The Holocaust, 1933 – 1945 Educational Resources Kit

Glossary of Terms, Places, and Personalities

AKTION (Action) A German military or police operation involving mass assembly,

deportation and killing; directed by the Nazis against Jews during
the Holocaust.

ALLIES The twenty-six nations led by the United States, Britain, and the
former Soviet Union who joined in fighting Nazi Germany, Italy and
Japan during World War II.

ANIELEWICZ, MORDECAI Leader of the Jewish underground movement and of the uprising of
(1919-1943) the Warsaw Ghetto in April 1943; killed on May 8, 1943.

ANSCHLUSS (Annexation) The incorporation of Austria into Germany on March 13, 1938.

ANTISEMITISM Prejudice and/or discrimination towards Jews, based on negative

perceptions of their beliefs.

ARYAN RACE "Aryan" was originally applied to people who spoke any Indo-
European language. The Nazis, however, primarily applied the term
to people with a Northern European racial background. Their aim
was to avoid what they considered the "bastardization of the German
race" and to preserve the purity of European blood. (See
NUREMBERG LAWS.)

AUSCHWITZ Auschwitz was the site of one of the largest extermination camps. In
August 1942 the camp was expanded and eventually consisted of
three sections: Auschwitz I - the main camp; Auschwitz II
(Birkenau) - the extermination camp; Auschwitz III (Monowitz) -
the I.G. Farben labor camp, also known as Buna. In addition,
Auschwitz had 48 sub camps. It bacame the largest center for
Jewish extermination.

AXIS The Axis powers originally included Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan
who signed a pact in Berlin on September 27, 1940, to divide the
world into their spheres of respective political interest. They were
later joined by Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia.

BABI YAR A deep ravine two miles from the Ukrainian city of Kiev, where the
mobile killing units (Einsatzgruppen) massacred and buried 34,000
Jews on September 29-30, 1941. Executions of Jews, Gypsies,
Soviet POWs and handicapped brought the total dead at Babi Yar to
100,000.

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BAECK, LEO Rabbi, philosopher and a leader of German Jews. In 1933 he

(1873-1956) became the leader of the Reich Representation of German Jews.
Despite oportunities to emigrate, Baeck refused to desert his
communitiy and, in 1943, he was deported to Theresienstadt
(Terezin). There he became a member of the Jewish Council and
spiritual leader of the imprisoned Jews. After his liberation, Leo
Baeck immigrated to England.

BELZEC One of the six extermination camps in Poland, originally established

in 1940 as a camp for Jewish forced labor. Germans began
construction of an extermination camp at Belzec on November 1,
1941, as part of Aktion Reinhard, code name for the operation to
physically destroy the Jews in occupied central Poland. By the time
the camp ceased operations in January 1943, more than 600,000
people had been murdered there.

BLITZKRIEG Lightning attack, used to describe the speed and intensity of

Germany’s military action. First used by the Germans during their
invasion of Poland in September 1939 and, later, made famous in
their battle for Britain.
Capo (See: Kapo)

CHAMBERLAIN, NEVILLE British Prime Minister, 1937-1940, indentified with the Policy of
(1869-1940) “appeasement” toward Hitler’s Germany in the years preceding
World War II. He concluded the Munich Agreement in 1938 with
Adolf Hitler, which he mistakenly believed would bring “peace in
our time.”

CHELMNO Located 47 miles west of Lodz, Poland, Chelmno was built in late
1941, solely for the purpose of extermination. A total of 320,000
people were exterminated at Chelmno by firing squads and by
asphyxiation in mobile gas vans.

CHURCHILL, WINSTON British Prime Minister, 1940-1945, who rallied the British during
(1875-1965) World War II and fought at the side of the United States. Churchill
was one of the very few Western statesmen who recognized the
threat that Hitler posed to Europe and strongly opposed
Chamberlain’s policies of appeasement

CONCENTRATION CAMPS (Konzentrationslager, KZ) Camps in which people were imprisoned

without regard to the accepted norms of detention. An essential part
of Nazi systematic oppression, they were constructed almost
immediately after Hitler came to power in Germany. They were
used for the imprisonment of all “enemies of the Third Reich.” In
the beginning (1933-1936), the camps primarily imprisoned political
and ideological opponents of the regime, (e.g. Communists, Social
Democrats et.al.) Later (1936-1942), Concentration Camps were
expanded and non-political prisoners (e.g. Jews, Gypsies,
homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, handicapped and other

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“asocials”). The extensive camp system of over 9000 camps and

sub-camps included labor camps, transit camps, prisoner of war
(POW) camps and extermination camps. Death, disease, starvation,
crowded and unsanitary conditions and torture were a daily part of
concentration camp life.

