Volksschädling (
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
: ''human pests'') is a derogatory term that gained use during the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
era, characterising people as "harmful organisms" due to their non-conformist behavior, with the intention of
dehumanizing and degrading them as
vermin
Vermin (colloquially varmint(s) or varmit(s)) are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases and destroy crops, livestock, and property. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included vary by regi ...
. The term originated earlier, having been mentioned in literature since 1896 and was used in various contexts at the beginning of the 20th century.
Before the Nazi takeover
In the early days of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( 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 term was used to describe "traffickers and usurers" and from 1930 the term was also used for alleged
traitors to the Nation.
During the war
From 1939, the designation became a legal term through its use in the ''Ordinance against ‘Pests harmful to the Common Good of the Country’'' of
5 September 1939. According to § 4 of this ordinance, a person who "intentionally commits a criminal offence by exploiting the extraordinary circumstances caused by the state of war" was regarded as a Pest harmful to the Common Good of the Country. In this case, the offender was punished "by exceeding the regular penalty
of imprisonment for up to 15 years, life imprisonment or death, if this was required by the justified popular sentiment because of the particular reprehensibility of the offence".
In the ordinance of 1939, the following type of crimes were enumerated:
*
Looting
Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...
in cleared areas.
* Crimes during
air raid warnings
* Malicious destruction, such as
arson
Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...
* Using the war conditions to commit crimes
Roland Freisler's interpretation
Roland Freisler, then Prussian
State Secretary for Justice, wrote in the legal journal ''Deutsche Justiz'', 1939, p. 1450:
Deserters
The content of the term Volksschädling, which was not conclusively defined in the ordinance, expanded increasingly during the course of National Socialist legal practice and, shortly before the
end of the war, was used primarily to refer to
deserters
Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or Military base, post without permission (a Pass (military), pass, Shore leave, liberty or Leave (U.S. military), leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with u ...
. In March 1945
Victor Klemperer
Victor Klemperer (9 October 188111 February 1960) was a German literary scholar and diarist. His journals, published posthumously in Germany in 1995, detailed his life under the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the fascist Nazi Germany, Third ...
reports of a group of
field police officers wearing an armband with the inscription "Volksschädlingsbekämpfer”.
[{{Cite book, title=Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten., last=Klemperer, first=Victor, publisher=Aufbau Verlag, year=1999, isbn=978-3-351-03616-4, location=Berlin, pages=699]
The handling of charges relating to this Regulation was mainly assigned to the
special courts. During the war, the
jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...
of the special courts was extended to include "normal" offences. This made it possible to convict "
enemies of the state" (political variant) or "Pests harmful to the Common Good of the People" (general variant), if they were also "dangerous habitual criminals", to extended terms of imprisonment.
See also
*
Enemy of the people
The terms enemy of the people and enemy of the nation are designations for the political opponents and the social class, social-class opponents of the Power (social and political), power group within a larger social unit, who, thus identified, ...
*
Propaganda in Nazi Germany
Propaganda was a tool of the Nazi Party in Germany from its earliest days to the end of the regime in May 1945 at the end of World War II. As the party gained power, the scope and efficacy of its propaganda grew and permeated an increasing amou ...
References
Nazi terminology
Political pejoratives for people