History of the Holocaust Week 4 Terms

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (KWI) for Anthropology, Human Genetics, and Eugenics

A Nazi research and science wing primarily concerned with Eugenics. It provided plentiful funds for Josef Mengele and his experiments

Roma/ Romani

A nomadic Northern Indian pople of which some are christian and muslim. There are around 1 million in Europe at the time; also have been called gypsies; were persecuted by Nazis

White Rose

A student led resistance group that existed at the University of Munich, during the time that Mengele studied there. These were medical and scientific idealists who did not condone mass killing of jews, showing that it was not inevitable that Mengele ended up being a monster.

Eugenics

Aim of eugenic movements is to affect reproductive practice through the application of theories of heredity; it was a means by which the Nazis could achieve Aryanization and "the perfect race" devoid of disabilities

Eugenic legislation

Aim was to decrease amount of unfit people and increase breeding between fit people; leads to development of programs like the T4 euthanasia program which causes 200,000 killed by lethal injection, gas chambers, or starvation

Dr. Josef Mengele

Called the Angel of Death; Very big nazi doctor who was responsible for tons of deaths and advancements in research; Worked at Auschwitz - Wanted to study how twins are formed, so that he could increase Aryan birth rates; Examples of experiments: took twin children Tito and Nino, tried to sew them together (including arteries and veins) in efforts to make siamese twins; this experiment had no purpose, just curiosity; allowed children to die of gangrenous wounds

Clinical material

Can be used to refer to the human subjects that Nazi scientists used for their experimentation. These were involuntary subjects from the concentration camps.

Father Patrick Desbois

Catholic priest who Founded Yahad-In Unum (YIU), a French organization founded to locate the sites of mass graves of Jewish victims of the Nazi mobile killing units, especially the Einsatzgruppen, in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland and Moldova. He Wanted to locate sites of mass murders of the einsatzgruppen

sterilization laws

Countries, including the US, Implemented sterilization laws on criminals, idiots, rapists, and imbeciles, and people in state custody and state institutions; this was in eugenic efforts to preserve the hygeine of the german race

Charles Darwin

English geneticist who discover darwinism, which espouses "survival of the fittest." This idea provided inspiration for the views of the Nazis, who viewed Jews, roma, disabled as genetically inferior, and wanted to ensure that the German race would survive and be "hygeinic". It was also the impetus for Nazi eugenic efforts

Negative Eugenics

Eugenic Measures taken To prevent lives and end lives ex: Nazis banned mixed marriages between jewish and aryans; Nazi genocide, banned foods to certain people

Positive Eugenics

Eugenic measures taken To produce life and to produce fitter lives Ex: the Nazis implemented policies that encouraged Aryan families for producing children (gave extra money and awards); Nazis emphasize public health, hygiene, fitness, and focused on the art of motherhood

Yahad-In Unum

French organization founded by Father Patrick Desbois to locate the sites of mass graves of Jewish victims of the Nazi mobile killing units, especially the Einsatzgruppen, in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland and Moldova. He Wanted to locate sites of mass murders of the einsatzgruppen

Operation Barbarossa

German surprise invasion of USSR in response to hitlers directive 41, which breaks the nonaggression pact. Largest military operation in WWII, Much of soviet air forces are taken down before they even get into the air , and the USSR army is overwhelmed. GER gets far into USSR, almost near moscow and leningrad. HOWEVER, USSR doesnt collapse. In fact, German troops are tired, out of supplies and have not prepared for winter at all. Germany expected its troops to live off the land but this isnt possible. This invasion of USSR is really where mass murder begins

Hans Munch

He used his experiments to protect inmates from liquidation, He eventually helped his jewish lab aids escape camp. He was in same position as Mengele, showing that it was not inevitable that Mengele ended up being a monster HOWEVER He profited off of his experiments on the prisoners of Auschwitz, Was still openly antisemitic and antiroma, and Never admitted his complicity

Dr. Karl Brandt

Hitler's private physician. He worked with Philipp bouhler in heading the Aktion T4 euthanasia program

Major Wilhelm Trapp

Major in the Reserve Police Battalion, a main character in Christopher Browning's book Ordinary Men

Nazi Science

Nazi science is not an aberration of science; it might be not as objective in terms of the reasons it was being practiced (was geared towards advancing Nazi cause), but it still followed the rules of research and observation that characterize science. It included emphasis on Eugenics, including efforts to increase aryanization, and also looked to advance the Nazi Military technologies.

Killing centers

Nazi use of government offices to organize mass murder. This includes the use of assembly line technique and modern industrial methods, and the establishment of killing centers to annihilate entire population

Reinhard Heydrich

One of the men responsible for the Einsatzgruppen; considered one of the main architects of the Holocaust. He formulated plans to answer the Jewish Problem

Philipp Bouhler

Senior Nazi official who was responsible for the T4

German-Soviet Pact

Sign nonagresssion pact between the two countries, which Allows GER to attack POland without fearing USSR attack or intervention. However, Hitler has no idea of following this pact though, Because USSR is communist and he Think jews are the foundation for the USS

Ernst Rüdin

Swiss born Nazi geneticist who was the mentor for Josef Mengele; he was a pioneer in Eugenicism who advocated for mass killings.

