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WWII Holocaust Words

Terms in this set (24)

Allied Forces
The 26 nations, led by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, who
united to oppose the Axis Powers-​-Germany, Italy, Japan, and their allies--in WWII.
Anti-Semitism
Prejudice and hatred of people with Jewish lineage and/or beliefs.
Aryan
A myth of Nazi ideology was Aryan (non-Jewish, Caucasian) race superiority. It
referred to people of Northern European racial ancestry, especially those with blue eyes and
blonde hair.
Auschwitz-Birkenau
The largest Nazi death camp located in southwestern Poland where over
one million Jews and other groups were murdered. Tens of thousands were put to work as slave
laborers in nearby industrial complexes.
Concentration camps
Upon their ascent to power on January 30, 1933, the Nazis established
concentration camps for the imprisonment of all enemies of their regime: political opponents,
Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals, and other asocials. Beginning in 1938, Jews were
targeted for internment solely because they were Jews. Prisoners were often used as slave
laborers.
Death camps
​​As the Nazis perfected assembly-line killing, they constructed death camps in
order to kill large numbers of people more efficiently.
Euphemism
The substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be
offensive, harsh, or blunt. Hitler's regime used euphemisms, such as Final Solution
Final Solution
A Nazi euphemism​ for their plan to annihilate the Jews. The Final Solution of
the Jewish Question began in December 1941; Jews were rounded up and sent to death camps in
the east. The program was deceptively disguised as resettlement.
Genocide​
From the word genus (race) and cide (killing). It refers to the intentional, systematic
destruction of a religious, racial, national, or cultural group of people.
Gestapo
The secret police of the Third Reich, which used terror and torture to eliminate any
opposition and arrest/deport Jews.
Ghetto
The Nazis revived the concept of medieval ghetto in creating their compulsory Jewish
Quarter. The ghetto was a section of a city where all Jews from the surrounding areas were
forced to reside, surrounded by barbed wire or walls.
Holocaust
Meaning total burnt offering, 10-11 million people, including over six million Jews,
were systematically murdered by the Nazis during WWII.
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)
The state-sponsored pogrom​, or organized attack, of
Jewish communities in Germany and Austria on November 9-10, 1938 by the Nazis. Jewish
shops and synagogues were vandalized and burned, and 10 thousand Jewish men and boys were
arrested and sent to concentration camps.
National Socialist German Workers' Party
The Nazi Party, a right-wing, anti-Semitic,
nationalist party led by Adolf Hitler from 1921-1945.
Nuremberg Laws
Racial laws, passed in the fall of 1935 in Germany, which stripped Jews of
their civil rights and citizenship. As the Nazis occupied countries in Europe, they further
instituted these racial laws against the Jews.
Occupation
Control of a country by a foreign military power. For example, the Netherlands
was occupied by the Nazis from 1940-1945
Pogrom
​If you were a Russian Jew in 1881, pogroms, or organized attacks, might have caused
you and hundreds of thousands of others to emigrate to the United States or to establish colonies
in Palestine. An example is Kristallnacht​, also known as Night of Broken Glass.
Propaganda
​Ideas and/or rumors deliberately spread to help or harm a person, group,
institution, etc., such as the Nazi, anti-Semitic propaganda in newspapers, film, and parades.
SS (Schutzstaffel)
Hitler's black-shirted, elite guards. They also ran the concentration camps.
Scapegoat
A person or group that bears the blame for others. Scapegoating is the process of
blaming others for one's problems.
Swastika
​A hooked cross that became the official symbol of the Nazi Party. Originally an
ancient religious symbol, the swastika is still used by neo-Nazi groups today.
Third Reich
Nazi term for Germany and the Nazi-occupied territories in Europe from
1933-1945. Nazi propaganda stated that there would be a Nazi-dominated, 1,000-year Reich that
would control the world
Totalitarianism
The total control of all aspects of life of a people or state by one person or
party. Opposing parties are not permitted to exist.
Yellow star
The six-pointed Star of David is the Jewish symbol the Nazis forced all Jews
above the age of six to wear as a mark of shame and to make them identifiable.
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