Allies
Twenty-six nations led by Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union that joined in war against Nazi Germany, Italy, Japan, and their allies, known as the Axis powers.

Antisemitism
Prejudices toward Jews or discrimination against them.

Aryan
Originally, a term for peoples speaking the languages of Europe and India. Twisted by Nazis, who viewed those of Germanic background as the best examples of "superior," "Aryan race."

Auschwitz-Birkenau
Largest Nazi camp, located 37 miles west of Cracow, Poland. Established in 1940 as a concentration camp, it included a killing center, at Birkenau, in 1942. Also part of the huge camp complex was I. G. Farben's slave labor camp, known as Buna-Monowitz.

Belzec
Nazi extermination camp in eastern Poland where an estimated 550,000 Jews were killed between March 1942 and December 1942. Earlier, Belzec functioned as a forced-labor camp.

Bergen-Belsen
Located in northern Germany, transformed from a prisoner-exchange camp into a concentration camp in March 1944. Poor sanitary conditions, epidemics, and starvation led to deaths of thousands, including Anne and Margot Frank in March 1945.

Buchenwald
Concentration camp in north-central Germany, established in July 1937. One of the largest concentration camps on German soil, with more than 130 satellite labor camps. It held many political prisoners. More than 65,000 of approximately 250,000 prisoners perished at Buchenwald.

Chancellor
Chief (prime) minister of Germany, head of the government.

Chelmno
Nazi extermination camp in western Poland where at least 150,000 Jews, about 5,000 Gypsies, and several hundred Poles, as well as Soviet prisoners of war, were killed between December 1941 and March 1943 and between April and August 1944.

Concentration Camps
In German, Konzentrationslager. Prison camps constructed to hold Jews, Gypsies, political and religious opponents, resisters, homosexuals, and other Germans considered "enemies of the state." Before the end of World War II, more than 100 concentration camps had been created across German-occupied Europe.

Dachau
First concentration camp, established in March 1933 near Munich, Germany. At first Dachau held only political opponents, but over time, more and more groups were imprisoned there. Thousands died at Dachau from starvation, maltreatment, and disease.

Death Camp
Term widely used to describe both extermination camps, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka, where people were murdered in assembly-line style by gassing, and concentration camps such as Bergen-Belsen and Dachau, without gas chambers but where thousands were killed by starvation, disease, and maltreatment.

Drancy
Located near Paris, Drancy became the largest transit camp for deportation of Jews from France. Between July 1942 and August 1944, about 61,000 Jews were transported from Drancy to Auschwitz, where most of them perished.

Eichmann, Adolf (1906-1962)
SS Lieutenant Colonel and head of the Gestapo department dealing with Jewish affairs. Organized transports of Jews from all over Europe to Nazi extermination camps. After the war, he escaped to Latin America. Captured by the Israeli Secret Service in Argentina, he was brought to Israel for trial. He was tried in Jerusalem in 1961, convicted, and executed.

Einsatzgruppen
Mobile units of SS and SD (Security Service) which followed German armies into the Soviet Union in June 1941. They were ordered to shoot all Jews, as well as Communist leaders and Gypsies. At least one million Jews were killed by Einsatzgruppen.

Extermination Camps
In German, Vernichtungslager. Nazi camps, equipped with gassing facilities, for mass murder of Jews. Located in Poland at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek-Lublin, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Up to 2,700,000 Jews were murdered at these six camps, as were tens of thousands of Gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, Poles, and others.

Final Solution
Refers to "the final solution to the Jewish question in Europe." Nazi code for physical destruction of European Jews.

Frank, Anne (1929-1945)
Born in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1933, she moved with her family to Amsterdam, Holland. On July 6, 1942, they went into hiding and, helped by Miep Gies, remained in hiding until their arrest by {Gestapo} on August 4, 1944. They were held at the Westerbork transit camp from August 8, 1944 until September 3, 1944, when they were deported to {Auschwitz-Birkenau}. Anne's mother, Edith Frank, perished there on January 6, 1945. Anne and her sister, Margot, were transferred to {Bergen-Belsen} in late October 1944, and they both died there of typhus in March 1945. Anne's father, Otto Frank, survived.

