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| Kristallnacht/November Pogrom | “crystal night,” night of the broken glass. November 9-10, 1938. Nazi storm troopers attacked & destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, & synagogues across Germany. |
| Nuremberg Race Laws | Passed in 1935 and codified a supposedly biological definition of Jewishness. |
| eugenics | The scientifically inaccurate theory that humans can be improved through selective breeding of populations. This theory was popular during the late 1800s and early 1900s and was used by Nazi Germany to justify their actions against Jews. |
| prejudice | A negative attitude or preconceived judgment about a person or group that is formed without sufficient evidence or experience |
| antisemitism | prejudice against or hatred of Jews |
| anti-Judaism | Opposition or hostility towards Judaism. |
| ideology | A set of beliefs or ideas held by a group or individual that can influence their behaviors and perceptions of the world. |
| propaganda | Messaging that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda. It may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular belief/point of view. |
| The Poisonous Mushroom | Der Giftpilz...a children's book used to teach the idea that Jewish people were a threat to Germany and could not be part of the Nazis' so-called "national community." |
| Protocols of the Elders of Zion | An antisemitic book used to promote hatred of Jews. It was first published in 1903. It contains conspiracy theories about alleged global Jewish power. It has been proven a fake/lie yet was used by Hitler to spread hatred towards Jews. |
| Pale of Settlement | area of western Russia where Jews were permitted to live. |
| pogrom | a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. |
| Treaty of Versailles | The peace agreement signed in June of 1919 to end World War I. It was very punitive towards Germany. |
| Weimar Republic | The democratic government of Germany from 1918-1933. |
| anschluss | Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria in March of 1938. |
| Limited Solution | policy changes by the Nazi Party directed at Jews but only within Germany (1933-1938) |
| Situational Solution | Once the war breaks out, Germany takes control of 3+ million Jews in countries they have invaded/occupied. The problem becomes-what should be done with them? There is no official plan yet but Germany will start moving Jews into ghettos near railroad lines. |
| The Final Solution | An expression used by Nazi Germany’s leaders that referred to the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. It brought an end to policies aimed at encouraging or forcing Jews to leave the German Reich and other parts of Europe. Those policies were replaced by systematic, industrialized annihilation of Jews. |
| reparations | A way to compensate for injury/harm caused. Germany had to pay these as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. |
| stab in the back myth | The myth/belief that the German Army did not lose the First World War on the battlefield, but were instead betrayed by the communists, socialists and Jews on the homefront. |
| hyperinflation | a period of rapid price increases & simultaneous decline of the German mark. Led to instability in the Weimar Germany economy in the 1920s. |
| Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution | Component of the Weimar Constitution that allowed the Reich president, in certain circumstances, to take emergency measures without the prior consent of the Reichstag (legislature). Allowed Adolf Hitler to create a totalitarian dictatorship by seemingly legal means. |
| Beer Hall Putsch | Took place on November 8–9, 1923, It was a failed attempted coup by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to overthrow the German government. |
| Nazi Party | A far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. |
| Reichstag fire | February 27, 1933-event shortly after Hitler comes to power that allows the Nazi Party to stoke fears of a Communist attack |
| Mein Kampf | "My Struggle"- a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The book outlines many of Hitler's political beliefs, his political ideology and future plans for Germany and the world. |
| lebensraum | German word for living space/living room—served as a critical component in the Nazi worldview that drove both its military conquests and racial policy. |
| untermenschens | A German word meaning 'underman', 'sub-man', or 'subhuman', which was extensively used by Germany's Nazi Party to refer to their opponents and non-Aryan people they deemed as inferior. |
| Aryan | historically, this term referred to groups of people who spoke a variety of related languages, including most of the European ones. But during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the term came to refer to members of a mythical superior “race.” In Germany, the Nazis promoted this false notion. They called the German people members of this superior race while classifying Jews, Roma, and Black people as inferior “non-Aryans.” |
