cover image Foundations of Nazi Police State

Foundations of Nazi Police State

George C. Browder. University Press of Kentucky, $39.95 (346pp) ISBN 978-0-8131-1697-6

In this scholarly examination of the struggle for police power in the Third Reich, Browder shows that Germany's SS-police system was created by Heinrich Himmler largely with his own resources and on his own initiative without direct support from Hitler until 1936. The author focuses attention on the evolution of the security police (Sipo) and the SD (the security service of the National Socialist Movement) up to 1936, when Himmler was appointed chief of German police, bringing together the party and state agencies that became central to the execution of terror and mass murder in the final nine years of the Reich. Browder, who teaches history at the State University of New York, sheds new light on Himmler's role as planner, organizer, political strategist, and his position in the complex web of rivalries that laid the foundations of the Nazi police state. (Apr.)