Nazi Terminology - U

U

• Übermensch – "over-human" or "higher human"—an idea appropriated from the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and used by Nazis to label the Germanic "Aryan" people which Nazis considered racially and culturally superior. The "master race". (Opposite of Untermensch).
• Überwachungsdienst – surveillance service of the aA to protect the organization against Konjunkturritter (financial opportunists).
• Unzuverlässige Elemente – unreliable societal elements (Jews, communists, homosexuals, etc.).
• U-Boot (abbreviated form of Unterseeboot, lit. "undersea boat") – submarine, anglicized U-Boat.
• Umschlagplatz – (lit. "changing place") place of assembly. Kapos were told to collect Jews and bring them to this designated spot for pick up and transfer to the death trains.
• Umsiedlersonderzug - (lit. "re-settler special train") "Relocation" train ---actually a one-way transport by which Jews and others were moved to camps (labor camps, concentration camps, or death camps). The term appears on some period railroad documents (example).
• Untermensch – "under-human" or lower human, subhuman. Label Nazis assigned to ethnographic groups they considered racially inferior to the "Aryans". Under Nazi racial theory and practice, such "subhumans" could be exploited, abused, and killed-off with impunity. (Opposite of Übermensch).
• Unternehmen Walküre "Operation Valkyrie" - Originally a Replacement Army emergency plan for maintaining order in the event of an internal revolt, it was quietly altered by a group officers led by Generaloberst Ludwig Beck, General d. I. Friedrich Olbricht and Oberst i. G. Claus von Stauffenberg into a plan to overthrow the Nazi regime following the assassination of Adolf Hitler. Launched on 20 July 1944, the plan failed and resulted in some 5,000 executions.
• Unterscharführer "junior squad leader" - an SS rank, equivalent to Corporal.
• Untersturmführer "junior storm leader" - an SS rank, equivalent to Second Lieutenant.
• Uschla – arbitration committee of the NSDAP Party Directorate, an acronym for Untersuchung und Schlichtungs-Ausschuss (Inquiry and Settlement Committee).