Glossary

In research concerning Nazi perpetrators, the term ‘Dachau School’ - distinct from the 19th and early 20th century artistic movement - refers to a training methodology conceived by Theodor Eicke for concentration camp guards. Eicke, commander of the SS-Totenkopf (‘Death’s Head’) units from 1934, was responsible for guarding the camps. The training instilled disciplined and detached brutality, promoting an absolute lack of tolerance towards prisoners. During their training, guards actively participated in abuse and murder. Many of the subsequent battalion and company commanders in the 16th Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’ emerged from this system.

According to § 64 of the German military criminal code, an absence of more than 3 days, and one day on the front, was an offence punishable with up to 10 years in prison. Unlike Desertion, unauthorized absence suggests that the soldier did not intend to permanently leave their unit.

The military intelligence services of the Wehrmacht were structured into three main sections: Abwehr I for foreign intelligence collection, Abwehr II for sabotage, and Abwehr III for counter-intelligence. Abwehrkommandos and -Trupps (later known as Front-Aufklärungs-Kommandos and -Trupps) played a crucial role in overseeing occupied territories. In Italy, they conducted numerous operations against partisans and were also involved in extrajudicial executions of individuals suspected of being part of the resistance.

The German Africa Corps (Deutsches Afrikakorps, DAK) was a military command within the Wehrmacht led by General Ludwig Crüwell. It played a significant role in North Africa from 1941 to 1943, forming the nucleus of what later became the Italian-German Panzer Army Africa under Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel. The deployment of the German Africa Corps encompassed Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia, where it ultimately surrendered in May 1943. It's worth noting that while the term "Africa Corps" is commonly used to refer to the entire German contingent in the African campaign, this is not entirely accurate.

Nazi terminology referred to forced or slave labour. Forced labourers were abducted foreigners, war prisoners, prison inmates, and persons imprisoned in Concentration camps and death camps, ghettos, and so-called ‘labour education camps’. They were compelled to work in Germany and in German-occupied countries. From 1943 to 1945, thousands of Italians were forced into labour in Italy and Germany.

These command outposts were developed on the model of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA). Their personnel were Gestapo members (section IV of the RSHA), the Kriminalpolizei (section V) and the SD (sections III and VI). The size of personnel in the outposts varied between a dozen to over a hundred men, together with translators, secretaries, guards, and service personnel; local collaborators were often employed in these latter cases. In occupied Italy, the command outposts were generally located in the main cities of the various regions. In areas with stronger partisan activity, they were also set up in smaller cities.

This police formation within the Italian Social Republic primarily comprised Milan fascists and was named after a prominent fascist officer who was killed by Carabinieri during the summer of 1943. Its primary role was anti-partisan combat, and it operated under the command of the head of the police and SS. In Milan, the Legion closely collaborated with the command outpost of the Security Police and SD. On 10th August 1944, as retaliation for a partisan attack by the GAP organisation, its members executed 15 anti-fascists at Piazzale Loreto.

Bandenbekämpfung was Nazi terminology for combatting and suppressing resistance movements and partisans in occupied countries. In the summer of 1942, Himmler banned the use of the word Partisan in all official documents and ordered its replacement with Bandit and Bande (lit. ‘gang’). This was meant to place resistance fighters on the same level as common criminals.

Nazi designation of areas in occupied countries  where partisans were active or had control. In these areas, they conducted combing operations, often marked by severe reprisals and atrocities targeted at the civilian population, whom they accused of supporting the resistance movement. These reprisals involved mass shootings, deportations, looting, and setting fire to villages. Tragically, the massacres frequently resulted in the deaths of women, children, and elderly persons.

The Italian Brigate nere, commonly known as the 'Blackshirts,' were established in June 1944. Consisting of volunteers from the Republican Fascist Party, this organization primarily operated to counter partisans in northern Italy. The Black Brigades played a significant role in intensifying the anti-partisan campaign in Italy. During their operations, they were under the command of SS and police leadership.

