Here you will find descriptions of a range of terms, events, themes and institutions featured on the website.
Employment Office
State employment offices were established during the Weimar Republic with the task of placing people in work. From 1933 they became an instrument of National Socialist labour policy. Employment offices played a role in the persecution of people who for various reasons refused to take up work; they withdrew their welfare benefits and reported them to the police. In World War Two, German employment offices were involved in the deportation of forced labourers and in the Holocaust.
Euthanasia
The Nazis used the term »euthanasia« (from the Ancient Greek for »good death«) to describe the murder of people with mental or physical disabilities. In the framework of »Operation T4«, in 1940–1941 doctors and nursing staff killed more than 70,000 patients with mental and physical disabilities living in institutional settings. Following public protests, the programme was officially terminated, but it continued in secret. By 1945 around 300,000 patients across Europe had been murdered in killing institutions through lethal doses of medication or deliberate starvation.
Extermination Camps
Extermination camps (»Vernichtungslager«) were established by the National Socialists to systematically murder Jews, Sinti and Roma, and other targeted groups deemed undesirable. Between 1941 and 1945, the SS established eight death camps in occupied Poland and Belarus. These camps were designed for the rapid and mass murder of people without first exploiting their labour. Of the approximately 6 million Jews murdered, around 2.7 million perished in the extermination camps.
Vernichtungslager dienen den Nationalsozialisten zur systematischen Ermordung von Jüdinnen und Juden, Sinti und Roma und anderen unerwünschten Gruppen. Zwischen 1941 und 1945 errichtet die SS acht Vernichtungslager im besetzten Polen und Belarus. Diese Tötungsstätten sind so angelegt, in ihnen schnell und massenhaft zu morden, ohne zuvor noch die Arbeitskraft der Verschleppten auszubeuten. Von den etwa 6 Millionen ermordeten Jüdinnen und Juden sterben etwa 2,7 Millionen in den Vernichtungslagern.
Die SS (»Schutzstaffel«) unter der Leitung von Heinrich Himmler versteht sich als elitärer Wehrverband des nationalsozialistischen Staates. Mit der Übernahme und dem Umbau der Polizei durch Himmler wird die SS zum zentralen Terrorinstrument des Regimes. 1934 erhält sie erhält die Kontrolle über sämtliche Konzentrationslager. Das 1939 gebildete Reichssicherheitshauptamt, die Planungszentrale für die Verbrechen im deutsch besetzten Europa, ist ihr zugeordnet.