GLOSSARY
Terms in this section include words, phrases, and
conditions particularly related to the Holocaust, including euphemisms
used by the Nazis to conceal the true intent of their acts.
Anti-Semitism - Acts or negative feelings against Jews which
take the form of prejudice, dislike, fear, discrimination, and persecution.
Aryan - A term used by the Nazis to describe Caucasians of non-Jewish
descent. The Nazis believed that the ideal Aryans -- blond-hair and blue-eyed
North Europe -- were a master race destined to rule the world.
Auschwitz - Largest and most notorious of all the concentration
camps. Auschwitz, located in Poland, was both a slave labor camp and a
killing center. Auschwitz I was the central camp. Auschwitz II (also known
as Birkenau) was the extermination center. Auschwitz III (Monowitz) was
the I.G. Farben labor camp which served as a source of slave labor for
the German military machine.
Authoritarianism - Believing in or characterized by unquestioning
obedience to authority, as that of a dictator, rather than individual freedom
of judgment and action.
Buchenwald - Located in Weimar, Germany, this was one of the
first concentration camps to begin operation (1937). German and Austrian
Jews and Gypsies arrived in 1938. Prisoners too ill to work at the camp
were sent to Bernburg under the euthanasia program. Before the United States
Army liberated the camp in 1945, the prisoners had seized control of the
camp.
Bystanders - Individuals or governments who were indifferent
to the persecution of the victims of the Holocaust. Bystanders failed to
come to the aid of Jews and other persecuted groups.
Concentration Camp - A prison where the Nazi regime sent people
considered by them to be dangerous. Some concentration camps were "killing
centers" that employed poison gas to systematically kill hundreds of thousands
of people. Prisoners were typically worked or starved to death. Persons
held in the camps were political and religious dissidents, resistors, homosexuals,
as well as racial and ethnic victims of the Nazi regime and its collaborators
(see "victims"). Of the more than 100 camps that existed, the largest were
Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Belzec, Chelmno, Dachau, Maidanek, Sobibor and
Treblinka.
Conformity - Acting in accordance with popular opinion, rather
than following the dictates of one's own conscience.
Dachau - The first concentration camp, opened in 1933 near Munich,
Germany. An example of a camp that was not equipped for mass extermination
program with poison gas, though many prisoners died of overwork, starvation
and disease. The camp was liberated by the U. S. Army in 1945.
Dissent - To differ in belief or opinion (especially from official
government policy).
Eugenics and Population Biology Research Station (at the Reich
Health Office for Racial Hygiene and Population Biology) - The department
responsible for the racial and genealogical registration of Jews, Gypsies
and other targeted groups. The registration of individuals by religious
and ethnic category eventually permitted the Nazi regime to conduct a campaign
to "racially purify" Germany by segregating, sterilizing, deporting, and
murdering members of these groups.
Einsatzgruppen - mobile killing commando units which closely
followed invading armies into the Soviet Union, Lithuania, Latvia, and
Estonia. Their purpose was to immediately kill the Jewish population by
shooting them or packing them into vans and gassing them. These units,
often led by educated ??? were responsible for 2 million of the deaths.
The mass murder tactics of the Einsatzgruppen initiated the pattern of
mass murder that distinguished the Holocaust.
Euthanasia Program (the T4 program) - A Nazi government program
created to kill mentally and physically handicapped Germans deemed "incurably
sick". The program murdered 90,000 people and was eventually ended due
to protests by religious leaders and victims' families. The T-4 death technicians
were transferred to Poland where they continued to apply their techniques
in the death camps.
The Final Solution - Euphemism used by the Nazis to describe
their plan to exterminate all European Jews. The full name of the plan
was "The Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
Genocide - The deliberate and total extermination of a culture.
The Jews, Gypsiesish population and to some extent the Gypsies, were slated
for genocide during the Nazi regime.
Gestapo - The secret political police in Nazi Germany created
to eliminate political opposition. The Gestapo enforced Nazi rule through
terror, arrest and torture.
Ghetto - Term used to describe the compulsory "Jewish Quarter"
-- the poor sections of cities where Jews are forced to reside. These areas,
surrounded by barbed wire or walls, confined people in overcrowded conditions
where they were forced into heavy labor and provided little to eat.
Gypsies - Collective term for the Romani and Sinti nomadic people
originally from northwest India. The Nazi regime targeted gypsies who inhabited
Germany and the occupied territories.
Holocaust - The systematic, bureaucratic annihilation of six
million Jews by the Nazi regime and their collaborators during World War
II. Although Jews were the primary victims, up to one-half million Gypsies
and at least 250,000 mentally or physically disabled persons also victims
of genocide. In addition, three million Soviet prisoners of war were killed
because of their nationality. Poles, as well as other Slavs, were targeted
for salve labor, and as a result tend of thousands perished. Homosexuals
and others deemed "anti-social" were also persecuted and often murdered.
In addition, thousands of political and religious dissidents such as communists,
socialists, and trade unionist, and Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted
for their beliefs and behavior and many of these individuals died as result
of maltreatment.
