Nazi Terminology - S

S

  • Scharführer "squad leader" - an SA and SS rank, equivalent to Corporal (SA) or Sergeant (SS).
  • Schlageter—a play written for Adolf Hitler about the Nazi martyr Leo Schlageter and performed for the Fuehrer on his 44th birthday, April 20, 1933, to celebrate his accession to power on January 30 of that year. It was written by the Nazi playwright and poet laureate Hanns Johst. In it, one of the characters, Thiemann, delivers the famous line "Whenever I hear the word 'culture', I release the safety catch on my revolver."
  • Schönheit der Arbeit – Beauty of Labor program.
  • SS-Schütze "rifleman" - lowest rank in the Waffen-SS, equivalent to Private.
  • Schutzstaffel (abbreviated SS—or ) – "Protection Squadron"; a major Nazi organization that grew from a small paramilitary unit that served as Hitler's personal body guard into militarily what was in practical terms the fourth branch of the Wehrmacht. It was not legally a part of the military (and therefore wore the national emblem on the left sleeve instead of over the right breast pocket). "SS" is formed from (S)chutz(s)taffel. Made up of the following branches:
    • Allgemeine-SS – "General SS", general main body of the Schutzstaffel made up of the full-time administrative, security, intelligence and police branches of the SS as well as the broader part-time membership which turned out for parades, rallies and "street actions" such as Kristallnacht; also comprised reserve and honorary members
    • SS-Totenkopfverbände – "Death's Head Units", responsible for the concentration camps
    • SS-Verfügungstruppe – military "dispositional" (i.e. at Hitler's personal disposal) troops organized by the SS in 1934
    • Waffen-SS – "Armed SS", created in August 1940 with the amalgamation of the Verfügungstruppe, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) and the combat Standarten of the Totenkopfverbände
  • Das Schwarze Korps – The Black Corps; SS "theoretical" newspaper of the SS.
  • Selektion – selection of inmates for execution or slave labor at an extermination or concentration camp.
  • Septemberings-Those who joined the NSDAP after the Party's breakthrough in the Reichstag elections of September 1930, but before Hitler became Chancellor in 1933.
  • Siberiakentum - "Siberiandom" - term used in Generalplan Ost to describe the annihilation of the Polish people by their forceful assimilation into the native populations of Siberia in the intended event of their wholesale expulsion to this region.
  • Sicherheitsdienst (SD) "Security Service" - the intelligence arm of the SS and later a main department of the RSHA.
  • Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) "Security Police" - the combined forces of the Gestapo and Kripo.
  • Sieg Heil! – "Hail to Victory", mass exclamation when bringing the Hitlergruß (Hitler Greeting).
  • Sig Rune "S rune" – The letter from the runic alphabet popularized in the SS emblem and other insignia.
  • Sonderaktion 1005 - ("Special action 1005"), also called Aktion 1005 ("Action 1005") or 'Enterdungsaktion ("exhuming action"). See above Aktion 1005.
  • Sonderbehandlung - "Special handling" or "special treatment" —a euphemism for killing.
  • Sonderkraftfahrzeug (Sd.Kfz.) "special purpose motor vehicle" - all tanks and other military vehicles were assigned a Sd.Kfz number.
  • Sonderkommando - "Special commando" ---originally used mainly for actual special-task troops in the Waffen SS. However, the term was quickly put to facetious use at the concentration camps, labor camps, and death camps as the euphemism for the prisoner-laborers forced to do jobs like stoking the crematoria, shaving newcomers' hair, processing seized belongings, helping unload trains, removing corpses from gas chambers, etc. Such laborers were told they could live in exchange for their hard effort, but there were regularly killed off and replaced. When working in their civilian clothes such laborers at times would have a color-coded armband to distinguish them from new arrivals ---perhaps one color for the crew unloading the trains and herding new arrivals to the undressing area, a different color for the crew that sorts belongings, etc. They might also wear the familiar striped prisoner suits similar to those used by the slave laborers. A number appended to the word Sonderkommando denoted prisoner-laborers attached to a specific "special action" ---example see Sonderkommando 1005 in Aktion 1005 above. Work gang leaders were called kapos.
