Hitler's Rise and The Holocaust

Roma

"gypsies" - lost their citizenship, couldn't marry Aryan's, put in concentration camps, 200,000-500,000 killed, forced to wear black triangles

Mein Kampf

'My Struggle' by hitler, later became the basic book of nazi goals and ideology, reflected obsession; written by Hitler during his exile

Hitler

German Nazi dictator during World War II (1889-1945), hated the Jews, was responsible for killing and imprisoning millions of Jews

Fuhrer

German word for leader, used to describe Hitler in the Nazi Party

Anti-Semitism

Hatred towards the Jews; being racist towards Jews

Beer Hall Putsch

In 1923 the Nazis attempted to overthrow the government in Munich. It was a total failure, and Hitler received a brief prison sentence during which time he wrote Mein Kampf

Kristallnacht

Night of Broken Glass, Nov 9 1938 night when the Nazis killed or injured many jews & destroyed many jewish propertys

Mobile Killing Squads

The groups that were sent to murder Jews in Ukraine, Russia, and Baltic States - these Jews were not sent to the camps, this group was believed to have shot 1.5 million dead

The Stock Market Crash

The most famous crash, the Stock Market Crash of 1929, started on October 24, 1929 (known as Black Thursday), when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 50%. this was caused by people buying on margin and not being able to really pay that money back; Germany was called in to pay their debts back to America within 90 days, which was impossible

Weimar Republic

Was the democratic government which ruled over Germany form 1919 to 1933. Was Germany's first democracy and it failed miserably. It had leaders such as Stresseman and Hindenburg; it was responsible to pay back the allied powers a sum of 33 billion dollars

Hyperinflation

When the German economy tried to print bills to pay off their debt, inflation rates of 40% a day

NAZI

a German member of Adolf Hitler's political party

Paragraph 175

a provision of the German Criminal Code from 1871 to 1994. It made homosexual acts between males a crime, and in early revisions the provision also criminalized bestiality

The Great Depression

a time period during the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression and mass unemployment

The Dawes Plan

an attempt following World War I for the Allies to collect war reparations debt from Germany. It provided short term economic benefits to the German economy. It softened the burdens of war reparations, stabilized the currency, and brought increased foreign investments and loans to the German market; in return the German government would have to pay interest

Death Camps

camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany for the purpose of killing prisoners immediately

Enabling Act

enabled Hitler to get rid of the Reichstag parliament and pass laws without reference to parliament

Nuremberg Laws

established legal basis in Nazi Germany for discrimination against Jews - robbed Jews of their citizenship

Ghettos

formerly the restricted quarter of many European cities in which Jews were required to live "Warsaw Ghetto"

Aryan

A nonexistent race of people whom the Nazis believed was superior and should rule the world; Hitler based his ideas on what an Aryan Racial State would do

Evian Conference

A meeting to discuss what to do about the growing number of Jewish refugees coming from Europe on the SS St. Louis. It failed to address the issue - only the DR raised their quota

Euthanasia Program

Referring to the Nazi order for the extermination of German people institutionalized with physical, mental and emotional disabilities, carried out as a measure to prevent contamination of the Nazi-defined Aryan race

Reichstag

Seated Germany's lower house of Parliament, it burned in 1933 and Hitler blamed it on the communist, this event led to Hitler becoming the absolute dictator in Germany.

Liberation of the Camps

Soviet and American troops discovered the camps in 1944, and were thoroughly disgusted by what they found. They found people nearly starved to death, living amongst disease and death - the prisoners being freed from the camps (though most prisoners died)

Wannsee Conference

The "Final Solution" was decided - 15 top NAZI officials meet and develop a plan for dealing with Jews; they devised a systematic solution in which Jews would be moved to ghettos then on a railroad to the death camps

Concentration Camps

prison camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Conditions were inhuman, and prisoners, mostly Jewish people, were generally starved or worked to death, or killed immediately

SS St. Louis

ship that left germany in may 1939 with 936 jews on board it was bound for cuba where it was denied entry from there the ship tried to enter the US and Canada but was denied returned to europe where four nations took in refugees - only the DR raised their quota

Scapegoat

someone punished for the errors of others; Hitler used the Jews as his

Third Reich

the Nazi dictatorship under Hitler (1933-1945), the third German empire

SS

the military group in Germany that Hitler used instead of the SA during the Holocaust

SA

the stormtroopers, Soldiers for the Nazis. "Hitler's Thugs" before Holocaust, during Holocaust Hitler gets rid of them.