people who opposed the nazis were seen as traitors. the nazis created a very effective police state, led by heinrich himmler and his deputy reinhard heydrich. they were in charge of an organisation called the schutzstaffel (ss) that took control of all of the police forces in germany. the ss also set up a new secret police organisation called the gestapo which hunted down people who wanted to protest against the nazi government. enemies of the nazis were regularly tortured, put in concentration camps or executed.