| Reichstag Fire Decree | February 28, 1933 issued by President Paul von Hindenburg suspending key civil liberties such as freedom of speech, assembly, & the press. |
| Enabling Act | March 23, 1933-gave Hitler the power to make new laws by decree. |
| Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor | The second Nuremberg Law, banned marriage between Jews and non-Jewish Germans. It also criminalized sexual relations between them. |
| mischlinge | Under Nazi law, these “mixed-raced” individuals were not considered German nor Jewish |
| fuhrer | "leader"..Upon the death of President Paul von Hindenburg Hitler merged presidential powers with the Chancellor |
| Gleichschaltung | The top-down internal consolidation of power to remake Germany as a Nazi state. The term is a German word that means “coordination” or “synchronization.” |
| Selbstgleichschaltung | This term means the bottom-up coordination by the German people. Even Hitler was surprised at the ease with which it took to get the German people on board with Nazi ideals. |
| Aryan Volk | A concept that encouraged Germans through eugenics to ensure their dominant blood line would not be tainted by non-Germans. |
| Evian Conference | July 1938, delegates from 32 countries met in Evian, France for a conference on the refugee crisis. The delegates expressed sympathy for the Jews who were seeking to flee Nazi persecution. Most countries, however, refused to admit more refugees. |
| Roma/Sinti | In addition to Jews, the Nazis targeted these people, who often did not settle in specific communities but instead remained nomadic. This helped to strengthen their image as outsiders. |
| Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor | banned marriage between Jews and non-Jewish Germans. It also criminalized sexual relations between them. |
| ghettos | A reactive solution to the problem of Germany going into a city/country & dealing with the Jews in that city/country. Jews were rounded up and put into a walled off/fenced off part of a city where starvation, overcrowding, disease, & terror were common. |
| Warsaw ghetto uprising | Began on April 19, 1943 and lasted for nearly one month. It began after German troops and police entered the Warsaw ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. Jewish insurgents inside the ghetto resisted these efforts. This was the largest uprising by Jews during World War II and the first significant revolt against German occupation in Europe. |
| anschluss | March of 1938, German troops occupied Austria and incorporated it into the German Reich. |
| Dachau | first concentration camp opened, March 1933, just outside of Munich, Germany. |
| einsatzgruppen | mobile killing squads that killed Jews close to where they lived. Also known as the "Holocaust by bullets." Approximately 2 million Jews died this way (close range shootings where their bodies fell into ditches/mass graves). |
| Babi Yar | site of the largest einsatzgruppen killings. About 34,000 Jews were killed at this site. |
| Wannssee Conference | On January 20,1942, 15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss & coordinate the implementation of what they called the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” |
| dehumanization | The process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities. |
| Auschwitz Birkenau | Largest of the six death camps. Approximately 1.1 million were murdered here. |
| Treblinka | One of the six death camps. Located not far from Warsaw, which is why most all of the Jews liquidated from the Warsaw ghetto are sent here to their death. Approximately 900,000 were murdered here. |
| death camps | Nazis built six of these in German occupied Poland whose sole purpose was to kill people on an industrial scale. |
| arbeit macht frei | "work will make you free"...this phrase could be found on gates/arbors at many concentration camps |
| zyclon b | Commonly known as hThe poisonous gas used by Nazis to kill Jews and others in gas chambers. |
| Nuremberg Trials | A series of criminal proceedings held by the Allies against Nazi Germany's high-ranking officials for their role in World War II. |
| sonderkommando | "special squad" were forced laborers in the gas chambers of Birkenau, compelled to handle and dispose of the bodies of those who were murdered. |
| synagogue | the house of worship and communal center of a Jewish congregation |
| SS | Schutzstaffel, Protection Squadron), part of the Nazi Party. An elite paramilitary organization. |
