Holocaust Garden of Hope Glossary of Key Terms
גזע (Geza)
Race
התקוה (HaTikvah)
The Hope, also Israel’s National Anthem
זכור (Zachor)
Remember!
חסד (Chesed)
Lovingkindness
שואה (Shoah)
Catastrophe/Holocaust
שקר (Sheker)
Lie
תפוצה (Tfutsa)
Diaspora
תקומה (Tkuma)
Rebirth
Aktion
literally action; Nazi operations against Jewish communities and ghettoes were called “Aktion”
Aliyah Bet
Hebrew for illegal immigration to Eretz Israel during and after WWII
Allied Powers / the Allies
These were nations operating together against the Nazis and their collaborators. The chief allied powers on course of WWII were China, France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States.
Anschluss
Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938
Anti-Judaism
negative feelings toward the Jewish religion but also people. Often in evidence in the Middle Ages but exists even today.
Anti-Semitism / Antisemitism
Semite refers to Semitic languages, so this word is commonly used to describe anti-Jewish feelings. The word was invented as a scientific term in 1870’s to mask anti-Judaism.
Appellplatz
German word for roll call square where prisoners were forced to assemble.
Arrow Cross
anti-Semitic and violent organization in Hungary during WWII
Aryan
Term used in Nazi Germany to refer to non-Jewish and non-Roma (Gypsy) Caucasians. Northern Europeans with especially “Nordic” features such as blonde hair and blue eyes were considered by so-called race scientists to be the most superior of Aryans, members of a “master race.”
Auschwitz
the largest Nazi concentration camp complex, located 37 miles west of Krakow, Poland. The Auschwitz main camp (Auschwitz I) was established in 1940. In 1942, a killing center was established at Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II). In 1941, Auschwitz-Monowitz (Auschwitz III) was established as a forced-labor camp. More than 100 subcamps and labor detachments were administratively connected to Auschwitz III.
Axis Powers
These were the Nazis and their collaborators. Chief Axis Powers during WWII were Germany, Italy and Japan.
Balfour Declaration
Great Britain’s declaration of support for a Jewish national home in Palestine given in 1917.
Bekennende Kirche
Confessing Church; Protests theological opposition to Nazism from 1933.
Birkenau
Nazi camp also known as Auschwitz II (see Auschwitz above), Birkenau contained systematic mass killing operations. It also housed thousands of concentration camp prisoners deployed at forced labor.
Black Death
a Middle Ages’ Pandemic, killed millions of people worldwide.
Blood Libel
Also called the Ritual Murder accusation; accusing Jews of murdering Gentiles to use their blood and bodies to ritualistic purposes, such as baking the special unleavened Matzah bread for the Jewish Passover, known as Pesach
Brichah
Hebrew for flight; Jewish movement from Eastern Europe towards Italy after WWII with the goal of leaving Europe for Eretz Israel.
Buchenwald
a large concentration camp established in 1937 by the Nazis. It was located in north-central Germany, near the city of Weimar.
Buna
Industrial plant established by the I.G. Farben company on the site of Auschwitz III (Monowitz) in German-occupied Poland. I.G. Farben executives aimed to produce synthetic rubber and synthetic fuel (gasoline), using forced labor. Thousands of prisoners died there.
Bystanders
Those who see events but do not intervene. This was the majority in Germany and the occupied countries during the Holocaust.
Collaborator
cooperator with the Nazi occupation of his/her nation
Communism
a political movement of the left, which gained power in Russia in 1917.
Concentration camp
Throughout German-occupied Europe, the Nazis established camps to detain and, if necessary, kill so-called enemies of the state, including Jews, Gypsies, political and religious opponents, members of national resistance movements, homosexuals, and others. Imprisonment in a concentration camp was of unlimited duration, was not linked to a specific act, and was not subject to any judicial review. In addition to concentration camps, the Nazi regime ran several other kinds of camps including labor camps, transit camps, prisoner-of-war camps, and killing centers.
Concordat Agreement
Hitler’s agreement with the Vatican in 1933
Crematorium
a facility containing a furnace for reducing dead bodies to ashes by burning.
