Glossary

People were defined as »asocial« and faced persecution if they did not fit into the »national community« (»Volksgemeinschaft«) under Nazism. The groups affected were primarily the unemployed, the homeless, prostitutes or non-conformist youth. They were accused of posing a danger to society. The welfare authorities, justice system and police were among the institutions which worked together to persecute these individuals. They created a dense network of surveillance and compulsory measures.

People were defined as »asocial« and faced persecution if they did not fit into the »national community« (»Volksgemeinschaft«) under Nazism. The groups affected were primarily the unemployed, the homeless, prostitutes or non-conformist youth. They were accused of posing a danger to society. The welfare authorities, justice system and police were among the institutions which worked together to persecute these individuals. They created a dense network of surveillance and compulsory measures.

During World War Two, workers were not permitted to leave or change their job. Labour service was compulsory and had a similar significance to military service. Anyone in contravention of the rules was reported by designated labour supervisors (»Trustees of Labour«) for »disloyalty«, »breach of contract« or »slacking«. A few days’ absence was enough to incur a punishment. Offenders faced prison or being sent to a concentration camp or a »work education camp«, another type of forced labour facility.

Since the 1920s the term »career criminal« had been used to define people who made a living through crime. In November 1933 the Nazis took decisive action against this group by means of »preventive police custody«. Anyone who had received three prison sentences of at least six months over a five-year period was classed as a »career criminal«. The Criminal Police was able to place such individuals in »preventive custody« even if they were not suspected of any new offence.

The term »civilian worker« denoted people deployed to undertake work in agriculture and the armaments industry. Unlike prisoners of war or concentration camp prisoners, these individuals were not under the authority of the Wehrmacht, SS or Gestapo but instead were employed by companies, authorities, farmers or families. The term was used to describe both foreign forced labourers and German civilian workers.    

After the war various regulations were implemented to compensate people persecuted under National Socialism. West Germany introduced the Federal Compensation Law (BEG) regulating compensation payments and pensions. In East Germany survivors received money and material assistance from the »committees for the victims of fascism«. In Austria potential claims were regulated by the Victims Welfare Act. In all three states people persecuted as »asocials« and »career criminals« remained ineligible for compensation for decades.

Term for all detention facilities set up by the Nazis to hold real or perceived political opponents of the regime. Prisoners perished as a result of heavy forced labour, malnourishment, disease, torture, and also of targeted and arbitrary murder. The camps were under the authority of the SS (»Schutzstaffel«). Between 1933 and 1945 a total of 2.5 to 3.5 million people were imprisoned in concentration camps.

The Youth Wel­fare Office was able to remove children and teenagers from their families and place them in a reformatory.  Behaviour was usually cited as the reason. Young people were placed in correctional education facilities after running away from home, for example. The National Socialist Youth Wel­fare Offices did not seek to establish the causes of this behaviour. They demanded that young people obey. Anyone who did not was judged to be »ineducable«. Such individuals faced forced sterilisation or admission to psychiatric institutions and youth concentration camps.

If someone was transferred to a labour facility after serving their prison sentence, this was referred to as »post-detention«. It applied to those who had been punished for begging, »vagrancy« or prostitution. They had to undertake forced labour in workhouses for a period of up to two years. Their stay was intended to educate them; since 1794 »post-detention« had been defined as »correctional« under Prussian law. The Federal Constitutional Court of West Germany did not outlaw this type of imprisonment until 1969.

The Criminal Police (Kriminalpolizei, »Kripo«) is a regular police division in charge of investigating crimes. In the National Socialist state its tasks additionally included the surveillance and persecution of »community aliens« (»Gemeinschaftsfremde«). People deemed »career criminals« or »asocials« by the Criminal Police were placed under systematic surveillance and were detained indefinitely.  
It was up to police officers to decide what was to be considered »asocial behaviour«: the slightest deviation from the norm could lead to imprisonment.