Holocaust Words

Pogroms

Organized acts of persecution or massacre of a specific group of people.

Swastika

Symbol of the Nazi party.

Deportation

The forced removal of Jews in Nazi-occupied lands to camps.

Genocide

The systematic elimination of a people or nation.

Scapegoat

An innocent person blamed for the problems of others.

Holocaust

Term used to refer to the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis.

Ghetto

The section of a city where Jews were forced to live.

Aryan

Racial term used by Nazis to describe the 'superior' race.

Kristallnacht

'Night of Broken Glass' or riots against the Jews.

Einsatzgruppen

SS killing units that sought out and slaughtered Jews in the Soviet Union.

Racism

Practice of discrimination and persecution on the basis of race.

Concentration Camp

Place where political prisoners were kept.

Juden

German for 'Jews.'

Final Solution

The Nazi term for the annihilation of the Jews in Europe.

Yellow Star

Sewn to clothing to identify the Jews.

judenrein

German term that means 'pure' or 'clean' of the Jews.

Anti-Semitism

Discrimination or persecution of Jews.

prejudice

An attitude toward a person formed without adequate information.

Death Marches

Imposed on prisoners by Nazis in order to keep them from liberation.

Gestapo

Abbreviation for Secret State Police.

Appelplatz

Roll call area inside concentration and labor camps.

Nazi

Acronym for the National Socialist German Workers Party.

Euthanasia

The policy of 'mercy' killing the old and handicapped.

judenrat

Head of the Jewish council established by the Nazis in each ghetto.

Ubermenschen

Nazi term for 'supermen' the racial ideal.

Death camps

Nazi centers of murder and extermination.

Selection

The procedure used to determine who would live and die in camps.

Zyklon-B

The gas used to kill Jews in the gas chambers at the camps.

Bericha

Hebrew for 'flight' name given to those who helped Jews escape.

Crematorium

Furnaces where human bodies were burned.