Determining the meaning of Hitler's security system requires examining several measures of meaning, in order to fully address the given question. Consideration will be given to the breadth and depth of the meaning, i.e. how many people it affected and how deeply it affected their daily lives and beliefs. I also need to take into account the perspective of who it is influencing, by which I mean what social background and age category they come from, however, my main measure will be the breadth and depth of the impact. This will determine the most significant impact or achievement that Hitler's security system had. Hitler had an extensive security system, however I will divide it into four sections for analysis. These are propaganda, concentration camps, the Gestapo and the Sturmabteilung (SA), although the latter is not always recognized as part of Hitler's formal security system. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Arguably, propaganda was the most significant aspect of Hitler's security system as it targeted the largest number of people. Most people never came into contact with the Gestapo and concentration camps unless they showed signs of doubting or undermining Hitler's authority or policies. Propaganda was seen by everyone, whether by choice or not. However, the concentration camps ended most lives. Propaganda and censorship were undoubtedly the most influential aspects of Hitler's security system. In Hitler's rise to power, which began in 1919, propaganda was used to gain support until 1933, when the enabling law was passed. Later this propaganda was mainly used as part of its security system, as it was used to prevent ideas from emerging from German citizens. It was led by Goebbels, Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. It is aimed at many age categories, from school-age children to the elderly. They started taking children to their side as soon as they went to school. They taught students anti-Semitism, love for Hitler and, most importantly for his security system, blind obedience. He did not punish opponents, but gained their trust, before they became a potential threat. Their textbooks were replaced to entrench an anti-Semitic mentality. It has significantly altered the structure of children's daily lives. After school, the boys attended the Hitler Youth and the German Girls' League for girls. In this way Hitler managed to earn their loyalty through fun and games. The breadth of impact spread from the elderly to the young and covered many genres including radio, print, newspapers, film, music, literature and art. According to Goebbels, radio and the press were the most important media. This was because he recognized that the spoken word was much more powerful than the written word. By March 1933 Goebbels had purchased all the radio stations and replaced 13% of the staff with his own men. He realized that this would have no effect if people did not listen to or have access to the radio, as in 1932 less than 25% of German households owned a radio. So the government created the "Volksempfänger". It was an economical set and accessible to all. As a result, over 70% of German households listened to pro-Nazi broadcasts. This eliminated the possibility of them listening to the opposition's ideas and potentially becoming a threat to Hitler. Its effectiveness is difficult to measurein quantitative terms, however, it affected around 70% of Germans, which represents a very large impact. While it didn't physically harm anyone, it was a form of preventing opposition by silently making slight changes to the daily lives of the average citizen. In conclusion, propaganda was a very significant aspect of Hitler's security system. However, it was only effective when used in conjunction with Nazi organizations such as the Gestapo, as this caused fear that prevented citizens from disagreeing with the propaganda. THE "Gestapo" (Geheimstaatspolizei) played a significant role in generating fear towards the Nazis. They were also known as the "Secret State Police". It was officially founded on April 27, 1933 by Hermann Göring. The law that established it stated that its mission was to "ensure an effective fight against all efforts directed at the existence and security of the State". ' It didn't have that much of a direct impact compared to propaganda. This is because most ordinary "pure" Germans were never directly confronted by the Gestapo as they did not dare question Hitler's authority or policies. However, it can be said that they did not dare to question him, only because they had seen what the Gestapo was capable of doing to those who doubted Hitler. As a Jew you might believe that they had a huge impact as almost every Jew was affected. However, as a “pure” German devoted to the Nazis, you may have still seen their impact on others, but not a direct impact on yourself. It was not until 1941 that the Gestapo concentrated on rounding up all Jews. At first they intended to eliminate any political or physical threat to Hitler and the party. According to the deputy chief it was about "ruthlessly" cutting down anyone with "different ideas". It is arguable that what made the Gestapo so important was its ability to resort to “protective custody.” In other democratic countries “protective custody” is