Volksgemeinschaft

   Volksgemeinschaft is a term used by the Nazi leadership to describe the new political arrangement in Germany under Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship. The term means a “people’s community,” which translated into the establishment on Reich territory a national community based on the Aryan race. In the early years of the Third Reich, the Nazis distinguished between laws and legal protection for the Volksgemeinschaft (or Aryan racial community) and other categories of people, who were deprived of the protection of the law. This included Jews, asocial persons, the handicapped, Gypsies, and foreigners, who were not considered part of the Volksgemeinschaft. Deprived of the protection of the law, they were subject to the arbitrary decisions of the police and whatever means the police chose to apply against them.