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Blockführer
''Blockführer'' (Block Leader) was a paramilitary title specific to the SS-Death's Head Units in Concentration Camp Service. An SS-Block Leader was typically in charge of a prisoner barracks ranging from two hundred to three hundred concentration camp prisoners; in larger camps, the number of prisoners could reach as a high as a thousand. The Block Leader was in charge of daily attendance, supervising daily work details, and the distributing of rations to prisoners. Assisting in this case were several prisoner trustees, known as ''kapos''. The position of Block Leader was usually held by an SS soldier holding the rank of SS-Corporal or non-commissioned officer rank of SS-Sergeant. In the Nazi death camps, the task of gassing prisoners with Zyklon B was performed by a Block Leader. A similar title, known as ''Blockleiter'' (Block Warden), also existed in the Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsoziali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unterscharführer
''Unterscharführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives. That event caused an SS reorganisation and the creation of new ranks to separate the SS from the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA). The insignia was a button pip centred on a collar patch opposite an SS unit insignia collar badge. The field grey SS uniform displayed the rank with silver collar piping and the shoulder boards of an ''Unteroffizier''. Rank comparisons list the rank of ''Unterscharführer'' as equivalent to a corporal in other services, but that the rank held responsibilities of a sergeant in some other armies. Creation The rank of ''Unterscharführer'' was created from the SA rank of ''Scharführer''. After 1934, an SS-''Unterscharführer'' and SA-''Scharführer'' were considered equivalent positions; the rank of SS-''Unterscharführer'' was junior to SS-''Scharführer'' and senior to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SS-Totenkopfverbände
''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV; ) was the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organization responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps for Nazi Germany, among similar duties. While the ''Totenkopf'' was the universal cap badge of the SS, the SS-TV also wore this insignia on the right collar tab to distinguish itself from other SS formations. The SS-TV originally created in 1933 was an independent unit within the SS, with its own command structure. It ran the camps throughout Germany and later in occupied Europe. Camps in Germany included Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, and Buchenwald; camps elsewhere in Europe included Auschwitz- Birkenau in German occupied Poland and Mauthausen in Austria among the numerous other concentration camps, and death camps handled with the utmost of secrecy. The extermination camps' function was genocide; they included Treblinka, Bełżec, and Sobibór built specifically for ''Aktion Reinhard'', as well as the original Chełmn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blockleiter
''Blockleiter'' (Block Warden), where ''block'' refers to city block, was from 1933 the title of a lower Nazi Party political rank responsible for the political supervision of a neighborhood. Referred to in common parlance as ''Blockwart'', the Block Warden's duty was to form the primary link between the Nazi authorities and the general population. The derogatory term ''Blockwart'' ("snoop") survives in German colloquial language. History and usage The title of ''Blockleiter'' was first created in 1930 and was initially known as ''Blockwart''. The purpose of the Block Warden was to organize local support for elections during a period when Nazis were attempting to gain both local and national political offices in the Weimar Republic. Block Wardens were organized by neighborhoods in German towns and cities, and answered to a "Cell Warden" known as the ''Zellenwart''. Typically, there were eight to ten blocks in one cell. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, the old politic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-78612-0010, KZ Sachsenhausen, SS-Unterführer Beim Zählappell
, type = Archive , seal = , seal_size = , seal_caption = , seal_alt = , logo = Bundesarchiv-Logo.svg , logo_size = , logo_caption = , logo_alt = , image = Bundesarchiv Koblenz.jpg , image_caption = The Federal Archives in Koblenz , image_alt = , formed = , preceding1 = , preceding2 = , dissolved = , superseding1 = , superseding2 = , agency_type = , jurisdiction = , status = Active , headquarters = PotsdamerStraße156075Koblenz , coordinates = , motto = , employees = , budget = million () , chief1_name = Michael Hollmann , chief1_position = President of the Federal Archives , chief2_name = Dr. Andrea Hänger , chief2_position ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Concentration Camps
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concentration camps operated by Germany's allies. on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Following the 1934 purge of the SA, the concentration camps were run exclusively by the SS via the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and later the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Initially, most prisoners were members of the Communist Party of Germany, but as time went on different groups were arrested, including "habitual criminals", "asocials", and Jews. After the beginning of World War II, people from German-occupied Europe were imprisoned in the concentration camps. Following Allied military victories, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kapo (concentration Camp)
A kapo or prisoner functionary (german: Funktionshäftling) was a prisoner in a Nazi camp who was assigned by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks. Also called "prisoner self-administration", the prisoner functionary system minimized costs by allowing camps to function with fewer SS personnel. The system was designed to turn victim against victim, as the prisoner functionaries were pitted against their fellow prisoners in order to maintain the favor of their SS overseers. If they neglected their duties, they would be demoted to ordinary prisoners and be subject to other kapos. Many prisoner functionaries were recruited from the ranks of violent criminal gangs rather than from the more numerous political, religious, and racial prisoners; such criminal convicts were known for their brutality toward other prisoners. This brutality was tolerated by the SS and was an integral part of the camp system. Prisoner functionaries wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scharführer
''Scharführer'' (, ) was a title or rank used in early 20th Century German military terminology. In German, ''Schar'' was one term for the smallest sub-unit, equivalent to (for example) a "troop" , " squad", or "section". The word ''führer'' simply meant "leader". The term ''Scharführer'' can be traced to World War I, when it was referred to a NCO in charge of several shock troopers, or other special forces soldiers. It was, however, used far more widely by Nazi Party paramilitary organizations, between 1925 and 1945 and became strongly associated with them. Nazi usage ''Scharführer'' is most recognizable as a rank of the SS and title of the SA. ''Scharführer'' was first used as a title in the '' Sturmabteilung'' (SA) as early as 1921 and became an actual rank in 1928. ''Scharführer'' was the first non-commissioned officer rank of the SA, and was denoted by a single pip centered on a collar patch. In 1930, veteran ''Scharführer'' were appointed to the new rank o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zyklon B
Zyklon B (; translated Cyclone B) was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consisted of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), as well as a cautionary eye irritant and one of several adsorbents such as diatomaceous earth. The product is notorious for its use by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust to murder approximately 1.1 million people in gas chambers installed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other extermination camps. Hydrogen cyanide, a poisonous gas that interferes with cellular respiration, was first used as a pesticide in California in the 1880s. Research at Degesch of Germany led to the development of Zyklon (later known as Zyklon A), a pesticide that released hydrogen cyanide upon exposure to water and heat. It was banned after World War I, when Germany used a similar product as a chemical weapon. Degussa purchased Degesch in 1922. Their team of chemists, which included and Bruno Tesch, devised a method of packagin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers' Party (; DAP), existed from 1919 to 1920. The Nazi Party emerged from the Extremism, extremist German nationalism, German nationalist, racism, racist and populism, populist paramilitary culture, which fought against the communism, communist uprisings in post–World War I Germany. The party was created to draw workers away from communism and into nationalism. Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti–big business, anti-bourgeoisie, bourgeois, and anti-capitalism, anti-capitalist rhetoric. This was later downplayed to gain the support of business leaders, and in the 1930s, the party's main focus shifted to Antisemitism, antisemitic and Criticism of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
