This is a list of words, terms, concepts and slogans of Nazi Germany used in the historiography covering the Nazi regime. Some words were coined by Adolf Hitler and other Nazi Party members. Other words and concepts were borrowed and appropriated, and other terms were already in use during the Weimar Republic. Finally, some are taken from Germany's cultural tradition.
0–9 25-point programme – The Nazi Party platform and a codification of its ideology.
A Abbeförderung ('dispatching', 'removal') – euphemism for killing. abgeräumt ('cleared away') – slang expression for "murdered". Abhörverbrecher ('wiretapping criminal') – Germans and others in the occupied countries who illegally listened to foreign news broadcasts. Abkindern – an ironically intended colloquial designation for the cancellation of a marriage loan through the production of offspring. In German, ab means "off" and Kind means "child". Ablieferungspflicht ('delivery obligation') – delivery duty on farm products and other goods which had to be contributed to the state to be sold on the German market. Abrechnung mit den Juden ('the settling of accounts with the Jews') – the removal of Jews from the German economy and society, eventually leading to their extermination in the Holocaust. Abschaum ('scum') – political adversaries of the Nazis. SS-Abschnitt – SS district or district headquarters. Absiedlung ('resettlement') – the forceful removal of people from German-occupied or annexed regions. This term is synonymous with Umsiedlung. Abstammungsnachweis ('genealogical certificate') – used to establish the purity of one's Aryan descent. Abteilung – a branch, subsection, department or a division within a main office. Abteilungsleiter – the head of a section or department. Abwehr (; 'defence') – a German military intelligence (information gathering) organisation that operated from 1920 to 1944. After 4 February 1938, its name in title was Amt Ausland/Abwehr im Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ('Foreign Affairs/Defence Office of the Armed Forces High Command'). Abwehrangelegenheiten – counterespionage issues. Abwehrpolizei – counter-espionage police. They were a function of the border police (Grenzpolizei) controlled by the Gestapo. Abwehrstelle (AST, ASt) – Military Intelligence Center. Achsenmächte – literally, Axis powers. "Achtung, Feind hört mit!" (; 'Watch out, the enemy is listening!') – Nazi slogan used as a repeated warning against spies published in newspapers, posted in shop windows and restaurants, printed on notepads and even on matchboxes. Also a film. Adolphe Légalité – derisory nickname for Hitler in social-revolutionary SA circles following the Reichswehr Trial held before the Leipzig Supreme Court in late September 1930. In the eyes of radical National Socialists, Hitler's Legality Oath had conceded too much to his political enemies, in the same way as had the Duke of Orléans, who adopted the name Philippe Égalité during the French Revolution. Afrika Korps – German Africa Corps (DAK) of the Wehrmacht. agrarpolitischer Apparat (aA; 'Agrarian Apparatus') – Agricultural Affairs Bureau of the NSDAP, responsible for promoting Blut und Boden ideology. Leadership hierarchy: Reichsleitungsfachberater held by Richard Walther Darré; Gaufachberater; Bezirksfachberater; Kreisfachberater; Ortsgruppenfachberater Agents: LVL; Landesfachberater ('consultants') Administrative: Hilfsreferenten ('staff members'); Sachbearbeiter ('aides'); Hilfsreferenten responsible for day-to-day propaganda campaign Ahnenerbe ('ancestral heritage') – a think tank established under the patronage of Heinrich Himmler to research the history of the Aryan race and prove its superiority. Ahnenerbe Forschungs- und Lehrgemeinschaft – Society for Research and the Teaching of Ancestral Heritage. Ahnennachweise – genealogical tree used to prove ancestry. Ahnenpaß ('ancestor passport') – an identification card which was supposed to be carried by all Germans to demonstrate one's Aryan race lineage. Ahnenschein ('genealogical chart') – a document used to show correct Aryan descent. Akademiker ('academic') – a member of those professions whose exercise required university study as a prerequisite. The term was avoided because it fostered caste mentality and contradicted the ideal of the Volk community. The proportion of academics from a working-class background increased during the Nazi era, but remained minuscule in actual numbers. Auf Kriegsdauer (a. Kr.; 'for the duration of the war') – added to titles to indicate the limited promotion prospects for bureaucrats. Aktion ('action') – euphemism for a mass-murder operation. Aktion 1005 – ('Action 1005'), also called the Sonderaktion 1005 ('special action 1005') or Enterdungsaktion ('exhuming action'), was the 1942–44 secret Nazi operation for concealing evidence of their own largest mass-killings. Laborers – facetiously called "Sonderkommando 1005" ('special commando/s 1005') – would be taken under guard to a closed death camp to clear the site of structures while a sub-unit, the "Leichenkommandos" ('corpse commandos'), were forced to exhume bodies from mass graves, burn the remains (usually on timber and iron-rail "roasts"), and sometimes to grind down larger bone pieces in portable bone-crusher mills. Some Einsatzgruppen mass graves were also cleared out. (Note: without the 1005 appended, in the camps the word Sonderkommando (lit. 