Criminal Police (Kripo)
German police detective force responsible for investigating non-political crimes.
Crusades
Military Campaigns by European knights to free the Holy Land (1096-1271)
Death Camps
Nazi camps designed exclusively for the speedy arrival and murder of the Jews. These are also known as ‘extermination camps’ and ‘killing centers’.
Deportation
Jews were forcibly removed from their homes to transit locations, then to concentration and death camps.
Der Stürmer
a Nazi anti-Semitic magazine
Deutsche Christen
Nationalistic German Christians, a Protestant movement
Diaspora
expulsion and exile of the Jews outside the land of Israel
Dictatorship
a government by one leader/group tolerating no other ideologies
Displaced Person / DP
a WWII postwar refugee displaced by the war. Sometimes this term is used interchangeably with the word refugee.
Dolchstoss Legende
“Stab in the Back” Myth according to which Germany lost WWI due to betrayal.
Einsatzgruppen
Special murder troops at the Eastern Front, which followed the army with the purpose of murdering Jews and Communist Ledaers
Endlösung
German for Final Solution, a Nazi policy and plan to murder the European Jews
Enlightenment
A philosophical movement for individual freedoms 1680-1780
Eretz Israel
Hebrew for Land of Israel
Euthanasia
“Euthanasia” (literally, “good death”) usually refers to the inducement of a painless death for a chronically or terminally ill individual. In Nazi usage, however, “euthanasia” was a euphemistic term for a clandestine program which targeted for systematic killing institutionalized mentally and physically disabled patients, without the consent of themselves or their families.
Evolutionary Theory
Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882) theory about the survival of the fittest by natural selection
Extermination Camps
Nazi camps designed exclusively for the speedy arrival and murder of the Jews. These are also known as ‘death camps’ and ‘killing centers’.
Fascism
a political movement that exalts the collective nation, and often race, above the individual and that advocates: a centralized totalitarian state headed by a charismatic leader; expansion of the nation, preferably by military force; forcible suppression and sometimes physical annihilation of opponents both real and perceived.
Final Solution
Nazi Policy and Plan to solve the ‘Jewish Question’ and murder the Jews of Europe
Generalgouvernement (General Government)
that part of German-occupied Poland not directly annexed to Germany, attached to German East Prussia, or incorporated into the German-occupied Soviet Union.
Genocide
geno, Greek for people and cide, Latin for murder. Used to describe mass murders of ethnic, national, racial or religious groups around the world. The UN adopted its Convention on Genocide in 1948.
Gestapo
Political Police in Nazi Germany
Ghetto
a separate and isolated area where the Jews lived in crowded conditions. The first ghetto was established in Venice, Italy in 1516.
Gypsy
a traditional term, sometimes perceived as pejorative, for Roma, View this term in the glossary a nomadic people whose ancestors migrated to Europe from India. Nazi Germany and its Axis partners persecuted and killed large numbers of Roma during the era of the Holocaust.
Hebrew Scriptures
Christians refer to this as the Old Testament. Tanakh in Hebrew means the Torah, the Prophets (Nevi’im) and the Writings (Ketuvi’im).
Hitler Jugend
Nazi youth organization
Holocaust
Greek for burnt offering; used to describe the mass murder of European Jews by the Nazis.
Holocaust Denial
Denying, belittling, or distorting the Holocaust for anti-Semitic or political gain
Holocaust by the Bullets
As German troops entered in the Soviet territory in 1941, Jews were massacred in mass shootings hence the name. For instance, in a place called Babi Yar in Ukraine, about 30 000 Jews were mass murdered by shooting in three days in September 1941. The acts of murder were witnessed by locals, who sometimes watched the murder, as a sporting event and for instance by German army soldiers thus widening the circle of bystanders, and witnesses.
Huguenots
Persecuted Protestants especially in France from 1500 on. The Protestant Christians rescuing Jews in the village of Le-Chambon-Sur-Lignon were descendants of persecuted Huguenots.
Innere Emigration
Withdrawing oneself to private life in hard societal circumstances
Inquisition
a Catholic Church court to examine purity of faith
International Military Tribunal
post-war trials against Nazi war criminals
Judenfrage
so-called Jewish Question; expression used to indicate that the Jews were a problem to be dealt with in Germany.
