Holocaust Vocabulary
- anti-Semitism – opposition to and discrimination against Jews, a form of bigotry (intolerance of others’ beliefs)
- Aryan – Hitler’s ideal, superior race
- atrocity – an act of extreme cruelty and wickedness
- barrack – (bear-ack) – a large, plain building where soldiers or prisoners sleep.
- bigotry – intolerance of others’ beliefs
- bystander - a person present but not involved; a spectator or on-looker who does not participate.
- dehumanize –when a person is treated very poorly like an animal or piece of property; less than human
- deportation – lawfully removing a group of people
- displaced – someone who is forced to move out of their home and is without a home or country.
- emaciated - to make abnormally lean or thin by a gradual wasting away of flesh
- genocide (jen-o-side) – the deliberate and systematic destruction of an entire racial, political, cultural or religious group
- Gestapo – Secret state of police of Nazi-occupied Europe
- ghetto – a section of a city, a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or minority group which had restrictions, pressures, and hardships. (Capitalized if NAME of a specific ghetto)
- inhumane - lacking humanity, pity, kindness, compassion; mean or cruel
- liquidation – the act of getting rid of, especially by killing. During the Holocaust, the Nazis liquidated many groups of people.
- sadistic – gratification gained (enjoyment) through causing pain or degradation to others.
- scapegoat–a person or group that is blamed for the mistakes of others
- swastika – an ancient symbol used by the Nazis as their emblem
- typhus – Typhus is an often-fatal infectious disease spread by fleas and lice. It is characterized by a rash, extreme weakness, and brain irritation.
- Zionism – a movements which wanted to establish a Jewish homeland in Israel.
These are 11words you should know. However, you should NOT use these words in your homework assignments.
- Auschwitz –the most infamous death camp during the Holocaust, located in Poland.
- concentration camps – prisons used without regard to accepted norms of arrest and detention. Death, disease, starvation, crowded and unsanitary conditions and torture were a daily part of concentration camps.
- Death Camps – Hitler’s extermination centers – where victims were brought to be killed.
- Work Camps – Hitler’s centers used to have victims work and make things to support the Germans in war.
- the “Final Solution” – the plan to exterminate all the Jews in Europe
- Holocaust –
- A great or complete devastation or destruction usually by fire (not capitalized)
- Any mass destruction of life (especially the systematic slaughter of European Jews by Nazis) (capitalized)
- Judaism - Religion and culture of the Jewish people based on the Old Testament passed down through mother’s lineage.
- liberation – the act of setting something free
- Nazis - members of the National Socialist German Workers' party of Germany in 1933 under Adolf Hitler.
Nazi = 1 personNazis = 2 or more people
Nazi’s = 1 person’s possessionNazis’ = 2 or more people’s possessions
- Axis Power/Allied Powers –
- Axis – Germany, Italy, Japan
- Allies – America, Britain, France, Russia
- Kristallnacht – translates as “night of broken glass”; a day in 1938 when Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were attacked, and Jews were first deported.
- Mein Kampf (mine-comf) – My Struggle” – written by Adolf Hitler. It is the basis for the Nazi Party’s racist beliefs. Published in 1925.
- Nuremberg Laws – laws which deprived Jews of their civil rights and systematizing the discrimination and persecution of the Jews.
*Please note the capitalization of each word! You will lose points for capitalizing incorrectly!