History of The Holocaust Midterm

Terms and Defintions for History of the Holocaust Midterm

Genocide

intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group

Blood Curse

Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children a phrase often associated with the condemnation of a group, used in anti-Semitic contexts.

Blut und Boden – ‘Blood and Soil’

Race and land as foundation of the nation. Volk derives strength from its historic and metaphysical ties to its ancestral soil, emphasizing agricultural life and the connection between ethnicity and territory.

Lebensraum - ‘living space’

The idea that Germany’s destiny was to expand to the East with racially valuable settlers. Hitler envisioned the German people settling, the people living there would need to be removed

The National Socialists Program

Announced by Hitler in 1920, the Nazi Party’s 25-Point Program called for uniting all Germans, overturning the Treaty of Versailles, expanding territory, and restricting citizenship to those of “German blood.” It combined nationalism, anti-Semitism, and state control of key industries to appeal to discontented Germans.

Hitler’s Rise to the Chancellorship

The 1929 Wall Street Crash deepened Germany’s political instability, forcing moderate parties to rely on extremist groups like the Nazis (NSDAP) or Communists (KPD) to form governments. Legislative paralysis led to rule by presidential decree, while right-wing elites and industrialists pushed Hindenburg to cooperate with Hitler. On January 30, 1933, this term happened. 

Gleichschaltung - “coordination”

Over the next year, the Nazi regime eliminated all political opposition in a process called Gleichschaltung (“coordination”). The Nazis took control of state governments, civil services, and civic organizations, banned independent trade unions, and centralized propaganda under Joseph Goebbels’ new Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. This established total Party control over German society.

Volksgemeinschaft – The National Community

In Nazi ideology, this term represented a completely unified, racially “pure” society without political, social, or cultural divisions. It emphasized loyalty, sacrifice, and duty to the Volk above individual interests, promoting a collectivist and exclusionary vision of the nation.

Führerprinzip – ‘Leader Principal'

This made Hitler the ultimate source of all authority, embodying the nation itself. Power flowed entirely from him, replacing laws and institutions with personal loyalty and obedience. This principle justified dictatorship and encouraged officials to “work toward the Führer” by anticipating and carrying out his wishes without direct orders.

The Nuremberg Laws

 Anti-Semitic Laws that are Racial classification. Passed by Reichstag 15 September 1935 “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor.” “Reich Citizenship Law.”

Rassenschande - “racial defilement”

Nazi propaganda portrayed German women as “defenders of the race,” warning them against relationships with Jews through schools, posters, and films. Women who associated with Jews were depicted as betraying the Volk, and by 1941, these racial purity campaigns expanded to target Poles and other Slavs in occupied territories.

Untermensch - “sub-human”

In Nazi racial worldview Slavs considered to be

Krisallnacht - “Night of the broken glass”

The Pogrom of November 9–10, 1938 was the first large-scale, state-organized attack on Jews in Nazi Germany and Austria. Though Hitler gave no direct order, Joseph Goebbels’ speech implying that “spontaneous” violence should not be stopped was taken by local Nazi leaders as approval. This event exemplified the idea of “Working Toward the Führer,” where officials acted on Hitler’s perceived wishes without explicit commands.

The Anschluss of Austria 1938 - The union of Germany and Austria

Before the Anschluss, Austria was a right-wing dictatorship under Dollfuss and later Schuschnigg, who resisted Nazi influence. Under pressure from Hitler, Schuschnigg agreed to Nazi demands but planned a referendum to preserve Austrian independence. Before it occurred, German troops invaded on March 12, 1938, facing no resistance as many Austrians welcomed them; Britain and France did nothing, encouraging Hitler’s further expansion.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

The German–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (1939) publicly pledged neutrality between Germany and the USSR but secretly divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence, with Poland to be partitioned. The pact allowed Hitler to invade Poland without fear of Soviet intervention and gave Stalin time to prepare for war. It also shocked and divided the international Communist movement due to the USSR’s alliance with Nazi Germany. (August 23 1939)

Einsatzgruppen - Special task groups

Mobile killing units of the SS and SD, led by Reinhard Heydrich, carried out mass shootings in occupied Poland with help from the ethnic-German Selbstschutz militia. Using the Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen—a list of about 61,000 Polish elites—the SS targeted and executed leaders, priests, teachers, and officers to destroy Poland’s leadership and resistance. Mobile killings squads, killed over 900,000 Jews

