Here you will find descriptions of a range of terms, events, themes and institutions featured on the website.
SS
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.
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.
Subcamps
So-called subcamps were established at virtually all concentration camps, particularly after 1942. The concentration camp prisoners held in the subcamps had to perform forced labour. Living conditions were as inhumane as in the main camps. There were more than 1,000 subcamps in the German Reich and the occupied territories.
Systematic police surveillance
This form of surveillance enabled the Criminal Police to control people without a court ruling and to impose harsh conditions on them. The main groups affected were prostitutes, homosexuals, Sinti and Roma and people classed as »career criminals«. In many cases these individuals were subject to a night-time curfew, had to report to the police every week or required authorisation in order to change their place of residence. They had no right of appeal over these conditions.
Triangle
| In the concentration camps the SS stripped people of their names and issued them with numbers instead. Next to the number on their uniforms the prisoners had to wear a coloured triangle. The colour of the triangle denoted the reason for their incarceration. With this system the SS also created a hierarchy of prisoners. The colour of the triangle determined how an individual would be treated in the camp. People who wore the black triangle were classed as »asocials«, the green triangle denoted »career criminals«. |
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.
Wehrmacht
From 1935, the German military was renamed the Wehrmacht. By 1945, a total of 17 million soldiers swore unconditional allegiance to Adolf Hitler. The Wehrmacht invaded and occupied almost all of Europe, committing numerous war crimes: it burned down entire towns and wages a war of extermination against Jews, Sinti and Roma, and the broader population in the East. It was not until the 1990s that a controversial debate about the Wehrmacht’s crimes emerged.
Das deutsche Militär heißt ab 1935 Wehrmacht. Bis 1945 schwören insgesamt 17 Millionen Soldaten ihren unbedingten Gehorsam auf die Person Adolf Hitlers. Die Wehrmacht überfällt und besetzt fast alle Länder Europas und verübt zahlreiche Kriegsverbrechen: Sie brennt ganze Orte nieder und führt im Osten einen Vernichtungskrieg gegen Jüdinnen und Juden, Sinti und Roma sowie die weitere Bevölkerung. Erst in den 1990er Jahren findet eine kontroverse Auseinandersetzung mit den Verbrechen der Wehrmacht statt.
Welfare
Welfare refers to assistance and care provided to other people. Its public institutions included youth welfare offices and health authorities as well as general welfare offices. The tasks of the welfare offices included providing financial assistance to the unemployed. The Nazis excluded certain groups from welfare because they were not considered part of the »national community« (»Volksgemeinschaft«). These groups included Jews or people deemed »workshy« and »asocial«.
Die »Volksgemeinschaft« ist das nationalsozialistische Ideal des Zusammenlebens von deutschen »Volksgenossen«. Wer dazugehört und wer nicht, bestimmen rassistische Kriterien. Die Ausgeschlossenen werden als »Volksschädlinge« herabgewürdigt. Zu ihnen zählen Juden und Jüdinnen, Sinti und Roma, politische Gegner/-innen, Menschen mit Behinderungen, Homosexuelle, aber auch »Asoziale« und »Berufsverbrecher«.
Welfare institution
The National Socialist welfare offices primarily referred to workhouses and workhouses for itinerants as welfare institutions. In the German Reich, these facilities served as places of detention where individuals accused of vagrancy, begging, prostitution, or homelessness were subjected to forced labour. From 1933, the National Socialists initially incarcerated thousands in such institutions. Shortly thereafter, they increasingly deported groups they labelled as »asocials« to concentration camps.
Welfare offices
Since the 1920s, welfare offices were tasked with supporting the unemployed through financial aid. Applicants were required to petition officials for assistance, as they had no guaranteed entitlement, unlike with insurance. The National Socialists completely excluded certain groups from this aid, deeming them outside the »national community«. These included Jews and individuals labelled as »workshy« or »asocial«.
Workhouse
Workhouses had existed in Europe since the 16th century. In the German Reich they served as detention facilities where groups including the homeless or people accused of vagrancy, begging or prostitution were made to work. From 1933 the Nazis initially held thousands of such people in workhouses, but they soon increasingly sent supposed »asocials« to concentration camps.
Workhouse for itinerants
People of no fixed abode who moved from place to place were known as »itinerants«. They often worked in agriculture during the summer and spent the winter in »workhouses for itinerants« (»Wanderhof«). Under National Socialism certain categories of people were admitted to these workhouses compulsorily by the welfare authorities and made to undertake work there. These detainees were perceived by the Nazis as »workshy« and »inferior«. They faced the threat of forced sterilisation or transfer to a concentration camp.
Menschen, die keine feste Wohnung haben und von Ort zu Ort ziehen, werden »Wanderer« genannt. Sie arbeiten im Sommer oftmals in der Landwirtschaft und überwintern in »Wanderhöfen«. Im Nationalsozialismus weist die Fürsorge Menschen dort unter Zwang ein und verpflichtet sie zu arbeiten. Die dort eingesperrten Personen sehen die Nationalsozialisten als »arbeitsscheu« und »minderwertig« an. Ihnen drohen Zwangssterilisation und Konzentrationslager.