DACHAU Located 10 miles northwest of Munich, Germany, Dachau was one

of the first concentration camps. It was established in March 1933
for the internment of political prisoners. The number of Jews rose
steadily to about a third of the total inmate population. Although no
mass murder program existed there, tens of thousands died from
starvation, disease, torture, medical experiments or they were
transported to extermination camps.

DEATH CAMPS See EXTERMINATION CAMPS.

DEATH MARCH When the German army was trapped between the Soviet Army to the
east and the advancing Allied troops from the west, the Germans
evacuated the camps in 1944 and forced the prisoners to march
westward to Germany. During these marches the Jews were starved,
brutalized, and killed. Few survived the experience; the paths
traveled were littered with bodies. Although death marches occurred
throughout the war, the largest and deadliest occurred during the last
phase. It is estimated that 250,000 died in death marches between
the summer of 1944 and the end of the war, in May 1945.

DEPORTATION The deportation was the forced relocation of Jews, in Nazi occupied
countries, from their homes to “resettle” elsewhere. It meant
removal either to a ghetto or a concentration camp and later to
extermination camps.

EICHMANN, ADOLF SS officer, head of the “Jewish section” of the Gestapo. He

(1906-1962) participated in the Wannsee Conference (January 20, 1942) and was
Instrumental in implementing the “Final Solution” by organizing
the transportation of Jews to death camps from all over Europe. At
the end of World War II he was arrested in the American zone of
Berlin. However, he escaped, went underground, and disappeared.
On May 11, 1960, members of the Israeli Secret Service uncovered
his whereabouts and smuggled him to Israel from Argentina.
Eichmann was tried in Jerusalem (April-December 1961), convicted
and sentenced to death. He was executed on May 31, 1962.

EINSATZGRUPPEN Mobile killing squads of the Security Police and SS Security

Service. They consisted of four units (A,B,C, D), and followed the
German armies into the Soviet Union in June 1941. Their task was
to kill all Jews, mental and defectives and Soviets. They were
supported by units of the uniformed German Order Police and
auxiliaries of volunteers from (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the
Ukraine). Their victims were executed by shooting and were buried

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in mass graves from which they were later exhumed and burned. At
leaset 1.3 million Jews were killed in this manner.

EUTHANASIA “Mercy killing” – the quick and painless death for the terminally ill.
However, the Nazi euthanasia program that began in 1939 meant the
deliberate killings of institutionalized physically, mentally, and
emotionally handicapped people in order to improve the German
race. It started with German non-Jews and later extended to Jews.
Three major classifications were developed: 1) euthanasia for the
incurable; 2) direct extermination by “Special Treatment” (gassing);
and 3) experiments in mass sterilization.

EVIAN CONFERENCE Conference convened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On July 6,

1938 to discuss the problem of emigration and resettlement of Jewish
refugees from Germany and Austria. Thirty two countries met at
Evian-les-Bains, France. Not much was accomplished since most
western countries and the United States refused to accept Jewish
refugees.

EXTERMINATION CAMPS Nazi camps, known as “death camps”, established for the mass
killing of Jews and others (e.g. Gypsies, Russian prisoners-of-war,
et.al.). Located in occupied Poland, the camps were: Auschwitz-
Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka.

FINAL SOLUTION Nazi code name for the “Final solution of the Jewish question” – the
physical destruction of European Jewry. Beginning in December 1941,
Jews were rounded up and sent to extermination camps in the East.
The program was deceptively disguised as “resettlement in the East.”

