Glossary

Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich (ASR) was a series of mass arrests of men defined by the Nazis as socially undesirable, which took place between April and June 1938. Between April and June 1938, the Gestapo and the criminal police arrested mainly men on the margins of society, such as the homeless, beggars and ex-convicts. They were known by the collective term “antisocial” or “work-shy”. More than 10,000 of them were sent to concentration camps where they were forced to work. Sinti, Roma and Yeniche were also incarcerated in concentration camps under the category of “anti-socials”. In June 1938, the Gestapo and the SD (Sicherheitsdienst, the Nazi intelligence service) launched a wave of arrests of about 1,500 Jewish men, who had been sentenced to more than a month in prison.