Nel contesto della Seconda guerra mondiale si intende con questo termine la serie di operazioni militari condotte dagli Alleati in Italia, a partire dallo sbarco in Sicilia il 10 luglio 1943 fino alla capitolazione delle forze armate tedesche in Italia, avvenuta il 2 maggio 1945.

Under SS supervision, these internment and labour camps played a critical role in the Nazi system of social control. They were utilized for the internment and execution of individuals deemed undesirable or opposed to the regime, as well as for the exploitation of slave labour. It's important to differentiate concentration camps from the six Nazi death camps, which were primarily designed for the extermination of the European Jews.

German also Fahnenflucht. The deliberate abandonment of one’s own unit by a soldier was regulated by § 69 of the German military criminal code (10 Oct. 1940). Punishments ranged from a minimum of six months' imprisonment to the death penalty. Out of approximately 30,000 death sentences handed down by the German military justice during the war years, around 22,000 were related to desertion.

The Deutsche Volksliste (DVL) was established by Nazi Germany in 1939 following the invasion and occupation of Poland. It categorized Polish individuals of ethnic German origin into four groups based on their level of cultural assimilation. 

'Avowed Germans' (Bekenntnisdeutsche) referred to individuals who had previously expressed allegiance to the 'German Volk' or had strong connections to German language and culture before the war. They were categorized into Volksliste 1 and 2, respectively. On the other hand, Volksliste 3 and 4 included 'Germans by origin' (Stammesdeutsche) who often did not speak German and individuals who identified themselves as Polish. Those in Volksliste 1, 2, and 3 were conscripted into the Wehrmacht and were granted, sometimes provisionally, German citizenship. However, individuals in Volksliste 4 were excluded from obtaining citizenship.

The term Deutsches Reich refers to the German unified state during various periods: the Kaiserreich until 1919, the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1933, and the German Reich during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945, also known as the ‘Third Reich’. In 1938, Austria was annexed, forming the 'Greater German Reich'. Subsequently, the Memel Territory, the city of Danzig, and the Sudetenland (part of present-day Czech Republic) were also annexed. As the Second World War unfolded, areas occupied by the Wehrmacht in the east and west were incorporated into the Reich and subjected to forced Germanization policies.

The term Deutschgläubig refers to individuals associated with a Volkish movement that gained prominence, especially in Thuringia during the 1930s. This movement rejected Christianity in favor of prioritizing 'Germanic heathenry'.

The Einsatzgruppen and the Einsatz squads and Sonderkommandos subordinate to them were mobile special units of the SS (SD) Security Police and Security Service. Modelled after the Reich Security Main Office, they were created in 1938 on the occasion of Austria’s annexation and would be deployed in all following campaigns of conquest and military offensives by Nazi Germany. Their tasks were diverse. In addition to capturing the archives of hostile organizations, establishing contacts with collaborating groups, and arresting opponents, this included the implementation of terror policies towards individuals perceived as enemies of the Reich. The Einsatzgruppen operated in Poland, where there was an intense radicalization of their activities: discrimination, deportation, and "liquidation" of thousands of political opponents and Jews, particularly the leadership and intellectuals. In 1940, their activities in Western countries were focused on a radical ethnic cleansing of the French regions annexed to the Reich, through the deportation of Alsatian and Lorraine Jews, and subsequently, the entire Jewish population of occupied France. During the attack on the Soviet Union from the summer of 1941, the ideological war of annihilation reached its peak of brutality. Here, the Einsatzgruppen, especially the Security Police and the SD, played a prominent role in the massacres of the population. 

Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and SD also operated in North Africa (Einsatzkommando Afrika) and, after Sept. 1943, in Italy. Central and southern Italy were assigned to Einsatzkommando Rome, the cities of Milan, Turin, and Genoa to Einsatzkommando Milan. Following stabilization of the situation on the front, the Einsatzgruppen in Italy were converted into stationary units referred to as Außenkommandos or outposts. They were subordinate to a commander of the Security Police and SD.

