Reich Main Security Office

central Intelligence and Police Service (usually in plain clothes) of the SS under the National Socialist regime in Germany from 1939 (to 1945)

Key facts

Formed: 27 September 1939
Preceding agencies: Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) Sicherheitsdienst (SD)
Dissolved: 8 May 1945
Type: • Secret police , • Intelligence agency
Jurisdiction: Germany , Occupied Europe
Headquarters: Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8, Berlin, 52°30′26″N 13°22′57″E / 52.50722°N 13.38250°E / 52.50722; 13.38250
Employees: 50,648 (February 1944 estimation</span>"}]]}'>est. )
Minister responsible: Heinrich Himmler , (1939–1945)
Rsha executives: Reinhard Heydrich (1939–1942), Chief of SiPo and SD Heinrich Himmler (1942–1943), Acting Chief of SiPo and SD Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1943–1945), Chief of SiPo and SD
Parent rsha: Ministry of the Interior (nominally), Allgemeine SS
Child agencies: Gestapo Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) Kriminalpolizei (Kripo)

Article

The Reich Security Main Office (German: Reichssicherheitshauptamt pronounced [ˈʁaɪ̯çsˌzɪçɐhaɪ̯t͡sˌhaʊ̯ptʔamt] , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as Chef der Deutschen Polizei (Chief of German Police) and Reichsführer-SS, the head of the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel (SS). The organization's stated duty was to fight all "enemies of the Reich" inside and outside the borders of Nazi Germany. From its very inception, the RSHA was a central institution for the Nazis, playing a pivotal role in orchestrating and executing the Holocaust.

Formation and development