JDCRP Pilot Project
Glossary

Acquisition

The act of buying or obtaining an asset or object.

ALIU

In 1944, the US government created a special intelligence unit focused on investigating cases of art looting in Europe during WWII. The unit was formed and administered by the OSS. In the course of 1945 and 1946, this Unit, named the Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU), produced 16 printed reports.

Allied Powers

The Allied powers fought against the Axis during World War II. They included the United Kingdom and Commonwealth nations, the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and the governments-in-exile of countries occupied by the Axis.

Anschluss

The word "Anschluss" refers to the union of Austria with Nazi Germany on 13 March 1938, which was achieved through annexation of the former by the latter.

Antisemitism

A perception of Jews expressed through prejudice, hostility and/or hatred toward Jews as a group.

Aryan

The term was taken up by the Nazis to classify the Aryan-Nordic race as the master race, versus the “Jewish-Semitic” race, which was seen as a threat to Germany’s Aryan civilization.

Aryanization

The State-sanctioned transfer of Jewish-owned property to non-Jewish owners in the Third Reich.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers. Over 1.1 million Jewish men, women and children lost their lives at the Auschwitz camp complex.

Baron

Baron is a title of nobility. The rank is below a count or viscount. The title is used in France, England, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

CGQJ

Commissariat Général aux Questions Juives (1941-1944).

Collecting Point

The Collecting Points (1945-1951) were established by the Monuments Men in Allied-liberated Germany to catalogue art objects recovered by Allied troops, ascertain their origin and return them to the countries from which they came.

Comte

The French form of the word 'count', a historical title of nobility.

Comtesse

The feminine form of 'Comte', the French form of the word 'count', a historical title of nobility.

Concentration Camp

Throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, the Nazis established camps to imprison, torture, exploit and murder so-called enemies of the state, including Jews, Gypsies, political and religious opponents, members of national resistance movements, homosexuals, and others.

Confiscation

Confiscation refers to the State-sanctioned removal of property from its rightful owners.

CRA

The “Commission de récupération artistique” (Art Recovery Commission) was established in November 1944 by the French government to recover art objects looted in France during the period of German occupation (1940-1944).

Death March

Many of the death marches took place in the last six months of WWII as Nazis evacuated tens of thousands of prisoners from concentration camps. They were forced marches under grueling conditions through harsh landscapes flanked by Nazi camp guards and security policemen.

"Degenerate Art"

"Degenerate art" is the English translation of the German phrase "Entartete Kunst" which is how the National Socialists labeled art deemed incompatible with the ideological and esthetic goals of the Third Reich.

Demarcation zone (DMZ)

Demarcation zone (DMZ) refers to a demilitarized zone where treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities or personnel.

Denazification

Denazification refers to the process of removing Nazis and Nazism from public life in Germany and across occupied Europe following the fall of the Third Reich.

Deportation

The deportation of Jews and other so-called “enemies of the Reich” entailed their forcible removal, mostly by rail transport, from territories controlled by the Third Reich for the purpose of being “resettled” and/or exterminated.

Devisenschutzkommando

The Devisenschutzkommando, or DSK, was a special currency police unit whose function was to locate and confiscate Jewish-owned financial assets. It operated in Belgium, France and the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945.

Drancy Camp

The Drancy camp, established by the Germans in August 1941, was an internment camp for foreign Jews in France which later developed into a major transit camp for the deportations of Jews from France.

Duc

The French form of the word 'duke', a historical title of nobility.

Duchesse

The female equivalent of a Duc, a French historical title of nobility. A woman married to a Duc or holds in her own right the title to a duchy or dukedom.

Duress

The word “duress” refers to the context in which Nazi measures to persecute, marginalize, and dehumanize make it impossible for Jewish owners to survive without selling off their property oftentimes at depressed prices and under circumstances beyond their control, as a direct result of their persecution.

Dutch Golden Age

The Dutch Golden Age refers to a period in the history of the Netherlands, approximately from 1588 to 1672, in which Dutch trade, science, art and the Dutch military were among the most acclaimed in the world.

Einsatzgruppen

"Einsatzgruppen" were Nazi mobile killing units consisting of SS and security police elements which operated between 1939 and 1944 along the flanks and the rear of the German Army as it pushed eastward as far as the Soviet Union. Their function was to hunt down, round up and exterminate the “enemies of the Reich”.

Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR)

The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), directed by Alfred Rosenberg, was the Nazi office charged with confiscating artistic, cultural and ritual objects from Jewish owners across occupied Europe.

Feldgendarmerie

The Field Gendarmerie or "Field Police" was the military police unit of the Wehrmacht.

Final Solution

The final solution, or "Endlösung", refers to the the Nazi policy of exterminating Europe's Jews.

Four Year Plan

The four-year-plan, or "Vierjahresplan", was a series of economic measures initiated by Adolf Hitler in 1936. It constituted an alternative governmental structure which included organizations such as the SS.

Freiherr

The German equivalent of baron.

Führer

"Führer" is the German word for leader and Hitler's self-appointed title.

Führerbau

The Führerbau was the central storage for artworks destined for the Führermuseum in Linz.

Führermuseum or Linz Museum

The unrealized Führermuseum or Linz Museum was planned for Hitlers hometown in Linz. The museum was also called the Linz gallery, Hitler's museum or Hitler's Linz Museum.

Führervorbehalt

The “Führervorbehalt” was the prerogative granted to Hitler to make a selection from seized and confiscated art collections for the "Führer Museum" as well as for public museums and collections.

Gaullist

A Gaullist is a person who supported General Charles de Gaulle as leader of the French Resistance during World War II and who supported the ideas and political program of Charles de Gaulle after 1945.

Generalgouvernement

"The ""Generalgouvernement"", or General Government, included areas of German-occupied Poland not directly annexed to Germany, areas attached to German East Prussia, and areas incorporated into the German-occupied Soviet Union.

Gestapo

The Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) was the German Secret State Police.

Ghettos

Ghettos were areas in towns or cities where Jews were separated by force from other people.

Hauptverbindungsstab (HVSt)

The Hauptverbindungsstab (HVSt) was the main liaison staff of the Wehrmacht.

HdG

Refers to Dutch art historian Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. The abbreviated HdG is an art historical term used in provenance records of Dutch 17th century paintings.

Holocaust

The Holocaust was the state-sponsored systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Six million Jews were murdered.

Holocaust compensation payments

Holocaust compensation payments are paid primarily by governments to compensate Jewish victims of Nazi Germany.

Jeu de Paume

The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, served between late 1940 and July 1944 as the ERR's central storage and sorting depot for art objects stolen from Jewish owners in German-occupied France.

Liberation

Liberation refers to setting free prisoners of concentration camps and other sites of Nazi persecution.

Liquidation

Liquidation refers to the process of bringing a business to an end and distributing its assets to others.

Looting, Plundering, Despoiling, Pillaging

“Looting, plundering, despoiling, pillaging” are words used to refer to the Nazi looting of Jewish and non-Jewish cultural property.

MCCP

MCCP refers to the Munich central collecting point.

MFA&A

The "MFA&A" refers to the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program under the Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the Allied armies established in 1943 to help protect cultural property in war areas during and after World War II.

Militärbefehlshaber

The "Militärbefehlshaber" (military commander) was a rank created by the German army for the administration of occupied France.

MNR

MNR refers to Musées Nationaux Récupération (National Museums Recovery).

Monuments Men

Monuments Men refers to the people working for the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFA&A).

Nazi Party

The Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party) or NSDAP was founded in Germany on 5 January 1919. Its platform was based on militaristic, racial, antisemitic and nationalistic policies.

Nuremberg Race Laws

The Nuremberg Race Laws (Nürnberger Rasse-Gesetze) provided the legal framework for the systematic persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. They excluded Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood."

Occupation

Occupation refers to a country invaded and controlled by a foreign army.

OMG

OMG refers to Office of Military Government.

OMGUS

"OMGUS” refers to the Office of Military Government-United States, created shortly after the end of hostilities in occupied Germany in World War II (1945-1950).

Patrimony

The term patrimony used in the context of culture refers to any tangible and intangible artistic or cultural expression which is of historical, traditional, and cultural significance to the identity of a group, community, country or nation.

Plunder

Plunder refers to State-sanctioned illegal acts of acquisition of property.