The Freikorps were voluntary para-military groups distict from the state’s regular military. The first Freikorps emerged during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) on the orders of Friedrich II of Prussia. After the declaration of the Weimar Republic on 9 Nov. 1918, the Freikorps played a pivotal role in suppressing uprisings within Germany. These groups were comprised of volunteers, students, and officers, with some viewing their involvement with the Freikorps as an adventurous endeavor. In 1919, they fought against Soviet troops in the Baltic and were actively involved in brutally suppressing both the Bavarian Council Republic in Munich and the Ruhr Uprising of March 1920. From 1919 to 1921, they fought alongside the regular army against Polish nationalists in Silesia.

The GAP, Gruppi d'azione patriottica, were small groups of partisans who mainly operated within urban areas. Their primary tasks involved sabotage. Their targets included communication facilities, railway structures, fascist and Nazi headquarters, but they also carried out attacks against individual soldiers and collaborators of the regime.

The Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana (GNR) was the principal police organization of the Italian Social Republic, established on 8th December 1943 by merging the Fascist Party militia, the Carabinieri, and smaller police forces. Responsible for both domestic law enforcement and military policing, the GNR actively engaged in anti-partisan operations across central and northern Italy. During these operations, the GNR's mobile units operated under the command of SS and police leadership.

In Nazi Germany, the term Gottgläubig (roughly translating to 'believing in God') referred to an individual who, despite formally leaving one of the two official churches, still maintained a belief in God and did not identify as an atheist. Self-identifying as gottgläubig was often associated with membership in the Nazi Party and, particularly, the SS. In 1939, approximately 3.5 percent of the German population identified as gottgläubig. It's important to distinguish this term from deutschgläubig, which pertains to followers of the similarly named volkish movement.

The Nazi German Heer, the land forces of the country, were structured into numerous service branches, primarily encompassing infantry and its specialized units, fast units (armoured infantry and tank troops), artillery, engineering, supply, and policing troops (which included both military police and administrative headquarters). During the Second World War, the majority of soldiers were part of the German Army units, which were chiefly comprised of divisions (each approximately 10-15 thousand men), regiments (around 2.5-3.5 thousand men), and battalions (approximately 700-1,200 men).

In Nazi Germany, boys between 10 and 14 belonged to the Deutsches Jungvolk (‘German Youngsters’) section of Hitlerjugend (HJ); boys between 14 and 18 belonged to HJ proper. Girls between 10 and 14 belonged to the Jungmädelbund (‘Young Girls’ Federation’) section of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM); girls between 14 and 18 belonged to the BDM proper. Upon turning 19 for young men and 21 for young women together with at least 4 years’ membership in HJ or BDM, members could join the Nazi Party. These youth organizations provided pre-military training, including weapon usage and indoctrination in Nazi ideologies. Initially, joining was voluntary, but from 1939 onwards, it became compulsory, starting at the age of 10. In that year, the combined membership for the two organizations reached a total of 8.7 million.

Hiwi stands for Hilfswilliger – denoting a volunteer recruited in the Soviet Union for service in the Wehrmacht and SS units. Often, these volunteers were former Red Army soldiers who, after 1941, sought to avoid becoming prisoners of war. Additionally, after 8th September 1943, many Italian Hiwis were enlisted, usually assigned to roles like transport and construction work. In 1944, approximately 370,000 Hiwis from various nationalities were deployed on different fronts.

The high-ranking SS and police leadership (Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer) operated under the direct command of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. Its primary objective was to centralize and oversee SS and police forces within a specific region. This function was among the most crucial responsibilities of the SS apparatus in executing Nazi occupation policies.  In occupied Italy, Himmler appointed SS Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff as the highest SS and police leader. Wolff commanded all police and SS forces in Italy, excluding the Waffen-SS units engaged in frontline combat. A major administrative duty of Wolff’s office was to coordinate the anti-partisan campaign through the territorially assigned SS and police leadership.

Within the structure of German forces' command centers and headquarters, the Ic officer held the responsibility for military intelligence and security. The deputy to this role was designated as O3, denoting the third Ordonnanzoffizier (special-mission staff officer). Collaborating closely with section Ia/T, which handled territorial-related affairs, the Ic officer was tasked with coordinating efforts in combating partisans.

