re: FBI: Report your family and friends!

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In Nazi Germany, some citizens passed on information about their neighbours, family, and friends to the Gestapo . This was called informing. Nazi propaganda presented the Gestapo as an omnipresent , all-seeing, all-knowing group, but in reality there was just one secret police officer for approximately every 10,000 citizens of Nazi Germany. The Gestapo were therefore reliant on a network of thousands of informants.

The information passed on by informants typically accused someone of breaking the law or of being a criminal in some way. The information provided was not always based on fact and could often be rumour or suspicion. For example, if someone had stereotypical Jewish features they might be informed on to be a potential Jew, and would therefore have to prove that they were not a Jew to the Gestapo or face torture and imprisonment. Informants reported on a number of different undesirable activities, such as anti-Nazi sentiment, communist activity, Jews in hiding, people suspected to be Jews, and much more.

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