FRANK, HANS Member of the Nazi Party from its earliest days and Hitler’s
personal
(1900-1946) lawyer. From 1939 to 1945, Frank served as the Governor-General
of occupied Poland and controlled Europe’s largest Jewish
population. He also supervised the major Nazi killing centers. He
ordered the execution of thousands of Poles and Jews and
announced that “Poland will be treated like a colony; The Poles will
become slaves of the greater German Reich.” Frank was tried at
Nuremberg, convicted, and executed in 1946.

FRICK, WILHELM A dedicated Nazi bureaucrat and one of Hitler’s earliest followers.
(1877-1946) In 1933 Frick was appointed Minister of the Interior, where he was
responsible for enacting Nazi racial laws. As of 1943, he served as
governor of Bohemia and Moravia. In 1946, he was tried at
Nuremberg, convicted and executed.

GENOCIDE The deliberate and systematic destruction of a religious, racial,

national, or cultural group.

GERSTEIN, KURT SS Officer and head of the Waffen SS Office of Hygiene in Berlin.

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(1905-1945) Gerstein purchased the Zyklon B gas officially needed in Auschwitz

for fumigation purposes, but actually used for exterminating Jews.
He wrote a widely-quoted description of the gassing procedures in
Belzec and forwarded information about the killings to the Dutch
underground and Swedish and Vatican representatives. His efforts
met with little success. After the war, Gerstein was captured by the
French and he committed suicide in a French jail.

GESTAPO German acronym for Geheime Staatspolizei - Secret State Police.

Established in April 1933 by Herman Goering the Gestapo
monitored and suppressed all opposition to the Hitler regime. The
Gestapo had total freedom to spy, arrest, imterrogate and deport
Jews, intellectuals, Gypsies, homosexuals, and anyone deemed an
enemy of the Third Reich.

GHETTO An Itallian word, it refers to a quarter or street separated from the other
parts of the city, in which Jews lived in the Middle Ages. The Nazis
revived the Italian medieval ghetto and created their compulsory
“Jewish Quarter” (Wohnbezirk), where all Jews from the surrounding
areas were forced to reside. The ghettos, surrounded by barbed wire or
walls, were overcrowded, unsanitary and sealed from the world without
food, medicine and heat. Daily, people died in the streets from
starvation and disease. The Germans constantly harassed the Jewish
residents of the ghetto, randomly seizing people on the streets, raiding
their apartments, and subjecting them to beatings and humiliation,
leaving them to die in the streets. The ghettos were established mainly
in Eastern Europe (e.g. Lodz, Warsaw, Vilna, Riga, Minsk). All
ghettos were eventually liquidated and the Jews, Gypsies and others
were deported to extermination camps.

GOEBBELS, JOSEPH Joined the Nazi party in 1924, and in 1933, became Hitler’s
(1897-1945) Minister of Propaganda and Public Information. He decided that
“all un-German” books would be burned on May 10, 1933. He
controlled the media and was also one of the creators of the
“Fuhrer” (the leader) myth, an important element in the Nazis’
successful plan for support by the masses. He supervised the
publication of Der Sturmer and conducted the propaganda
campaign against the Jews. On the day followiong Hitler’s death,
Goebbels and his wife committed suicide in Hitler’s bunker, after
first ordering the murder of their six children, all under the age of
thirteen.

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GÖRING, HERMANN A member of the Nazi Party from its earliest days who participated
(1893-1946) in Hitler’s “Beer Hall Putsch” (The failed attempt by Hitler and his
associates to overthrow the German Weimar Republic on November
9, 1923.) Served as president of the Reichstag (German parliament)
in 1932 and, when Hitler came to power in 1933, he made Goring
Air Minister of Germany and Prime Minister of Prussia. Goring
organized Hitler’s wartime economic system and was responsible
for the rearmament program. In 1939, Hitler designated him his
successor. Convicted at Nuremberg in 1946, Goring committed
suicide by taking poison two hours before his scheduled execution.

GREATER GERMAN REICH See THIRD REICH

GRYNSZPAN, HERSCHEL A Polish Jewish youth who emigrated to Paris. He agonized over
(1921-1943?) the fate of his parents who, were trapped between Germany and
Poland in “no man’s land”. On November 7, 1938, Grynszpan went
to the German Embassy where he assasinated Third Secretary Ernst
von Rath. The Nazis used this incident as an excuse for the
KRISTALLNACHT (Night of Broken Glass) pogrom.

