People's index

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The people's index was created in the Nazi state from 1939 and completed in 1940. It was used to record the people who were available in the event of war, in order to be able to use them in the "defense of the Reich" according to their individual knowledge and skills. All persons between the ages of 5 and 70 were recorded. In accordance with the circular issued by the Reich Ministry of the Interior on August 18, 1943, work on the people's index was stopped because of the shortage of personnel caused by the war .

Emergence

A test run had already taken place in October 1938 in the Potsdam administrative district . On December 15, 1938, the Reich Defense Council commissioned the Reich Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick , to set up a people's index organized by birth year. The corresponding ordinance was issued on April 21, 1939. The main office of the Ordnungspolizei was entrusted with the implementation , in particular the senior officials Artur Kääb and Erich Liebermann von Sonnenberg . The latter was the original source of ideas for the people's index and was also involved in drawing up the Reich Registration Code.

The files were kept by the local police authorities, in larger cities it was also divided between the police stations. In places without a police authority, the mayor was responsible, in the districts it was usually the district office.

Data collected

The index cards should be filled out by the population themselves; for school-age children up to the age of 14, this was the responsibility of the schools. In addition to the usual personal details such as date of birth and place of residence, the following information had to be provided:

  • education
  • Profession and activity
  • Language and other knowledge
  • special skills (motorcycling and / or driving, riding, etc.)

The cards were in different colors according to female and male persons and arranged according to age group. Index cards of Jewish persons were to be marked with a "J".

See also

literature

  • Götz Aly , Karl Heinz Roth : Complete coverage: censusing, identifying, sorting out under National Socialism , Rotbuch, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88022-282-7 .
  • Friedrich Wilhelm: The police in the Nazi state. The history of your organization at a glance , Schöningh Collection on the past and present, Paderborn 1997, ISBN 3-506-77503-0 .