20 Dec. 45
appointed Reichsführer SS Heinrich
Himmler, who had meanwhile been named Chief of the Political Police in
all the Under except Prussia, to the post of Deputy Chief of the
Prussian Secret State Police."
The Prussian law about the Secret State Police, dated 10 February 1936,
then summed up the development hitherto, and determined the position and
responsibilities of the Secret State Police in the executive regulations
issued the same day.
On 10 February 1936 the basic law for the Gestapo was promulgated by Göring
as Prussian Prime Minister — I refer to Document 2107-PS. This law
provided that the Secret State Police had the duty to investigate and to
combat in the entire territory of the State all tendencies inimical to
the State and declared that orders and matters of the Secret State
Police were not subject to the review of the administrative courts. That
is the Prussian State law of that date cited on Pages 21-22 of the
publication of the laws of 1936.
Also on that same date of 10 February 1936 a decree for the execution
of the law was issued by Göring as Prussian Prime Minister, and by
Frick, as Minister of the Interior. This decree provided that the
Gestapo had authority to enact measures valid in the entire area of the
State and measures affecting that area-by the way, that is found in
2108-PS and is also a published law-that it was the centralized agency
for collecting political intelligence in the field of political police,
and that it administered the concentration camps. The Gestapo was given
authority to make police investigations in cases of criminal attacks
upon the Party as well as upon the State.
Later, on the 28th of August 1936, a circular of the Reichsführer
SS and Chief of the German Police provided that as of 1 October 1936 the
Political Police forces of the German provinces were to be called the "Geheime
Staatspolizei." That means the Secret State Police. The regional
offices were still to be described as State Police. The translation of
that law is in 2372-PS, Reichsministerialbtatt of 1936, Number
44, Page 1344.
Later, on 20 September 1936, a circular of the Minister of Interior,
Frick, commissioned the Gestapo Bureau in Berlin with the supervision of
the duties of the Political Police commanders in all the states of
Germany. That is Reichsministerialblatt 1936, Page 1343, our
Document L-297.
The law regulating and relating to financial measures in connection
with the police, of the 19th of March 1937, provided that the officials
of the Gestapo were to be considered direct officials of the Reich and
their salaries, in addition to the operational expenses of the whole
State Police, were to be borne from 1 April 1937 by the