GYPSIES Ancient nomadic people who originated in India and wandered into
(Roma and Sinti) Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries. By the 16th century, they
had spread throughout Europe, where they were persecuted for their
life style. The gypsies occupied a special place in nazi racist
theories. It is believed the approximately 500,000 perished during
the Holocaust.

HESS, RUDOLF Deputy and close aide of Hitler from the earliest days of the Nazi
(1894-1987) movement, who participated in Hitler’s “Beer Hall Putsch” (the
failed attempt by Hitler and his associates to overthrow the German
Weimar Republic on November 9, 1923). Hess believed he could
persuade the British to make peace with Hitler. To further his idea
Hess flew to Scotland prior to Hitler’s invasion of the former Soviet
Union. Arrested by the British, Hitler promptly declared Hess
insane. Hess was tried at Nuremberg, found guilty, and sentenced to
life in prison. He was the only prisoner in the Spandau prison in
Berlin, Germany, until he committed suicide in 1987.

HEYDRICH, REINHARD Former naval officer who joined the SS in 1932, after his dismissal
(1904-1942) from the German Navy. He headed the Reich Security, which
included the Gestapo, and organized the Einsatzgruppen, which
systematically murdered Jews in occupied Russia during 1941-1942.
Heydrich was appointed Governor of Bohemia and Moravia and was
asked by Goring to implement the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish
Question.” In January 1942 Heydrich presided over the Wannsee
Conference, where the implementation of the “Final Solution” was
discussed. On May 29, 1942 Heydrich was assasinated near Prague,
by a member of the Czech resistance. In retaliation the Nazis
destroyed the Czech town of Lidice and murdered all its men. To

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honor Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazis gave the code name “Operation
Reinhard” to the destruction of Polish Jewry.

HIMMLER, HEINRICH Reich leader of the SS, Gestapo, and the Waffen-SS; minister of the
interior, and next to Hitler, the most powerful man in Nazi
Germany. His obsession with “racial purity” led to the establishing
of the concentration camp system and to the implemention of the
“Final Solution.” Himmler committed suicide on May 23, 1945,
before he could be brought to trial.

HITLER, ADOLF Fuhrer und reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor).

(1889-1945) Although born in Austria, he settled in Germany in 1913. At the
outbreak of World War I, Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian Army,
became a corporal and received the Iron Cross First Class for
bravery. Returning to Munich after the war, he joined the newly
formed German Workers Party, whichc was soon reorganized, under
his leadership, as the National Socialist German Workers Party
(NSDAP). In November 1923, he unsuccessfully attempted to
forcibly bring Germany under nationalist control. When his coup,
known as the “Beer-Hall Putsch,” failed, Hitler was arrested and
sentenced to 5 years in prison. It was during this time that he wrote
Mein Kampf. Serving only 9 months of his sentence, Hitler quickly
reentered German politics and soon outpolled his political rivals in
national elections. In January 1933, Paul vom Hindenburg (Reich
President) appointed Hitler chancellor of a coalition cabinet. Hitler,
who took office on January 30, 1933, immediately set up a
dictatorship. In 1934, the chancellorship and presidency were united
in the person of the Fuhrer. Soon, all other parties were outlawed
and opposition was brutally suppressed. In addition, he initiated
antisemitic policies and programs. By 1938, Hitler implemented his
dream of a “Greater Germany,” by the annexation of Austria, the
Sudetenland and, finally, Czechoslovakia itself. On September 1,
1939, Hitler’s armies invaded Poland. By this time western
democracies realized that no agreement with Hitler could be honored
and World War II had begun. Although initially victorious on all
fronts, Hitler’s armies suffered setbacks after the United States
joined the war in December 1941. The war was obviously lost by
early 1945, but Hitler insisted that Germany fight to the death. On
April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide rather than be captured
alive.

HOLOCAUST Holocaust derived from the Greek word, holokauston, “an offering
consumed by fire,” and has a sacrificial connotation to what
occurred. As of the 1950’s the term refers to the destruction of some
6 million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators in Europe
between the years 1933-1945. Other individuals and groups were
persecuted and suffered grievously during this period, but only Jews
were marked for complete and utter annihilation.

