ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to understand the extent to which torture and brutality figured into day-today interactions with the German public, while previous literature has mapped the extremes of Gestapo practices. It also suggests that it was only a small minority of the cases handled by the Gestapo that conformed to its post-war reputation. The pre-war head of the Communist Department in Dusseldorf likewise enjoyed such a widespread reputation for brutality that it resulted in a rare conviction after 1945. While pressure to resolve immediate threats to state security helps people to understand the vicious nature of the Red Orchestra investigation, the selective use of brutality in everyday policing can be explained in part by increasingly politicized enemy profiles. In cases where the offender enjoyed some degree of professional, political or social protection, exchanges with the Gestapo were more akin to an interview than an interrogation.
