History: Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party’s own intelligence service, founded in 1931, and the following year placed under the command of Reinhard Heydrich. The SD was not a state authority, but part of the Schutzstaffel which made it a political organization. They had no police authority in German territory, but served as the security intelligence service for the SS in the country and as the civil intelligence service outside Germany. Between 1942 and 1945 Heinrich Himmler was placed in direct command of the organization. It was one of the most powerful branches of the SS next to the Gestapo.