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JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES A religious sect, originating in the United States, and organized by Charles
Taze Russell. The Witnesses base their beliefs on the Bible and have
no official ministers. Recognizing only the kingdom of God, they
refuse to swear allegiance to any worldly power; to salute the flag;
to bear arms in war; and to participate in the affairs of government.
Therefore, the Witnesses were persecuted as “enemies of the state.”
About 10,000 Witnesses from Germany and other countries were
imprisoned in concentration camps during World War II. Of these,
about 2,500 died.

JEWISH BADGE See YELLOW STAR

JUDENRAT Council of Jewish representatives appointed by the Nazis for

(PLURAL: JUDENRATE) administration within the communities and ghettos in German-
occupied countries.

JUDENREIN "Cleansed of Jews," denoting areas where all Jews had been either
murdered or deported.

KAPO From Italian Capo, meaning: head, chief. An inmate (male or

female) in a position of authority in Nazi concentration camps. The
Kapo was in charge of a group of inmates and carried out the
instructions of SS supervisors. They made sure that prisoners
performed their tasks and met the quotas. The Kapo was the Nazis’
instrument to humiliate and brutalize the prisoners.

KINDERTRANSPORT German for “children’s transport.” Immediately after Kristallnacht

(November 9-10, 1938), the British government, with the aid of
Jewish, British and Quaker relief organizations, set up the
Kindertransport to evacuate children from Nazi oppression to Great
Britain. Nearly 10,000 children were rescued from Germany,
Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Most of these children never
saw their parents again. It is believed that 20-25% eventually made
their way to the United States and Canada.

KONZENTRATIONSLAGER See CONCENTRATION CAMP

KRISTALLNACHT (Night of Broken Glass): On November 9-10, 1938, a centrally

planned countrywide pogrom and riot, known as Kristallnacht was
carried out against the Jews. Arson and destruction of Jewish-
owned property and synagogues took place in every town
throughout Germany and Austria. It came in retaliation for the
assassination of Ernst vom Rath in Paris by a 17 year-old Jewish
youth named Herschel Grynzspan. 7,500 businesses and 101
synagogues were destroyed, almost 100 Jews were killed and several
thousand were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

LIDICE A Czech mining village (pop. 700); scene of a violent reprisal for
the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, on May 27, 1942. On June

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10, 1942, the village was razed to the ground and all its men, 192 in
all, were murdered. After World War II, a new village was built
near the site of the old Lidice, which is now a national park and
memorial.

LODZ Poland’s second largest city. The Lodz economy was based on the
textile industry, much of which was established by the local Jewish
population. Home to a large Jewish working class, Lodz was a
center for Jewish culture and social political activities. On
September 8, 1939, the Germans occupied Lodz, and on April 11,
1940 renamed the city Litzmannstadt, after the German general Karl
Litzmann who had conquered it in World War I. In April 1940,
Lodz became the site of the first major ghetto established by the
Nazis, who forced all Jews from Lodz and the surrounding areas into
the ghetto. The Lodz Ghetto was sevely overcrowded and lacked
food, medicine and heat. Daily people died of starvation and
disease. In January 1942, the Germans began raiding the ghetto and
rounding up Jews for deportation to the Chelmno Extemination
Camp. By September 1942, the ghetto was almost empty. Only
able bodied men and women were kept alive for forced labor. In the
spring of 1944 the Germans liquidated the ghetto, clearing street by
street and transporting the remaining Jews to the Auschwitz
Concentration Camp and to the Chelmno Extemination Camp. The
ghetto was liquidated by the fall of 1944.

MAJDANEK Located in the Lublin district of Poland, Majdanek was opened in

October 1941 and was one of the largest extermination camps in
Europe with seven gas chambers. Majdanek inmates included
prisoners of war from the former Soviet Union, Belorussian and
Poles as well as Jews. Killing methods were by gassing with carbon
monoxide and zyklon B and by mass shootings. Nearly 500,000
people, mainly Jews, passed through Majdanek and its sub-camps.
Of these some 360,000 perished. The Soviet Army liberated the
camp in July 1944.

