of the war in Europe.{{sfn|Rich|1992|p=49}} The head of the RSHA was also known as the CSSD or '''''C'''hef der '''S'''icherheitspolizei und des '''SD''''' (Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service).{{sfn|Buchheim|1968|p=173}}{{sfn|Höhne|2001|p=256}}
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