Glossary of Terms

 

To find the term you are looking for please look under the page you came from (the pages are listed in alphabetical order, as are the terms). When you are ready to return to your original page just click on the green glossary term.

 

The Beginning 

 

Attitude of appeasement - Reference to the UN not backing its threats against Hitler for his actions of breaking the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles.

 

Compensation - payment for damages

 

League of Nations - formed as part of the terms in the Treaty of Versailles. It is a grouping the several of the Allied nations in an attempt to keep order in the world after WWI.

 

Ostracizing - seperating; keeping at a distance

 

The Great War - another name for WWI

 

 

Children of the Holocaust

 

Euthanasia - The act of mercifully killing, as with a lethal injection or other such method. Used also in exterminating the physically and mentally handicapped,

 

Hitler Youth - The young German people, 10-18 years old, who were trained by the Nazi Party to be indoctrinated with Nazi ideals. Once they turned 18, they were required to join the Party.

 

Kindertransport - Programs sponsored by western European countries that arranged for Jewish children to be transported abroad without their parents to waiting families who were willing raise them as part of their family.

 

 

 

Concentration Camps

 

Action or Aktion - Action refers to the Nazi removal of Jews from the ghettos. Actions were extremely violent. Families were told to pack in less than 10 minutes, then were uprooted from their homes and crammed into cattle cars to be shipped to concentration camps. Anyone caught hiding during an action was either severely beaten or killed.

 

Aktion T4 -  Code name for the Euthanasia Program, developed under the Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases, which carried out the s of men, women, and children seen as unfit to live. Aktion T4 started in the year 1939. Its code name was taken from "Tiergartenstrasse 4" (Tear-gar-ten-stra-ssa) the address of the Reich Chancellery building. Aktion T4 was responsible for the s of over 100,000 people. Methods used to kill "undesirables" included starvation, poisonous gas, and lethal injection.

 

Antisocials - Peoples, such as the gypsies or s who did not fit into society's perception of "normal." Gypsies were especially considered antisocial because of their reputation as thieves, nomads, and isolationists.

 

Disinfected - killed, either through euthanasia or in the gas chambers.

 

Einsatzgruppen - (eyen-satz-grup-ben) mobile units. There were four of these units, each with about 3,000 volunteers. As the army moved across the Soviet Union in 1941 the Eisatzgruppen followed. There job was to kill Jews and communist officials. By December of 1942 the Eisatzgruppen had killed over 1.4 million Jews.

 

Judenrat - (yu-den-rat) every community had a Judenrat, or a Jewish council, whose members were selected by the s. The council was led by a judenalteste. The Judenrat was responsible for carrying out orders on a local level. "From the point of view, the Judenrat had three basic functions: To provide the authorities with updated lists of Jews and their possessions; to pay levies; and to provide Jewish laborers for -sponsored work projects. In almost every community the s also established the Ordnungsdienst, the role of which was to ensure compliance with regulations and to help round up Jews for relocation" (Edelheit, 54).

 

Kapo - prisoners, often Jews, who had been chosen to supervise their fellow inmates. Sometimes the Kapos were just as cruel as the SS guards, other kapos risked their lives to make things better for their fellow victims.

 

Socioeconomic - When Jews were taken to the Ghettos that created job opportunities and housing vacancies for those left behind. Most believed that the Jews were being taken to pleasant cities where they could be with their religious/ethnic community under the supervision of troops. Pro da spread about the Jews made them seem like dangerous individuals with the power to take over a society. Therefore, the idea that they were being moved to a city where they could live peacefully, but be kept away from the general public seemed like a wonderful solution to many people.

 

Sonderkommando - Jews who worked in the gas chambers and crematorias. The Sonderkommando were responsible for over seeing the undressing, gassing, and body burning.

 

SS Soldiers - A private nazi party which ran the Concentration Camps.

 

 

 

Current Connections

 

Genocide - Is the organized and purposeful killing of a national, racial, political, religious, or cultural group of people through warfare or through "ethnic cleansing."

 

 

 

 

Hitler

 

DAF- (Deutsche Arbeiter Front, or the German Labor Front) - This was a government run labor union.  All workers in Germany were required to join.  And, it was the only labor union approved by the Nazis, so they controlled working conditions, hours, and wages.  This meant that there could be no strikes or complaints. 

 

Nuremberg Laws - Laws passed by the Nazis that prohibited the Jews from many things.  For example, these laws took away the Jews' German citizenship.  Marriages between Jews and Aryans were prohibited.  Jews could not hire Aryan women to work in their homes either. 

 

Volkisch - (Fol-kish) "A group of fanatic Germans who believed in the superiority of the Germanic people.  They felt that the Volk (Folk), "people", were being threatened by foreigners, particularly Jews.  The purpose of the government, they claimed, was to protect and promote the lives of the Volk; everyone else was inferior."  (Ayer, 21) 

 

 

 

Jews Introduction

 

Anti-semetism - Hatred and discrimination directed toward anyone of the Jewish faith and anyone considered descendants of Jews whether religiously affiliated or not.

 

Blitzkrieg - (meaning "Lightning War") is the term given to the tactics Hitler used to overwhelm the armies of his enemies.

 

Judaism - Term given to the Jewish faith.

 

Mein Kampf - (Mine Campf) book written by Hitler before he became the Furher.

 

The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion - A book of fictitious communications between several importan Jewish leaders in an attempt to show they were attempting to take over the world. However, it was merely published as propoganda and used as part of the curriculum of the Hitler Youth. It was actually plagarized from a mid-1800's French Satire Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu which does not even mention Jews at all.

 

 

 

Minority Persecution

 

Aryan - Hitler's idea of a "master race" of people of Northern European descent, having the physical traits of light skin, blond hair, and blue eyes.

 

Gypsies -  Also called Roma and Sinti, a nomadic people who originally came from northern India and traveled through and intermarried with eastern Europeans.

 

Lebensraum - Literally "living space." All the land that Hitler desired to populate with his German Aryan race, namely, all of eastern Europe.

 

Propaganda - information, ideas, or doctrines deliberately spread to help or harm a person, ethnic group, religion, movement, institution, nation, etc.

 

 

 

Post World War II

 

International Military Tribune - (IMT) Judges from the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union the heard the case of 21 Nazi's after World War II and sentenced according to the severity of their crimes.

 

 

Berlin Airlift - The Allies transported supplies to the West Berlin when the Soviets blocked their entry into the city.

 

 

Berlin Wall - Khrushchev built a wall dividing East Berlin from West Berlin to prevent East Berliners from immigrating to West Berlin and Democracy.

 

 

 

 

Psychology of Genocide

 

Bystander effect - the effect that watching a crime with a group of people has on an individual.  The individual is less likely to help someone in distress when there is a crowd watching.  They reason that there are other people there, why don't they help?  When a crime is comitted in broad daylight, the result is just usually a group standing around and watching, all wondering why no one is helping.   

 

Compliance- different from conformity, this term involves someone asking another person to do a task.  This doesn't mean that they need to change their beliefs, they just need to complete the task. 

 

Conformity - is the tendency to comply with a group. It is very difficult to take a stand alone, peer pressure and the fear of humiliation can cause one to yield to the beliefs and goals of their associations.

 

Deindividualization - the person loses self-identity.  They start to identify with a group.  They can start to reason that because they are part of this group there is a diffusion of responsibility.