'special unit') euphemistically referred to prisoner-laborers generally who stoked the crematoria, shaved newcomers' hair, processed seized belongings, etc., but were not involved in the exhuming action.) Aktion Reinhardt ('mission/action Reinhardt') – code name given on 4 June 1942 for the assignment to exterminate all Polish Jews in honor of SS Deputy Chief Reinhard Heydrich who had been assassinated during a covert operation. Aktion T4 – code name for the extermination of mentally ill and handicapped patients by the Nazi authorities. (Named after Tiergartenstraße 4, the address of Nazi Central Office in Berlin.) Aktivismus ('activism') – political maxim of National Socialism as a "fighting movement", as opposed to "bourgeois passivity". It was claimed that only through an activist stance had it been possible to "defeat terrorist Marxism". However, that which propaganda ennobled as activism was, especially at the grass-roots level, often only blind action for action's sake. Alles für Deutschland ('everything/anything for Germany') – Motto applied to the blades of uniform daggers worn by the SA and National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK). Allgemeine SS (general SS) – general overall body of the SS which included full-time, part-time, active, inactive, and honorary members. Alljuda – antisemitic Germanization of the term international Jewry that borrowed from the word alldeutsch ('pan-German'), as in the antisemitic slogan "All-Germany against All-Jewry!" The National Socialists used the word Alljuda to suggest the Allgegenwart ('omnipresence') of the Jewish danger and the "world conspiracy of Judaism"; aggressive terminology that degraded Zionism Alpenfestung ('Alpine Fortress') – the region on the Obersalzberg where Hitler was originally supposed to retreat when conducting the battle against the Allies. Hitler never used the Alpenfestung in this capacity and retreated instead into the bunker in Berlin. Alter Kämpfer ('old fighter') – A Nazi Party member who joined the party or a party-affiliated organization before the Reichstag election of September 1930, when the Nazi Party made its electoral breakthrough; or who joined the Austrian Nazi Party or an affiliate before the Anschluss. The first 100,000 members of the Party were eligible to wear the Golden Nazi Party Badge. The "old fighters" tended to be the most extreme anti-Semitics in the party. Altreich ('old country') – after the annexation of Austria in 1938, referred to the part of Germany that was within the 1937 (pre-annexation) boundaries. Amt – a main office, branch or department of a ministry within the Reich. Amtsgericht – a court of law with functions over the whole legal field. Amtsleiter – a convener of NSDAP Party committees. They were personally answerable to Hitler. Amtswalter ('office steward') – Old German-sounding Nazi synonym for "official" or "civil servant" (Beamter) and therefore the preferred term for professional functionaries of the party and its branches. Those persons working in the state apparatus continued to be called Beamte. Amt Feierabend ('Office for After-Work Activity') – aimed to organize workers' after-work activities as part of the Strength Through Joy policy. Amt Volksbildungswerk ('Office for Popular Education') – aimed to organize ideologically approved education for workers as part of the Strength Through Joy policy. Anbauschlacht – Battle for Cultivation. Angstbrosche ('badge of fear') – an ironic expression for the Nazi Party pin worn by latecomers to the Party in 1933. Anhaltelager – a temporary detention camp. Anordnung – an order, instruction or regulation. Anschluss (Anschluß) – annexation, in particular the annexation of Austria in March, 1938. Anti-Comintern Pact – the agreement by Germany, Japan, and Italy to oppose the Communist International (the Comintern) directed by Josef Stalin and the Soviet Union. Arbeit adelt ('labor ennobles') – Motto applied to the blades of uniform daggers worn by officers of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD, the State Labor Service). Arbeit macht frei ('work will set you free') – an old German peasant saying, not invented by the Nazis. It was placed above the gate to Auschwitz by the commandant Rudolf Höß. The slogan which appeared on the gates of numerous Nazi death camps and concentration camps was not true; those sent to the camps certainly would not be freed in exchange for their hard labor. Instead they were generally worked to death or exterminated when they could no longer perform labour for the Reich. Arbeitnehmerschaft ('workforce') – the Nazis took this word to mean both manual and mental workers. "Arbeitertum der Faust und der Stirn" ('Workers of both manual and mental labor') – blue-collar and white-collar workers. This was the Nazi Party self-description as an "all-inclusive workers' party". Arbeitsdienstführer ('labor service leader) – an official responsible for labor output and performance in a concentration camp. Arbeitserziehungslager ('workers' educational camps') – camps established for recently released concentration camp inmates designed to provide additional training for industrial work. Arbeitsplatzwechselverordnung (APWVO) – a legal order to change jobs. Arbeitsscheue – a person who avoids work. Germans who rejected opportunities to work were categorized and placed in protective custody (Schutzhaft), which implied that they were slackers. In most instances, they were reported to the Gestapo and thereafter interned at the Buchenwald concentration camp for a three-month period. Arbeitsschlacht ('battle for work') – propaganda term for the totality of measures involved in work creation. Because of its military and activist sound, Arbeitsschlacht was one of Hitler's favorite terms until 1937 (the de facto end of unemployment). It was patterned after the Fascist Italian battaglia per il grano ('battle for grain'). Ariernachweis – a Certificate of Descent (to show "Aryan" heritage) (popular name). Aryan – the Germanic "master race" or Übermensch, according to Nazi doctrine. Arisierung ('Aryanization') – the process of making something "Aryan" through the seizure of Jewish property in favour of a non-Jewish German.