Glossary : Daily routine and organisation in the camp

P

  • Daily routine and organisation in the camp : Prisoner

    Deportee – Terms referring to people detained in the camp. The term “deportee” referred to people who had been displaced from their homes to another country, whereas “prisoner” was a more neutral and general term referring to all people in the camp. Once in the camp, a deportee was a prisoner.

B

  • Daily routine and organisation in the camp : Block

    Barracks – Hut – Living quarters for prisoners. The three terms are used synonymously. Block is the term used in the administrative jargon of the camps. The Block is divided into two barrack rooms (Stube).

H

  • Daily routine and organisation in the camp : Hut

    Barracks – Block – Living quarters for prisoners. The three terms are used synonymously. Block is the term used in the administrative jargon of the camps. The Block is divided into two barrack rooms (Stube).

W

  • Daily routine and organisation in the camp : Watchtower

    A watchtower where the SS were stationed to keep an eye on the prisoners. The barbed-wire perimeter fence of the KL-Natzweiler detention camp has eight watchtowers.

T

  • Daily routine and organisation in the camp : Typhus

    A disease transmitted by lice, causing a sudden onset of fever, pain, a rash and delirium. A large proportion of prisoners who contracted the disease died in the camps.

S

  • Daily routine and organisation in the camp : Stücke

    Piece, scrap of wood. A derogatory term used by the SS to refer to deportees.

  • Daily routine and organisation in the camp : Stubenältester

    German term meaning “Head of the barrack room” – A prisoner in charge of a Stube (barrack room), which is a subdivision of a Block. He was the immediate deputy to the Blockältester.

R

  • Daily routine and organisation in the camp : Revier

    German term meaning “Infirmary” – Infirmary for prisoners who were treated by deported doctors under the supervision of SS doctors. Care conditions were extremely precarious due to a lack of equipment.

P

  • Daily routine and organisation in the camp : Prisoner functionary

    A prisoner assigned by the camp’s SS administration to a position involving the delegation of authority. Prisoner functionaries were led by the Lagerältester.

N

  • Daily routine and organisation in the camp : NN

    Acronym of “Nacht und Nebel”, a German term meaning “Night and Fog” – A category of prisoners established in December 1941 to enable resistance fighters from the occupied territories of Western Europe (France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway) to be transferred to Germany in the utmost secrecy. The first convoys arrived at KL-Natzweiler in the summer of 1943.