trotzdem da!The Allies refers to the four major powers that, together with other states, fought against the German Reich in the Second World War: the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France.
Anti-Semitism describes hostility towards Jews and/or towards people, movements, organisations, and institutions that are seen as Jewish. In the Middle Ages, hostility towards Jews was primarily based on religious grounds, but it became increasingly racialised from the 19th century onwards. Anti-Semitism was a fundamental component of Nazi ideology. The National Socialists pursued the goal of murdering all Jews.
National Socialist ideology was based on a racist world view. It categorised people hierarchically into different “races” according to their appearance and origin, with the “Aryan race” being considered the highest and destined to rule. This was the basis for the mass persecution, deportation, and murder of people who were categorised as “non-Aryan”, such as people from Eastern Europe and Jews.
Under National Socialism, the police and other state authorities stigmatised people they considered to be a non-productive part of society as “asocial” and persecuted them. This applied, for example, to homeless people, sex workers, addicts, Sinti, and Roma. But Jews and queer people could also be affected by this additional stigma.
Binational refers to people who have two nationalities or citizenships, or to circumstances involving two nations.
“Civilian worker” was a Nazi euphemism for foreign forced labourers. They included people deported by force or recruited under false promises, but also soldiers formally released from captivity and used for forced labour.
The conflict between the NATO military alliance, which included the Federal Republic of Germany from 9 May 1955, and the Warsaw Pact, which included the Soviet Union and the GDR from 14 May 1955, was known as the Cold War and lasted from 1947 to 1989. There were never any official hostilities.
During the Second World War, numerous soldiers from the African and Asian colonies of Great Britain and France fought in the armies of these two countries—many of them involuntarily. They were poorly paid and equipped and after 1945 received no official recognition for their contribution to the victory over the German Reich.
Concentration camps were set up by the SS starting in 1933 for the imprisonment, exploitation, and murder of people. Concentration camp prisoners included political opponents, Jews, Sinti, and Roma, people persecuted as “asocial” and forced labourers accused of violating regulations. There were various forms of concentration camps, including extermination camps.
The Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (also known as the Geneva Convention) was concluded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1929. It was intended to protect prisoner-of-war soldiers during war and guarantee them basic rights, such as sufficient food. Although the German Reich acceded to this treaty, it broadly disregarded the provisions of the convention during the Second World War.
Denunciation means betraying people or reporting them to the police to harm them or to gain a personal advantage. Under National Socialism, denunciation was encouraged. In addition, informers in companies, neighbourhoods, and even families passed on information to the authorities.
In a dictatorship, a single ruling person (dictator), a small group, or a party has almost unlimited political power in a state.
In the German Reich, Adolf Hitler‘s NSDAP was one of the parties elected to the Reichstag (i.e. the parliament). Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor in 1933. Within a few months, the NSDAP abolished the constitutional state and established a dictatorship.
Displaced person describes a person who is involuntarily absent from their country of origin. The term was first used by the Allies during the Second World War. It was used particularly for liberated forced labourers and concentration camp prisoners who were unable or unable without assistance to return to their country of origin or who did not want to return to their country of origin because of changes to its political situation.
On 20 February 1942, the Nazi government issued the Eastern Workers Decrees based on the model of the Polish Decrees. They subjected forced labourers from the Soviet Union to racial discrimination and exploitation. Their freedom of movement was restricted and contact with Germans was prohibited. They had to wear a patch labelled “OST” (East) on their clothing.
See “Volksgemeinschaft”.
In Nazi ideology, the racist term “fremdvölkisch” (ethnically foreign) was used to describe people who were not considered “Aryan”.
The term “euthanasia” comes from the Greek and means “beautiful”, “good”, or “proper death”. Under National Socialism, people with disabilities and mental illnesses were murdered under this euphemistic term because they were deemed “unworthy of life” and a burden on society.
The term “extermination camp” is used to describe the camps created during the Nazi era for the sole purpose of murdering people. The SS set them up during the Second World War in parts of Poland and the Soviet Union that were taken over by the German Reich. They included the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Most of the people murdered in extermination camps were Jews, as well as Sinti and Roma.