Individuals bearing arms and not affiliated with a regular army or under state authority - namely, partisans and rebels - have historically been significant actors in conflicts across different eras. On 17th Aug 1938, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht issued the ‘Decree Concerning Military Jurisdiction during War and Special Operations’ (the Kriegssonderstrafrechtsverordnung). According to this order, being a member of such a group was punishable by death. An "irregular" or "Freischärler" was defined as an individual employing weapons against the German army or its allies without a distinct association with any of the warring parties.

The Italian Social Republic (or Republic of Salò) was the fascist regime established in northern Italy under the protection of Nazi Germany following the armistice of 8th September 1943. Its recognition was limited to a select few Axis powers' allies. The institutional headquarters of the state were in Salò and other locations along Lake Garda, with significant seats and ministries also situated in Milan, Verona, Venice, Padua, and Treviso. Benito Mussolini led the RSI.

The RSI provided support to the German occupiers in various operations focused on territorial control, anti-partisan activities, and deportations. Its official cessation came with the Surrender of Caserta, signed on 29th April 1945 and effective from 2nd May. Mussolini had, nonetheless, been captured by partisans on 27th April and was executed two days later.

The term 'Italian SS' is often erroneously used to encompass all forms of collaboration between Italians and the SS. However, it is crucial to differentiate between three distinct groups:  

1) The SS-Formations recruited in 1943: Emerging from former fascist soldiers and military internees, the Milizia Armata, the Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, took shape in 1943 and was officially transformed into a division in February 1945, shortly before the capitulation. During the winter of 1943/44, its battalions were deployed in Piedmont west of Turin for anti-partisan operations. One battalion fought on the Anzio front, another in central Italy and the Apennines. In the autumn of 1944, the units participated in anti-partisan fighting in Piedmont and Lombardy. Finally, in 1945, they were active in Oltrepò Pavese. 

2) Italians serving in German Waffen-SS units: In September and October 1943, a small group of Italians served as drivers, gunners, and medics in Waffen-SS units stationed in Italy, Greece, and the Balkans.

3) Italian collaborators in Security Police and SD: Lastly, there were Italians who collaborated as agents, spies, and full-fledged members of the Security Police and SD, undertaking various roles within these organizations.

The Jagdkommando was a mobile unit, typically consisting of a minimal number of personnel, specifically trained to carry out specialized military missions, primarily focused on combating partisans and parachutists. Initially, Jagdkommandos were deployed in the Soviet Union and later utilized wherever anti-partisan operations were required.

This term refers to local rear-echelon administrative centers of the Wehrmacht, tasked with maintaining public order, overseeing military administration, and coordinating with civilian authorities. The Kommandantur served as a crucial instrument for controlling occupied areas. During the fall of 1943, 18 such facilities were established in occupied Italy, each overseeing an area typically comprising two or three provinces. They were under the command of a Wehrmacht general stationed in Verona. Additionally, each province had a Platzkommandantur. In 1944, some Militärkommandaturen were redesignated as Leitkommandanturen (‘head’ facilities of this sort) and assumed responsibility for multiple regions, with main seats in Milan, Verona, and Florence. 

The monthly reports from the Kommandanturen, detailing the military, political, social, economic, and financial situation, provide a highly valuable source for comprehending the history of German-occupied Italy.

This 1941 decree by Adolf Hitler, stemming from an October 1939 decree, forbade the punishment of German soldiers for any excessive actions in fighting partisans. This decree lays the foundation for the ‘immunity clause’ that Field Marshal Kesselring granted his troops in Italy during the summer of 1944.

During the Second World War, the Luftwaffe was a constituent branch of the Wehrmacht. The Luftwaffe encompassed not only aviation units and their logistical support but also ground-based units like parachute troops, the ‘Hermann Göring’ Panzer Division, the Luftwaffe Field Divisions, anti-aircraft defense batteries, and communications units. Troops from the Luftwaffe played a significant role in anti-partisan operations in Italy and were accountable for numerous civilian massacres.