when someone is taken into custody for their personal safety. The Nazi interpretation was that enemies of the state were so hated that they needed to be confined and protected from the "righteous anger of good German citizens". One of Hitler's security objectives was to eliminate the opposition. This directly allowed him to control anyone he feared might be an opposition to himself or the country. It had a very profound impact, however the breadth of the impact is not that significant compared to propaganda. Furthermore, the concentration camps had great significance in eradicating any form of threatening opposition and generated fear, or even more obedience to the Nazis within the country. public. It had an enormous impact, resulting in a total of 4 million deaths. This figure does not take into account casualties killed by the Einsatzgruppen or any other German Army units. They were predominantly Jews, Sinti and Roma, prisoners of war, political opponents and members of resistance groups, to name a few. Protective custody occurred when they made an arrest supposedly for the safety of the offenders. It was used in a different sense for "protective custody" at the Gestapo. This came into play in March 1937 when the anti-social operation began. This increased the breadth of the impact as prostitutes, the mentally ill and the unemployed were taken into "protective custody". The number of prisoners increased from 7,500 to 24,000 in October 1938, after the anti-social operation. In the summer of 1942 there were already around 60,000 prisoners in the camps. In the fall of 1944 the camps began to close, so prisoners were moved to other camps during "death marches". Subsequently there were still 700,000 prisoners in the camps locatedwithin the pre-war borders of Germany (Germany and Austria). The depth of the impact was also enormous. For the categories of people previously mentioned, the camps often lead to death. He stole their lives by taking them out of their homes and completely changing their way of life. For the rest of the public, against whom the Nazis had nothing, they never had to face life in a concentration camp. One would expect that seeing one's neighbors taken away would generate fear of the Nazis, however, it seemed to spur public obedience. People were disturbingly happy to report their neighbors and snitch on their friends. This changed the nature of their lives and destroyed the trust of their neighbors. This was also significant for Hitler's security system as it reduced the amount of work the Gestapo and SS had to do, as they could rely on people reporting each other. Relative to other events, concentration camps had the highest mortality rate at the time. Two-thirds of the people deported to the camps between 1933 and 1945 did not survive. It can be difficult to match death counts to prisoner totals, as in many cases victims were killed before officially entering the camp as prisoners. Because of these horribly enormous figures, it can be concluded that the concentration camps were very significant, potentially the most significant aspect of Hitler's security system when measured by the breadth and depth of the impact, as it accumulated the higher number of deaths. The meaning of the Sturmabteilung (SA) is difficult to determine. First, they are not seen as part of Hitler's formal security system, however they collaborated with other aspects of the security system, indicating that they played a role in helping Hitler maintain tight control over Germany. For example, one of their roles was the surveillance of concentration camps, which was previously thought to be very important. It can be assumed that without the SA the concentration camps would not have functioned as desired. Furthermore, members of the SA also constituted the "assault units"; they carried out the first anti-Semitic pogroms. However, as an isolated organism, SAs are not sufficiently important in themselves, compared to other elements of the security system, to be considered significant. Their sole purpose is to facilitate the goals and objectives of other organizations. The SA was disbanded in May 1945, and Hitler decided that the army should take precedence, as the two could not work side by side. From Hitler's perspective, the SA only had great significance to him before 1934. One possible interpretation is that Hitler recognized the power held by the SA and felt he had to take down the leaders once they went astray since they held all this power . Hitler said that the SA was "useless in times of peace, but in difficult times it is quite different". In the early days Ernest Röhm had been one of Hitler's closest supporters. In 1934 Röhm was a potential adversary of Hitler. Röhm wanted the Nazis to take control of big business and for the SA to take control of the army. As mentioned above, Hitler appreciated the importance of the SA and had to get rid of Ernest Röhm, as they no longer saw it the same way. If SA were not significant there would be no question of who is in charge. The execution of Ernest Röhm on the Night of the Long Knives (30 June 1934) demonstrates that the SA was still quite significant. According to the evaluation, all three sections of Hitler's security system were significant as overall they achieved what.