anti-Semitism—Hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.
Aryans—Indo-Iranian ancestors of Germans on whom Nazis based their master race claims.
concentration camp—An area where the Nazis “concentrated” prisoners in one place, treated them brutally, and forced them to work under subhuman conditions.
Einsatzgruppen—Mobile killing units of security police and SD officials.
fascism—A form of government headed, in most cases, by a dictator.
führer—German national leader; Adolf Hitler was Der Führer of Germany.
genocide—The systematic killing of an entire racial, ethnic, political, or religious group.
gentile—A person of a non-Jewish nation.
Gestapo—The Nazi secret police active in rounding up Jews for the death camps.
ghettos—A small, run-down area of a town where Jews, under Nazi persecution, were isolated and forced to live, until they were deported to concentration camps.
guerrilla warfare—Fighting tactics which include being aggressive, radical, or unconventional.
Holocaust—The systematic extermination of six million European Jews by the Nazis.
Jewish Fighting Organization(ZOB)—Established in the ghettos, by the Jews, for the purpose of organizing and obtaining weapons for defense against Nazis.
Judenrat—Jewish Council set up in the ghettos, by the Nazis, to ensure all orders for the Jewish movement were carried out.
judenrein—Empty (free) of Jews.
kibbutz—Communal farm or settlement in Israel.
kiddush hashem—Ceremonial blessing pronounced over wine or bread in a Jewish home or synagogue on a holy day.
Knesset—Israel parliament.
Nuremberg Laws—Laws established on September 15, 1935, wiping out the rights of Germany’s Jews.
Operation Barbarossa—The German invasion of Russia in World War II.
SD(Sicherheitsdienst)—The intelligence service of the SS headed by Reinhard Heydrich.
SS (Schutzstaffel)—”Black Shirts”; Hitler’s personal guard unit; expanded in World War II to perform mass killings.