Kapo
a concentration camp prisoner selected to oversee other prisoners on labor details. The term is often used generically for any concentration camp prisoner to whom the SS gave authority over other prisoners.
Killing centers
Facilities for Euthanasia program where individuals were murdered usually by lethal injection or gas. This term is sometimes used also to describe ‘extermination or death camps’.
Kindertransport
Jewish children were separated from their families and taken into safety in Great Britain in 1938.
Kommando
German word for detachment, such as a detachment of concentration camp prisoners at forced labor.
Kristallnacht
Night of the Broken Glass in November 9-10, 1938, when Jews were harassed, and their businesses vandalized. Sometimes referred to as a pogrom (riot), word used in Slavic languages.
Lebensborn
SS program for supporting racially pure children
Lebensraum
Living Space, Germany’s rationale (of needing space) for expansion.
Liberation
The war waged by the Allies and taking control of territory from the Axis Powers. Europe was liberated in stages, as the Allies advanced from 1943 on. This included the liberation of various Nazi camps.
Liberators
Soldiers of the Allied Forces who liberated Europe including the Nazi camps.
Liquidation
Terminating the existence of a ghetto/camp including eliminating the residents
Living Space
Lebensraum, Germany’s rationale (of needing space) for expansion.
Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
Hitler’s antisemitic book from 1924
Middle Ages
a historic period from around 500 AD – 1300 AD
Mobile Killing Units
Einsatzgruppen, followed the regular army in the Eastern Front, to find and murder Jews and Communist leaders
Nazi Party
National Socialist (Nationalsozialist) German Workers Party
Nuremberg Laws
1935 Racial Laws in Nazi Germany. These made Jews second-class citizens.
Operation Barbarossa
Germany’s surprise attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941. The attack was a surprise because there was a peace treaty between the two nations.
Operation Reinhard
deporting the Jews from their homes all over Europe to the East, that is Poland
Ordnungspolizei (Order Police; Orpo)
Regular uniformed German police force. Central Headquarters were in Berlin. Municipal Police (Schutzpolizei) served as the urban police forces. Gendarmerie, or rural police, served in the countryside. There were also larger units of Order Police called Police Battalions.
Ostjuden
Jews from the East mainly Poland and Russia
Partisan
Member of an irregular military force that opposed German occupation in its area.
Perpetrators
Those who commit crimes or atrocities. These may be well-known leaders of political and military groups or individuals working in lower positions.
Pogrom
Originally a Slavic word for a violent riot against an Ethnic/Religious group, usually sanctioned by the authorities.
Preventive Arrest (Vorbeugungshaft) –
Instrument of detention that permitted criminal police detectives to take persons suspected of engaging in criminal activities into custody without warrant or judicial review of any kind. Preventive arrest usually meant indefinite internment in a concentration camp.
Propaganda
Communication of an agenda designed to influence the audience. Information may be presented partially or selectively.
Protective Detention (Schutzhaft)
Instrument of detention that permitted secret state police detectives to take persons suspected of pursuing activities hostile to state interests into custody without warrant or judicial review of any kind. Protective custody most often meant indefinite internment in a concentration camp.
Racial Laws
laws to separate the Jews (and some others) from the Aryans by making them second class citizens due to their racial identities.
Ratline
escape routes of Nazi war criminals via Italy or Spain to South America
Red Army
the army of the Soviet Union.
Reich
German State or Territory and Government
Reich Commissariat Ostland
a German civilian occupation region that included the Baltic States and most of Belarus.
Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt; RSHA)
Headquarters of the Commander of the Security Police and SD. Included the central offices of the Gestapo, the Kripo, and the SD. Commanded by Reinhard Heydrich and, later, Ernst Kaltenbrunner.
Replacement/Fulfillment Theology
A belief that the Church has replaced the Jews in all of God’s purposes.
Rescuers
Those who try to help a victim or potential victims of atrocities. During the Holocaust rescuers hid those who were persecuted; offered food or shelter; gave false ID cards and undertook other such actions.
Resettlement
a Nazi euphemism for deportation and murder.