Pogrom

A pogrom is an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group. On November 9–10, 1938, the Nazis orchestrated the so-called November pogroms, or Reichskristallnacht, which resulted in the destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes and the transport of some 30,000 Jewish males to concentration camps.

Power of Attorney

A power of attorney is the authority to act for another person in a specified or in all legal or financial matters.

Provenance

Provenance, from the French "provenir", refers to the detailed history of the ownership of an object from the time of its creation to the present day.

Reichskommissariat Ostland

The Reich Commissariat Ostland, "Reichskommissariat Ostland", was a German civilian occupation region that included the Baltic States and most of Belarus.

Reichskreditkasse

"Reichskreditkasse" refers to the Reich's credit bank which regulated payments and credit transactions for the German troops and administrative authorities.

Reichsmark (RM)

"Reichsmark" (RM) was the basic monetary unit of the Third Reich.

Reichsmarschall

Reichsmarschall of the Greater German Empire was the highest military rank in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Reichswirtschaftsministerium

The "Reichswirtschaftsministerium" (Reich Economic Ministry; RWM) was responsible for economic policy issues during the Weimar Republic and the National Socialist era.

Repatriation

Repatriation refers to the State-sanctioned return of someone or something to its country of origin.

Restitution

Restitution refers to the physical return of looted property to its rightful owner.

Right of Preemption

The right of preemption refers to a State agency asserting its legal right to purchase privately-owned property before anyone else. Governments use this legal instrument to prevent culturally-significant objects from leaving their territory.

Roma

Roma are a European ethnic group whose ancestry can be traced to modern-day India and Pakistan. Sinti are Roma with historical roots in German-speaking lands. During the Nazi period, German authorities and their allies subjected entire Romani communities to systematic racial persecution.

Sale under duress; Forced sale

When a persecuted owner sells under duress, she/he does so because the circumstances surrounding her/his decision to sell are directly related to her status as a victim of racial and political persecution foisted upon her/him by anti-Jewish State policies. In most cases, forced sales are the direct result of loss of employment, the safety net that came with it and the inability to cover basic expenses and maintain basic housing.

Sequestration

Sequestration refers to the removal or seizure of property from its owner.

Shoah

Shoah comes from the Hebrew word "catastrophe" and refers to the mass murder of the Jewish people by the Nazi regime and its Allies.

Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS

The Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS (Security Service of the Reichsführer-SS), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party.

Sicherheitspolizei (SIPO)

The Sicherheitspolizei ("SIPO") was the political and criminal investigation security agency and was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo (secret state police) and the Kriminalpolizei (criminal police; Kripo).

Sonderauftrag Linz or Special Mission Linz

The "Sonderauftrag Linz", or special mission Linz (Linz Museum), refers to an organization set up by Adolph Hitler, with the task of gathering artworks for his planned Führermuseum in Linz.

Spoliation

Spoliation refers to the act of obtaining property through illicit means, especially in times of war.

SS

"The SS ""Schutzstaffel"" was an elite German paramilitary unit.

Stateless

Stateless refers to a person who is not recognized as a citizen of any country. The Reich Citizenship Law, issued in September 1935, stripped Jews of their German citizenship.

Statut des Juifs

The "statut des juifs" was a first in a series of anti-Jewish laws passed by the collaborationist Vichy regime to marginalize and persecute Jews living in France.

Vermögensanmeldung

The "Verordnung über die Anmeldung des Vermögens von Juden (Vermögensanmeldung)" required all Jewish citizens in the German Reich, including Austria, to declare domestic and foreign assets if their total value exceeded 5,000 Reichsmarks.

Vichy

Vichy, or the Vichy regime, was the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944 led by Marshal Philippe Pétain.

Vicomte

The French form of the word 'Viscount', a historical title of nobility; ranking below a count or earl. The female equivalent is Vicomtesse.

Wehrmacht

The "Wehrmacht" were the armed forces of the Third Reich, consisting of three primary branches: the "Heer" (army), "Luftwaffe" (air force), and the "Kriegsmarine" (navy).

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was the name for the parliamentary democracy established in Germany from 1919–1933, following the collapse of Imperial Germany and preceding Nazi rule.

Yellow Star

The yellow star was a piece of yellow cloth bearing the Star of David, which Jews were required to wear in Nazi Germany and other parts of Europe under Nazi rule.