Here you will find descriptions of a range of terms, events, themes and institutions featured on the website.
Poorhouse
For people without work or money, for a long time the only option was to enter a poorhouse. There they received temporary assistance from the state or the local authorities. Particularly the elderly and people unable to work were compelled to seek lodgings at the local poorhouse. The Nazis turned many of these institutions into workhouses. This meant surveillance and compulsory labour for everyone, including residents who were elderly or ill.
Preventive detention
Preventive detention (Sicherungsverwahrung) was an instrument to keep convicted people in prison beyond their prison term. The Nazis introduced it in 1933 with the »Law Against Dangerous Habitual Criminals«. Judges deemed that the detainees concerned were incorrigible. They often based their rulings on assumptions drawn from criminal biology. In 1942 the judicial system transferred the authority for all prisoners in preventive detention to the SS. According to the Himmler-Thierack Agreement, these prisoners were to die 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.
Preventive detention (Sicherungsverwahrung) was an instrument to keep convicted people in prison beyond their prison term. The Nazis introduced it in 1933 with the »Law Against Dangerous Habitual Criminals«. Judges deemed that the detainees concerned were incorrigible. They often based their rulings on assumptions drawn from criminal biology. In 1942 the judicial system transferred the authority for all prisoners in preventive detention to the SS. According to the Himmler-Thierack Agreement, these prisoners were to die in concentration camps.
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.
Prisoner functionary
In the concentration camps the SS appointed certain prisoners as so-called prisoner supervisors. In exchange for privileges they had to oversee their fellow prisoners and carry out instructions from the SS. This deliberate reversal of the victim-perpetrator distinction caused suspicion and divisions among the prisoners. Many eyewitness reports describe the prisoner functionaries (also known as »Kapos«) 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. |
Protective custody
By imposing »protective custody« (»Schutzhaft«) the Gestapo was able to confine »undesirables« – mostly political opponents – in protective custody camps and concentration camps for an indefinite period. Protective custody orders were issued directly by the police without any involvement from the courts. As prisoners in »protective custody« were completely deprived of rights while in confinement, they had no chance to appeal.
By imposing »protective custody« (»Schutzhaft«) the Gestapo was able to confine »undesirables« – mostly political opponents – in protective custody camps and concentration camps for an indefinite period. Protective custody orders were issued directly by the police without any involvement from the courts. As prisoners in »protective custody« were completely deprived of rights while in confinement, they had no chance to appeal.
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.
Questionnaires on heredity and life history
The Nazis were keen to collect information about as many people and their families as possible. Standardised questionnaires were used for this purpose. With the questionnaires Nazi physicians wanted to establish which categories of people committed crime and to identify the characteristics that the children of those surveyed would develop. Behavioural traits were deemed hereditary. These questionnaires provided the basis to admit people to concentration camps or to subject them to forced sterilisation.
Racial hygiene
As a central pillar of National Socialist ideology, »racial hygiene« advocated for the »purification of the German national body« from so-called »pests« and »ballast existences«. This included Jews, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, people with disabilities, as well as those labelled as »asocial« or »criminal«. The regime imposed marriage bans, forced sterilisation, institutionalisation, and deportation to camps, or directly murdered those deemed »hereditarily unfit«.
Racial hygienic
As a central pillar of National Socialist ideology, »racial hygiene« advocated for the »purification of the German national body« from so-called »pests« and »ballast existences«. This included Jews, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, people with disabilities, as well as those labelled as »asocial« or »criminal«. The regime imposed marriage bans, forced sterilisation, institutionalisation, and deportation to camps, or directly murdered those deemed »hereditarily unfit«.
Reformatory
Children and teenagers with no family to care for them or who displayed »undesirable behaviour« were put in homes. The Nazis mainly used church-run establishments for this purpose. The staff were often violent towards the residents and they were also in charge of assessing them. Anyone deemed »ineducable« faced forced sterilisation. In addition, some were put in youth concentration camps or murdered in clinics.
Registered prostitute
For many years the term »Sittendirne« was used in Germany to describe women who were officially registered with the police as prostitutes. The Nazis subjected these women to stricter regulations and increased surveillance. They deployed the »Sittenpolizei« (»morality police«, vice squad) for this purpose. If prostitutes did not comply with the conditions imposed by this police department, they were threatened with a range of punishments, the most severe of which was admission to a concentration camp.
Reich Criminal Police Office (RKPA)
In summer 1937 the Reich Criminal Police Office (»Reichskriminalpolizeiamt«, RKPA) was created in Berlin as the headquarters of the Criminal Police for the entire German Reich – and later for the German-occupied territories too. Police agencies had to submit orders for »preventive police custody« to the RKPA for authorisation. The RKPA specified the detention site, which was usually a concentration camp. From 1939 the RKPA was a separate department under the authority of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA).
In September 1939 the Reich Security Main Office (»Reichssicherheitshauptamt«, RSHA) was created under the leadership of senior SS officer Reinhard Heydrich. Under the authority of the SS, it was the central agency for all police tasks and matters related to security policy in the National Socialist state. Equipped with unlimited legal powers, its tasks included deciding on admissions to concentration camps. The (main) offices of the Gestapo and Criminal Police throughout the Reich were subordinate to the Reich Security Main Office.
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.