HIST 1004 - Holocaust

Jewish Population within Germany

2% of the general population

Operation TANNENBERG

Operation to eliminate Polish elites during the 1939 invasion of Poland that was carried out by the Einsatzgruppen under Reinhard Heydrich.

Restrictions Place on Polish Jews

forced labor, not allowed to change address, curfew at night, any Jew above 10 had wear the Star of David

Jewish Councils

Leadership committees established by the German government in occupied territories that forced Jewish leaders to create deportation lists. This was a tool to splinter communities and prevent resistence.

Deportations to Auschwitz from the Netherlands

107,000 people deported between summer of 1942 and fall of 1943.

Star of David

Symbol that the Nazis forced jews in many occupied states to wear as a means of identifying and shaming victims of the Holocaust.

Babi Yar Massacre

A reprisal enacted by the Einsatzgruppen after the bombing of Kyiv headquarters during Operation Barbarossa. This was used an excused to murder 34,000 Jews in a ravine outside of the city between September 29 and September 30, 1941.

Wannsee Conference

January 20, 1942 meeting hosted by Reinhard Heydrich where the SS and other German leaders coordinated the execution of millions of Jewish people at extermination camps.

Heinrich Himmler

German official who was responsible for overseeing labor and extermination camps. He wanted to maintain wartime industrial production through the cruel and dehumanizing use of slave labor.

Triangle Identification System

A series of color coded triangles used to identify groups within concentration camps. These triangles could be incorporated into the Star of David.

KAPOS

Non-Jewish prisoners who oversaw the laborers at concentration camps.

Zyklon B

An insecticide developed by IG Farben that was used at the Auschwitz gas chambers.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Concentration and death camp built in a former Austrian barracks. The location was chosen for its isolation and proximity to rail lines. It housed the “little red and white houses” which were gas chambers used to kill victims.