[Back]

APPENDIX B

Nazi Era Terminology/Alternate Search Terms (Alternative Suchbegriffe)

Aryanization (e.g., arisierter Firmen): process whereby Jewish businesses, property, and positions were transferred into Aryan hands

Ancestry Heritage Program (Ahnenerbe): a National Socialist study group dedicated to researching the history of the Aryan race

Death Head's Unit (division Totenkopf): SS concentration camp guard unit

disinfection chamber (Entwesungskammer, Desinfektion, Entlausungsanstalt): gas chamber (N.B. sometimes "disinfection" actually means "disinfection" depending on context)

ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche): German-speaking minority in a country outside Germany

evacuation (Evakuierung, Deportierung): deportation

"Final Solution" (Endlösung): systematic destruction of European Jewry

gas vans (Gaswagen): mobile gas chambers (sealed vans in which victims were gassed)

Germanized children (Eindeutschungskinder): children deemed suitable for Germanization (possessing so-called Aryan racial characteristics)

inmates (Insassen): prisoners

"Jewish Question" (Judenfrage): pertains to issues of persecution, stripping Jewish citizens of rights, and genocide

"Night and Fog" (Nacht und Nebel): German policy of arrest and deportation of anyone suspected of resistance, in which arrested persons could not contact family members and disappeared into the "night and fog"

resettlement (Umsiedlung, Aussiedlung): deportation

personnel files/cards/dossiers (Personalakten): most often refers to forced/slave labor files

preventive crime fighting/measures (vorbeugende Verbrechensbekämpfung): arrest of persons without any legal limits or judicial review

preventive detention (Vorbeugungshaft): holding of persons without legal limits or judicial review

protective custody (Vorbeugungshaft): arrest

special detachment (Sonderkommando): camp work units forced to help with the killing process (such as disposing of corpses)

special treatment (Sonderbehandlung): execution

work camp (Arbeitslager): slave labor camp

For additional Nazi terminology, users should consult: Robert Michael and Karin Doerr, Nazi-Deutsch/Nazi German: An English Lexicon of the Language of the Third Reich (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002).

[Back]


About the ITS Inventory:

General Description
Information Provided in the Inventory
Using the Inventory
German Abbreviations
Nazi-Era Terminology/Alternate Search Terms/Dates
Topics and Themes
Appendix A: Selected Source Institutions (with English translations)
Appendix B: Nazi Era Terminology/Alternate Search Terms (Alternative Suchbegriffe)
Appendix C: Frequently Appearing Topics and Themes