Paris Gestapo HQ

At 84 Avenue Foch, the German Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and Gestapo had their headquarters in Paris. SD’s main task was to infiltrate and expose the French resistance movement. The Gestapo under the leadership of the Standartenführer Helmuth Knochen had responsible for political security. This included arresting and interrogating real and suspected members of the French resistance movement, foreign spies, agents and also actively participating in the arrest of Jews. In addition to administrative rooms, there were also upstairs cells for prisoners waiting to be interrogated. The prisoners were taken to headquarters from Fresne’s prison on the southern outskirts of Paris.