The Holocaust

Flashcards related to the Holocaust.

Anti-Semitism

Prejudice against Jews, dating back to ancient times and gaining support in various European countries and the United States in the early twentieth century.

The Holocaust (Shoah)

The murder of over six million Jewish men, women, and children by Germany’s Nazi government from around 1938 to 1945.

Reichstag

The German Parliament.

Adolf Hitler

Leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) who became Chancellor of Germany in 1933.

Aryan master race

The Nazi belief in a superior group in a hierarchy of different racial groups, typically tall with light hair and eyes.

Untermenschen

The Nazi term for ‘sub-humans’ at the bottom of the racial hierarchy, including Slavic peoples, criminals, homosexuals, the mentally ill, gypsies, and especially Jews.

Eugenics

A component of Nazi racial policy claiming that Germany had to recreate its master race and remove people seen as racially inferior.

SA troops

Hitler’s storm troopers who engaged in violence against members of opposing political parties.

Enabling Bill

A law passed on 23rd March that gave Hitler the power to rule as a dictator.

Gestapo

Nazi secret police used to instill fear among the general population.

Nuremberg Laws (1935)

Laws announced by Hitler in 1935 that denied Jews their citizenship and voting rights.

The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour

Classified people according to whether they had any Jewish grandparents and outlawed marriage and sex between Jews and those of ‘German blood.’

The Reich Citizenship Law

Stated that ‘pure Aryans’ were German citizens, while Jews were not citizens but subject to state law.

Kristallnacht

An event on the night of 9 November 1938 involving Nazi-organized pogroms that unleashed violence in cities throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland, also known as the ‘night of broken glass.’

The Kristallnacht

German name for the event described as the ‘night of broken glass.’

Kindertransport

A program introduced by Britain that took in 10,000 Jewish child refugees over nine months.

Ghettos

Areas within which Jews were confined and segregated from the rest of a city and its population.

Judenrat

All-Jewish councils established by Nazis to organize ghetto life in accordance with Nazi orders.

Warsaw ghetto

The largest ghetto, established in Warsaw, Poland, in October–November 1940.

Warsaw ghetto uprising

An uprising staged by the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto in spring 1943 against the Nazis.

The 'Final Solution'

The Nazi plan for mass extermination of all Jews in Nazi-controlled territory, decided by late 1941.

Wannsee Conference

The Berlin suburb where senior Nazi officials met on 20 January 1942 to outline the plan for implementing the Final Solution.

Death Camps

Extermination camps in Poland.

Sonderkommandos

Members of a special unit charged with calming and deceiving other Jews as they led them into the gas chambers.

Concentration (or labour) camps

Camps the Nazis created to imprison their enemies, especially Jews.

Displaced Persons' (DP) Camps

From 1945 to 1952, up to 250,000 survivors went to displaced persons’ camps.

Intentionalists

Those who argue that the Nazis intended from the beginning to implement the Final Solution.

Structuralists

Those who argue that Hitler decided on the Final Solution in October 1941, because Nazi resources were under severe strain.

Black market

The business of buying or selling goods illegally, often during times of rationing

Anti-Semitic

A term describing hostility and prejudice towards Jews

Pogrom

Organised, and often government-approved, violent attacks on the people and property of a minority group, especially Jews.