MAUTHAUSEN A concentration camp primarily for men, located near Linz, Austria.
Mauthausen, opened in August 1938 to mine the nearby quarries,
and was classified by the SS as a camp of utmost severity. The
inmates included German political prisoners, Spanish republicans,
Soviet soldiers and prisoners of war from various European
countries. In 1944 Jews were transported to Mauthausen from other
concentration camps which were evacuated. Conditions in
Mauthausen were brutal, even by concentration camp standards.
Nearly 125,000 prisoners of various nationalities were either worked
or tortured to death. On May 5, 1945, the camp was liberated by
American troops.

MEIN KAMPF (My Struggle) Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, written in 1924 during his imprisonment
in the Landsberg prison for his role in the “Beer Hall Putsch” (the

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failed attempt by Hitler and his associates to overthrow the German

Weimar Republic on November 9, 1923). In his book, Hitler details his
plan for the future of Germany, including his foreign policy and his
racial ideology to make Europe judenrein (“Jew-free.”) The Germans,
belonging to the “superior” Aryan race, have a right to living space
(Lebensraum) in the East, which is inhabited by “inferior” Slavs.
Throughout the book, Hitler accuses the Jews of being the source of all
evil. Unfortunately, most of the people who read Mein Kampf (except
for Hitler’s admirers) did not take him seriously and believed the book
to be the ravings of a maniac.

MENGELE, JOSEF SS physician at Auschwitz from 1943-1944 who conducted inhuman

(1911-1979) medical experiments, especially on twins and Gypsies. Mengele
used human beings as “guinea pigs” and subjected them to x-rays,
mutilations, diseases and toxic injections. Inmates called him the
“Angel of Death” because he, by a simple gesture of his hand
pointing to the left or right, would seal a new arrival’s fate. Those
considered too weak or too old were sent to the gas chambers; those
whom he considered able to work were sent to concentration or
labor camps. After the war, Mengele spent time in a British
internment hospital but disappeared, went underground, escaped to
Argentina and later to Paraguay, where he became a citizen in 1959.
He was hunted by Interpol, Israeli agents, and Simon Wiesenthal. In
July 1985, forensic experts in Brazil exhumed the body of a man
who died in 1979 in a drowning accident and they identified him as
Mengele.

MUSSELMANN (German) Nazi concentration camp slang word for a prisoner who is on the
brink of death.

NAZI PARTY Short term for National Socialist German Workers’ Party
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei NSDAP). A right-
wing, nationalistic and antisemitic political party formed in 1919
and headed by Adolf Hitler from 1921 to 1945.

NIEMOELLER, MARTIN German Protestant Pastor who headed the Confessing Church during
(1892-1984) the Nazi regime. During World War I Niemoeller distinguished
himself in the German Navy. He was ordained as a minister in
1924, and in 1931, became pastor of Dahlem parish in Berlin, where
his naval fame and his preaching drew large crowds. In 1937, he
assumed leadership of the Confessing Church. Subsequently, he
was arrested for "malicious attacks on the state," given a token
sentence and made to pay a small fine. After he was released, he
was re-arrested on direct orders from Adolf Hitler. He spent the
next seven years in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration
camps, usually in solitary confinement. Despite this, at the
beginning of World War II, the patriotic Niemoeller offered his
services to the German Navy, but was refused. In 1945, he was
released by the Allies, and became an avowed pacifist who

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supported a neutral, disarmed and unified Germany. The following

statement is attributed (but never recorded officially) to Martin
Niemoeller and authenticated by Niemoeller's second wife and
widow, Sibylle Niemoeller. Taken from the The Christian Century,
Dec. 14, 1994, v. 111, n. 36, p. 1207(1):
"First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist--
so I said nothing. Then they came for the social democrats, but I
was not a social democrat--so I did nothing. Then came the trade
unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for
the Jews, but I was not a Jew-- I did little. Then when they came
for me, there was no one left who could stand up for me."

NIGHT AND FOG DECREE Secret order, issued by Adolf Hitler on December 7, 1941, to seize
"persons endangering German security" who were to vanish without
a trace into “night and fog.”

