"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (279 page)

Reichsbürgergesetz
. Reich Citizenship Law (one of the so-called Nuremberg Laws; it created two categories of subjects:
Reichsbürger,
that is, persons of “German” descent with full political status, and
Staatsangehörige
, with minor status, for example, Jews in Germany)

Reichsdeutscher, Reichsdeutsche
. Reich German citizen (in contrast to Germans in other countries or annexed territories, e.g., Austria)

Reichsdienststrafhof, Reichsdisziplinarhof
. Supreme Disciplinary Court (established by the
Reichsdienststrafordnung
of January 26, 1937, as supreme disciplinary court for civil servants)

Reichsdienststrafordnung
. Reich Code of Disciplinary Procedure

Reichserbhofgesetz
. Reich Entailment Law

Reichsfinanzhof
. Reich Finance Court

Reichsfluchtsteuer
. Reich abandonment tax (a tax levied in 1931 on all emigrating Germans to deter emigration and the flight of capital during the Depression; repeatedly amended after 1934 to take advantage of the wave of emigration, especially of Jews, from the Reich)

Reichsführer-SS und Chef der deutschen Polizei. Reichsführer
-SS and chief of the German police

Reichsgericht (RG)
. Reich Supreme Court (the highest tribunal in Germany, established in Leipzig by the Judiciary Act of 1877)

Reichsgesetzblatt (RGBl.). Reich Law Gazette
(legal register for the Reich since 1871)

Reichskanzlei
. Reich Chancellery (established in 1878 as a special bureau for the Reich chancellor, it became important after 1934, with the unitary position of Hitler, to co-ordinate the intercourse between the chancellor and the Reich ministries)

Reichskommissar für die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums (RKF or RKFDV)
. Reich Commissar for the Strengthening of German Nationhood (established by the edict of October 7, 1939, in order to resettle those Germans in the conquered areas of Poland who were transferred to Germany from southwestern Europe and the Baltic States)

Reichskriegsgericht
. Reich Court-Martial

Reichskriminalpolizeiamt (RKPA)
. Reich Criminal Police Office (since 1939 part of the Security Police in the RSHA)

Reichsleiter
. Party leader at the Reich level

Reichsleitung
. Reich administration of the NSDAP (central administration of the NSDAP in Munich)

Reichsrechtsamt (der NSDAP)
. Reich Legal Office (of the NSDAP)

Reichsrechtsanwaltkammer
. Reich Chamber of Attorneys

Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA)
. Reich Security Main Office (founded 1939; comprised the Security Police [Gestapo and criminal police] and the regular police or order police)

Reichssippenamt
. Reich Office for Ancestry Research

Reichsstatthalter
. Reich governor, representative of the Führer in the German states as a supervisory authority of their administration, often in merging of office with the NSDAP
Gauleiter
in the
Reichsgaue
)

Reichs- und Staatsangehörigskeitsgesetz (1913) (RuStAG)
. Reich Nationality Law (1913)

Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland
. Reich Association of Jews in Germany (compulsory association established by decree of July 4, 1939; responsible for Jewish welfare)

Renegaten
. Renegades (used in connection with the Deutsche Volksliste to designate persons of German descent who remained loyal citizens of their native country and defended its institutions)

Richterbriefe
. Instructions to presiding judges from the Reich Ministry of Justice

Runderlaß
. Circular decree, circular order

Schöffengericht
. Lay assessor’s court

Schutzangehörige, Schutzangehöriger. lit
. Protected nationals; politically reliable foreign nationals living in the German Reich and enjoying limited indigenous rights

Schutzgelder
. Money paid for protection by an organization

Schutzhaft
. Protective custody (euphemism for arbitrary imprisonment by the police, formally based on emergency decree of February 28, 1933)

Sicherheitsdienst (SD)
. Security Service (an intelligence division of the SS; it also took over executive tasks, e.g., in the
Einsatzgruppen
in occupied Eastern Europe)

Sicherheitspolizei (SIPO)
. Security Police (comprising criminal police and Gestapo)

Sonderbehandlung
. Special treatment (Nazi euphemism for execution or killing)

Sondergericht (SG)
. Special court (for minor political crimes, established on March 21, 1933, in each district of the
Oberlandesgericht
)

Sonderrecht
. The principle of inequality under special law (author’s term)

SPD
. Social Democratic Party of Germany

SS-Totenkopfverbände (TV)
. SS “Death’s Head Units” (special formations of the SS Guards, used for guarding concentration camps)

SS und Polizeiführer (SSPF)
. SS and police leader

SS-Verfügungstruppen (VT)
. SS troops available for special tasks (e.g., as in formations of the SS Guards; the most important of these was the SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler)

Staatsangehöriger
. Subject of the German state (not possessing full right of citizenship, based on
Reichsbürgergesetz;
to be distinguished from
Reichsbürger
)

Staatsanwalt
. Public prosecutor

Staatsanwaltschaft (StA)
. Public prosecutor’s office

Stadthauptmann (pl. Stadthauptleute)
. Head of a municipal administration in the General Government

