Aryan Race

Hitler referred to people who looked Nordic as the Aryan or master race. Hitler wanted to create a master race of Europeans. Hitler believed that the master race should be light skinned Europeans. The holocaust was an attempt to destroy all other races.

Bystanders

Bystanders are the people who stood by and let the holocaust happen. If someone had spoken up and said this is not right people probably would have agreed and they would have tried to stop Hitler. Standing by and letting something bad happen is like doing the bad thing yourself.

Collaborators

A collaborator is someone who helps someone do something. During the holocaust collaborators turned Jews in hiding over to the Nazis. People in France sent thousands of Jews from France to Germany during WWII.

Darwinism

Social Darwinism is the belief that one group of people is better than another. It originated from Charles Darwins theory of natural selection. Social Darwinism made the Nazis feel superior to other races and they wanted to remove them through survival of the fittest

Euthanasia Programs

The Nazis had a euthanasia program that involved the mentally and physically handicap. They believed again that this was survival of the fittest and that they should be eliminated. Later people were charged with war crimes for these actions

Final Solution

Part of Hitlers argument for killing the jewish people was that it was the final solution. He claimed the best way to handle the jewish plague was to remove them from the Earth. This was part of Hitlers plan for world domination.

Ghetto

Ghettos are where the Nazis sent the Jews before they went to a concentration camp. The ghettos were extremely crowded and unsanitary. After staying in these terrible places the people there would be sent in boxcars to concentration camps.

Hitler

Adolf Hitler is by far the most notorious men in history. Hitler rose up in the German government and made his plan for world domination. One of his main goals was to eliminate all inferior races. He tried to eliminate all the inferior races through the holocaust.

Italy

Italy was Germanys ally during WWII and helped Germany fight for its cause. Without the support of Germany the war would have been much shorter and less people would have died in the holocaust. Mussolinis followers also believed that they were superior to other races.

Judenrein
Judenrein is a term meaning clear of all jews. The Germans were trying to make all areas like this. Their goal was to eventually make the whole world judenrein.

Killing

Killing is what the holocaust centered on. The point of the holocaust was to try to kill as many minorities as possible. The Nazis were not trying to imprison or exile the Jewish people they were trying to kill all of them.

Tom Lantos

Tom Lantos was a survivor of the holocaust that migrated to the U.S. after the holocaust. He went on to become a representative in the U.S congress and became one of the most human right oriented representative ever. He served thirteen terms in congress before he died in 2008.

Mein Kamph

Mein Kamph is the book Hitler wrote while he was in prison. The title translates to my struggle and it said all of his political standpoints and his goals. Included in his goals was the creation of a master race.

Nurnberg Trials

The Nurnberg trials were trials that were held after WWII. The nature of the trials was to charge nazi leaders with war crimes for what they had done in the war. Many Nazi officials were charged with crimes that happened during the holocaust.

Oswiccim

Oswiccim is the name of the Polish town that eventually became the concentration camp Auschwitz. Auschwitz was one of the most notorious concentration camps. Auschwitz was the concentration camp that had the most victims during the holocaust.

Pogroms
Pogroms were riots organized by the government that targeted an ethnic group. During WWII Hitler organized these to try to make jews leave their homes. During these riots stores would be trashed, Jews beaten, and angry mobs would fill the streets.

Quicklime

Quicklime is a chemical that burns human flesh on contact. Before the Nazis loaded the boxcars with the Jews they would sprinkle quicklime on the floor to burn the Jewish peoples skin.

Roma

Roma is another term for the gypsies of Europe. During the holocaust they were also prosecuted. Many gypsies were killed because they were not part of the master race.

Slavs

Slavs were prosecuted almost as much as the jews during the holocaust. Slavs were taken to the concentration camps and killed just like the jewish people.

Third Reich

The third reich was what Hitler made and called the third empire of Germany. He wanted to restore the glory of old Germany and have it take its rightful place as the greatest world power. To establish his dominance Hitler took a side that was very popular and that was anti-Semitism which led to the holocaust.

Untermenschen

Untermenschen is the german term meaning sub-human. This is how the Germans referred to the minorities of Europe and they thought that they should not exist. Using this term made Germans not think as the victims of the holocaust as humans but as animals.

Volkswagen

During WWII Hitler tried to make an affordable car for everyone by using the Volkswagen brand. He tried to make the car affordable to everyone because he thought that the master race should have a car. This probably added to the smug opinions of themselves that the Nazis had.

War Crimes

War
X-Rays

During the holocaust many war crimes were committed. During the Nurnberg trials many nazi officials were punished for these crimes. The crimes charged are some of the worst ever recorded in human history. The world is trying very hard to let the holocaust never happen again.

X-rays were not used for their intended purpose during the holocaust. As part of the medical testing that happened during the holocaust the Nazis tried to sterilize women by using X-rays. As well many other horrible experiments were performed at the concentration camps.

Yellow Star

Pre WWII and during anyone of the Jewish religion was required to wear a yellow star on their clothing. This yellow star was so that everyone knew they were jewish and that they were not to be trusted. As well, many stores were branded with them so that people would not shop there.

Zyklon-B

Zyklon-B was the gas used in the gas chambers of the concentration camps. Using Zyklon-B the Nazis killed millions of people for no particular reason besides their race. We must try to stop this from ever happening again. Never Again