The term “fascism” originally referred to the political movement under Benito Mussolini, the prime minister and dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943. Today, it is a collective term for authoritarian, anti-communist, and nationalist ideologies and regimes that reject democracy and social equality and use violence to achieve their goals. Inspired by Italian fascism, Austrofascism developed in Austria and National Socialism in the German Reich, each with its own specific characteristics.
The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was one of two existing German states from 1949 to 1990. It was under the American sphere of influence and stood in competition with the GDR during the Cold War. In 1990, the GDR was incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany.
“Foreign children care centres” were homes set up by the NSDAP for the children of Eastern European forced labourers. The children were forcibly adopted after birth or taken to a “foreign children care centre”, where they were deliberately neglected. Due to poor hygiene and the lack of medical care, the mortality rate was as high as 90%. At least 50,000 children died in these centres.
See “Ethnically foreign”
From 1949 to 1990, the GDR was one of two existing German states. The GDR described itself as a “socialist state”. It was under the Soviet Union‘s sphere of influence and stood in competition with the Federal Republic of Germany during the Cold War. In 1990, the GDR was incorporated into the FRG.
See Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
The German Reich was a state that existed from 1871 to 1945 with different forms of government. It essentially comprised the territory of today‘s Federal Republic of Germany and parts of today‘s Poland. From 1933 to 1945, the German Reich was ruled dictatorially by the NSDAP under Adolf Hitler.
Forced labourers who were accused of alleged offences such as relationships with Germans and who appeared “Aryan” could be examined for the possibility of “Germanisation”. The aim was to prevent an execution so as to preserve the labour force and at the same time increase the National Socialist “Volksgemeinschaft”. A central location for carrying out “Germanisation procedures” was the Special SS Camp Hinzert. There, the origin, appearance, and behaviour of Polish men were assessed according to racist criteria. In the event of a negative assessment, the men were transferred to other concentration camps or executed.
The Secret State Police (Geheime Staatspolizei; Gestapo) was the political police force in the German Reich from 1933 to 1945. It was responsible, in particular, for the persecution of political opponents and other people who were undesirable under National Socialism.
The Wehrmacht did not refer to the Italian soldiers it captured after the armistice between Italy, previously allied with the German Reich, and the Allies in September 1943 as “prisoners of war”, but rather as “Italian military internees” (IMI). By not considering them to be prisoners of war, their rights under the Geneva Convention could be denied.
The term “Jews” refers to both members of the religion of Judaism and the “Jewish people”. Judaism is the smallest world religion and one of the oldest. Jews have been persecuted time and again throughout history. Hostility towards Jews is referred to as anti-Semitism.
“Lagergemeinschaft” is a designation used by organisations of former concentration camp prisoners and their relatives. The survivors’ associations of Ravensbrück Women‘s Concentration Camp in the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR merged in 1993 to form today‘s Lagergemeinschaft Ravensbrück / Freundeskreis e.V.
Loss of honour (also loss of civil rights) was a penalty that could be imposed by the courts until 1969. For the term of the sentence, those convicted were not allowed to take part in elections or stand as an electoral candidate, nor were they allowed to hold public office.
National Socialism is a political ideology. From 1933 to 1945, it was the state ideology in the German Reich. Its central elements are anti-communism, racism, eliminationist anti-Semitism, the establishment of a dictatorship, and the conquest of “living space in the East”.
After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Germany was divided into four occupation zones, each under the control of one of the four Allies. In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was created from the territories of the occupation zones of the USA, Great Britain, and France, while the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was created from the Soviet occupation zone. Austria was also occupied by the four major Allied powers from 1945 to 1955 and divided into four occupation zones.
See Zuchthaus.
On 8 March 1940, the Nazi government issued the so-called Polish Decrees. They created a special right to racially discriminate against and exploit Polish forced labourers. The latter’s freedom of movement was restricted and contact with Germans was prohibited. They had to wear a patch labelled “P” on their clothing.
