1. Jewish Council (German: Judenrat): administrative organizations that the German occupiers ordered Jewish communities to set up to manage Jewish affairs. The council had the task of carrying out some of the measures that the Germans imposed on the Jews. Anyone who worked for the Jewish Council was temporarily exempted from deportation. Thousands of people were involved in the work of these organizations.
Many Jewish people resented the council members, particularly the leaders, for following the orders of the occupying Germans, and they thought the exemption from deportation was unfair, but a lot of Jewish Council members secretly tried to help others whenever they had the chance.
2. raid: a police or army action to find people and take them into custody.
3. mixed marriage: usually a marriage between two people of different religious backgrounds or nationalities. In this case, a marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew. Generally, Jews in mixed marriages were not required to report for deportation, and their children did not have to wear stars on their clothing to indicate that they were Jewish. They did, however, have to obey the other rules that the German occupiers had made for Jews.
4. star: a Star of David on a yellow background with the word Jood (Dutch: Jew) in the center. From May 3, 1942, all Jews six years and older had to wear this star on their outer clothes. The star had to be clearly visible and firmly attached, or the person would be punished.
5. the resistance: organizations carrying out activities against occupying forces, such as helping people go into hiding, printing and distributing underground newspapers, and acts of sabotage.
6. Arbeitseinsatz: (German: forced labor) Many German men had been called up to join the army, so Dutch men were taken to Germany to work there toward the end of the war. The men, and sometimes women, were simply rounded up and sent to Germany. Many non-Jewish men tried to escape this forced labor by going into hiding like the Jews.
7. Hunger Winter (Dutch: Hongerwinter): the Dutch famine in winter 1944–45, when there was a serious shortage of food in much of the Netherlands, causing many people to starve to death.
8. Wehrmacht: the name of the German army from 1935 to 1945.
9. Pronounced “YOH-pee HOOF-nah-gul.”
10. NSB: the National Socialist Movement (Dutch: Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging), a kind of political party in the Netherlands (1931–45), which was modeled on Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party in Germany. The NSB often worked with the German occupiers.
11. Pronounced like the English word “ice”. IJ is a single letter in Dutch, which is why both letters are capitalized here.
12. concentration camp: a large prison camp where people were treated very badly and often died from malnutrition, abuse, or serious illnesses. In many concentration camps, people were murdered, often upon arrival. These camps were known as extermination camps. Two of the best-known camps are Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibor. Most of the Dutch Jews were murdered in these two camps.
13. Sperre (German: block): a stamp in a person’s identity card that exempted them from transportation to a concentration camp. The Germans could withdraw the Sperre at any moment, which eventually happened in almost every case.
14. Westerbork: Before the war, Westerbork was established by the Dutch government as an internment camp for German-Jewish refugees. This changed during the war, when the Germans turned Westerbork into a transit camp. Almost all of the Jews who were rounded up in the Netherlands were sent by train to Westerbork, where they were kept in very primitive conditions. Mainly Jews, but also other groups of “undesirable aliens,” were sent first to Westerbork and then on to the concentration and extermination camps. Between July 15, 1942, and September 13, 1944, ninety-three trains headed to the east, carrying 102,000 Jews. Around 5,000 Jews returned to the Netherlands after liberation.
15. Pronounced “MOO-kuh.”
16. Pronounced “SAY-bul-chuh.”
17. Pronounced “SHAAK.”
18. Allies: the countries that fought together against the Germans in World War II, which included Canada, France, Poland, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
19. Hollandsche Schouwburg: a theater in Amsterdam that the German occupiers used between August 1942 and November 1943 to imprison Jews before they were sent to concentration camps. Young children of families held there were taken to a kindergarten across the street.
20. Pronounced “REET-chuh.”
21. SS (Schutzstaffel): a paramilitary organization often seen as the most brutal division of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party.
22. Frisian, or West Frisian: a language closely related to Dutch, which is spoken in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands.
23. Gestapo: the German secret police. Their main activity was tracking down the enemies of the German occupiers. The Gestapo then sent their “enemies” to concentration camps with no legal representation. They were known for torturing their prisoners.
24. race laws: three racist, anti-Jewish laws that Germany introduced on September 15, 1935, which meant that Jewish citizens no longer had any civil rights. These laws were later responsible for Jews being systematically persecuted and murdered.
25. Yad Vashem medal: an Israeli medal to honor non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust.
26. Sinterklaas: a festival held in the Netherlands on December 5–6, when Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas) visits the country, and families and friends exchange presents.
27. PRA: Politieke Recherche Afdeling (Political Investigation Department)
28. Dolle Dinsdag (Dutch: Mad Tuesday): Tuesday September 5, 1944. The Belgian cities of Antwerp and Brussels had been liberated two days before, and the Dutch thought they would soon be liberated as well. Everyone was mad with happiness. However, it was not until May 5, 1945, that the Netherlands was finally liberated.
29. Shabbat: the Jewish day of rest. Shabbat runs from a few minutes before sunset on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday evening and is intended as a day of rest to honor God and the creation of the heavens and the earth.
30. Piet Meerburg’s group: a resistance group that arranged safe houses for Jewish children.
31. peat bin: a place where people kept chunks of peat, pieces of decayed vegetation that are dried and can be burned as fuel.
32. Autoped: an early kind of motor scooter.
33. curfew: the time in the evening by which everyone had to be off the streets.
34. kosher: food and drink that conforms to Jewish dietary laws.
35. jenever: Dutch gin.
36. requisitioned: claimed by the government or the authorities for their use, particularly for military purposes.
37. shul: a Jewish place of worship where people come together to pray and learn. The word shul comes from Yiddish (the language of the Jews of eastern Europe) and is related to the German word Schule (school). Shul is another word for synagogue.
38. Talmud: a central book of Judaism, containing rabbis’ commentaries on the Jewish bible (Torah) as well as Jewish law.
39. front line: in a war zone, the area where the fighting is taking place.
40. Radio Oranje: radio station operated by the Dutch government in exile in London. Radio Oranje reported on the progress of the Allied forces, and Queen Wilhelmina gave a weekly radio address to lift the spirits of the people of the Netherlands.
41. keppel: a skullcap, a small round head covering worn by religious Jewish men. Also called a kippah or yarmulke.
42. airborne landing at Arnhem: British, Polish, and American soldiers parachuted down near Arnhem (a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands) in September 1944, but they didn’t succeed in capturing the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem, which meant that the northern part of the Netherlands still had to wait to be liberated.