Glossary of Key Terms

חסد (Chesed)

Lovingkindness

Yom HaShoah

Hebrew calendar date chosen for its proximity to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising dates to commemorate the Shoah, its heroes and its martyrs

Yiddish

A mixture of Hebrew and mainly German spoken by Eastern European Jews

Winston Churchill

Great Britain’s Wartime Prime Minister and Leader

Weimar Republic

Name for the parliamentary democracy established in Germany from 1919–1933, following the collapse of Imperial Germany and preceding Nazi rule.

Wehrmacht

German army

Wannsee Conference

A January 1942 breakfast meeting of various branches of the German administration to discuss how to more efficiently organize the murder of the Jews

Waffen SS

Combat Troops of the SS

WWII

a global war 1939-1945; the Holocaust took place during this war.

WWI

a global war 1914-1918

Victim

target for persecution and hatred. In the Holocaust all Jews of Europe, and potentially elsewhere, were intended victims.

Versailles Peace Treaty

This treaty ended WWI; understood as humiliating by Germans.

Ustasha

a Croatian paramilitary and anti-Semitic group, acted for the Nazis.

Upstanders

Those who try to act for someone’s benefit in a bad situation, such as the Holocaust. They may act in a variety of ways all helping the victim of the situation.

Upper Silesia

an area that Nazi Germany annexed in 1939 after invading and conquering Poland.

UNRRA

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, founded in 1943 to assist postwar refugees and Displaced Persons in repatriation and economic relief.

Trade Union

an association to protect rights of workers preferably by protective legislation

Totalitarianism

supplanting a government, including existing legal and political traditions, with one party pursuing very specific goals. It literally means submitting all things under one power.

Third Reich

Hitler’s regime following the Holy Roman Empire (800-1806) and the German Empire (1871-1918)

Tanakh

acronym from the Hebrew letters for what Christians call the Old Testament. The word comes from Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvi’im (Writings) parts of the Hebrew Bible.

THGC/THGAAC

The Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission

T4

Euthanasia program, named by its physical street address.

Synagogue

in Judaism, a house of worship and learning.

Survivors

Holocaust survivors are Jews who survived the Holocaust mainly in Nazi occupied Europe. There are others who survived different situations.