The Holocaust: Ghettos, Persecution, and Liberation

Vocabulary terms covering Nazi propaganda, Kristallnacht, ghettoization in Poland, resistance efforts, and the liberation of Nazi camps.

Kristallnacht

The attacks on November 9-10, known as the 'night of broken glass,' during which mobs of Nazis burned synagogues, broke into Jewish homes and businesses, and desecrated Jewish cemeteries.

SA

The military wing of the Nazi party, also referred to as Storm Troopers or Brownshirts, who participated in the Kristallnacht violence.

Hitler Youth

An organization of German children taught to believe Nazi propaganda and lies, who participated in the Kristallnacht attacks alongside the SA.

Ghettos

Designated sections of major cities established in 1939 where only Jews could live after being rounded up by Nazis in Poland and other occupied countries.

Warsaw Ghetto

The largest closed ghetto, containing 400,000 Jews within a 1.3 square mile area at its peak, where as many as 20% of residents died from disease due to poor sanitation and limited medicine.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

An event after which the Nazis closed the ghettos, either deporting the remaining inhabitants to concentration and death camps or converting the ghetto itself into a concentration camp.

Certificates of Baptism

Documents printed in the thousands by Bulgarian Orthodox Church priests to give to Jews to falsely prove they were Christian to protect them from deportation.

Post-Liberation Nazi Trials

Trials conducted after Allied forces liberated the camps, during which key Nazi leaders were tried, resulting in 19 convictions and 3 acquittals.