Here you will find descriptions of a range of terms, events, themes and institutions featured on the website.
Gauleiter
The Gauleiter was a leading member of the NSDAP responsible for overseeing a specific administrative region, known as a Gau. Initially, their primary role was to coordinate party activities and organisations within their Gau. After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, Gauleiter expanded their authority and increasingly assumed state functions.
The SD (Security Service of the Reichsführer SS) was established in 1931 by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler as the intelligence service of the SS (Schutzstaffel). Its task was to gather information on political opponents and oppositional movements within and outside the National Socialist circles. From 1934, the SD became the intelligence service of the NSDAP. It was subordinated to Reinhard Heydrich, who merged the SD with the security police (Gestapo and Kripo) into the newly formed Reich Security Main Office in 1939.
The Gauleiter was a leading member of the NSDAP responsible for overseeing a specific administrative region, known as a Gau. Initially, their primary role was to coordinate party activities and organisations within their Gau. After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, Gauleiter expanded their authority and increasingly assumed state functions.
Gestapo
The Nazis established the »Secret State Police« (Geheime Staatspolizei, abbr. Gestapo) to combat political opponents. It was also instrumental in the persecution of minorities. Gestapo officials did not require a court warrant to search apartments or to detain people, send them to concentration camps or murder them. They tortured people under interrogation to force confessions out of them. In the occupied territories members of the Gestapo participated in mass shootings and other crimes.
The Nazis established the »Secret State Police« (Geheime Staatspolizei, abbr. Gestapo) to combat political opponents. It was also instrumental in the persecution of minorities. Gestapo officials did not require a court warrant to search apartments or to detain people, send them to concentration camps or murder them. They tortured people under interrogation to force confessions out of them. In the occupied territories members of the Gestapo participated in mass shootings and other crimes.
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«.
IKL
Inspection of the concentration camps
| In 1934, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler appointed the former commandant of Dachau concentration camp, Theodor Eicke, as inspector of the concentration camps. A few months later, the authority of the same name was formed (IKL). This institution was responsible for overseeing the management and guarding of 32 main camps and became the central authority of concentration camp terror: in regular meetings, the IKL coordinated the daily operations of the camps, including the crimes committed against prisoners. |
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.
Inspection of the concentration camps
| In 1934, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler appointed the former commandant of Dachau concentration camp, Theodor Eicke, as inspector of the concentration camps. A few months later, the authority of the same name was formed (IKL). This institution was responsible for overseeing the management and guarding of 32 main camps and became the central authority of concentration camp terror: in regular meetings, the IKL coordinated the daily operations of the camps, including the crimes committed against prisoners. |
Inspection of the concentration camps (IKL)
In 1934, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler appointed the former commandant of Dachau concentration camp, Theodor Eicke, as inspector of the concentration camps. A few months later, the authority of the same name was formed (IKL). This institution was responsible for overseeing the management and guarding of 32 main camps and became the central authority of concentration camp terror: in regular meetings, the IKL coordinated the daily operations of the camps, including the crimes committed against prisoners.
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.
Inspection of the concentration camps
| In 1934, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler appointed the former commandant of Dachau concentration camp, Theodor Eicke, as inspector of the concentration camps. A few months later, the authority of the same name was formed (IKL). This institution was responsible for overseeing the management and guarding of 32 main camps and became the central authority of concentration camp terror: in regular meetings, the IKL coordinated the daily operations of the camps, including the crimes committed against prisoners. |
Institution for the physically and mentally disabled (»Heil- und Pflegeanstalt«)
Under National Socialism, people with physical, mental or psychiatric disorders or illnesses, but also alcoholics, homosexuals and people displaying antisocial behaviour were confined in institutions known as »Heil- und Pflegeanstalten« (literally »healing and nursing institutions«), an outdated term for a psychiatric institution. Between 1940 and 1945 more than 250,000 people were murdered in such institutions in the German Reich.
Juvenile detention centre
Between 1949 and 1989 the East German authorities took severe measures against deviant behaviour among young people. They sent them to reformatories such as juvenile detention centres (»Jugendwerkhof«). Skipping school was often enough to warrant punishment. The minors were to be re-educated through strenuous physical labour. These institutions were like the workhouses which had existed for a long time.