1. Holocaust Vocabulary

2. Holocaust
The mass murder of 6 million Jews and 5 million others by Hitler and the Nazis

3. Treaty of Versailles Ended WWI Blamed Germany for WWI
Greatly reduced Germany’s military
Took away some of Germany’s land
Forced Germany to pay 33 billion dollars for WWI expenses (half a trillion dollars today)

4. Map of ”lost” German land

5. Nazi Party
A political group formed by German workers that became Anti-Jewish as it rose to power in the 1920’s and 1930’s; it eventually became the only political party allowed after Hitler came to power

6. scapegoat
A person or a group of people who is blamed for something they did not do

7. discrimination
Treating a person differently because of their race, religion, gender, etc.

8. Nuremberg Laws
Anti-Jewish laws imposed in 1935

9. Anti-Semitism
Discrimination towards Jews as a religious or ethnic group

10. Kristallnacht – unofficial start of Holocaust
“Night of Broken Glass” – November 9-10, 1938; Nazis led an attack on Jewish businesses and synagogues

11. Axis Powers vs. Allied Powers

12. Final Solution
Hitler’s secret plan to murder all of the Jews in Europe
Letter is asking for assistance with the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”

13. concentration camps
Prisons built by the Nazis where prisoners did forced labor and had to live in horrible conditions

15. ghetto – sections of a city where Jews were forced to live in very crowded and horrible conditions

16. extermination camp
Concentration camps established by the Nazis for the purpose of mass murder

17. Auschwitz Largest concentration/ extermination camp in Poland
over 1 million people were murdered at this camp
All 3 types of camps
Prison camp (I)
Extermination camp (II)
Work camp (III)

18. SS (short for “Schutzstaffel”, translates as “Protection Squadron”
Hitler’s special forces, responsible for running the concentration camps and carrying out the Final Solution
SS Headquarters
Hitler and Himmler (glasses)

19. Resistance forces
Groups of people who worked against Hitler and the Nazis
Members of the “White Rose” resistance movement

20. Death marches
The forced march of concentration camp prisoners when the SS attempted to evacuate all prisoners back to Germany as the liberating Soviet and Allied armies got close to the camps
Monument to those killed in death marches – this can be found at the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel

21. Liberation – when the remaining prisoners at the concentration camps were freed by the Allies at the end of WWII