Righteous Among The Nations
Rescuers, who risked their lives, or in the case of diplomats, their careers, have been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among The Nations. This is a Talmudic term.
Ritual Murder
Also called the Blood Libel; accusing Jews of murdering Gentiles to use their blood and bodies to ritualistic purposes, such as baking the special unleavened Matzah bread for the Jewish Passover, known as Pesach
Roman Empire
world government of the Romans 27 BC – 400 AD.
Sachsenhausen
the principal Nazi concentration camp for the Berlin area.
Schutzstaffel
SS, originally Hitler’s personal bodyguard. It later took charge of political intelligence gathering, the German police and the central security apparatus, the concentration camps, and the systematic mass murder of Jews and other victims.
Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst; SD)
an SS agency which served as the political intelligence service of the Nazi party and, later, of the German Reich. The SD also claimed to be the repository of the intellectual elite of the Nazi SS. The SD played a central role in carrying out the Holocaust. All key departments of the Security Police were commanded by SD officers.
Selection
prisoners were selected by SS to hard labor or extermination; in concentration camps they were selected upon arrival as well as to make place for new prisoners
She’erit HaPleitah
Hebrew for Surviving Remnant, a Biblical term for Jewish DP’s of postwar Europe.
Shoah
Hebrew for catastrophe, destruction; a Biblical term used to describe the mass murder of European Jews by the Nazis
Shtetel
a Jewish settlement in Eastern Europe
Socialism
a political movement of the left; lost power to Communists in Russia in 1917.
Sonderkommandos (special detachments)
in killing centers, Sonderkommandos consisted of those prisoners selected to remain alive as forced laborers to facilitate the killing process, particularly the disposal of corpses.
Sturmabteilung
SA, para-military brownshirts
Sudetenland
areas inhabited by Germans in Czechoslovakia
Supercession
Latin for a belief that the Church has replaced the Jews in all of God’s purposes.
Survivors
Holocaust survivors are Jews who survived the Holocaust mainly in Nazi occupied Europe. There are others who survived different situations.
Synagogue
in Judaism, a house of worship and learning.
T4
Euthanasia program, named by its physical street address.
THGC/THGAAC
The Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission
Tanakh
acronym from the Hebrew letters for what Christians call the Old Testament. The word comes from Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvi’im (Writings) parts of the Hebrew Bible.
Third Reich
Hitler’s regime following the Holy Roman Empire (800-1806) and the German Empire (1871-1918)
Totalitarianism
supplanting a government, including existing legal and political traditions, with one party pursuing very specific goals. It literally means submitting all things under one power.
Trade Union
an association to protect rights of workers preferably by protective legislation
UNRRA
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, founded in 1943 to assist postwar refugees and Displaced Persons in repatriation and economic relief.
Upper Silesia
an area that Nazi Germany annexed in 1939 after invading and conquering Poland.
Upstanders
Those who try to act for someone’s benefit in a bad situation, such as the Holocaust. They may act in a variety of ways all helping the victim of the situation.
Ustasha
a Croatian paramilitary and anti-Semitic group, acted for the Nazis.
Versailles Peace Treaty
This treaty ended WWI; understood as humiliating by Germans.
Victim
target for persecution and hatred. In the Holocaust all Jews of Europe, and potentially elsewhere, were intended victims.
WWI
a global war 1914-1918
WWII
a global war 1939-1945; the Holocaust took place during this war.
Waffen SS
Combat Troops of the SS
Wannsee Conference
A January 1942 breakfast meeting of various branches of the German administration to discuss how to more efficiently organize the murder of the Jews
Wehrmacht
German army
Weimar Republic
Name for the parliamentary democracy established in Germany from 1919–1933, following the collapse of Imperial Germany and preceding Nazi rule.
Winston Churchill
Great Britain’s Wartime Prime Minister and Leader
Yellow star
a badge featuring the Star of David(a symbol of Judaism) used by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust as a method of visibly identifying Jews.
Yiddish
A mixture of Hebrew and mainly German spoken by Eastern European Jews
Yom HaShoah
Hebrew calendar date chosen for its proximity to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising dates to commemorate the Shoah, its heroes and its martyrs