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP) was founded in 1920; its ideology was grounded in radical antisemitism, extreme nationalism, and a rejection of both democracy and Marxism.  After the end of the Second World War, the Allies classified the Nazi Party as a criminal association and banned it. The dissemination of Nazi Party propaganda and use of the party’s symbols is specified as a punishable offense in the German Criminal Code.

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Up to that point, the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact, signed in 1939, was in effect. The invasion, marking the onset of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union, commenced on 22nd June 1941. Both countries had significantly large armed forces. Initially, German troops achieved a series of military successes, advancing to within a short distance of Moscow. However, by December, due to fierce Soviet resistance and extreme weather conditions, the Wehrmacht's advance was brought to a standstill. The invasion ultimately culminated in a military disaster for the German forces. Operation Barbarossa was also marked by systematic mass murders of Jewish people by Einsatzgruppen.

The Ordnungspolizei was a police organization in Nazi Germany, comprising uniformed Schutzpolizei, Gendarmerie, and technical emergency services. Key responsibilities of the Ordnungspolizei included fighting partisans, ensuring security in occupied cities, and guarding facilities and transport routes. Its personnel were frequently assigned to accompany prisoner transports to concentration camps and death camps. In Italy, its units operated under the command of the SS and police leaders.

The Ortskommandanturen were garrison or station headquarters that the occupation troops set up in the places where they were stationed, for the sake of coordination with local authorities. They had provisional character and generally had nothing to do with the Militärkommandanturen.

This US intelligence service was active between June 1942 and Sept. 1945. Among its tasks were intelligence gathering, disinformation, psychological warfare, partisan support, asymmetric warfare, sabotage and counterintelligence. The OSS was the predecessor of the CIA.

In the Second World War, every German division had a Reconnaissance battalion, each organized and equipped differently. These mobile units could independently execute tactical duties. For this reason, they were often used as a reserve behind the front and deployed in combating partisan groups.

The Reich Security Main Office was founded by SS-head Heinrich Himmler in Sept. 1939. The RSHA was comprised of the Gestapo, the Kriminalpolizei (Security Police) and the Security Service (SD); it was one of the most powerful institutions in the Nazi state. It was led by Reinhard Heydrich; with Ernst Kaltenbrunner taking over after Heydrich’s assassination. At the war’s outbreak, the Einsatzgruppen were set up under the command of the RSHA; they were made up of members of the Security Police and the SD and supported by elements of the Ordnungspolizei and Waffen-SS.

Reichsführer-SS was the highest rank in the SS hierarchy; it was held by Heinrich Himmler from 1929 until late April 1945. As commander-in-chief of the SS, Himmler was directly answerable to Hitler alone. Various units of the Waffen-SS also had this term in their name, for instance the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’, and both the Storm Brigade and Escort Battalion ‘Reichsführer-SS’.

After 1933, as part of the Ordnungspolizei, the Schutzpolizei were uniformed police responsible for maintaining general security and order within urban areas. When the war broke out, a significant portion of the personnel was organized into operational and reserve battalions, and later into regiments. From 1942, they were designated as SS Police Regiments, though they were not actual members of the SS. On the Eastern Front, their units were responsible for various atrocities tied to both the Holocaust and anti-partisan operations. In occupied Italy, their duties included combating partisans, maintaining order in cities, and accompanying deportation transports to concentration camps and death camps. Some regiments were composed of personnel from South Tirol, while others included 'police-volunteer' battalions with Italian collaborators.

The tactic of "scorched earth," which involves the systematic destruction of buildings and supplies that could be useful to the enemy during a retreat, is an ancient military practice and is now prohibited by international law. In the Second World War, this tactic was used on the Eastern Front by the Soviets when the Nazi troops invaded in the summer of 1941, based on an order from Stalin to remove or destroy all supplies. German troops initiated a program of systematic devastation during the harsh winter of 1941-42 when their divisions had to abandon territory near Moscow. After the Battle of Stalingrad in early 1943, the "scorched earth" strategy had become a characteristic feature of German warfare on the Eastern Front.  In occupied Italy, the concept of "scorched earth" applies only to a limited extent in connection with the destruction carried out during the withdrawal in the South between September and October 1943. One aspect of these measures can be considered the dismantling of industrial facilities and the systematic capture of forced laborers.

