The Project

Glossary

Concise and historically reliable definitions of the central terms used by the NaziCrimesAtlas. This page is intended as a reference for researchers, journalists, teachers and anyone working with historically defensible terminology.

Nazi crimes: Nazi crimes are offences committed in the name of or in connection with the National Socialist regime in Germany between 30 January 1933 and 8 May 1945. They include crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide (particularly against the Jews of Europe), the Nazi murder of the sick, persecution of political opponents, forced labour, deportations and executions outside any rule of law.
Crime complex (Tatkomplex): In historiographic and judicial usage, a „crime complex" denotes a coherent group of Nazi crimes that share a theme, geography or chronology. Examples: the pogrom complex of 9/10 November 1938, the „euthanasia" complex of Aktion T4, the complex of concentration-camp sub-camps.
Pogrom: A pogrom is a violent, usually organised attack against a minority. In the Nazi context, the Novemberpogrom of the night of 9–10 November 1938 (still informally known as „Kristallnacht") is particularly significant: more than 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms were destroyed and over 30,000 Jewish men deported to concentration camps; the death toll over the days that followed was much higher.
Court records (Gerichtsakten): Court records are the written files of criminal proceedings — indictments, witness statements, judgements, evidence. In the context of Nazi crimes, the records of post-war proceedings are particularly relevant: cases tried before German courts from 1945 onwards, both by Allied military tribunals (Nuremberg trials) and by ordinary courts of the Federal Republic and the GDR. They are the central primary source for location-based documentation of crime and crime scene.
„Euthanasia" murders (NS-Krankenmord): In the Nazi context, the term denotes the systematic murder of people with physical, intellectual or psychological disabilities and the mentally ill by the Nazi regime. The central phase, „Aktion T4" of 1940–41, killed around 70,000 people in six killing centres. After the official halt, the killings continued in a decentralised manner in psychiatric institutions and care homes until 1945. The contemporary euphemism „Euthanasie" is generally used in quotation marks or replaced by „Nazi murder of the sick" in scholarly literature.
Concentration camp crimes: Concentration camp crimes encompass all offences committed in concentration camps and sub-camps: murder, ill-treatment, forced labour under murderous conditions, medical experiments, starvation and shootings. The crimes are documented in countless post-war trials, particularly through survivor testimony and camp records.
Forced labour: Forced labour denotes the systematic abduction of and coerced work performed by around 13 million people from German-occupied territories within the German Reich between 1939 and 1945. It was a constituent part of the Nazi war economy. Comprehensive documentation of the sites is held by the Arolsen Archives and the German Federal Archives.
Deportations: Deportations denote the organised transportation of Jews, Sinti and Roma and political opponents from the German Reich and occupied territories to ghettos, concentration camps and extermination camps. Major assembly points in Germany: Berlin Grunewald platform 17, Frankfurt wholesale market hall, Hamburg Hannoverscher Bahnhof, Munich Milbertshofen.
Perpetrators (Täter): In law, perpetrators are persons who directly committed Nazi crimes or directly incited them. The NaziCrimesAtlas does not name perpetrators individually; it identifies them by function (SS guard, camp doctor, mayor, police officer, etc.) — for reasons of personality rights and because the project foregrounds victims rather than personalising the perpetrators.
Victims (Opfer): Victims of Nazi crimes are the people who were murdered, abducted, tortured or driven into exile. Main victim groups: the Jewish population of Europe (around six million murdered in the Holocaust), Sinti and Roma (Porajmos), political opponents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexual people, disabled people, Soviet prisoners of war, and Polish and Soviet civilians.
Court file reference (Aktenzeichen): The court file reference is the unique identifier of a criminal proceeding. The NaziCrimesAtlas records the file reference for every documented act so that researchers can follow the evidence into the archive (for example, „2 Ks 1/65 LG München I").
Crime scene (Tatort): The crime scene is the geographical location where a Nazi crime was committed. The NaziCrimesAtlas is organised by location: every act is assigned a crime scene as a coordinate on the map. Where the location cannot be determined precisely (e.g. crimes during transport by rail), the best possible approximation is chosen and clearly marked.