Holocaust Lit and Film Exam 1

Holocaust

A specific genocidal event in the twentieth century targeting political dissenters, homosexuals, disabled individuals, racial and ethnic minorities, Roma and Sinti people, and most of all Jews.

Genocide

The Systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group.

Antisemitism Definition 1

Prejudice against or hatred of Jews simply because they are Jews.

Antisemitism Definiton 2

A certain perception of Jews that is expressed as hatred. Directed toward Jews, non-Jews, or against their property.

Pogrom

A violent riot or attack aimed at destroying, looting, and killing a specific minority population.

Deicide

Mass killings/organized attacks against the Jews. The term does not have to be used only against Jewish people.

Blood Libel

Old accusation against the Jews. The idea that Jews would kidnap and kill as a sacrifice.

Anti-Zionism/Anti-Israel

Denying Jewish people the right to their homeland Israel/self-determination.

Protocol of the Learned Elders of Zion

Idea/pamphlet that Jews were going to take over the world.

Holocaust denial

A false and antisemitic claim that Nazi Germany did not murder six million Jews during World War II.

Anschluss

Forced political union and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany.

The Nuremberg Laws

Anti-Jewish and racist laws passed by Nazi Germany.

Kristallnacht

“Night of the Broken Glass.” Where Nazi Germans went around destroying Jewish-owned businesses and property.

Kindertransports

A series of organized rescue efforts saved 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi-controlled areas. Took them to Britain.

10 Stages of Genocide

1. Classification

2. Symbolization

3. Discrimination

4. Dehumanization

5. Organization

6. Polarization

7. Preparation

8. Persecution

9. Extermination

10. Denial

Anti-Semitic Legislation Objectives

1. To disenfranchise Jews and deprive Jews of their political rights.

2. To impoverish Jews

3. To physically segregate and isolate Jews from fellow Germans and Austrians

Ghettos

Districts of isolated Jews

Transit Camps

A temporary place used to hold people briefly before they were moved, deported, or resettled elsewhere.

Concentration Camps

Detention of civilians seen as real or perceived “enemies of the Reich.”

Forced-Labor Camps

Exploited the labor of prisoners for economic gain and to meet labor shortages.

Extermination camps

Specialized facilities built by the Nazi Germans during World War II with the primary goal of conducting mass murder and genocide.

Sonderkommando

“Special Commando.” Typically, Jewish prisoners whose task was to work in the gas chambers, taking bodies out and burning them in the crematoria. The Nazis replaced Sonderkommando members every few months to limit the spread of information to other prisoners.

Auschwitz Protocols

A collection of three eyewitness reports documenting mass murder and the layout of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during World War II

Charlotte Delbo

A survivor of Auschwitz and a political enemy prisoner who worked for the French resistance.

Auschwitz

The largest camp established by the Nazis, which was made up of three main camps and 44 sub-camps. Most sub-camps were forced-labor camps. The three main camps were a concentration camp, an extermination camp, and a forced-labor camp. Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz.

I.G. Farben Works

A big chemical factory that produced synthetic furl and rubber for the war effort.

“Arbeit Macht Frei”

“Work sets you free”

Block 10

A “hospital” where medical experiments were done on inmates, as well as pseudo-scientific research. The “hospital” where Dr. Mengele worked. Where the infamous “twin research” took place.

Block 11

improvised gas chambers.

Black Wall

Between Block 10 and Block 11 where prisoners were executed

Dr. Mengele

The most feared and known SS Doctor who did many medical experiments. Later, he fled to Argentina after getting away from the Nazis. He was never caught.

Zyklon B gas

The gas that was used came in the form of pellets that were poured into the gas chamber. Once it came into contact with oxygen, the air became toxic. Was once used as pest control and cleaner/disinfectant.

“Kanada”

Where the belongings of the incoming prisoners were stored. “Kanada” means “The Land of the Riches.”

“Mexico”

Partially completed camp extension. Experiments and provisional chambers of 1942. Four large chambers and crematoria were built.

When did the revolt of the Sonderkommando happen?

October 7th, 1944

Shlomo Venezia

Greek Jewish prisoner who worked in the Sonderkommando and worked for about 8 months. Survived and was able to write about his time in Auschwitz and his work in the Sonderkommando.

