Editing Gestapo (section)

==Nuremberg trials==
{{Main|Nuremberg trials|the Holocaust}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S85918, Berlin, Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, zerstörtes Gestapo-Gebäude.jpg|thumb|250px|Gestapo building at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8, after the 1945 bombing]]

Between 14 November 1945 and 3 October 1946, the Allies established an [[International Military Tribunal]] (IMT) to try 22 major Nazi war criminals and six groups for [[crimes against peace]], [[war crime]]s and [[crimes against humanity]].{{sfn|Bernstein|1947|pp=267–275}}{{sfn|Evans|2010|pp=741–743}} Nineteen of the 22 were convicted, and twelve—Martin Bormann (in absentia), Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Göring, Alfred Jodl, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Alfred Rosenberg, Fritz Sauckel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Julius Streicher—were given the death penalty. Three—Walther Funk, Rudolf Hess, Erich Raeder—received life terms; and the remaining four—Karl Dönitz, Konstantin von Neurath, Albert Speer, and Baldur von Schirach—received shorter prison sentences. Three others—Hans Fritzsche, Hjalmar Schacht, and Franz von Papen—were acquitted. At that time, the Gestapo was condemned as a criminal organisation, along with the SS.{{sfn|Avalon Project, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression}} However, Gestapo leader [[Heinrich Müller (Gestapo)|Heinrich Müller]] was never tried, as he disappeared at the end of the war.{{sfn|Dams|Stolle|2014|pp=176–177}}{{Efn|There were reports that Müller ended up in the foreign secret service at Washington D.C., some allege he was in Moscow working for the Soviets, still others claimed he escaped to South America—but none of the myths have ever been proven; all of which adds to the "mysterious power of the Gestapo".{{sfn|Dams|Stolle|2014|pp=176–177}} }}

[[File:Capturedgestapoagents.jpg|thumb|German Gestapo agents arrested after the liberation of [[Liège]], Belgium are pictured in a cell at the [[Citadel of Liège]], October 1944]]

Leaders, organisers, investigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit the crimes specified were declared responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan. The official positions of defendants as heads of state or holders of high government offices were not to free them from responsibility or mitigate their punishment; nor was that a defendant acted pursuant to an order of a superior to excuse him from responsibility, although it might be considered by the IMT in mitigation of punishment.{{sfn|Avalon Project, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression}}

At the trial of any individual member of any group or organisation, the IMT was authorised to declare (in connection with any act of which the individual was convicted) that the group or organisation to which he belonged was a criminal organisation. When a group or organisation was thus declared criminal, the competent national authority of any signatory had the right to bring persons to trial for membership in that organisation, with the criminal nature of the group or organisation assumed proved.{{sfn|Bernstein|1947|pp=246–259}}

The IMT subsequently convicted three of the groups: the Nazi leadership corps, the SS (including the SD) and the Gestapo. Gestapo members Hermann Göring, Ernst Kaltenbrunner and [[Arthur Seyss-Inquart]] were individually convicted. While three groups were acquitted of collective war crimes charges, this did not relieve individual members of those groups from conviction and punishment under the [[denazification]] programme. Members of the three convicted groups, however, were subject to apprehension by [[United Kingdom|Britain]], the [[United States]], the [[Soviet Union]], and [[France]].{{sfn|Dams|Stolle|2014|pp=158–161}} These groups—the Nazi Party and government leadership, the German [[Oberkommando der Wehrmacht|General staff and High Command]] (OKW); the {{lang|de|[[Sturmabteilung]]}} (SA); the {{lang|de|[[Schutzstaffel]]}} (SS), including the {{lang|de|[[Sicherheitsdienst]]}} (SD); and the Gestapo—had an aggregate membership exceeding two million, making a large number of their members liable to trial when the organisations were convicted.{{sfn|Dams|Stolle|2014|pp=159–161}}