  • Sprachregelung – a special language that masked the camp conditions and the policy of extermination. It took the words "extermination", "killing", "liquidation"; and substituted for them, the euphemisms: "final solution", "evacuation", "special treatment", "resettlement", "labour in the East". It was developed to deceive victims and to assist SS officials and others to avoid acknowledging reality. (2)
  • Sprechabend – closed Nazi party meetings.
  • SS or - Abbreviation and emblem of the Schutzstaffel ("Protection Squadron"). See above: Schutzstaffel.
  • SS- und Polizeiführer, SS and Police Leader - these powerful officials, reporting directly to Himmler, commanded all SS and police forces within a geographic region, which together covered the Reich and the occupied territories.
    • SS- und Polizeiführer (SSPF)
    • Höher SS- und Polizeiführer (HSSPF), Higher SS and Police Leader
    • Höchste SS- und Polizeiführer (HöSSPF), Highest SS and Police Leader
  • Stabschef-SA Chief of Staff or deputy commander of the Sturmabteilung; effectively the SA commander after 1930.
  • Stabsscharführer "staff squad leader" - a Waffen-SS position (not a rank): the senior NCO in a company, functionally equivalent to a US First Sergeant or UK Company Sergeant Major.
  • Staffel "squadron" - the basic formation of the early SA 1925-28. Also used by the Luftwaffe and the cavalry.
  • Staffelführer "squadron leader" - very early SA and SS rank. Also a rank in the NSKK, equivalent to Major.
  • Stahlhelm "Steel Helmet" - right-wing World War I veterans' organization; merged into the SA in 1934.
  • Standarte - regiment-sized unit of the SA, Allgemeine-SS and Totenkopfverbände.
  • Standartenführer "Standarte leader" - an SA and SS rank, equivalent to Colonel.
  • Ständesozialismus – corporative (or "corporate") socialism; promoted by O. W. Wagener, sometime head of the political economy section of the party organization.
  • Stellvertreter des Führers "Deputy of the Führer" - title of the deputy head of the Nazi Party, held by Rudolf Hess until 1941 when he was replaced by Martin Bormann under the new title of Party Chancellor after the former's unauthorized flight to Great Britain.
  • Stennes Revolt - the revolt in 1930 and again in 1931 by the Berlin SA, commanded by Walter Stennes, in which they attacked and briefly occupied the headquarters of Gauleiter Joseph Goebbels.
  • Stern zum Großkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross - Germany's ultimate military decoration, a unique honor for the greatest commander in a war. Awarded only twice, to Blücher in 1813 and to Hindenburg in 1918; the Star of the 1939 creation was made but never awarded, and is now at West Point.
  • Stoßtrupp "shock troop" – Hitler's body guard unit before the Hitlerputsch; forerunner to the SS.
  • Strasser wing – named after Gregor Strasser, who led the left wing of the Nazi Party.
  • Stücke – "sticks" or pieces, items. The term could mean sticks of firewood or pieces of bread or cake. In the Nazi era, a Sprachregelung term for Jews and other "undesirables" meant to dehumanize such people. Example: "1000 Stück Juden in den Osten deportiert" ("1000 Jewish pieces deported to the east") --not meaning items of personal property of Jewish ownership, but rather referring to the Jews themselves as "pieces".
  • Sturm - company-sized SA or SS unit.
  • Sturmabteilung (SA) "Storm Detachment" or "Battalion" – the Stormtroopers, a Nazi paramilitary organisation that was instrumental in bringing Hitler to power; nicknamed the Brownshirts (Braunhemden) after their uniforms. The name originated with the Army's special assault battalions of World War I.
  • Sturmbann "storm band" or "band of Stürme" - battalion-sized SA or SS unit.
  • Sturmbannführer: "storm band leader" - an SA and SS rank, equivalent to Major.
  • Der Stürmer – a weekly anti-Semitic newspaper founded by Julius Streicher known for its lurid semi-pornographic content.
  • Sturmführer "storm leader" - an SA and early SS rank, equivalent to 2nd Lieutenant.
  • Sturmhauptführer "storm chief leader" - an SA and early SS rank, equivalent to Captain.
  • Sturmmann "storm trooper" - an SA and SS rank, equivalent to a USMC Private First Class.
  • Sturmscharführer "storm squad leader" - the highest enlisted rank in the Waffen-SS, equivalent to (US) Sergeant Major or (UK) RSM.
  • Swingjugend -- “Swing Kids”—young jazz and Swing lovers in 1930s Germany, mainly in Hamburg and Berlin, who rebelled against the regime by gathering in various venues, such as certain dance halls and cafés, to dance the jitterbug to swing music.

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