NUREMBERG LAWS Two anti-Jewish statutes enacted in September 1935 during the Nazi
party's national convention in Nuremberg. The first, the Reich
Citizenship Law, deprived German Jews of their citizenship and all
pertinent, related rights. The second, the Law for the Protection of
German Blood and Honor, outlawed marriages of Jews and non-
Jews, forbade Jews from employing German females of childbearing
age, and prohibited Jews from displaying the German flag. Many
additional regulations were attached to the two main statutes, which
provided the basis for removing Jews from all spheres of German
political, social, and economic life. The Nuremberg Laws carefully
established definitions of Jewishness based on bloodlines. Thus,
many Germans of mixed ancestry, called "Mischlinge," faced
antisemitic discrimination if they had a Jewish grandparent.

PARTISANS Member of a resistance group operating within and behind enemy

lines, using guerrilla tactics. During World War II, this term was
applied to resistance fighters in Nazi occupied countries. There was
a general partisan movement that included Jews. Jewish partisan
groups operated in White Russia, Poland, and Lithuania.

PROTOCOLS OF THE A ficticious, infamous publication written in Paris, in 1894, by

ELDERS OF ZION members of the Russian Secret Police who claimed to offer
conclusive evidence of the existence of a Jewish conspiracy to take
over the world by creating feuds among Christians, corrupting and
undermining established systems. The Protocols were adapted from
a nineteenth century French satire by a French lawyer Maurice Joly
against Napoleon III (Dialogue aux enfers entre Montesquieu et
Machiavel – Dialogue in Hell between Montesquieu and
Machiavelli. Brussels: 1864). Although it has long been repudiated
as an absurd and hateful lie, the protocols are still being published
and distributed around the world by white supremacists and others
who are committed to intolerance and the hatred of Jews.

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RATH, ERNST VOM Third secretary at the German Embassy in Paris who was
(1909-1938) on November 7, 1938 by Herschel Grynszpan His murder was the
excuse for Kristallnacht.

RIGHTEOUS AMONG A term designated by Yad Vashem, the remembrance authority in

THE NATIONS Jerusalem, Israel, as the tribute to non-Jews who, at the risk of their
own lives, saved Jews from Nazi persecution during the Holocaust.
These people are often referred to as “Righteous Gentiles.”

SA (German) An acronym for Stürmabteilung (“Storm Troopers”) Members of

the special uniformed “Brownshirts” and the armed section of the
Nazi party, organized in 1923. They were responsible for street
fighting and attacks on the opposition and they participated in
Kristallnacht.

SELECTION A process of separating prisoners upon their arrival at the Auschwitz

Concentration Camp. Most people were directed to the gas
chambers and were killed immediately. The rest, if they were
considered fit to work, were sent to forced labor in Auschwitz and
other camps.

SHOAH (Hebrew) Destruction and/or catastrophe. The terms Shoah and Holocaust are
linked to the destruction of European Jewry during World War II.

SHTETL Yiddish term for a small Eastern European Jewish town or village.

SOBIBOR Extermination camp in the Lublin district in Eastern Poland. Sobibór

opened in April 1942 and closed on October 14, 1943, one day after
a rebellion of the Jewish prisoners. During this period at least
200,000 Jews were gassed there.

SS (German) An acronym for Schutzstaffel (“Protective Squad”) Originally

formed in 1925 as Hitler’s personal bodyguard, Heinrich Himmler,
between 1929 and 1939, transformed it into a giant organization.
Although various SS units were assigned to the battlefield, the
organization is best known for carrying out the destruction of
European Jewry.

ST. LOUIS A steamship, carrying 1128 Jewish refugees, it left Hamburg,

Germany in the spring of 1939, bound for Cuba. When the ship
arrived, only 22 Jews were allowed to disembark Initially, no
country, including the United States, was willing to accept the other
passengers. The St. Louis finally returned to Europe where most of
the refugees were finally granted entry into England, The
Netherlands, France and Belgium. Nontheless, most of these Jewish
refugees became victims of the “final solution.”

