The Gestapo: The Myth and Reality of Hitler's Secret Police

A new, comprehensive exploration of the Gestapo from a renowned historian of the Third Reich.

Drawing on a detailed examination of previously unpublished Gestapo case files this book relates the fascinating, vivid and disturbing accounts of a cross-section of ordinary and extraordinary people who opposed the Nazi regime. It also tells the equally disturbing stories of the involvement of the German citizenry in the Gestapo’s surveillance and reveals the cold-blooded, efficient methods of the Gestapo officers. Despite its material constraints, the degree to which the group was able to manipulate—and collude with—the general public is as astonishing as it is chilling, for it reveals that the complicity of regular German citizens in the rendition of their associates, friends, colleagues, and neighbors was essential in allowing the Gestapo to extend its reach widely and quickly.

• Longlisted for 2016 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize and ranked one of the 100 Best Books of 2015 in the Daily Telegraph

• With access to previously inaccessible records, this is the fullest and most definitive account of the Gestapo yet published

The Gestapo will provide a chilling new doorway into the everyday life of the Third Reich and give powerful testimony from the victims of Nazi terror and poignant life stories of those who opposed Hitler's regime while also challenging popular myths about Hitler's secret police.