Jew - A person whose religion is Judaism. The Jewish faith
is not comprised of any one ethnic group, but rather has followers among
all nationalities, races and ethnic groups.
Killing Centers - Camps maintained to systematically kill Jews.
Gas chambers were built especially for that use. There were six such camps,
all in Poland: Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka.
Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) - The Night of Broken Glass - November
9, 1938. The night Nazi police and collaborators subjected Jews to an onslaught
of anti-Semitic violence. Nazis vandalized and burned Synagogues and Jewish
businesses, and randomly terrorized Jews. This event signaled the beginning
of the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish people.
Nazism - The political doctrine of the Nazi party. Nazism advocated
anti-Semitism, racism, militarism, one-party rule, anti-communism and a
rigid authoritarian dictatorship.
Nazi Party - The National Socialist German Workers Party founded
in Germany at the end of World War I. The Nazi party became a popular mass-based
party winning significant elections by 1932. In 1933 the party, led by
Adolph Hitler, assumed power constitutionally and ruled Germany until the
defeat of Germany in 1945. The Nazi Party was the central organizing force
of the Holocaust.
Nuremberg Laws - In 1935, the Nazis gave legal force to their
anti-Semitism by implementing these laws that excluded Jews from German
society, deprived them of their citizenship rights, removed them from their
jobs, expelled them from schools and universities, and prohibited them
from marrying non-Jews under penalty of death.
Nuremberg Trials - Trials of Nazi war criminals conducted
by former military opponents of Germany after World War II. The trials
resulted in several executions and prison sentences, though thousands of
Nazi war criminals escaped prosecution. Testimony at the trials gave wide
publicity to the Nazi policy of mass murder.
Occupied Territories - Those nations overrun and occupied by
the Nazi government.
Peer pressure - social pressure to conform to the beliefs and
behaviors exerted by those people of about the same age, status, etc.
Perpetrators - In the Holocaust, those persons, agencies, or
governments who assist in or gain from the persecution of others.
Prejudice - A negative, inflexible attitude toward a group (ethnic
or religious) impervious to evidence or contrary argument. In most cases
racial prejudice is founded on suspicions, ignorance, and irrational hatred
of other races, religious or nationalities.
Racism - The belief that a racial group is inferior because of
biological or cultural traits.
Resettlement - deportation of Jews to killing centers in Poland.
Resistance - Act of rebellion, sabotage, and attempts to escape
committed by individuals and groups within the concentration camps and
ghettoes.
Rescuers - Those who in some way offered assistance to Nazi victims.
This assistance may have been food or shelter for a period of time; alerting
individuals and families of scheduled deportations; or getting the message
to individuals, groups, and governments about the atrocities that were
taking place.
Scapegoat - A person, group, or thing that bears the blame for
the mistakes or crimes of others. Hitler made Jews a scapegoat by blaming
them for Germany's unemployment and economic decline.
Sonderkommando (Special Squad) - Jewish inmates in Nazi killing
centers whose job was to remove bodies from the gas chambers and burn them.
SS - The elite Nazi military group that engaged in extensive
murder and terror.
Stereotyping - Attributing to a group a quality or trait possessed
by only part of the group. Stereotypes are usually negative and lead to
prejudging individuals based on their ethnicity or religion.
Treblinka - A killing center near Warsaw which opened in 1942.
A revolt of inmates in August of 1943 destroyed most of the camp. It was
closed in November of 1943.
Victims - In the context of the Holocaust, those groups singled
out for persecution and/or extermination by the Nazis: Jews, Gypsies, political
dissenters, leftists, homosexuals, and other ethnic and religious groups.
Wannsee Conference - A meeting of the Nazi bureaucracy and military
held in Wannsee, a Berlin suburb. The purpose of the conference was to
coordinate the role of various government agencies in the extermination
of the Jews.
Zyklon B - Hydrogen cyanide, the pesticide used in crystalline
form in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz and Majdanek killing centers.
ORDINARY PEOPLE
Who were the everyday people - those whose beliefs,
convictions, and motivations led them to act as they did? What is it in
the human character that allows people to react the way they do when confronted
with moral decisions?
PERPETRATORS - those who were actively involved in the atrocities.
Many of the perpetrators were "gainers" -- those who profited from their
actions They may have initially been "bystanders" -- individuals who initially
were indifferent to the Jewish plight -- but eventually saw how they could
take advantage of the situation. The Nazi regime was a perpetrator due
to its role in planning the Holocaust.
Sophie Ehrhardt, Dr. - A university professor and assistant to
Dr. Robert Ritter. She applied the pseudo-science of race hygiene to register
Gypsies. This provided the data the German police used to implement segregation,
sterilization and deportation of Gypsies. She was never prosecuted for
her role in this process.
Adolf Eichmann - Nazi whose assignment was to round up the Jews
and implement the Final Solution. Eichman typified the bland, colorless
bureaucrat who was deeply involved in the mass killings. In 1961, Israel
located, captured, tried, convicted, and executed Eichmann.