Fuhrer
German word for "leader."

Genocide
Deliberate, systematic destruction of a racial, cultural, or political group.

Gestapo
In German, Geheime Staatspolizei. Secret State Police.

Goebbels, Paul Josef (1897-1945)
Minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany, who was close to Hitler. At the end of the war, Goebbels and his wife took their own lives and those of their six children.

Gypsies
Popular term for Roma and Sinti, nomadic people believed to have come originally from northwest India. Traveling mostly in small caravans, Gypsies first appeared in western Europe in the 1400s and eventually spread to every country of Europe. Prejudices toward Gypsies were and are widespread. Approximately 250,000 to 500,000 Gypsies are believed to have perished in Nazi concentration camps, killing centers, and in Einzatsgruppen and other shootings.

Heydrich, Reinhard (1904-1942)
SS Lieutenant General, head of the {Reich} Security, which included the Gestapo. Organized the Einsatzgruppen and led the Wannsee Conference of January 1942, where the coordination of the "final solution" was discussed. He was shot by members of the Czech resistance on May 27, 1942, near Prague, and died several days later. To honor Heydrich, Nazis gave the code name "Operation Reinhard" to destruction of the Jews in occupied Poland, at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka extermination camps.

Himmler, Heinrich (1900-1945)
Reich leader of the SS from 1929 to 1945, during World War 11, he was head of a vast empire: all SS formations, police forces, concentration and labor camps. The senior SS leader responsible for carrying out the "final solution," Himmler committed suicide before he could be brought to trial.

Jehovah's Witnesses
Religious sect that originated in the United States and had about 20,000 members in Germany in 1933. Witnesses, whose religious beliefs did not allow them to swear allegiance to any worldly power, were persecuted as "enemies of the state." About 10,000 Witnesses from Germany and other countries were imprisoned in concentration camps. Of these, about 2,500 died.

Jewish Council
In German, Judenrat. Council of Jewish leaders established on Nazi orders in German-occupied towns and cities.

Juden
German word for "Jews."

Killing Centers
Camps equipped with facilities to kill with poisonous gas: Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor, Treblinka, as well as killing sections of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek-Lublin concentration camps.

Lodz
Before World War II, a major industrial city in western Poland with a Jewish population second only to Warsaw's. In April 1940, the first major ghetto was created there. Some 43,500 persons died in the Lodz ghetto from starvation, disease, and exposure to cold. Thousands more taken from the ghetto were killed by gassing at Chelmno. In August-September 1944, the 60,000 remaining Jews were sent to Auschwitz.

Majdanek-Lublin
Located near Lublin in eastern Poland, at first a labor camp for Poles and prisoner-of-war camp for Soviets, it existed as a concentration camp from April 1943 to July 1944. Tens of thousands perished there from starvation, maltreatment, and shootings. Also a killing center, where at least 50,000 Jews were gassed.

Mauthausen
Concentration camp for men near Linz in upper Austria, opened in August 1938. Many political prisoners were held at Mauthausen and its numerous subcamps. Classified by the SS as one of the two harshest concentration camps; many prisoners were killed there by being pushed from 300-foot cliffs into stone quarries.

Mengele, Josef (1911-1979)
Senior SS physician at Auschwitz-Birkenau from 1943 to 1944. One of the physicians who carried out "selections" of prisoners upon arrival at camp, separating those assigned to forced labor and those to be killed. Mengele also carried out cruel research on twins deported to the camp. After the war, he disappeared. The corpse of a Wolfgang Gerhard, who died in a swimming accident in 1979, was discovered in Brazil in 1985 and identified as Mengele

Nazi
Short term for National Socialist German Workers Party, a right-wing, nationalistic, and antisemitic political party formed in 1919 and headed by Adolf Hitler from 1921 to 1945.