STREICHER, JULIUS Nazi politician and the most fanatical antisemite in the Nazi party,

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(1885-1946) founded the antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer in 1923. As Hitler’s

friend he became the head of the region of Franconia, in southern
Germany between 1928 and 1940. After World War II, he was
convicted at Nuremberg and executed in October 1946.

STRUMA A cattle boat carrying 769 Jewish refugees, which left Constanta,
Romania in December 1941, bound for Palestine (pre 1948 Israel),
which was governed by the British mandate. Having been promised
entry visas for Palestine, the Struma docked in Istanbul, Turkey.
Upon arrival, there were no visas for them. The British did not grant
the refugees visas and the Turkish authorities refused to transfer
them to a transit camp until other arrangements would be made. On
February 23, 1942 the Struma was tugged by the Turkish police,
with no food, water or fuel on board, out to the Black Sea, where it
was struck erroneously by a torpedo from a Soviet submarine. Only
one passanger survived.

DER STÜRMER (German) (“The Attacker”) An antisemitic German weekly newspaper,

founded and edited by Julius Streicher, and published in Nuremberg
from 1923 and 1945. The phrase “Die Juden sind unser unglück”
(“The Jews are our misfortune!”) appeared on each issue at the
bottom of the front page.

TEREZIN (Czech) Established in early 1942 outside Prague as a "model" ghetto,

THERESIENSTADT (German) Terezin was not a sealed section of town, but rather an eighteenth-
century Austrian garrison. It became a Jewish town, governed and
guarded by the SS. When the deportations from central Europe to
the extermination camps began in the spring of 1942, certain groups
were initially excluded: invalids; partners in a mixed marriage, and
their children; and prominent Jews with special connections. These
were sent to the ghetto in Terezin. They were joined by old and
young Jews from the Protectorate, and, later, by small numbers of
prominent Jews from Denmark and Holland. Its large barracks
served as dormitories for communal living; they also contained
offices, workshops, infirmaries, and communal kitchens. The Nazis
used Terezin to deceive public opinion. They tolerated a lively
cultural life of theatre, music, library, lectures, art and sports. Thus,
it could be shown to officials of the International Red Cross. In
reality, however, Terezin was only a station on the road to the
extermination camps; about 88,000 were deported to their deaths in
the East. In April 1945, only 17,000 Jews remained in Terezin,
where they were joined by 14,000 Jewish concentration camp
prisoners, evacuated from camps threatened by the Allied armies.
On May 8, 1945, Terezin was liberated by the Red Army. (see
BAECK, LEO).

TREBLINKA Extermination camp in northeast Poland (see EXTERMINATION

CAMP). Established in May 1942 along the Warsaw-Bialystok
railway line, 870,000 people were murdered there. The camp

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operated until the fall of 1943 when the Nazis destroyed the entire
camp in an attempt to conceal all traces of their crimes.

UMSCHLAGPLATZ (German) Collection point. It was a square in the Warsaw Ghetto where Jews
were rounded up for deportation to Treblinka.

WANNSEE CONFERENCE Lake near Berlin where the Wannsee Conference was held to discuss
(January 20, 1942) and coordinate the "Final Solution." It was attended by many high-
ranking Nazis, including Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann.

WALLENBERG, RAOUL Swedish diplomat who, in 1944, went to Hungary on a mission to

(1912-19??) save as many Jews as possible by handing out Swedish papers,
passports and visas. He is credited with saving the lives of at least
30,000 people. After the liberation of Budapest, he was
mysteriously taken into custody by the Russians and his fate remains
unknown.

WARSAW GHETTO Established in November 1940, the ghetto, surrounded by a wall,

confined nearly 500,000 Jews. Almost 45,000 Jews died there in
1941 alone, due to overcrowding, forced labor, lack of sanitation,
starvation, and disease. From April 19 to May 16, 1943, a revolt
took place in the ghetto when the Germans, commanded by General
Jürgen Stroop, attempted to raze the ghetto and deport the
remaining inhabitants to Treblinka. The uprising, led by Mordecai
Anielewicz, was the first instance in occupied Europe of an uprising
by an urban population. (See ANIELEWICZ, MORDECAI).

WIESENTHAL, SIMON Famed Holocaust survivor who has dedicated his life since the war
(1908-2005) to gathering evidence for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.

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