The verdict of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg classified the Gestapo as a “criminal organisation.” However, most of its surviving members were freed after their Allied internment or even got away without punishment. The full extent of their crimes only became visible in the course of subsequent proceedings. Concerning former Gestapo members, the persecution cycles varied in the three successor states to the Third Reich. After an initial phase in which the perpetrators were brought to justice on a large scale, the intensity of persecution declined rapidly from the beginning of the 1950s. It was not until the 1960s that the crimes of the Gestapo were systematically investigated and the perpetrators searched for more intensely. Meanwhile, many former Gestapo members had managed to integrate themselves, often with astonishing success, into the postwar societies. All in all, the crimes of the Gestapo were not adequately penalised.