Holocaust Glossary

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R
S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

- A -

Aktion

Term used for any non-military campaign to further Nazi ideals of race, but most often referred to the assembly and deportation of Jews to concentration or death camps.

Aktion Erntefest

"Operation Harvest Festival" (German) - Code name for the liquidation and mass killings of the remaining Jews in the Lublin area that occurred on November 3, 1943. An estimated 42,000 people were shot while loud music was played to drown out the shootings. Last Aktion of Aktion Reinhard.

Aktion Reinhard

Code name for the annihilation of European Jewry. Named after Reinhard Heydrich.

Aktion T-4 (Tiergarten Strasse 4)

Code name for the Euthanasia program. Name taken from the Reich Chancellery building's address.

Aliya

"immigration" (Hebrew) - Jewish immigration into Palestine (later, Israel) through official channels.

Aliya Bet

"illegal immigration" (Hebrew) - Jewish immigration into Palestine (later, Israel) without the official immigration certificate nor with British approval - most often by ship. During the Third Reich, Zionist movements set up organizations to plan and implement these flights from Europe.

Anschluss

"linkage" (German) - German annexation of Austria on March 13, 1938.

Anti-Semitism

Prejudice against Jews.

Appell

"roll call" (German) - Within the camps, inmates were forced to stand at attention for hours at least twice a day while they were counted. This was always carried out no matter what the weather and often lasted for hours. Often accompanied by beatings and punishments.

Appellplatz

"place for roll call" (German) - Location within the camps where the Appell was carried out.

Arbeit Macht Frei

"work makes one free" - A sign placed by Rudolf Höss over the gates of Auschwitz I.

Asocial

One of several categories of people targeted by the Nazi regime. People in this category included homosexuals, prostitutes, Gypsies (Roma), and thieves.

Auschwitz

Nazi death camp built near Oswiecim, Poland. Heinrich Himmler ordered its creation on April 27, 1940. Composed of three large camps which housed five crematoria and forty-five subcamps. An estimated 1.1 million people were killed at this death camp.

- B -

Babi Yar

In retaliation for the bombing of German administration buildings in occupied Kiev between September 24 and 28, 1941, the Germans killed all the Jews in Kiev on September 29 and 30, 1941. Kiev Jews, Gypsies (Roma), and Soviet prisoners of war were taken to the Babi Yar ravine and shot. An estimated 100,000 people were killed at this location.

Badge

Nazi ordered symbols worn by Jews and others targeted by the Nazi regime for easy identification.

Blut und Boden

"blood and soil" (German) - Phrase used by Hitler to mean that all people of German blood have the right and duty to live on German soil (i.e. in the "German Fatherland").

Bormann, Martin (June 17, 1900 - ?)

Adolf Hitler's personal secretary. One of the most powerful men in the Third Reich since he controlled access to Hitler. He liked to work behind the scenes and to stay out of the public spotlight. Known as "the Brown Eminence" and "the man in the shadows." Helped the Führer with his personal finances. Hitler viewed him as an absolute devotee, but he had high ambitions and kept his rivals from having access to Hitler. Was in the bunker during Hitler's last days. Left the bunker on May 1, 1945 and his future fate has become one of the unsolved mysteries of this century. Hermann Göring was his sworn enemy.

bunker

Ghetto slang word for Jews' hiding places within the ghettos.

- C -

Comite de Defense des Juifs

"Jewish Defense Committee" - An underground movement in Belgium established in 1942.

- D -

Death March

Forced marches of camp prisoners from their current camps toward Germany during the German retreat which started after the Battle of Stalingrad (January 1943).

Dolchstoss

"Stab in the back" (German) - Myth which claimed that the German military had not been defeated in World War I, but that the Germans had been "stabbed in the back" by Jews, socialists, and liberals who forced them to surrender.

- E -

Endlösung

"Final Solution" (German) - The Nazi's program to kill every Jew in Europe.

Ermächtigungsgesetz

"The Enabling Law" (German) - passed March 24, 1933

Eugenics

The social Darwinist principle of strengthening the qualities of a race by controlling inherited characteristics. Term coined by Francis Galton in 1883.

Euthanasia Program

See Aktion T-4

- G -

Genocide

Extermination of an entire people.

Gentile

A term referring to someone who is not Jewish.

Gleichschaltung

"coordination" (German) - Reorganizing all social, political, and cultural organizations to be controlled and run according to Nazi ideology and policy.

- H -

Ha'avara

Transfer agreement between Jewish leaders from Palestine and the Nazis.

Häftlingspersonalbogen

Prisoner registration forms at the camps.

Hess, Rudolf (April 26, 1894 - August 17, 1987)

Deputy to the Führer, Reich Minister Without Portfolio, and successor-designate after Hermann Göring. Important role using geopolitics to gain land. Involved in the Anschluss of Austria and the administration of the Sudentenland. Worshipped and devoted to Hitler. In a plea for Hitler's favor, Hess flew to Scotland on May 10, 1940 (without the Führer's approval) in an effort to make a peace agreement with Britain. Britain and Germany denounced him as crazy. Sentenced to life imprisonment. Sole prisoner at Spandau after 1966. In 1987, found in his cell, hanged with an electric cord at age 93.

