Nazi Terminology - O

O

• SS-Oberabschnitt - SS region or regional headquarters.
• Oberführer "senior leader" - an SA and SS rank, equivalent to Senior Colonel; originally called Gauführer, the SS or SA leader for a Gau.
• Obergruppenführer "senior group leader" - an SA and SS rank, equivalent to (US/UK) Lieutenant General.
• Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) - "High Command of the Army" from 1936 to 1945.
• Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) - "High Command of the Armed Forces". The OKW replaced the War Ministry and was part of the command structure of the armed forces of Nazi Germany.
• Obersalzberg - mountainside resort overlooking Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, where Hitler purchased the Berghof in 1933, and which became the country retreat of many Nazi leaders including Martin Bormann and Hermann Göring.
• Oberscharführer "senior squad leader" - an SA and SS rank, equivalent to Sergeant (SA) or Staff Sergeant (SS).
• Oberste SA-Führer "Supreme SA Leader" - commander of the Sturmabteilung; held by Hitler personally from September 1930.
• Oberstgruppenführer "highest group leader" - an SS rank, equivalent to (US/UK) General.
• Obersturmbannführer "senior Sturmbann (battalion) leader" - an SA and SS rank, equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel.
• Obersturmführer "senior Sturm (company) leader" - an SA and SS rank, equivalent to First Lieutenant.
• Obertruppführer "senior troop leader" - an SA and early SS rank, equivalent to Master Sergeant.
• Ordensburgen – NSDAP training schools.
• Ordnertruppen – first name of the group created in the fall of 1920 by Hitler.
  • Sportabteilung – Sports section (SA); the second name of the group
  • Sturmabteilung (SA) – Storm Detachment or Battalion, abbreviated SA and usually translated as stormtroop(er)s. NSDAP paramilitary group; the third name in late 1921
• Ordnungsdienst – order service, ghetto police made up of Jewish ghetto residents.
• Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) "order police" - the regular uniformed police after their nationalization in 1936.
• Organisation Todt - civil and military engineering group eponymously named after its founder, Fritz Todt. Built the Autobahns, the Westwall (Siegfried Line), the Wolfsschanze and the Atlantic Wall; notorious for its use of conscript and slave labor.
• Ort-Uschla - the lowest level of the four-level Uschla system.
• Ostmark ("Eastern March") – designation used for Austria as part of the Third Reich after the Anschluß. Changed to Alpen- und Donaureichsgaue in 1942 to further eradicate any notion of a separate Austrian state.