While I'm at it:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/25/politics/trump-executive-order-national-guard-units-crime
So Trump EO'd this and the question being asked is if who is going to control this "Special Unit" when at the least it's a rhetorical one. It's Trump creating his own version of Hitler's RSHA:
The organization within Hitler's SS that primarily controlled the civilian population was the
Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), which oversaw a wide network of agencies including the feared
Gestapo.
RSHA: The centralized security command
In 1939, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, consolidated Germany's security and police agencies into the RSHA, headed by Reinhard Heydrich. This centralized command brought all state and political policing under the total control of the SS, making them a "state within a state".
The RSHA included several key offices:
- Gestapo (Secret State Police): This was the political police, tasked with monitoring the population for opposition to Nazi rule. Though it was a relatively small agency, the Gestapo was notoriously effective due to a vast network of civilian informants who reported on neighbors, colleagues, and family. The Gestapo operated outside the law, and its "preventive arrest" power meant it could imprison people in concentration camps without judicial oversight.
- Sicherheitsdienst (SD): The internal and foreign intelligence service of the SS, the SD was responsible for gathering information on enemies of the Nazi regime and identifying those who posed a threat.
- Kriminalpolizei (Kripo): The regular criminal police were merged into the RSHA, giving the SS control over all aspects of law enforcement.
Concentration camps and mobile killing squads
Other key SS subdivisions enforced control over civilian populations, particularly in occupied territories:
- SS-Totenkopfverbände (Death's Head Units): These were the units responsible for running the concentration camp system. Under their brutal administration, political opponents, Jews, and other groups deemed "undesirable" were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered.
- Einsatzgruppen (Mobile Killing Squads): Units of the Security Police and SD that operated in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, especially the Soviet Union. They systematically murdered Jews, Roma people, Communists, and other civilians, primarily through mass shootings.
How the SS maintained control
The SS established its authority over the civilian population through a combination of fear, surveillance, and violence.
- Ruthless terror: The Gestapo's activities and the horrors of the concentration camps created a pervasive climate of fear that suppressed dissent.
- Propaganda: The SS worked to enforce Nazi ideological standards through "racial purity" standards and the persecution of perceived racial enemies.
- Unofficial policing: By exploiting denunciations from ordinary German citizens, the Gestapo created an environment of widespread mistrust and self-policing.