Ordinary Men Terms

An Alte Kämpfer is someone who became a member of the Nazi party before Adolf Hitler came into power as the German chancellor. The term literally translates from German into “old fighters,” meaning they did… read analysis of Alte Kämpfer

Erntefest refers to the so-called “harvest festival,” which was a 1943 massacre of about 43,000 Jews in the Majdanek, Poniatowa, and Trawniki concentration camps. The massacre was the largest German killing operation targeting Jewish people… read analysis of Erntefest

Hilfswillige are called Hiwis for short. They were Ukrainian, Latvian, and Lithuanian prisoners of war who volunteered to train to become fighters for the Germans. The Hiwis were screened to make sure they had anti-Communist… read analysis of Hilfswillige (Hiwis)

Literally translated, judenfrei means “free of Jews.” This was the term the Nazis used to designate areas where every single Jew had been killed or rounded up for deportation. Massacres like the Erntefest were designed… read analysis of Judenfrei

The Final Solution was a plan that Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler devised for the total destruction of the Jews during World War II. The plan’s full title is “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,”… read analysis of The Final Solution

The Schutzstaffel, better known as the SS, was an elite paramilitary group created by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in the 1920s. There were two primary branches to the SS: the Allgemeine SS… read analysis of Shutzstaffel (SS)