“Scrolls of Auschwitz”

Buried under Crematorium 3: a collection of testimonies by members of the Sonderkommando. Many were found long after the war in the area, when they started to rebuild and build new roads. Found after they had to build up the soil in the area. Some are no longer legible, but some could be deciphered.

Eva Mozes Kor

Child (age 10) who survived Auschwitz. She wrote about her experience when the Soviets liberated the camp.

Original Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan. Later, other countries joined, such as Yugoslavia, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Finland, etc. Spain sympathized with the Axis Powers.

Triangles/badges

Badges were coded by color to determine what kind of prisoner they were. Triangles also included letters that determined what kind of prisoner they were. All prisoners would wear they do that Nazi officials would know who they were. An ID badge.

Roll Call

Prisoners would line up in rows so the Germans could see who all they had for work in the day. Roll calls were also another form of selection. Often lined up for an extended period of time. Called in the morning and in the evening. The way Nazi officers were able to track the number of people they had in the morning and in the evening. Roll call would also be used as collective punishment for the prisoners.

Selections

The act of selecting whether prisoners would live and be forced laborers or would be sentenced to death in the gas chambers.

Muselman

Term used among prisoners to describe inmates who were reduced to a state of extreme physical deterioration, severe starvation, and profound psychological apathy. Those who were close to dying. Literally translated as “Muslim,” but it has nothing to do with Muslims.

Kapo

Special prisoners, typically common criminal prisoners, would supervise the camps and other prisoners. Usually harsh. A privileged position. They were typically in charge of roll calls and putting together work units. Much lighter work than the act of working in forced labor. They received better clothing, better food, visits to camp brothels, and better living quarters. When they were no longer in that position, the fellow inmates would not see them as favorable. Many were lynched after they were no longer in that position.

“Organizing”

Stealing the property of prisoners. Stealing/organizing other food or warmer clothing/better clothing.

SS

Schutzstaffel. German for “protective squad”. One of the largest and most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany.

Gestapo

German State Secret Police

Death Camps

Prisoners were ordered to evacuate the Nazi concentration camps and head toward the German Reich. More than 250,000 prisoners from concentration camps, Jews and non-Jews alike, were murdered in the death marches.

Displaced Persons Camp (DP Camps)

Administered by Allied authorities and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). War refugees, survivors of Nazi camps, forced laborers, and POWs. Western Allies established DP camps in the Allied-occupied zones of Germany, Austria, and Italy.

SS Chief

Heinrich Himmler. Appointed directly from Hitler.

Mobile Killing Squad

Their job was to kill civilians. Exterminating the Jews.

Gestapo Chief

Heinrich Muller

Einsatzgruppen

Mobile killing squads, security police task force. Perpetrated mass shootings for Jews and others.

Adolf Eichmann

One of the most hunted former SS men. Was captured in 1960 who originally got away but was later found. Eichmann was appointed director of Jewish Affairs.

Synonyms for the word “Holocaust”

Shoah and Churban

Etymology of the term “Holocaust”

The original meaning is from the Greek “sacrifice by fire”, a religious sacrifice. The contemporary meaning since the 1960s is “large-scale destruction”, “destruction of the Jewish people by the Nazis.”

Definition of the Holocaust used for the course?

A state-sponsored systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators, between 1933 and 1945.

Extermination Camps

1. Chelmno

2. Belzex

3. Sobibor

4. Treblinka

5. Auschwitz-Birkenau

What was the first concentration camp called?

Dachau

How many Nazi concentration camps existed between 1933 and 1945?

44,000

What three main purposes did the Nazi concentration camps serve?

1. Extermination of Jews and non-Jewish people

2. Forced labor for war efforts

3. Incarceration of threats to Nazi Germany

Who were the prisoners who were non-Jewish

1. Homosexuals

2. Political enemies/dissenters

3. Slavic people

4. Romani people/Sinti communities

5. Ethnic minorities

6. Religious dissenters

7. Disabled individuals

8. Soviet Prisoners of War (POWs)

What does POW stand for?

“Prisoners of War”

What does “Operation Reinhard” stand for?

Code name for the German plan to murder the approximately two million Polish Jews residing in the so-called General Government. Part of the plan was to exploit the skilled or manual labor of some Polish Jews before killing them. Initiated in the autumn of 1941 under the SS General Reinhard Heydrich.

Why was the first concentration camp build?

Built in 1933 for political dissenters and political people the Nazi party did not like.