Glossary of Key Terms

Dictatorship

a government by one leader/group tolerating no other ideologies

Diaspora

expulsion and exile of the Jews outside the land of Israel

Deutsche Christen

Nationalistic German Christians, a Protestant movement

Der Stürmer

a Nazi anti-Semitic magazine

Deportation

Jews were forcibly removed from their homes to transit locations, then to concentration and death camps.

Death Camps

Nazi camps designed exclusively for the speedy arrival and murder of the Jews. These are also known as ‘extermination camps’ and ‘killing centers’.

Crusades

Military Campaigns by European knights to free the Holy Land (1096-1271)

Criminal Police (Kripo)

German police detective force responsible for investigating non-political crimes.

Crematorium

a facility containing a furnace for reducing dead bodies to ashes by burning.

Concordat Agreement

Hitler’s agreement with the Vatican in 1933

Communism

a political movement of the left, which gained power in Russia in 1917.

Collaborator

cooperator with the Nazi occupation of his/her nation

Bystanders

Those who see events but do not intervene. This was the majority in Germany and the occupied countries during the Holocaust.

Buna

Industrial plant established by the I.G. Farben company on the site of Auschwitz III (Monowitz) in German-occupied Poland. I.G. Farben executives aimed to produce synthetic rubber and synthetic fuel (gasoline), using forced labor. Thousands of prisoners died there.

Buchenwald

a large concentration camp established in 1937 by the Nazis. It was located in north-central Germany, near the city of Weimar.

Brichah

Hebrew for flight; Jewish movement from Eastern Europe towards Italy after WWII with the goal of leaving Europe for Eretz Israel.

Black Death

a Middle Ages’ Pandemic, killed millions of people worldwide.

Birkenau

Nazi camp also known as Auschwitz II (see Auschwitz above), Birkenau contained systematic mass killing operations. It also housed thousands of concentration camp prisoners deployed at forced labor.

Bekennende Kirche

Confessing Church; Protests theological opposition to Nazism from 1933.

Balfour Declaration

Great Britain’s declaration of support for a Jewish national home in Palestine given in 1917.

Arrow Cross

anti-Semitic and violent organization in Hungary during WWII

תקומה (Tkuma)

Rebirth

תפוצה (Tfutsa)

Diaspora

שקר (Sheker)

Lie