The Nazi German Security Police was formed through the amalgamation of the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei; Secret State Police), responsible for the persecution of political prisoners, and the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police; Kripo), which focused on general criminality. In collaboration with Italy's fascist authorities, the Security Police primarily engaged in political and racial persecution and the suppression of partisan activities. SS Gruppenführer Wilhelm Harster commanded the Security Police in Italy, with its headquarters situated in Verona. The central command oversaw an expanding network of command posts and outposts located in various regional and provincial capitals.

The SS Sicherheitsdienst was a significant and powerful political intelligence organization within Nazi Germany. Established by Reinhard Heydrich in 1931, it initially served as the clandestine service for the Nazi Party, tasked with gathering information on political adversaries and intra-party rivals. From the mid-1930s, the SD's role expanded beyond mere information gathering to encompass control and terror across all segments of German society. In 1938, it transitioned into a state office and in 1939, became a part of the Reich Security Main Office. With over 6,500 members, this organization was implicated in numerous crimes in Germany and the occupied territories, particularly during the Holocaust. Many of its officers held key positions in Einsatzgruppen and Einsatzkommandos. Notable SD members in Italy included Helmut Looß, Siegfried Engel, Walter Rauff, Karl Hass, and Herbert Andorfer.

In Nazi Germany, the term Sippenhaftung (kin liability) referred to the extension of individual moral and legal responsibility to an entire family. Within the Nazi judicial system, imprisonment based on kin liability was frequently utilized, though not in a systematic manner, as a means to target political opponents. Towards the end of the war, it was also employed against deserters. Notably, family members of officers involved in the 20 July 1944 plot against Hitler were among those imprisoned under this premise. The Italian fascist government similarly adopted this tool, detaining numerous family members and relatives of deserters and partisans.

Following organization of the Alpenvorland operational zone, in the autumn of 1943 four SS police regiments were formed: Bozen, Brixen, Alpenvorland and Schlanders. South Tirol men born between 1894 and 1926 were recruited for these regiments, which, despite having SS prefixes, were not part of the Waffen-SS but rather of the Ordnungspolizei. The Brixen SS Police Regiment operated on the Eastern Front; the Alpenvorland, Schlanders and Bozen regiments in the Alpine foothill area and the Adriatic coast, where they had security and partisan-fighting tasks. The III Battalion of the Bozen SS Police Regiment was sent to Rome.

The SS was established as a paramilitary organization in 1925 and remained under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler from 1929 to 1945, making it the paramount entity for security, surveillance, and control in both Germany and the occupied territories. Commencing in 1934, the SS took charge of the operation and administration of concentration camps, and from 1941 onwards, it extended its control to the death camps, thereby playing a pivotal role in the execution of the Holocaust.  

The distinctive feature of the SS was the amalgamation of state functions and institutions with party structures. Following its classification as a criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the dissemination of SS propaganda and utilization of SS symbols are presently deemed criminal offenses.

The commanders of SS- and police formations under the highest SS and police leader in Italy, Karl Wolff, were responsible for local anti-partisan operations. The troops of the Ordnungspolizei, the SS, and the police units of the Italian Social Republic (the Republican National Guard, the ‘Muti’ Legion, the Black Brigades) followed their orders. Initially, that leadership was only deployed in the ‘Adriatisches Küstenland’ and ‘Voralpen’ operations areas. In the course of spring 1944, the ‘Upper Italy-West’ commanders were deployed in Monza for western Lombardy, Liguria, and Piedmont; their ‘Central Italy’ counterparts in Perugia for Tuscany, Umbria, and the Marshes; ‘Upper Italy-Centre’ in Bologna for eastern Lombardy, Venice, and Emilia-Romagna. During the summer, SS- and police commanders were also deployed in the Apennine region with the ‘West-Emilien’ and ‘Grün-Ost’ leaders.

Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten (lit. ‘The Steel Helmet , League of Frontline Soldiers’) was a paramilitary organization with a nationalistic background established in 1918.Comprising First World War veterans, it opposed the policies of the Weimar Republic. The organization was disbanded and merged with the SA in 1934-35.

The term Stalingrad-Divisionen refers to the divisions of the German army, originally part of the 6th Army, that had participated in the fighting around Stalingrad between the summer of 1942 and the beginning of February 1943. These divisions, after being destroyed in the Soviet Union, were reconstituted on the Western Front in the spring of 1943 with the personnel who had been able to return from the Eastern Front (primarily the approximately 25,000 wounded who had managed to escape the encirclement) and young recruits. In the summer of 1943, nine of these divisions were sent to Italy: 3rd and 29th Panzer-Grenadier, 24th Panzer, 44th, 71st, 76th, 94th, 305th, and 371st Infantry. In the autumn of 1943, the 24th Panzer, the 76th, and the 371st Infantry were once again transferred to the Eastern Front.

The ultranationalist, antisemitic, anti-communist, and anti-feminist volkish movement began to gain influence in Germany's political landscape during the late nineteenth century. Its far-right activists sought connections with the "Germanic world," particularly in Norway and Sweden, though their efforts met with limited success. In contrast, the movement found a foothold in Germany and Austria, first among Protestant regions and later expanding into Catholic areas and urban industrial centers. It also gained traction among the upper middle classes, within academic circles, and among the military. The Nazis adopted the term völkisch as a self-identifier, and many prominent party members were influenced by the movement, adopting various elements of its ideology, including radical antisemitism and symbols such as the swastika, runes, and the Hitler salute.

Volksdeutsche was the Nazi German term used to refer to ethnic Germans residing in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Hitler's political agenda encompassed their relocation to the territories within the Reich.

Starting in Oct. 1944, the Volkssturm was deployed to support units of the Wehrmacht. Boys and men between the ages of 16 and 60  who were still not serving in the military were recruited. Since they were poorly armed and trained, their effectiveness was usually limited.

The military branch of the SS materialized in late 1939 to early 1940 by amalgamating several pre-existing military units: the SS Leibstandarte 'Adolf Hitler', the SS Verfügungstruppe, and the SS Totenkopf units. These forces operated directly under the command of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. Initially, the Waffen-SS primarily consisted of volunteers, but beginning in 1942, conscripted soldiers were incorporated. Additionally, from 1941 onwards, foreign volunteers were recruited, and by 1944, they constituted more than half of the Waffen-SS troops.

From 1935 to 1945, Wehrmacht was the official designation for Germany’s armed forces, encompassing the combined personnel and officers of the German Army, the Luftwaffe, and the German Navy. The Wehrmacht held a central role within the Nazi regime, and thousands of its members, spanning from high-ranking officials to the ordinary soldiers, were involved in numerous war crimes. These atrocities were particularly prevalent on the Eastern Front, in the Balkans, and in Italy.

The first German parliamentary democracy lasted from the end of the Kaiserreich to the onset of the Nazi era, spanning from November 1919 to January 1933. During its initial four years, the republic grappled with the immediate aftermath of a lost war, hyperinflation, numerous coup attempts, and political assassinations. Between 1924 and 1929, the republic enjoyed a period of relative stability, experiencing an economic upturn, international recognition, and respect. However, the onset of the worldwide depression in late 1929, the formation of presidential governments following the failure of the Grand Coalition in the March 1930 elections, and the rise of the Nazis ultimately led to its demise. The cultural landscape of the Weimar Republic era was marked by the emergence of radio and film as mass media and the influence of an avant-garde artistic movement, trends that had already begun to take shape in the years leading up to the Great War.

Zones of Operation (Operationszonen/ Operationsgebiete) were areas near the front under the direct command of the Wehrmacht. In particular, after the armistice of 8 Sept. 1943, the two Italian areas now directly controlled by the Nazi German Reich, termed the Alpenvorland (‘Alpine Foothills’) and Adriatisches Küstenland (‘Adriatic Coastland’) – the latter also including the autonomous province of Ljubljana –  were designated as Operationszonen.