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.
Law Against Malice Towards the State (»Heimtückegesetz«)
In December 1934 the Nazi leadership enacted the »Law Against Malice Attacks on the State and Party and for the Protection of the Party Uniforms«. This banned statements that »severely harm the welfare of the Reich or the reputation of the Reich government or the Nazi party«. The Nazis also used this offence as a pretext to have people whose lifestyle they disapproved of sent to prisons and camps.
League of German Girls
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«.
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«.
March-Action (März-Aktion)
On 9 March 1937, the Criminal Police carried out the first mass arrests of »career and habitual criminals« (»Berufs- und Gewohnheitsverbrecher«) as well as »habitual moral offenders« (»gewohnheitsmäßige Sittlichkeitsverbrecher«) across the Reich. Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, as head of the police, set the arrest quota at 2,000 individuals. They were selected based on their criminal records and employment status. The men were imprisoned in the Dachau, Lichtenburg, Sachsenburg, and Sachsenhausen concentration camps, while the women were sent to the Moringen concentration camp.
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.
| People who committed sexual offences were classified as »Sittlichkeitsverbrecher«. Even under the criminal law of the German Empire, »crimes and offences against morality« could be punished with prison terms or penal servitude. The National Socialists tightened existing criminal law by legally enshrining longer prison sentences, indefinite preventive detention, and additional measures for »habitual criminals«. |
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.
National community
In Nazi ideology the »national community« (»Volksgemeinschaft«) was a society in which German »racial comrades« (»Volksgenossen«) lived side by side. Racist criteria determined whether someone belonged. People excluded from the »national community« were denigrated as »vermin harmful to the German people« (»Volksschädlinge«). Among them were Jews, Sinti and Roma, political opponents, people with disabilities, homosexuals, but also »asocials« and »career criminals«.
NSDAP
The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) ruled the German Reich from 1933 to 1945. The party was founded in Munich in 1919. It had an antisemitic and »völkisch« orientation and sought to establish a dictatorship. The Nazi Party was structured as a hierarchy with leader Adolf Hitler at the very top. After his appointment as Reich Chancellor in 1933, Hitler banned all other parties. In 1943 the Nazi Party had more than 7.5 million members.
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.
Operation 14f13
Under the cover name »Aktion 14f13«, the National Socialists extended the mass crime of »euthanasia« murders to another group. From spring 1941, they killed up to 20,000 concentration camp prisoners who they deemed »no longer fit for work« in the Bernburg, Sonnenstein and Hartheim facilities. Medical commissions select the inmates. The cover name results from the SS unit file plan: 14 for the IKL, f for death and 13 for gassing in a killing center.
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. |
Operation T4
»Operation T4« was the code name for the Nazis’ programme to murder people with mental or physical disabilities. The abbreviation stands for the address Tiergartenstraße 4 in Berlin, where the »T4 headquarters« coordinated the crimes. In 1940–1941 more than 70,000 patients were killed with poison gas in six killing centres. Following public protests, »Operation T4« was officially terminated in summer 1941, doctors continued the programme of murder in the form of »decentralised euthanasia«. A proportion of the programme’s staff were transferred to occupied Poland, where they implemented the mass murder of the Jewish population in 1942–1943.
Polish penal code (»Polenstrafrechtsverordnung«)
German tyranny in the occupied territories is based not only on direct terror but also on injustice. In Poland, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, as head of the German police, massively tightened the penalties in 1941. The Polish penal code (»Polenstrafrechtsverordnung«) threatened camps and the death penalty even for minor offences. This included everyday offences such as riding a bicycle or visiting a pub. The racist special criminal law also affected Polish forced labourers in the Reich territory.
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.
German tyranny in the occupied territories is based not only on direct terror but also on injustice. In Poland, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, as head of the German police, massively tightened the penalties in 1941. The Polish penal code (»Polenstrafrechtsverordnung«) threatened camps and the death penalty even for minor offences. This included everyday offences such as riding a bicycle or visiting a pub. The racist special criminal law also affected Polish forced labourers in the Reich territory.