The Gestapo, the secret state police of Nazi Germany, was one of the most heinous pillars upon which the Third Reich relied for the oppression and extermination of Germans opposed to National Socialism. Its criminal activities also extended to Nazi-occupied European territories. It was the organization of the Hitler regime that played a crucial role in the persecution of Jews and the Holocaust. The book unfolds the history of the Gestapo, from its founding in 1933 to its collapse in 1945, and captures the inhumane methods and practices it employed to interrogate and exterminate its hundreds of thousands of victims. The author, drawing from numerous sources, presents the profiles of the main Gestapo officials. He records the causes that led to its rapid expansion shortly after its establishment and describes the missions of the battalions that spread terror in Germany and occupied Europe.