Stahlhelm. lit
. Steel Helmets, right-wing soldiers’ league founded in late 1918 to combat Communist and socialist uprisings

Stalag
. Abbreviation for
Stammlager
, men’s prisoners camp

Standesamt
. Registry office, where changes in civil status (births, marriages, deaths) are registered

Standgericht
. Court-martial

Stellvertreter des Führers
. Deputy of the Führer (chief of the Party administration)

Strafgesetzbuch
. Penal Code

Strafprozessordnung
. Code of Criminal Procedure

Strafregister
. Penal or criminal register (method of registry regulated by a decree of February 17, 1934, in which a list is kept at every
Landgericht
of all criminals born in the district and of the sentences they received)

Strafsenat (eines
Oberlandesgerichts). Chamber of a high criminal court (i.e., of an
Oberlandesgericht
)

Umwandererzentralstelle
. Central Transfer Office (for the resettlement of ethnic German settlers from the Baltic states in the Reich); part of the office of
Reichskommissar für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums

Untersuchungshaft
. Pretrial confinement

Untersuchungsrichter
. Examining judge (for a mandatory preliminary judicial investigation, provided by the traditional criminal procedure in all cases in which appeal on questions of fact was excluded)

Verjudung
. Spreading of Jewish influence among non-Jews (Nazi term)

Vermögensrecht
. Property Law

Verordnung (VO)
. Decree (subordinate legislation issued by the executive on entitlement in a law with the character of a norm, in contrast to administrative orders without legal value) (equivalent to Rechtsverordnung)

Verordnung über den Aufbau der Verwaltung des Generalgouvernement
. Decree on the Administration of Justice in the General Government

Verordnung über den Einsatz jüdischen Vermögens
. Decree on the Utilization of Jewish Property

Verordnung über die Anmeldung des Vermögens von Juden
. Decree on the Registration of Jewish Property

Verordnung über die Beschlagnahme von privaten Vermögen im Generalgouvernement
. Decree on the Seizure of Private Assets in the General Government

Verordnung über die Einführung des bürgerlichen Rechts in den eingegliederten Ostgebieten (Ostrechtspflegeverordnung)
. Decree on the Implementation of Civil Law in the Annexed Eastern Territories (Decree on the Administration of Justice in the East)

Verordnung über die Strafrechtspflege gegen Polen und Juden
. Decree on the Administration of Penal Justice against Poles and Jews

Verordnung über die Veröffentlichung von Bekanntmachungen im Generalgouvernement
. Decree on the Publication of Proclamations in the General Government

Verordnung über Sicherheit und Ordnung im Generalgouvernement
. Decree on Security and Public Order in the General Government

Verordnung zur Ausschaltung der Juden aus dem deutschen Wirtschaftsleben
. Decree on the Exclusion of the Jews from German Economic Life

Volk
. Nation, people (in Nazi interpretation,
Volk
in ethnic or racial sense)

völkisch
. Synonym for
German
in ethnic or racial sense in the Nazi era

Volksdeutsche
. Ethnic German (“racial Germans” with foreign citizenship living outside German frontiers)

volksfremd
. Alien to the spirit of the
Volk
(Nazi term)

Volksgemeinschaft
. Ethnic or racial community (interpreted in Nazi terminology as the “truly” national community of interests, as opposed to the “artificial” community of civilization or of law)

Volksgenosse
. “Ethnic” or “racial” comrade

Volksgerichtshof
. People’s Court (established in Berlin by laws of April 24, 1934, and April 18, 1936, for cases of political crimes [treason and high treason])

Volksschädling
. Antisocial parasite upon the
Volk
(Nazi term)

Volksschule
. Elementary school

Volkstum
. The entity or characteristics of a
Volk
(in Nazi era, used in an ethnic or racial sense)

Volljude, volljüdisch
. Full Jew, fully Jewish (Nazi term)

Vorbeugehaft
. Preventive detention (Nazi term for arrest by Gestapo)

Vormundschaftsgericht
. Guardianship court

Vorschrift
. Regulation

Wachtmeister
. Lowest rank in the police

Wandervogelbewegung
. A youth movement group in Weimar Germany

Wehrkreisbefehlshaber
. Commander of the Military District

Wehrkreiskommando
. District Military Command

Wehrmachtsgerichtsbarkeit
. Military jurisdiction

Winterhilfe
. Winter Relief Fund (Nazi organization that collected clothing and other goods during the war years)

Wirtschaftsrecht
. Commercial law

Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt der SS
. Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS

Zentrum
. Catholic Center Party (in the Weimar Republic)

Zivilpole
. Polish civilian working in Nazi Germany

Zivilprozessordnung (ZPO)
. Code of Civil Procedure

Zuständigkeitsverordnung (1940)
. Jurisdiction Decree

Zwangsarbeiter
. Forced laborer

SS Ranks and American/British Military Ranks