Glossary
Endlösung der Judenfrage
Translates to 'The Final Solution to the Jewish Question.' The Final Solution was the Nazi plan of systematic extermination of the Jews across German-Occupied Europe.
-KM
Aufseherinnen
The female guards that managed the female sectors in the Nazi concentration camps.
-JC
Auslandsdeutsche
People of Germanic blood who spent their formative years in a German community abroad.
-GJ
Confessing Church ("Bekennende Kirche")-
Formally established with the signing of the Barmen Confession in May 1934, the Confessing Church acted as an oppositional Protestant influence in the Third Reich. Unlike, the German Christians, the Confessing Church criticized the Nazis’ influence on German Christianity and declared the innate differences between Nazism and Christianity.
-AG
Führerprinzip
The leadership principle based on absolute hierarchical authority and unquestioning loylaty and obedience. The fundamental principle in the political authority of the governmental strucutre of the Nazi State. Refers to the practice of dictatorship within the ranks of a political party itself.
-TM
German Christians ("Deutsche Christen")-
Refers to Protestant Christians in the Third Reich who accepted the unification of Christianity and Nazi doctrine. In contrast to Confessing Church that declared the word of God paramount in their lives, the German Christians accepted the principle of Führerprinzip that asserts the Führer’s (Adolf Hitler) word as above all written law.
-AG
Gleichschaltung-
the process of Nazification by which Nazi Germany successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of society
-CR
Hitlerjugend ("Hitler Youth")-
The development of youth organizations under the National Socialist Workers Party (NSDAP) was authorized in 1920 by Adolf Hitler. The Youth League formed under the same principles of the German youth group, Wandervögel. The Wandervögel romanticized the ideas of past in which people truly embraced nature. The Nazi Youth League strived to follow the principles of the Wandervögel, but also implemented militaristic values and training. The Nazi Youth League did not have an outstanding membership at the beginning of their organization, but with Hitler’s release from prison and the revival of the NSDAP, a new youth party was created. The Hitler Youth, or Hitler-Jugend, Bund deutscher Arbeiterjugend (Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth) was officially formed on July 4, 1926 with Kurt Gruber as its first leader.
Source: Holocaust Research Project
-AH
KdF (“Kraft durch Freude”)-
Translated as “Strength through Joy,” this movement was intended to bridge the gap between classes and make leisure activities available to the masses of middle-class Germans. It was founded in 1933 by Robert Ley, head of the German Labour Front. The movement worked towards using leisure to create higher productivity among workers and a “Volksgemeinschaft” among the racially superior.
NG
Lebensborn-
Program formed by the SS that cared for unmarried “Aryan” women and their children. “Aryan” women applied for the program and their racial purity was tested before admittance. The children of these women were taken by the SS and cared for until “Aryan” German parents adopted them.
AJ
Paragraph 175 -
Part of the German constitution that outlawed homosexuality, specifically sexual acts between two men involving penetration. Though it had been in place since 1871, it wasn’t until the Nazi period that it was heavily enforced, especially after the Summer of 1935, when it was adapted slightly to include all sexual acts between men.
EDS
Budget Deficit-
Current expenses exceed the amount of income being received through standard operations.
Die Sturmabteilung "The Storm Detachtment"-
Literally, Storm Detachment or Battalion. This Nazi paramilitary organization played an important role in the years leading up to the Nazi seizure of power, using intimidation and violence as a political tool for the party. The organization was purged, however, a year after Hitler became chancellor in 1934, dramatically reducing their numbers and influence. They were known for their radicalism both socio-economically and ideologically, and their perceived status as revolutionaries.
DM
Vergangenheitswältigung -
“confronting or mastering the past,” according to Jeffrey Herf, this word has the connotation of struggling, sometimes violently, with the past. It denotes, in the study of German history, the difficulty of dealing with the array of atrocities and crimes committed by people with whom every German has some relation. In short: how could one deal with their own father, mother, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins and so on being passive or active supporters of such a murderous and reviled regime?
SS
Volk -
Volk translates into ‘ethnic community’. Hitler used it to unify “Aryan” Germans into one cohesive entity. The term was used both to unite Germans and to exclude those not included within the Volk (for example, Jews).
JRT
Totenkopfring-
Translated to “Death’s Head Ring”, also referred to as the SS-Ehrenring or “SS Honor Ring,” the Totenkopfring was the ring worn by all SS members and featured a death head and runes. It was commissioned by Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Schutzstaffel, or the SS. The ring was created with the help of Karl Maria Wiligut, an occultist who injected the design of the ring with occult symbiology in accordance with Himmler’s interest in merging Germanic mysticism with the SS.
-AR
“The Gypsy Question”
The phrase that displays the Third Reich questioning how to eliminate the Roma and the Sinti, or the Gypsies. Himmler referred to the “the Gypsy Question” and discusses his rational of his final solution to the question in “Combating the Gypsy Nuisance,” which was to send the Gypsies to concentration camps. Himmler sent over 500,000 Gypsies to the gas chambers.
-KH
Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
The Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler was the first infantry regiment of the Waffen SS that was initially made up by the personal bodyguards of Adolf Hitler. It participated in the Night of Long Knives under the command of Josef Sepp Dietrich and became Hitler's most favored Divisions in the Reich. This division was one of the most infamous during World War 2 due to its brutality in frontline combat in both the Eastern and Western Fronts. The Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler was one of the first Waffen SS Divisions that was reorganized into a Panzer Division and moved between the Eastern and Western Fronts seven times. This division became the "Fire Brigade" for Adolf Hitler and was called upon by commanders all along the front to fight in the most difficult battles that no other division could withstand.
- RC