Judenfrei - Free of Jews

But they then had over two million polish Jews in Germany

Lebensunwertes Leben - “Life unworthy of life”

The Nazis targeted…This SS photograph of children with disabilities was used as an example of “life unworthy of life.” Under Nazi ideology, such individuals were seen as threats to the racial purity of the Volk and were forbidden to reproduce to prevent “weakening” the nation’s genetic health. (Exclusionary Eugenics and this means Its a phrase that was commonly said by Germans)

Volksgemainshaft - meaning people community

“over a lifetime this hereditarily ill person costs the blank 60,000rm. In time this logic will be extended from genetic to racial threats to the health of the blank

Gardening State - explaining Modernity’s exclusionary violence

The regime heavily controlled agriculture to achieve "self-sufficiency" through the state organization. This control involved regulating farmers, fixing prices, and promoting a nationalistic, race-based ideology around farming and land ownership, known as "Blood and Soil". The state also promoted specific diets and enforced compulsory farm service for youth to connect them with the land.

Aktion T-4 - Involuntary euthanasia of the disabled

Mid 1939 Hitler authorized the creation of the Reich Committee for the Scientific Registering of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses. This begins the registering and marking for death of disabled children. 70,000 patients were killed.

The Hunger Plan

• An economic plan developed in conjunction with Generalplan Ost between 1940-41

• Secure food for Germany and its army by seizing agricultural output in the East — knowingly creating starvation in designated areas.German army must be self sustaining according to war plans. Memory of WWI food shortages – an error that cannot be repeated

• Herbert Backe was the primary architect of the Hunger Plan, as many as 4.2 million soviet citizens would die of starvation during the German occupation

Generalplan Ost - Master Plan for the East

Was Nazi Germany's plan for the settlement and "Germanization" of captured territory in Eastern Europe, involving the genocide, extermination and large-scale ethnic cleansing of Slavs, Eastern European Jews, and other indigenous peoples of Eastern Europe categorized as "Untermenschen" in Nazi ideology

The Barbarossa Decree 13 May 1941

Army Chief Wilhelm Keitel authorized total war against the USSR, suspending military law before the invasion. His orders allowed troops to kill suspected partisans and civilians on sight, use collective reprisals, and exempt German soldiers from prosecution. This effectively legalized mass executions and granted immunity for atrocities committed by the Wehrmacht. One of the three “Criminal Orders”

The Commissar Order 6 June 1941

Soviet political commissars were singled out as “enforcers of Judeo-Bolshevik ideology” and were to be summarily executed to prevent them from spreading their beliefs among POWs. Troops were ordered that mercy or legal protections did not apply to commissars—captured commissars were to be killed immediately to ensure rapid pacification. One of the three “Criminal Orders”

Reichenau’s “Conduct of Troops in Eastern Territories”

On October 10 1941, the Nazis portrayed the war in the East as a fight to destroy the “Jewish-Bolshevik” system and purge “Asiatic” influence to protect European civilization. Soldiers were cast not just as fighters but as ideological agents required to carry out ruthless, punitive measures—revenge, suppression of revolts, and the annihilation of perceived Jewish threats—turning racist ideology into official military policy. One of the three “Criminal Orders”

Holocaust by Bullets

Mass shooting actions across Nazi-occupied Soviet territories (1941–43), in which the Einsatzgruppen, murdered well in excess of 1 million Jewish civilians and other victims.

Einsatzgrupen Trial

In one of the twelve Nuremberg follow-up trials, the Einsatzgruppen Trial, U.S. prosecutors charged Nazi leaders with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Otto Ohlendorf, commander of Einsatzgruppe D, testified that their mission was to kill Jews, Romani, Communists, and others deemed a threat to security. Four of the 24 defendants sentenced to death—including Ohlendorf and Paul Blobel—had their sentences carried out, and it was the first legal use of the term “genocide.”

Jager Report - A german record of mass killing

On December 1, 1941 this report documents the actions of an Einsatzkommando unit in Latvia, Lithuania, and Belorussia, listing locations and numbers of Jews, communists, and others killed—about 137,346 people by that time. Hundreds of similar reports from other Einsatzgruppen units were later used as evidence at the Nuremberg and Einsatzgruppen Trials.

Babi Yar Massacre

An Einsatzgruppen report from October 1941 describes mass executions in Kiev, where 33,771 Jews were killed on September 29–30. The killings were justified as retaliation for arson and blamed on Jews as alleged NKVD agents, while their belongings were seized for the benefit of Volksdeutschen and local authorities.