Reich Security Main Office

The Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) was an SS agency established in 1939 by merging the Security Service and central criminal and political police offices. It coordinated Nazi Germany’s security police and intelligence apparatus, including the Gestapo and the Reich Security Service.

Gestapo: Nazi Germany’s secret state police, responsible for identifying and suppressing political opposition. The RSHA’s Amt IV directed the Gestapo’s political policing.
Heinrich Himmler: The SS leader who expanded the organization into a central instrument of Nazi rule and racial persecution. As chief of German police and head of the SS, he oversaw the RSHA’s creation.
Holocaust: The genocide of six million European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The RSHA coordinated major agencies and operations that carried out the genocide.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner: An Austrian SS officer who led the RSHA from 1943 until Germany’s defeat in 1945. He succeeded Heydrich and commanded the agency during the final phase of the war.
Sicherheitsdienst: The SS Security Service, an intelligence organization that monitored perceived enemies and gathered information for Nazi leaders. The RSHA incorporated the SD’s domestic and foreign intelligence branches.
Reinhard Heydrich: An SS leader who directed the Security Service and Gestapo before becoming the RSHA’s first chief. He designed the merger and led the new agency from its establishment.
Wannsee Conference: A meeting of senior German officials in January 1942 to coordinate the implementation of the deportation and murder of Europe’s Jews. RSHA official Adolf Eichmann organized the meeting and recorded its proceedings.
Walter Schellenberg: An SS intelligence official who led the RSHA’s foreign intelligence service during World War II. His career illustrates the RSHA’s intelligence function beyond domestic policing.
Kriminalpolizei: Germany’s criminal police, responsible for investigating offenses classified as ordinary crime. The RSHA’s Amt V placed the criminal police within its central structure.
Security Service of the SS: The SS intelligence service, known as the SD, created to monitor political and ideological opponents. The RSHA absorbed the SD’s central offices into its new organization.

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