The Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany, were notorious for their brutality. In this book Robert Gellately examines their everyday operations and asks how they were able to detect the smallest signs of non-compliance with Nazi doctrine especially `crimes' in the private spheres of social, family, and sexual life. His researches showed that the willingness of a minority of German citizens to offer information about `criminality' to the authorities was vital in
the succesful implimentation of Nazi policy.