The Dictionary of the Holocaust

By: M. Moss

Auschwitz-BirkeneauAuschwitz was Nazi concentration and extermination

camp. Auschwitz is located 37 miles west of Krakow. Heinrich Himmler was the head of S.S. and German police. On April 27, 1940, Himmler ordered the establishment of bigger concentration camp by a town named Oswiecimo of Polish Eastern upper Silesia. The camps were very efficient. Prisoners were required to strip before gas chambers. Auschwitz was used to conduct medical experiments.

Smelser, Roland. “Auschwitz.” Learning about the Holocaust. 2001. Print.

Barracks in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. This photograph was taken after the liberation of the camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, after January 29, 1945.

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Babi YarBabi Yar is also spelled Babii Yar. The Babi Yar aided as a

slaughterhouse for anybody. The Babi Yar is located in the northern western part of Kiev. Kiev was captured by German Army on September 19, 1941. The Jewish population of 160,000,100,000 fled before German takeover. September 26, 1941, the Germans decided that Jews of Kiev would be put to death. On the morning of September 29, 1941, the Jews learned that they were going to be killed. All bones that were not burned were crushed. After World War II it nearly took twenty years for a memorial.

Smelser, Roland. “Babi Yar.” Learning about the Holocaust. 2001. Print.

Soviet investigators (at left) view an opened grave at Babi Yar. Kiev, Soviet Union, 1944

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Gypsies Another name for gypsies is Romani. Gypsies have been

living in Europe since the fifteenth century. They are people who are bound by a common language and culture. Until the twentieth century the gypsies lived by a nomadic way of life. The gypsies were one of the groups who were singled out by the Nazi regime for persecution. The professions were dictated by their wandering way of life.

Smelser, Roland. “Gypsies.” Learning about the Holocaust. 2001. Print.

Roma (Gypsies) near Uzhgorod, Slovakia. Czechoslovakia, 1938.

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Raoul WallenbergRaoul was born on August 4, 1912, in Kapptsta, Sweden.

His full name is Raoul Gustav Wallenberg. Raoul’s father died 3 months before his birth. He wanted to be able to offer protection for Jews inside Swedish buildings. Budapest was where Raoul did most of his work. He successfully got thousands of Jewish people moved from the ghetto to Swedish safe houses. Nobody knows when Wallenberg died but his body was found on July 17, 1947.

McArthur, Debra. Raoul Wallenberg. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2005. Print.

Passport photograph of Raoul Wallenberg. Sweden, June 1944

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KristallnachtKristallnacht is also known as crystal night or night of the

broken glass. The name Kristallnacht comes from Zwiesel Kristallglas. Kristallnacht occurred on November 9 and 10, 1938. Spontaneous outburst provoked by the assassination of the third secretary of the German embassy in Paris, Ernst Vom Rath.

Yahl, Leni. “Kristallnacht.” Encyclopedia of Holocaust. 1990. Print.

Synagogue destroyed during Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass"). Dortmund, Germany, November 1938.

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Warsaw GhettoWarsaw Ghetto’s imprisonment is one and

half square miles of half-ruined streets. Labeling of 500,000 men, women, and children were Jews. During the war, several Ringelblum dossiers were smuggled through German lines. As a community of half a million people physically cut off from the rest of the world. The Warsaw Ghetto could not do without its own internal administration.

Keller, Ulrich. The Warsaw Ghetto in Photographs. Canada: General Publishing Company, Ltd., 1984. Print.

A Warsaw ghetto resident gives money to two children on a Warsaw ghetto street. Warsaw, Poland, between October 1940 and April 1943.

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