NiederkirchnerstraßeNiederkirchnerstraße (ˈniːdɐkɪʁçnɐˌʃtʁaːsə) is a street in Berlin, Germany and was named after Käthe Niederkirchner. The thoroughfare was known as Prinz-Albrecht-Straße until 1951 but the name was changed by the East German government. The street was the location of the SS Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the headquarters of the Sicherheitspolizei, SD, Einsatzgruppen and Gestapo. The site is now marked by the Topography of Terror memorial and a museum, which includes a permanent exhibition showing the crimes of Nazism.
Order Police battalionsThe Order Police battalions were militarised formations of the German Order Police (uniformed police, "Orpo") during the Nazi era. During World War II, they were subordinated to the SS and deployed in German-occupied areas, specifically the Army Group Rear Areas and territories under German civilian administration. Alongside detachments from the Einsatzgruppen and the Waffen-SS, these units perpetrated mass murder of the Jewish population and were responsible for large-scale crimes against humanity targeting civilian populations.
BandenbekämpfungIn German military history, Bandenbekämpfung (German; "bandit-fighting" or "combating of bandits"; English equivalent of anti-partisan operations), also referred to as Nazi security warfare during World War II, refers to the concept and military doctrine of countering resistance or insurrection in the rear area during wartime through extreme brutality. The doctrine provided a rationale for disregarding the established laws of war and for targeting of any number of groups, from armed guerrillas to the civilian population, as "bandits" or "members of gangs".
Riga GhettoThe Riga Ghetto was a small area in Maskavas Forštate, a neighbourhood of Riga, Latvia, designated by the Nazis where Jews from Latvia, and later from Germany, were forced to live during World War II. On October 25, 1941, the Nazis relocated all Jews from Riga and its vicinity to the ghetto while the non-Jewish inhabitants were evicted. Most of the Latvian Jews (about 35,000) were killed on November 30 and December 8, 1941, in the Rumbula massacre. The Nazis transported a large number of German Jews to the ghetto; most of them were later killed in massacres.
WłocławekWłocławek (Polish pronunciation: AUDPl-Włocławek.oggwło'cławek; Leslau) is a city located in central Poland along the Vistula (Wisła) River and is bordered by the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park. As of December 2021, the population of the city is 106,928. Located in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, it was the capital of Włocławek Voivodeship until 1999. The city is located in the historical region of Kuyavia and is the region's third largest city after Bydgoszcz and Toruń.
VinnytsiaVinnytsia (ˈvɪnɪts(j)ə,_ˈviːn- ; Вінниця, ˈʋinːɪtsjɐ) is a city in western Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also serves as the administrative center of Vinnytsia Raion, one of the six raions of Vinnytsia Oblast. It has a population of The city's roots date back to the Middle Ages. It was under Lithuanian and Polish control for centuries.
Einsatzgruppen trialThe Einsatzgruppen trial (officially, The United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.) was the ninth of the twelve trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity that the US authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before US military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal. They took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice.
SchutzmannschaftThe Schutzmannschaft, or Auxiliary Police ( "protective teams, or guard units"; plural: Schutzmannschaften, abbreviated as Schuma) was the collaborationist auxiliary police of native policemen serving in those areas of the Soviet Union and the Baltic states occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, established the Schutzmannschaft on 25 July 1941, and subordinated it to the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei; Orpo). By the end of 1941, some 45,000 men served in Schutzmannschaft units, about half of them in the battalions.
Reich Security Main OfficeThe Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as Chef der Deutschen Polizei (Chief of German Police) and Reichsführer-SS, the head of the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel (SS). The organization's stated duty was to fight all "enemies of the Reich" inside and outside the borders of Nazi Germany. Himmler established the RSHA on 27 September 1939. His assumption of control over all security and police forces in Germany was a significant factor in the growth in power of the Nazi state.
AhnenerbeThe Ahnenerbe (ˈʔaːnənˌʔɛʁbə, "Ancestral Heritage") was a Schutzstaffel (SS) pseudo-scientific organization which was active in Nazi Germany between 1935 and 1945. It was established by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in July 1935 as an SS appendage devoted to the task of promoting the racial doctrines espoused by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The Ahnenerbe was composed of scholars and scientists from a broad range of academic disciplines and fostered the idea that the German people descended from an Aryan race which were racially superior to other racial groups.