Key Vocabulary from Concentration Camp Literature

A collection of vocabulary terms and their definitions related to the experiences and conditions of prisoners in concentration camps.

Dregs

The worst or lowest part of a group, like prisoners who were extremely weak and near death.

Joseling (Jostling)

Pushing or bumping into people in a crowded space, like prisoners fighting for room or food.

Apathy

Not caring anymore; the prisoners often felt numb and lost the will to react.

Emaciated

Extremely thin and weak from starvation.

Kommandant

The Nazi officer in charge of a concentration camp.

Buchenwald

The concentration camp where Elie and his father were taken near the end of the book.

Bewildered

Very confused and unsure about what was happening.

Gleiwitz

A camp the prisoners were forced to march to during the brutal winter death march.

Spectacle

Something shocking or dramatic that people watch, like public punishments.

Automatons

People acting like machines without thinking or feeling, which describes how the prisoners moved from exhaustion.

Illuminated

Lit up or made bright, such as lights in the camp.

Vain

Something done with no success or result; efforts that didn’t change anything.

Vitality

Energy and strength to live, which prisoners slowly lost from hunger and abuse.

Barrack

A wooden building where prisoners were crowded together to sleep.

Blockältester (Blockaltester)

The prisoner put in charge of a barrack by the Nazis.

Avail

To help or make a difference.

Poignant

Very emotional or deeply sad.

Gallows

A structure used to hang prisoners as punishment.

Laden

Filled or loaded with something, often used to describe people or wagons packed with bodies.

Diminished

Made smaller or weaker, like how prisoners’ strength and hope faded.