MI14 was set up in 1940 as a clearing house for intelligence from and
about Nazi Germany. In addition to their own networks and operations,
MI14 also had the benefit of intelligence from MI5, MI6 and MI9. The
Gestapo was one of the main areas of MI14 interest. Established in 1933
as Department 1A of the Prussian State Police, the Gestapo (a
contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei - state secret police) soon became
identified as the Nazis' leading instrument of repression and synonymous
with the brutality and terror of the regime. Charged with state
security, the Gestapo singled out opponents, real or imaginary, within
Germany and the occupied territories, brutally suppressing them with
torture and execution, and actively seeking to promote the Nazi state's
perverse policies. This book also reveals that the Gestapo was not as
all-powerful as it is often assumed, and was often under-resourced and
overstretched, relying to a great extent on the willingness of 'ordinary
Germans' to provide information on their fellow citizens.