I. G. Farben - Chemical combine which manufactured pharmaceutical,
photographic equipment and synthetic rubber. The plant was erected in Auschwitz
and took advantage of the slave labor force there. Dr. Walter Durrfield,
a Nazi party member, served as director. Inmates worked on the construction
of the plant and thousands perished there.
Medical Doctors - Nearly 50% of Germany's medical doctors were
members of the Nazi Party: evidence of the complicity of ordinary citizens
in the Holocaust. In 1933 medical students willingly turned in their fellow
Jewish classmates so that the academic competition could be eliminated.
Reinhard Heydrich - Ordered the death squads to relocate all
Jews to the ghettos. This was considered the first phase of the Holocaust.
He was also the architect of the Wannsee Conference plan to exterminate
the Jews.
Heinrich Himmler - A former chicken farmer who controlled the
SS formations, police force, concentration and labor camps and various
offices for the resettlement of ethnic Germans. He was the senior SS officer
responsible for implementing the "Final Solution." In late 1944 he ordered
an end to the gassings and in 1945 he tried to negotiate with the Allies.
After a failed escape attempt, he committed suicide.
Adolf Hitler - The leader of the Nazi party and, beginning in
1933, dictator of Germany.
Joseph Mengele - Senior medical physician at Auschwitz II (Birkenau),
responsible for grisly medical experiments on prisoners. Mengele eluded
capture and died of natural causes in Brazil
Nations - Governments as well as individuals were perpetrators.
Many Nations cooperated with Germany by deporting Jewish residents to the
concentration camps. They include: Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary;
and the occupied countries of Norway, the Netherlands, and the Vichy government
of France.
Otto Ohlendorf - Commander of the Einsatzgruppe D mobile killing
unit in South Ukraine. He was an economist who had attended several universities
and returned to his career after the War.
Hans Rauter - An Austrian and Nazi police leader in the Netherlands.
He succeeded in deporting 100,000 of the 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands.
This was the highest percentage on the western rim of Europe.
Reserve Police Battalion 101 - Unit of approximately 500 men
(mostly from Hamburg) who were part of one of the Nazi killing units. They
were workers, artisans, statesmen, and clerks who were too old for front
line combat duty but participated in the shooting deaths of 38,000 Jews
and the deportation of 48,000 more to Treblinka.
BYSTANDERS - were those who were indifferent to the acts of violence
against the Jews.
Everyday people - The Holocaust was set into motion with the
support and consent of most Germans. Contrary to the popular notion that
Germans were tricked or fooled into supporting Hitler and the Nazis, the
historical evidence indicates that millions of ordinary Germans supported
or were indifferent to the Nazi's racist policies.
Churches - Most organized Christian denominations in Germany
remained silent in the face of Nazi persecution of Jews and other targeted
groups. The Nazi regime and German public interpreted Church silence as
indifference if not consent.
Neutral countries including Sweden and Switzerland - Though these
countries claimed to be neutral in the War, many cooperated with the Nazi
regime by continuing private trade with Germany. Sweden allowed German
military transports across its territory to and from Finland and Norway,
while Switzerland tolerated the transit of coal.
United States Government and other allied countries - Similar
to other countries, the United States failed to respond effectively to
Nazi crimes that foreshadowed the Holocaust. In 1938 Congress refused to
increase Jewish immigration quotas to accommodate those fleeing Nazi persecution.
The United States government new of the killing centers as early as 1942,
but failed to respond until 1944.
RESCUERS - those who in some way offered assistance to the victims.
This assistance may have been food or shelter for a period of time; alerting
individuals and families of scheduled deportations; or getting the message
to individuals, groups, and governments about the atrocities that were
taking place.
The Dutch people - Most of Holland's population regarded the
Jews as fellow citizens. At one point they staged a strike to protest Jewish
persecution. After Jewish deportations began, the Dutch often hid Jews
from the Nazis.
Elsinore Sewing Club - Danish resistance group that smuggled
Danish Jews and resistance fighters across the Oresund channel from Denmark
to Sweden. This was accomplished because Danish king, Christian X forcefully
told German officials that he would not permit resettlement of Denmark's
small Jewish population.
Kurt Gerstein - Gerstein exemplified the German citizen who dissented
from prevailing Nazi thinking. In 1942 Gerstien was an SS officer responsible
for shipping poison gas to the killing centers. He was deeply shaken by
what he witnessed at the camps and eventually risked his life to inform
the Allies of the atrocities.
Janusz Korczak - Educator, author, and humanitarian, Korczak
typified the heroic efforts of Jews to resist the Nazi terror. Korczak
was a Polish Jew who directed a Jewish orphanage in Warsaw. When the Nazis
seized his orphans, Korczak refused to abandon them and instead went with
them to the gas chamber in Treblinka.
Raoul Wallenberg - Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews
in Hungary by issuing them passports. He was arrested by the Russians in
1945 and his subsequent fate remains a mystery.
Zegota - An underground organization of Polish Catholics who
protected Jews from extermination.
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