8th ELA - Quarter 3 Vocabulary

Antisemitism

Hostility toward or discrimination against Jews

Auschwitz-Birkenau

A network of concentration and extermination camps in Polish areas taken over by Nazi Germany during WWII.

Beadle

A ceremonial officer of a church

Benediction

Saying of or bestowing a blessing

Bereaved

Greatly saddened by the death of a loved one

Boches

German soldiers

Buna

A labor camp; part of Auschwitz-Birkenau

Crematory

A place to dispose of a dead person's body by burning it to ashes

Dr. Mengele

A physician at Auschwitz, who determined if inmates were killed or became forced laborers upon arrival at camp, but also performed horrible experiments on camp inmates.

Emaciated

Abnormally thin; wasted away

Facism

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, and sometimes physical annihilation of opponents.

Genocide

The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particlar ethnic group or nation.

Gestapo

The German secret police

Ghetto

A part of the city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups

Holocaust

Meaning trial by fire; the mass murder of Jews under the Nazi regime during the period of 1941-1945.

Ingrained

Deeply fixed or embedded so as to be difficult to change (usually to describe an attitude, belief, or habit).

Kaddish

An ancient Jewish prayer recited for the dead

Kapo

A concentration camp prisoner selected to oversee prisoners on labor details.

Liberate

To set free

Nazi

A member of the National Socialist German Workers' party led by Adolf Hitler.

Passover

The major Jewish spring festival that commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian bondange

Pipel

A young boy in the service of a kapo in the concentration camp.

Prejudice

A preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

Provision

The act of providing something, usually arranged beforehand; preparation. A supply of materials, such as food.

Rabbi

A Jewish scholar, teacher, appointed Jewish religious leader

Ransack

To search wildly for something, especially in a way that causes disorder and damage

Regime

A method or period of rule, such as by a government or an administration. A system or planned way of doing things.

Rosh Hashanah

The Jewish New Year

Scapegoat

A person or group unfairly made to take the blame for something

SS

The nazi special police force which provided security forces and ran the concentration camps

Stereotype

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Synagogue

The building where a Jewish assembly or congregation meets for religious worship.