Queer is a widely used self-designation by people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, or members of another sexual or gender minority.
Racial ideologies are concepts that assert the existence of human “races”. Such claims cannot be confirmed by scientific research. Nevertheless, the view that human “races” exist is widespread. Racial ideologies attempt to justify differences in power and differences in legal rights within a society on the basis of supposed “racial” belonging.
Racism refers to hostility towards people who belong to a certain, supposedly existing “race”. People are devalued, marginalised, disadvantaged, and persecuted because of their appearance, origin, name, language, or religion. There are various forms of racism, e.g. towards Black people, Muslims, Sinti and Roma, or Eastern Europeans. Hostility towards Jews is referred to as anti-Semitism.
The term “repatriation” comes from Latin and means “return to the homeland”. It particularly refers to the repatriation of former prisoners of war, but also of civilians, to their countries of origin.
See Sinti and Roma
The SA was a National Socialist paramilitary organisation. It was founded in 1920 to protect NSDAP events and to terrorise political opponents and Jews. In 1933, the SA functioned temporarily as an “auxiliary police force”. In 1934, however, it lost much of its influence to the SS.
Sabotage is the deliberate disruption of processes in companies or in the military, e.g. by damaging machines. At the time of National Socialism, sabotage could be a form of resistance.
During the Second World War, a Stalag (short for the German term »Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager«) was a German prisoner of war camp where Allied soldiers were registered, hold, and assigned to work details. The camps were run by the Wehrmacht and were used to hold ordinary soldiers and non-commissioned officers.
The Second World War began on 1 September 1939 with the German Reich‘s attack on Poland. This was followed by attacks on other countries. The war was fought primarily between the so-called Axis powers (including the German Reich, Italy, and Japan) and the Allies. In Europe, the Second World War ended with the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht on 8 May 1945. In Asia, it ended with the unconditional surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945. More than 60 countries and all continents were directly or indirectly involved in the Second World War. With an estimated
70 million deaths, it has been the costliest war in human history to date.
See Sinti and Roma
Roma are the largest minority in Europe. Sinti are the Roma who have lived in Western Europe, including Germany, for more than 600 years. Sinti and Roma are still subject to multiple forms of discrimination and are often racially denigrated.
Soviet Union is another name for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), a state that existed from 1922 to 1991 and stretched from Eastern Europe to Asia. During the Second World War, the Soviet Union was one of the four Allies. Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and 12 other present-day states were part of the Soviet Union.
Special SS Camp Hinzert was a concentration camp outside Hinzert near Trier. At different times and sometimes simultaneously, it served as a “police detention camp”, a “labour education camp”, a “protective custody camp” and a “Germanisation camp”. At least 321 people were murdered there, including forced labourers who were deemed unsuitable for “Germanisation”.
The SS was a National Socialist organisation. Originally founded as a bodyguard unit for Adolf Hitler, from 1934 to 1945 the SS was particularly responsible for organising and guarding concentration camps and, from 1941, extermination camps.
During the Second World War, transit camps were used, among other things, to temporarily house prisoners of war and forced labourers before or during their transport to the German Reich. The Wehrmacht‘s “prisoner of war transit camps”, in particular, were merely improvised facilities and had poor living conditions.
The criminal trials conducted by the Allies after the end of the Second World War against those responsible for Nazi crimes, e.g. politicians and concentration camp personnel, are also referred to as the Allied trials.
A war of annihilation is a war that aims to completely annihilate a state and/or its population. The best-known example is the war waged by the German Reich against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 as part of the Second World War.
From 1935 to 1945, the army of the German Reich was known as the Wehrmacht. During the Second World War, it was involved in numerous Nazi crimes.
Yugoslavia was a state in southeast Europe that was a kingdom from 1918 to 1941 and a “socialist federal republic” from 1945 to 1992. The successor states are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.
The Zuchthaus was an institution of penal servitude. It was established as early as the 18th century as a correctional centre with harsher conditions than prisons. Imprisonment was often accompanied by hard physical labour. The Zuchthaus sentence was abolished in the GDR in 1968 and in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1969.