T4 [Tiergartenstrasse 4]

T4 Euthanasia program, Children born with mental or physical disabilities, Children and adults in state run mental institutions or homes for the disabled can be euthanised. Hitler gives specific doctors the right to implement "Mercy of death" based on judgement to disabled peoples and the people that qualified

Otmar von Verschuer

Teacher of Josef Mengele, encouraged and collaborated with him on his experiments on the Auschwitz prisoners; was the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, and was in this way able to provide Mengele with the funds to continue his research

Nuremberg Race Laws

The two laws were the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which forbade marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans and the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households, and the Reich Citizenship Law, which declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens; the remainder were classed as state subjects, without citizenship rights; it was based off of eugenic principles that Jews were genetically inferior

Social Darwinism

This idea provided inspiration for the views of the Nazis, who viewed Jews, roma, disabled as genetically inferior, and wanted to ensure that the German race would survive and be "hygeinic". It was also the impetus for Nazi eugenic efforts

Vivisection

Use of live animals and humans for surgical experiments .Caused the laity to criticize scientific and medical community. This caused the scientific and medical community to become defensive, which meant that the medical community started defending all kinds of experiments, regardless of how cruel or useless or amazing they were; this blurs any sort of rules on research and medicine - this helps out mengele and his experiments

Reserve Police Battalion 101

a batallionin the Nazi Army that was the subject Christopher Browning's book Ordinary Men. Most of the men were from lower middle class families

Pro-natalism

a belief that promotes human reproduction; The death of Germans in the front called for promotion of families having large amounts of children. Kaiser used the Nazi propaganda machine to advocate the urgency of a "victory of cradles"; this went hand in hand with efforts for Aryanization

Babi Yar

a city in ukraine where the nazis Blamed 2 explosions on Ukrainian Jews THe Nazis use this as justification for killing of jews there; they Kill 33,771 jews in two days in response

Pseudoscience

a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method; Nazi science was not pseudoscience, as it still did practice the scientific method in many cases

Hitler-Stalin Pact

another name for German-Soviet pact

Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact

another name for German-Soviet pact

Euthanasia of the disabled

fell in line with eugenic measures taken to create a healthy and perfect german race; this meant clinically killing disabled peoples in order to preserve the hygeine of the German race

Francis Galton

first person to come up with Eugenics; Called for racial "hygiene" - good ppl procreate with good, bad and poor people should be suppressed. He bases his theory off of Darwinism

Francis Power Cobb

founder of a number of anti-vivisection groups

Heinrich Himmler

head of einsatzgrupen, which is where a bulk of mass murder happens. He is the second biggest person in Germany, military commander and later Commander of the Replacement (Home) Army

Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners

is a book that posits that ordinary Germans not only knew about, but also supported, the Holocaust because of a unique and virulent "eliminationist antisemitism" in the German identity, which had developed in the preceding centuries. Goldhagen asserted that this special mentality grew out of medieval attitudes from a religious basis, but was eventually secularized. Book received as Simplistic, superficial, contradictory- by all serious historians.

Nuremberg Code

is a set of research ethics principles for human experimentation set as a result of the subsequent Nuremberg trials at the end of the Second World War. THis included requiring voluntary participation and informed consent

Eva Kor

is a survivor of the Holocaust who, with her twin sister Miriam, was subjected to human experimentation under Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. Kor founded the organization CANDLES, through which she located 122 other living Mengele twins, as the experiment survivors came to be known.

Hans and Sophie Scholl

members of the White Rose, A student led resistance group that existed at the University of Munich, during the time that Mengele studied there. These were medical and scientific idealists who did not condone mass killing of jews, showing that it was not inevitable that Mengele ended up being a monster.

Einsatzgruppen

mobile killing unit who are really what begin mass killings of Jews; Einsatzgruppen is the German word for the SS or better known as the Schutzstaffel mobile killing groups who would take huge groups of enemies ranging from Jews to Gypises as well as the handicapped and even the communists and execute them usually within a huge mass grave.

Alexander Schmorell

one of five Munich University students who formed a resistance group known as White Rose; A student led resistance group that existed at the University of Munich, during the time that Mengele studied there. These were medical and scientific idealists who did not condone mass killing of jews, showing that it was not inevitable that Mengele ended up being a monster.

Christoph Probst

s a German student of medicine and member of the White Rose (Weiße Rose) resistance group, A student led resistance group that existed at the University of Munich, during the time that Mengele studied there. These were medical and scientific idealists who did not condone mass killing of jews, showing that it was not inevitable that Mengele ended up being a monster.

selection duty

task of selecting incoming jews (who goes to gas chamber who goes to work camps) - this gave Josef Mengele a chance to pick who he could experiment on (usually picked twin children)

Order Police

the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1945. it had the task of policing the civilian population of the conquered and colonized countries beginning in spring 1940, and encompassed units ranging from fire brigades to night watchmen

Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men

wrote book detailing the men in a Nazi police batallion. It Shows how the soldiers were really given the choice to participate in killings . Also shows how many of the soldiers were not actually enthusiastic or on board with this work, but followed because it was an order from higher up in