Himmler, Heinrich (October 7, 1900 - May 21, 1945)

The Reichsführer-SS. Head of the SS, the Gestapo, and the German police. Under his direction, the SS grew into a massive "racially pure" Nazi elite. He was in charge of the concentration camps. Believed that the liquidation of the unhealthy and bad genes from society would help better and purify the Aryan race. In April 1945, he tried to negotiate a peace with the Allies, bypassing Hitler. For this, Hitler expelled him from the Nazi Party and from all offices he held. On May 21, 1945, he attempted to escape but was stopped and held by the British. After his identity was discovered, he swallowed a hidden cyanide pill that was noticed by an examining doctor. He died twelve minutes later.

- J -

Jude

"Jew" (German)

Judenfrei

"free of Jews" (German)

Judengelb

"Jewish yellow" (German) - Term for the yellow Star of David badge that Jews were ordered to wear.

Judenrat (plural Judenräte)

"Jewish council" (German) - Usually referring to a group of Jews who enacted the German laws in the ghettos.

Juden raus!

"Jews out!" (German) - A dreaded phrase shouted by the Nazis throughout the ghettos when they were trying to force Jews from their hiding places.

Die Juden sind unser Unglück!

"The Jews are our misfortune!" - Heinrich von Treitschke coined this phrase in 1879 in the Preussische Jahrbücher. This phrase appeared at the bottom of the front page of each issue of the Nazi weekly newspaper, Der Stürmer.

Judenrein

"cleansed of Jews" (German)

- K -

Kommando

Labor squads made up of camp prisoners.

Kristallnacht

"Night of Broken Glass" - On November 9-10, 1938 the Nazis initiated a pogrom against Jews in retaliation for the assassination of Ernst vom Rath.

- L -

Lagersystem

The system of camps that supported the death camps.

Lebensraum

"living space" (German) - The Nazis believed that there should be areas attributed to only one "race" and that the Aryans needed more "living space." This became one of the Nazi's chief objectives and shaped their foreign policy; the Nazis believed they could gain more space by conquering and colonizing the East.

Lebensunwertes Lebens

"Life unworthy of life" (German) - Term derived from the work "The Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life" ("Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens") by Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche, published in 1920. This work was referring to the mentally and physically handicapped and regarded the killing of these segments of society as a "healing treatment." This term and this work became a base for the right of the state to kill unwanted segments of the population.

Lodz Ghetto

On February 8, 1940 a ghetto was established in Lodz, Poland. The 230,000 Jews of Lodz were ordered into the ghetto. On May 1, 1940, the ghetto was sealed. Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, who had been appointed the Elder of the Jews, attempted to save the ghetto by making it a cheap and valuable industrial center to the Nazis. Deportations began in January 1942 and the ghetto was liquidated by August 1944.

- M -

MacDonald White Paper

Issued by Great Britain on May 17, 1939, it limited the immigration to Palestine to 15,000 persons a year. After five years, no Jewish immigration was permitted unless with Arab consent.

Machtergreifung

"seizure of power" - Term used when referring to the Nazi's seizure of power in 1933.

Magen David

"Star of David"

Mein Kampf

"My Struggle" (German) - Title of Adolf Hitler's book.

Mengele, Josef (March 16, 1911 - February 7, 1979?)

Physician at Auschwitz. Conducted experiments, especially on twins in the hopes of finding a faster way to reproduce the Aryan race. Made selections at the ramp. Known for his arbitrary and brutal decisions and actions. After the war, he lived for five years in Germany, then in Argentina and Paraguay. In June 1985, a skeleton was found which forensic experts concluded was Mengele.

Muselmänner

Camp term used to describe camp prisoners that were on the verge of death.

- O -

Operation Barbarossa

Code name for the surprise German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 which broke the Soviet-Nazi Non-Aggression Pact and plunged the Soviet Union into World War II.

Ordnungsdienst

"order service" (German) - The ghetto police who were made up of Jewish ghetto residents.

to organize

Camp slang for prisoners acquiring materials illicitly from the Nazis.

Ostara

A series of anti-Semitic pamphlets published by Lanz von Liebenfels between 1907 and 1910. Hitler bought these regularly and in 1909, Hitler sought out Lanz and asked for back copies.

Oswiecim

See Auschwitz

- P -

Porajmos

"the Devouring" (Romani) - Term used by the Roma (Gypsies) for the Holocaust. Roma were among the victims of the Holocaust.

- S -

Sonderbehandlung (SB)

"special treatment" - Code word used for the methodical killing of Jews.

- T -

Thanatology

The science of producing death; description given during the Nuremberg trials to the medical experiments performed during the Holocaust.

- V -

Vernichtungslager

"extermination camp" or "death camp" (German)

- Z -

Zentralstelle für Jüdische Auswanderung

"Central Office for Jewish Emigration" - Set up in Vienna on August 26, 1938 under Adolf Eichmann.

Zyklon B

Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) - The poison that was dropped in crystal form, through a small hole in the ceiling, into the gas chambers. The pellets turned into a lethal gas once in air. The first test using Zyklon B was on September 3, 1941 in Auschwitz. Previous to its use in gas chambers, Zyklon B was a common insecticide.

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