Transcript Night

Important Holocaust Terms
An introduction to a unit on the Holocaust and the novel, Night.
Mrs. Duke
10th grade English
Fall 2003
Added to by: Crystal Barbour
Holocaust
The state-sponsored, systematic persecution and
annihilation of European Jews by Nazi Germany
and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945
Jews were the primary victims—6 million were
murdered
Gypsies, the handicapped, and Poles were also
targeted for destruction or decimation for racial,
ethnic, or national reasons.
Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political
dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and
death under Nazi tyranny.
Star of David
Every Jew was
required to wear the
yellow Jewish badge
in the Ghetto
A yellow star inscribed with the
word, “Jude” became the
symbol of Nazi persecution.
Nazi
National Socialists
German Workers Party
Founded in 1919
Hitler became the leader
in 1921, and when Hitler
came to power in 1933, all
other political parties
besides the Nazi party
were banned.
Led by Adolph Hitler, they
practiced hatred of Jews,
gypsies, homosexuals, and
others
Nazi
The famous Nazi
salute
Adolf Hitler salutes
his followers at a Nazi
Party rally soon after
his appointment as
Chancellor. (February
1933).
Nazi Rallies
Swastika
An old religious
ornament adopted by
the Nazis as their party
symbol
Hitler’s personal standard
Ghetto
Special areas in cities where the Jews and other minorities
were forced to live before they were transported to
concentration camps
Often separated
from the city by a
stone wall
Ghetto
View of the gate at the Krakow ghetto. (Circa 1940)
Ghetto
A synagogue has been converted into a
temporary shelter to house Jewish families
forced to move into the ghetto in KrakowPodgorze. (1940 - 1941)
Gestapo
Also known as “secret
police.”
Groups instrumental in
carrying out Nazi policy
More visible in the ghettos
than in the concentration
camps
German police or soldiers check the identification papers
of a Jew in the streets of Krakow. (1940)
Gestapo – Geheime Staatspolizei
A German policeman checks the identification papers of a Jew
in the streets of the Krakow Ghetto. (1940)
Kapos
Prisoners who
cooperated with the
SS in the disciplining
their fellow prisoners
were called Kapos.
In this picture, a
Kapo (middle,
foreground) oversees
forced laborers in
Blechhammer
Schutzstaffel (SS)
A special force
notorious for its
brutal concentration
camp guards.
SS and police officials speaking among themselves during a
roll call of the prisoners. (1938 - 1940)
Concentration camps
Reservations where Jews and minorities
were forced to work and where many
were executed as part of Hitler’s “Final
Solution”
Some served as extermination camps,
others as holding camps.
Concentration Camps
In April 1943, Hitler noted, in regard to the
Jews in Poland: "If the Jews there don't want
to work they will be shot. If they cannot work,
they must rot. They should be treated like
tubercular bacillus which could attack
healthy bodies. That is not cruel - if one keeps
in mind that even innocent natural beings
like hares and deer must be killed so that no
damage occurs."
Auschwitz
Nazi death camp built in southern Poland
Heinrich Himmler ordered its creation on April
27, 1940.
Composed of three large camps which housed
five crematoria and forty-five subcamps
An estimated 1.1 million people were killed at
this death camp.
Auschwitz
View of the entrance to the main camp of Auschwitz
(Auschwitz I). The gate bears the motto "Arbeit Macht Frei"
(Work makes one free).
Auschwitz
Polish children imprisoned in Auschwitz look out from
behind the barbed wire fence. (July 1944)
Auschwitz
Corpses of Auschwitz prisoners in block 11 of the
main camp (Auschwitz I), as discovered by Soviet
war crimes investigators.
Auschwitz
Sacks of human hair
packed for dispatch to
Germany. The women
had their hair cut prior
to gassing. In Auschwitz
warehouses 7,000 kilos of
human hair was found at
liberation. (January
1945)
Photograph taken immediately after the departure of the Germans
from Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Buchenwald
Another death camp
located in southern
Germany
Survivors suffering from
malnutrition and a
variety of other diseases
in a section of the
hospital barracks
The inmates in the upper
bunks were unable to go
to the latrine, making
the sanitation in this
section intolerable.
(April 16, 1945)
Buchenwald
Prisoners standing during a roll call. Each wears a striped hat and
uniform bearing colored, triangular badges and identification
numbers. (1938 - 1941)
Hasidism
A Jewish religious movement started in
eastern Europe in the eighteenth century.
Hasidism is composed of many groups,
usually headed by a charismatic leader.
A Hasid often devotes his life to the study
of the Jewish scriptures, the Talmud, or the
cabbala.
Talmud
An ancient
compilation of Jewish
oral law accompanied
by a vast literature of
rabbinic commentary.
Dictates the lifestyle
and behavior of the
Jewish people
Cabala (Kabbalah)
esoteric system of interpretation of the Scriptures
based upon a tradition claimed to have been
handed down orally from Abraham.
based on the belief that every word, letter,
number, and even accent contains mysteries
interpretable by those who know the secret.
Jewish Holidays
Rosh Hashana: New Year’s
Yom Kippur: Day of Atonement
These feats encourage reassessment of one’s
life and deeds, and Jewish tradition teaches
that on these days God decides who will
live and die during the coming year.
Rosh Hashana
Means “First of the Year”, is the Jewish New
Years
A time to begin introspection and plan for the
upcoming year
Sounding of the Shofar in the synagogue
Apples dipped in honey
No work allowed
http://www.jewfaq.org/sound/shofar.mid
Yom Kippur
Means “Day of Atonement”
Most important holiday
Day set aside to atone sins made against God, not
man
Is a “Complete Sabbath”
Observances



No work
Fasting
Synagogue
For more information…
On Judaism visit www.jewfaq.org
On the Holocaust visit www.ushmm.org