Sicherheitsdienst

SD

Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS
SD sleeve insignia.
The SD was a branch of the SS.
SD personnel in Poland
Agency overview
Formed	1932
Preceding agency	Ic-Dienst 1931
Dissolved	8 May 1945
Type	Intelligence Service
Jurisdiction	Nazi Germany Occupied Europe
Headquarters	Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin
Employees	6,482 c. February 1944
Minister responsible	Heinrich Himmler1931–1945, Reichsführer-SS
Agency executives	SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD 1931-1939; Chef des RSHA 1939-1942 Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, Chef des RSHA 1942-1943 (acting) SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chef des RSHA 1943-1945
Parent agency	Allgemeine SS RSHA

Sicherheitsdienst (English: Security Service), full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. 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 Main Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or RSHA), as one of its seven departments/offices.

History

Reinhard Heydrich

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 reporting directly to Heinrich Himmler. Himmler appointed a former naval officer, Reinhard Heydrich, to organise the small agency. The office was renamed Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in the summer of 1932. The SD became more powerful after the Nazis took control of Germany and the SS started infiltrating all leading positions of the security apparatus of the Reich. It was in some competition with the Sturmabteilung (SA), but the SD was made the sole "Party information service" on 9 June 1934. 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, fierce competition with German military intelligence arm, the Abwehr, headed by Admiral Wilhelm 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 (Kripo), was the executive agency of the political police system. Both the SD and the Gestapo were departments under Heydrich's control who answered to Himmler as both Chief of the German Police and Reichsfuhrer-SS, but the Kripo kept a level of independence as its structure was longer-established.

File:ErnstKaltenbrunner-12.jpg

Ernst Kaltenbrunner

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 continued as Chief of the SD.

On 27 September 1939, the Sicherheitspolizei became a part of the RSHA under Heydrich. The operational sections of the SD became (department) Amt III and for foreign intelligence, 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). In 1944, most of the sections of the Abwehr (military intelligence) were incorporated into Amt VI.

Heydrich was Chief of the Security Police (SiPo) and SD (through the RSHA) until his assassination in 1942, after which Ernst Kaltenbrunner was named chief by Himmler on 30 January 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 official Party security organization of the NSDAP. 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. After the July 20 Plot in 1944, the Ausland-SD also took over all functions of the Abwehr, or military intelligence. 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)

Members of the Sicherheitsdienst during a łapanka (random arrest) in occupied Poland

Security forces

The SD and the SiPo were the main sources of officers for the security forces in occupied territories. SD-SiPo led battalions were typically placed under the command of the SS and Police Leaders, reporting directly to the RSHA in Berlin. The SD also maintained a presence at all concentration camps and supplied personnel, on an as-needed basis, to such special action troops as the Einsatzgruppen. The SD-SiPo was also the primary agency, in conjunction with the Ordnungspolizei, assigned to maintain order and security in the Jewish ghettos established by the Germans on the territory of occupied Eastern Europe.

Local offices

The SD also maintained local offices in Germany's cities and larger towns. The small offices were known as SD-Unterabschnitte, and the larger offices were referred to as SD-Abschnitte. All SD offices answered to a local commander known as the Inspektor des Sicherheitspolizei und SD who, in turn, was under the dual command of the RSHA and local SS and Police Leaders.

Infiltration

According to the book Piercing the Reich, the SD was infiltrated in 1944 by a Russian who was working for the Americans. The agent's parents had fled the Russian Revolution, and he had been raised in Berlin, and then moved to Paris. He was recruited by Albert Jolis of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Seventh Army detachment. The mission was codenamed RUPPERT.

See also

• Glossary of Nazi Germany
• List of SS personnel
• Reichssicherheitsdienst (Reich Security Service)

References

• Judgment of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, declaring SD and Gestapo to be criminal organizations
• Browder, George C., Foundations of the Nazi Police State: The Formation of Sipo and SD, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 1990. ISBN 0-8131-1697-X
• Gerwarth, Robert (2011). Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11575-8. 
• Longerich, Peter (2011). Heinrich Himmler: A Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-959232-6. 
• Lumsden, Robin, A Collector's Guide To: The Allgemeine - SS, Ian Allan Publishing, Inc. 2002. ISBN 0-7110-2905-9.
• McNab, Chris. The SS: 1923–1945, Amber Books Ltd. 2009. ISBN 978-1-906626-49-5.
• Williams, Max. Reinhard Heydrich: The Biography: Volume 1, Ulric Publishing, 2001. ISBN 0-9537577-5-7.