Here you will find descriptions of a range of terms, events, themes and institutions featured on the website.
Kapo
| In the concentration camps, the SS designated certain prisoners as so-called prisoner foremen (»Häftlingsvorarbeiter«). In exchange for better treatment, they were tasked with supervising fellow inmates and enforcing SS orders. This intentional blurring of the lines between victims and perpetrators fostered mistrust and division among the prisoners. Many memoirs by survivors describe these so-called Kapos or functionary prisoners as violent and cruel. |
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.
| In the concentration camps, the SS designated certain prisoners as so-called prisoner foremen (»Häftlingsvorarbeiter«). In exchange for better treatment, they were tasked with supervising fellow inmates and enforcing SS orders. This intentional blurring of the lines between victims and perpetrators fostered mistrust and division among the prisoners. Many memoirs by survivors describe these so-called Kapos or functionary prisoners as violent and cruel. |
KZ (Concentration camp)
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 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.