Heinrich Muller Head of Gestapo

Heinrich Muller head of Gestapo Heinrich Muller was an interesting man, even though we do not know much about his work with Gestapo. Gestapo is the German secret police. Gehemie Statspolize is a German word that means secret state police, which is where we got the word Gestapo (Smelser 59). Although we do not know much about him or what happened to him after the war, Heinrich Muller was an unusual and mean person. Heinrich Muller’s childhood was like most kids, but some things were unusual for what he did later in life. Heinrich was born on April 28th 1900. He went to school which was equivalent to American High School. Heinrich and his family were in the lower to middle class when it came to economics. His father worked for the government in Bavaria, while his mother was a stay at home mom. He was raised as a Catholic, and stayed religious his entire life (Beyar 14). It is ironic that he stayed a Catholic his entire life, but then he could still go and do everything that he did with Gestapo. Heinrich was a pilot during World War One and then became a police officer. He joined the German army in June of 1917. Although there was only a year left in the war, Heinrich Muller climbed the ranks. He became an officer by the time he had to retire due to injuries from a plane crash right before the war ended (Beyer 14-18). After the army he joined the police force. He moved up in the ranking all the way to police secretary in 1929. While a police officer he learned how spies worked, what to use them for, and when to use them. He was the police secretary until he joined Gestapo (Beyer). In 1933 the model for Gestapo was formed by a Prussian named Hermann Goring. The Prussian secret police helped come up with idea for Gestapo, which was created in 1934. Later in the same year Goring gave Himmler, the head of Gestapo at that time, control of the SS and all of his best men. “Muller was known as a professional who got results.” Heydrich

Cited: Beyer, Mark. Heinrich Muller Gestapo Chief. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2001. Print Goda, Norman Naftali, Timothy. “Heinrich Muller” Jewish Virtual Library. 2012 <http://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Hmuller.html> Smelser, Ronald “Gestapo.” Learning about the holocauast.2.NewYork: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001 Smelser, Ronald. “SD” learning about the Holocaust.4.NewYork: Macmillan Reference, 2001 Print