Holocaust Terms (Honors 2023)

Aryan

Refers to groups of people who spoke a variety of related European and Asian languages; evolved into a mythical 'race' claimed to be superior by the Nazis.

Antisemitism

Prejudice against or hatred of Jews.

Auschwitz

A complex of 3 camps located in German-occupied Poland, including a killing center.

Concentration Camp

A facility where people were incarcerated indefinitely, perceived as a security threat by the Nazi regime.

Euthanasia

The systematic murder of people.

Fascism

A social/political ideology prioritizing the state over personal freedoms.

Final Solution

The deliberate, planned mass murder of European Jews occurring from 1941 to 1945.

Forced Marches

Marches organized by SS officers to transport prisoners on foot out of concentration camps.

Genocide

Violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group.

Gentile

A person who is not Jewish.

Ghettos

Enclosed districts that isolated Jews from the non-Jewish population.

Holocaust

The systematic torture and murder of approximately six million European Jews and millions of other 'undesirables' by the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945.

Josef Mengele

The SS doctor responsible for conducting pseudo-scientific experiments on Jews, twins, and the physically and mentally disabled.

Killing Center

Camps designed and built solely for the purpose of killing Jews, including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka.

Kristallnacht

A pogrom where Jewish businesses and synagogues were looted and destroyed, known as 'Night of the Broken Glass'.

Kommando

A German word for detachment, referring to a detachment of concentration camp prisoners at forced labor.

Musselmann

A slang term for a prisoner who had given up the will to live.

Nazi

The National Socialist German Workers’ Political Party responsible for the persecution and mass extermination of Jews.

Nuremberg Laws

A set of German laws passed to strip Jews of their rights as German citizens.

Pogrom

An organized, state-sponsored attack on a group of people.

Prejudice

A preconceived opinion not based on reason or actual experience.

Propaganda

False or partly false information used by a government to sway public opinion.

Selection

The process of separating prisoners based on 'ability' to work when they arrived at concentration camps.

Stereotype

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Swastika

A symbol once used to ward off evil spirits, adopted by the Nazis as their official symbol.

SS

The German army’s elite guard, organized to serve as Hitler’s personal protectors and to administer concentration camps.

T4 Program

Nazi Euthanasia Program aiming to kill people with mental and physical disabilities.

Yellow Star of David (Jewish Badge)

A symbol that all Jews were ordered to wear to indicate their Jewish identity.