| selection | the separation of people into groups. During the Holocaust, these occurred in ghettos, concentration camps, and killing centers. For instance, at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and killing center, men were first separated from women and children. Then a Nazi, usually an SS physician, looked quickly at each person to decide if he or she was healthy and strong enough for forced labor. This SS officer then pointed to the left or the right, with one line made of people chosen for work and the other made up of people who were going to be murdered immediately. Babies and young children, pregnant women, the elderly, people with disabilities, and the sick had little chance of surviving this first selection |
| rations | a designated amount of food, granted to feed a person for a specific period of time |
| occupation | the control of an area by a foreign military force |
| Nazism | the political, social, and economic philosophies and policies promoted by members of the Nazi Party, which controlled Germany between 1933 to 1945. These policies including totalitarian rule in government, the promotion of “Aryans” whom they assumed to be racially superior, attacks on supposedly inferior “non-Aryans”–especially Jews and Roma–and the supremacy of the Führer, Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party and totalitarian ruler of Germany. |
| liberation | being freed. During World War IIrefers to the freeing of areas from Axis control and the Allied military’s discovery of concentration camps and the freeing of prisoners from those camps. |
| jude | “Jew” in the German language |
| gentile | someone who is not Jewish |
| forced labor | work, often pointless and humiliating, imposed without proper equipment, clothing, nourishment, or rest |
| fascism/fascist | a far-right political philosophy, or theory of government, that emerged in the early twentieth century. Prioritizes the nation over the individual, who exists to serve the nation. |
| emigrate | to leave one’s place of residence or country to live elsewhere |
| displaced persons camp | Camps housing people who were unable or unwilling to return to their hometowns. During and after the Holocaust, the Allied governments ran these for liberated Jews and others who were trying to rebuild their lives. |
| deportation | the government-ordered removal of a person from the area in which he or she was living |
| chancellor | the head of state in some European countries, including Germany. Adolf Hitler was appointed this of Germany in 1933. |
| Auschwitz Birkenau | One of six death camps located in Poland. Approximately 1.1 million people were murdered in one of the gas chambers at this very large death camp. There was also a satellite work camp at this death camp, so there was a selection process upon arrival. |
| Majdanek | One of six death camps in Poland. Located outside of Lublin. Approximately 360,000 were murdered in the gas chambers at this camp. |
| Treblinka | One of six death camps located in Poland. This one is not far from Warsaw and it is where the Jews from the Warsaw ghetto were sent to be killed in its gas chamber. Approximately 900,000 were murdered at this death camp. |
| Reich Citizenship Law | This stripped Jews of their German citizenship and introduced a new distinction between "Reich citizens " and "nationals." |
| Dachau | First concentration camp opened by the Nazis. Opened outside of Munich, Germany in March of 1933. Liberated by American soldiers at the end of April 1945. |
| bllitzkrieg | "Lightning war"...the strategy the Nazis used to invade Poland on September 1, 1939. An assault by land and air from multiple directions. |
| St. Louis | German passenger ship that sailed from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuba in May of 1939. The 937 passengers were almost all Jewish refugees. Cuba's government refused to allow the ship to land. The U.S. & Canada were unwilling to admit the passengers. Ultimately, 254 passengers did not survive the Holocaust. |
| Emanuel Ringelblum | Polish historian that was sent to the Warsaw ghetto. While there he began chronicling the events overtaking the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto under Nazi control. Ringelblum founded the clandestine Oneg Shabbat (“Joy of the Sabbath”) Archive. He assembled a group of documenters to collect information & buried metal boxes & milk cans, in 3 separate places underground in the Warsaw ghetto. |
| Harrison Report | A report by a U.S. government official about the conditions in DP camps after the war. His report recommended making major improvements to the conditions in DP camps, creating separate DP camps for Jewish survivors, and helping to facilitate quick resettlement of refugees. |
| Der Sturmer | A weekly German newspaper that promoted antisemitic ideas. |
| Shoah | the Hebrew term for the Holocaust |
| Holocaust | The systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. |
| Josef Mengele | the doctor at Auschwitz nicknamed "Angel of Death" for his cruel experiments he conducted on twins, Roma/Sinti, and others |
| umschlagplatz | the location next to rail lines where Jews were held after being liquidated from the ghetto and before being put in a cattle car to be sent to a death camp |
