Here you will find descriptions of a range of terms, events, themes and institutions featured on the website.
Habitual criminals
Since the 1920s, individuals convicted of multiple offences have been classified as »habitual criminals« (»Gewohnheitsverbrecher«). By the end of 1933, the National Socialist government had already introduced a specific law targeting this group. The Nazi justice system denied »dangerous habitual criminals« the capacity for reform, viewing criminality as hereditary. Judges imposed indefinite »preventive detention« on these individuals. Later, they were frequently labelled as »career criminals«.
Hereditary health courts
Since 1934, hereditary health courts have decided who would be deprived of the ability to have children. Proposals for these forced sterilisations were made by doctors, welfare officers, and institutional administrators. The courts then determined who was deemed »hereditarily ill« and passed judgements, often based on group membership, disability, or the behaviour of the individuals concerned. These proceedings disregarded the rights of those affected. For nearly 400,000 people, they resulted in forced sterilisation.
Himmler-Thierack Agreement
On 18 September 1942 Reich Justice Minister Otto Georg Thierack (1889–1946) and Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945) instructed the judicial authorities to transfer »asocial elements« to concentration camps directly and without trial for »annihilation through work«. Among those affected by the agreement were people held in preventive detention, Jews and Sinti and Roma. The agreement made explicit reference to premeditated killing through gruelling forced labour.
The SS (»Schutzstaffel«) under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler was envisioned as an elite paramilitary organisation of the National Socialist state. With Himmler’s takeover and reorganisation of the police, the SS became the regime’s central instrument of terror. In 1934, it was given control over all concentration camps. The Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), formed in 1939 as the planning centre for crimes in German-occupied Europe, was subordinated to it.
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend, abbr. HJ) was the National Socialist youth organisation for boys; its female equivalent was the League of German Girls (BDM). All other youth organisations were banned in 1933. Children and teenagers were to be educated in National Socialist principles both in and outside school. For this reason, membership of the HJ was compulsory for all 10 to 18 year-old boys who were classed as »Aryan«.
The Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend, abbr. HJ) was the National Socialist youth organisation for boys; its female equivalent was the League of German Girls (BDM). All other youth organisations were banned in 1933. Children and teenagers were to be educated in National Socialist principles both in and outside school. For this reason, membership of the HJ was compulsory for all 10 to 18 year-old boys who were classed as »Aryan«.
The League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel abbr. BDM) was the Nazi youth organisation for girls and young women, the female equivalent of the Hitler Youth. All other youth organisations were banned in 1933. Children and teenagers were to be educated according to National Socialist principles both in and outside the classroom. From 1939 membership of the BDM was therefore made compulsory for all girls aged between 10 and 17 who were classed as »Aryan«.