Occupation
Control of a country taken over by a foreign military power.

Palestine, British Mandate of
Territory assigned to British control in 1920 by terms of a postwar treaty with defeated Turkey; the British mandate was ended on May l 5, 1948, when the territory was divided into the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan.

Partisan
Member of a resistance group operating secretly within enemy lines, using hit-and-run guerrilla tactics against occupying forces.

Persecution
Act of causing others to suffer, especially those who differ in background or lifestyle or hold different political or religious beliefs.

Pogrom
Russian word for "devastation." Organized violence against Jews, often with understood support of authorities.

Ravensbruck
Concentration camp for women opened in May 1939, 56 miles north of Berlin. An estimated 120,000 prisoners were inmates there, including many political prisoners, Jews, Gypsies, and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Reich
German word for "empire."

Reichstag
Germany's lawmaking body, its parliament.

Rhineland
Demilitarized zone that Allies established after World War I as a buffer between Germany and western Europe.

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882-1945)
Thirty-second president of the United States, serving from 1933 to 1945.

SA
In German, Sturmabteilung. Storm Troopers. Also called "Brownshirts." Members of a special armed and uniformed branch of the Nazi party.

Scapegoat
Person or group of persons unfairly blamed for wrongs done by others.

Shtetl
Yiddish word for small Jewish town or village.

Sobibor
Nazi extermination camp in eastern Poland where up to 200,000 Jews were killed between May 1942 and November 1943.

Sonderkommando
German word for "special squad." In the context of extermination camps, it refers to units of Jewish prisoners forced to take away bodies of gassed inmates to be cremated and to remove gold fillings and hair.

SS
In German, Schutzstaffel. Protection Squad. Units formed in 1925 as Hitler's personal bodyguard. The SS was later built into a giant organization by Heinrich Himmler. It provided staff for police, camp guards, and military units (Waffen-SS) serving with the German army.

Star of David
Star with six points, symbol of the Jewish religion.

Sudetenland
Mainly German-speaking region that was part of Czechoslovakia between the two world wars. Annexed by Germany in October 1938.

Theresienstadt
German name for Czech town of Terezin, located about 40 miles from Prague. Nazis used the {Theresienstadt} ghetto, established in November 1941, as a "model Jewish settlement" to show Red Cross investigators how well Jews were being treated. In reality, thousands died there from starvation and disease, and thousands more were deported and killed in extermination camps.

Treblinka
Nazi extermination camp about 50 miles northeast of Warsaw. Up to 750,000 Jews and at least 2,000 Gypsies were killed at Treblinka between July 1942 and November 1943.

Underground
Organized group acting in secrecy to oppose the government or, during war, to resist occupying enemy forces.

Warsaw
The capital of Poland, where about 375,000 Jews lived on the eve of World War I1. In October-November 1940, Germans established the Warsaw ghetto, into which some 500,000 Jews were crowded. Of these, an average of 5,000 to 6,000 died each month from starvation, disease, exposure to cold, and shootings. Tens of thousands were deported to Treblinka in 1942. After an uprising organized by resistance fighters ended on May 16, 1943, the surviving Jews were deported to Nazi camps.

Weimar Republic
German republic (1919-1933), a parliamentary democracy, established after World War I.

Westerbork
Transit camp in northeastern Holland for almost 100,000 Jews who were deported between 1942 and 1944 to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor, Theresienstadt, and Bergen-Belsen. Anne Frank and her family were held at Westerbork between August 8, 1944 and September 3, 1944, when they were put on the last transport to Auschwitz.

Yiddish
A language that combines elements of German and Hebrew, usually written in Hebrew characters and spoken by Jews chiefly in eastern Europe and areas to which eastern Europeans have migrated.