Final Exam-Holocaust

Warsaw

-city captured by Nazis in September 1939 (like Lodz)

-capital of Poland

-largest ghetto

Lodz

-captured by Nazis in 1939 (like Warsaw)

-ghettoization in 1940

Attritionists

-had 1 of the 2 initial ideas for what the Germans should do with the Jews (the other was the Productionists)

-planned to let them starve to death; not outright extermination yet

Productionists

-had 1 of the 2 initial ideas for what the Germans should do with the Jews (the other was the Attritionists)

-planned to use the Jews for work (slave labor) producing goods that would support the German war effort; not outright extermination yet

Transferstelle (Umschlagplatz)

loading point for Jews at train stations as they were on their way to death camps

Operation Barbarossa

-June 1941

-Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union territory

-this invasion brought many more Jews under their control

Einsatzgruppen

-SS death squads that would hunt down & kill Jews before death camps became a thing

Rasputitsa

-Russian word for the season of bad (impassable) roads due to mud caused by thawing snow and heavy rain fall

-slowed the Nazi invasion of USSR

General Winter

-Russian idea; the season of winter is a savior because their enemies are never prepared for the weather

-stopped the Nazi invasion & allowed USSR to launch counterattacks in the meantime

Adolph Eichmann

-SS official who arranged the transportation of Jews

-fled to Argentina after WW2 & took on identity of “Ricardo Klement”

-Israel finds out; captures him despite no legal authority to do so & brings him in for trial

-tried in Dec. of 1961, Israel seeking to balance the scales w/ his prosecution

-he claims he is “merely little cog in the machinery” & does not feel guilty

-trial is broadcast internationally-first time a court proceeding is viewed on this scale

-witnesses gave live accounts→ bringing emotion into the proceedings

Wannsee Conference

-January 1942

-conference of midlevel nazi officials who decided upon & planned for the extermination of Jews in Germany & German occupied territories

Operation Typhoon

-German plan to capture Moscow late 1941-early 1942

-FAILURE

-showed Germans’ weakness & allowed USSR to counteract & remain in war

Pearl Harbor Attack

-Dec. 7, 1941 (yesterday)

-Japanese bombing of naval base in Hawaii

Chelmno Camp

-late 1941

-first camp where Germans exterminated Jews using poisonous gas

Auschwitz (I&II)

I-the original Auschwitz

II-Birkenau, a death camp

Mischlinge

-”half-breed”

-used for Jews in Germany, as they were not identified as being German

Kapo

-highest ranking member of prisoners in the camp;

-leader for the others-ensures they act how they should

Krankenbau

-infirmary for prisoners within the camps

-abbreviated as “Ka-Be”

Open Ghetto

-Jews were able to leave through checkpoints to go to work

-had to be back by a certain time

Closed Ghetto

-had physical barricade to outside world

-Jews not allowed to come and go, not even for work

Judenrat

-counsel of Jewish representatives of the prisoners in the ghettoes

-dealt w/ prisoner complaints

-mediator/messenger between prisoners & the Nazis

-implemented Nazi orders w/ in ghetto

Operation Reinhard

-mass roundup & killing of Jews in the General Government

-led by SS

Liquidation

-rounding up of Jews in the ghettoes & taking them to the death camps

Camp Identification (symbol)

-denotes who prisoner was/why they were there (criminal, Jew, homosexual, etc.)

-hierarchy of symbols; Jews at bottom, German political prisoners at top

Camp Identification (Tattoo)

-number was tattooed on each prisoner

-lower numbers indicate the oldest prisoners=respectability

Operation D-Day

-allied invasion of German-occupied France

-eased pressure on USSR because it opened a second front for the Germans to fight

Nuremberg Trials

-trials of high-ranking Nazi officials following WW2

-21 charged; only 19 convicted, 3 acquitted

Battle of the Bulge

-1945

-Germany’s last major offensive push to get the allies back to the English Channel

-FAILURE

Yalta Conference

-Yalta, Iran in February 1945

-meeting between USA, Britain, USSR

-determined the post world war order

AND

-divided Germany-each had an occupation zone

Genocide

-deliberate attempt to eradicate a people, AND their culture, livelihood, & traditions

-word first used in the Nuremberg Trials to classify Nazi crimes against Jews