Holocaust

Kristallnacht

The event on November 9-10, 1938, marking the official beginning of the Holocaust.

Holocaust

Term used to describe the genocide of approximately six million Jews during World War II.

Genocide

A term defined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944, referring to the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, ethnic, national, or religious group.

Shoah

The Hebrew term for the Holocaust, meaning 'calamity' or 'catastrophe'.

Ghettos

Sections of occupied cities where Jews were forcibly isolated during the Holocaust.

Einsatzgruppen

Mobile killing units used by Nazis to execute Jews during World War II.

Judenrat

Jewish councils established by Nazis to manage ghetto life and enforce orders.

Sonderkommandos

Jewish prisoners assigned to work in extermination camps, tasked with disposing of bodies.

Kapos

Jewish camp overseers who collaborated with Nazis, often enforcing harsh rules on fellow inmates.

Auschwitz

A complex of concentration and extermination camps, symbolizing the horrors of the Holocaust.

Operation Barbarossa

The code name for the Nazi invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941.

Chelmno

The first extermination camp established by the Nazis, operational from December 8, 1941.

Wannsee Conference

A meeting held on January 20, 1942, where Nazi officials discussed the 'Final Solution' to the 'Jewish Problem.'

Zyklon B

A pesticide used by Nazis in gas chambers to exterminate Jews.

Babi Yar

Location in Ukraine where approximately 35,000 Jews were killed in 1941, one of the largest mass executions.

Concentration camp

A facility used by Nazis to detain and eliminate individuals deemed undesirable, primarily Jews.

Shoah by Bullets

Term used to describe the mass shootings of Jews by Einsatzgruppen in the Soviet Union.

Operation Reinhard

The code name for the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews of occupied Poland.

Death camp

Camps specifically designed for mass murder, as opposed to labor or concentration camps.