Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Flashcards about the Holocaust and Genocide

Death Marches

Forced evacuations of prisoners on foot by Nazi SS guards and concentration camp prisoners in Nazi-occupied territories during 1944–1945 to conceal crimes as Allied forces advanced.

David Boder

Russian-American psychologist who recorded interviews with Holocaust survivors in DP camps in France, Germany, and Italy in 1946, creating the first oral histories of survivors.

Denazification

Removal of Nazis from power and reeducation of Germany by Allied powers in postwar Germany from 1945–early 1950s to prevent resurgence of Nazism.

Harrison Report

Investigation of Jewish DP camp conditions in Germany and Austria in 1945 by Earl G. Harrison, U.S. envoy, which exposed mistreatment of survivors and prompted policy changes.

UN Partition Plan

Plan by the United Nations for Jewish & Arab leaders to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states in British Mandate Palestine in 1947, enabling the creation of Israel.

DP Camps

Temporary housing for Jewish and other displaced survivors after WWII in Germany, Austria, and Italy from 1945–early 1950s, highlighting postwar displacement and challenges of rebuilding life.

Thomas “Toivi” Blatt

Sobibor survivor who escaped during uprising in Poland in 1943 and documented his experience postwar, providing eyewitness account of resistance and mass murder at Sobibor.

Killing Centers

Facilities designed for mass murder (e.g., gas chambers) by Nazi SS and German authorities in Poland (Auschwitz, Treblinka, etc.) from 1941–1945 as central to the Final Solution.

Liberation

Freeing of prisoners from Nazi camps across Nazi-occupied Europe by Allied forces and prisoners from 1944–1945, which revealed horrors of the Holocaust.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Armed rebellion in the Warsaw Ghetto by Jewish resistance against German SS in Warsaw, Poland, in April–May 1943, symbolizing Jewish resistance.

Sonderkommando

Jewish prisoners forced to operate gas chambers and crematoria in killing centers (Auschwitz, Sobibor) from 1942–1945; an example of coerced complicity.

Sobibor

Killing center and site of prisoner revolt with SS staff and Jewish prisoners in Eastern Poland from 1942–1943, where one of few successful uprisings at a Nazi death camp occurred.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Largest Nazi killing and labor camp in occupied Poland from 1940–1945, becoming a central site of genocide and a symbol of the Holocaust.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

U.S. President during WWII who led the U.S. war effort but took limited action to aid Jews in the United States from 1933–1945.

Zionism

Jewish nationalist movement that sought a Jewish homeland in Europe and Palestine from the late 1800s–1948, gaining urgency after the Holocaust and leading to the founding of Israel.

Balfour Declaration

British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine in Britain/Palestine in 1917, marking an early step toward establishing Israel.

Joint American Distribution Committee (JDC)

Jewish humanitarian organization that provided aid during and after the Holocaust in Europe, U.S., and Palestine from 1914–1940s, playing a key role in relief, survival, and postwar Jewish recovery.

Exodus 1947

Ship carrying survivors to Palestine that was intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea in 1947, drawing global sympathy and spotlighting refugee crisis.

Holocaust Denial

False claims minimizing or denying the Holocaust globally from 1945–present, undermining historical truth and perpetuating antisemitism.

Mandate of Palestine

British-controlled territory post-WWI in Palestine from 1920–1948, laying groundwork for post-Holocaust Jewish immigration and conflict.

Khmer Rouge

Cambodian communist party under Pol Pot responsible for Cambodian genocide in Cambodia from 1975–1979, causing ~2 million deaths.

Pol Pot

Leader of Khmer Rouge who orchestrated mass killings in Cambodia in Cambodia from 1975–1979, responsible for mass starvation and murder.

Nuremberg IMT

International Military Tribunal for war crimes with Allied prosecutors and Nazi leaders in Nuremberg, Germany, from 1945–1946, setting precedent for prosecuting genocide and crimes against humanity.

Hutu

Rwandan ethnic majority that perpetrated Rwandan genocide in Rwanda in 1994, carrying out systematic killing of Tutsi with state and militia support.

Tutsi

Rwandan ethnic minority that were victims of Rwandan genocide in Rwanda in 1994, where around 800,000 Tutsi were killed.

Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)

Tutsi-led rebel group that was a military force that ended the genocide in Rwanda from 1990–1994, taking power and governing post-genocide Rwanda.

kwihutura

Rwandan concept of “shedding Tutsi identity" in Rwanda pre- and post-genocide.

gucipura

Ideological call to “purify” society used by Hutu extremists in Rwanda in 1994.

Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

Jewish civil rights group that fights antisemitism and hate, founded in the U.S. and active globally from 1913–present.

Holocaust Distortion

Twisting Holocaust facts for political agendas by politicians, governments, and extremists in Europe and beyond from post-WWII–present.

Great Replacement Theory

Belief that white Europeans are being replaced by immigrants promoted by far-right conspiracists in Europe and the U.S. from 2010s–present.

Cambodian Genocide

Mass killing of Cambodians under Pol Pot by Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from 1975–1979.

Rwandan Genocide

Systematic extermination of Tutsi by Hutu extremists in Rwanda in April–July 1994.