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Sicherheitsdienst
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The Sicherheitsdienst (SD, Security Service) was primarily the intelligence service of the SS and the NSDAP. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the Gestapo, which the SS had infiltrated heavily after 1934.
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Encyclopedia
The Sicherheitsdienst (SD, Security Service) was primarily the intelligence service of the SS and the NSDAP. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the Gestapo, which the SS had infiltrated heavily after 1934. Between 1933 and 1939, the SD was administered as an independent SS office, after which it was transferred to the authority of the Reich Security Head Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or RSHA), as one of its five offices.
History
The SD was one of the oldest security organizations of the SS and was first formed in 1931 as the Ic-Dienst, operating out of a single apartment and answering directly to Heinrich Himmler. Himmler appointed an ex-navy officer to organise the small agency, Reinhard Heydrich. The office was renamed SD in 1932. SD became more powerful after the Nazis took control of Germany and the SS started infiltrating at leading positions all the security apparatus of the Reich. It was in some competition with the Sturmabteilung (SA), but under its chief, Heydrich, on June 9, 1934, it was made the sole "Party information service". In 1938 it was made the intelligence organization for the State as well as for the Party, supporting the Gestapo and working with the General and Interior Administration. As such, the SD came into immediate and fierce competition with German military intelligence arm, the Abwehr, headed by Admiral Canaris.
The SD was tasked with the detection of actual or potential enemies of the Nazi leadership and the neutralization of this opposition. To fulfill this task, the SD created an organization of agents and informants throughout the Reich and later throughout the occupied territories. The organization consisted of a few hundred full-time agents and several thousand informants. The SD was mainly the information-gathering agency, and the Gestapo, and to a degree the Kriminalpolizei, was the executive agency of the political police system. Both the SD and the Gestapo were departments under Heydrich's control who answered to Heinrich Himmler as Chief of the German Police, but Kripo kept a level of independence, as its structure was longer-established.
In 1936 the police were divided into the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo or Order Police) and the Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo or Security Police). The Ordnungspolizei consisted mainly of the Schutzpolizei (Municipal police), the Gendarmerie (Rural police) and the Gemeindepolizei (Local police). The Sicherheitspolizei was composed of the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo) and the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo). Heydrich became Chief of the Sipo (Security Police) and SD.
In 1939, the Sicherheitspolizei was centralized in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA, Reich Security Main Office). The operational sections of the SD became Amt III (except for foreign intelligence which was placed in Amt VI); the Gestapo became Amt IV and the Kripo became Amt V. Otto Ohlendorf was named the Chief of Amt III, the SD-Inland (within Germany); Heinrich Müller was named the Chief of Amt IV, the Gestapo; Artur Nebe was named the Chief of Amt V; and Walter Schellenberg became Chief of Amt VI, the SD-Ausland (outside Germany). Later, in 1944, most of the sections of the Abwehr (military intelligence) were incorporated into Amt VI.
Heydrich was Chief of the Security Police and SD (RSHA) until his assassination in 1942, after which Ernst Kaltenbrunner became Chief. Kaltenbrunner took office on January 30, 1943, and remained there until the end of the war. The SD was declared a criminal organization after the war and its members were tried as war criminals at Nuremberg.
Organization
By 1933, the organization was known as the SS SD-Amt and, in 1934, became the basis for the official state security organization of the Sicherheitspolizei. In 1939, the SD was divided into two offices, the Inland-SD and Ausland-SD, and placed under the authority of the RSHA.
By 1941, the SD had been organized into the following sections:
Inland-SD
The Inland-SD was responsible for intelligence and security within Germany and was divided into the following sub-offices:
- Department A (Law and Legal Structures)
- Department B (Race and Ethnic Matters)
- Department C (Cultural and Religious Matters)
- Department D (Industry and Commerce)
- Department E (High Society)
Ausland-SD
The Ausland-SD was the civilian foreign intelligence agency of the Third Reich. In 1944, the Ausland-SD also took over all functions of the Abwehr. The Ausland-SD was divided into the following sections:
Department A (Organization and Administration)
Department B (Espionage in the West)
Department C (Espionage in the Soviet Union and Japan)
Department D (Espionage in the American sphere)
Department E (Espionage in Eastern Europe)
Department F (Technical Matters)
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