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The Holocaust QUESTIONNAIRE - Page 4 7. You are now standing on the outside on a cold and bitter morning, listening for the sound of a truck that will take you to an extermination camp for certain death because you have not asked for mercy and none has been given. After standing about fifteen minutes you hear the sound of a truck approaching and you know what that means. Suddenly, and without even being aware of it, you begin to concentrate hard on not being sent to an extermination camp because you want to live and someday return home again. As you are concentrating you become aware that the person in charge of the camp is walking in your direction. He stops right in front of you and, without saying a word, motions his right hand, signaling you to get back to the work group. You cannot understand why he is doing this when he seemed so determined that you should be sent to an extermination camp. Now your spirits are uplifted again because as long as you can remain in a work group there is hope of surviving this ordeal. Do you believe that your own mental concentration caused it to happen? 8. After staying in a work group for about six weeks, the person in charge of the camp changes his mind and orders that you be shipped out to an extermination camp. This time you begin to accept death as inevitable because you can no longer remain in a work group. You are taken to a railroad station and ordered to enter an open type freight car with about 150 others who are no longer able to perform the heavy physical work. The journey lasts about seven days and during those seven days you are given no food or water. When you arrive at the extermination camp, only three of the 150 are still alive, and you are one of the three. Why do you suppose you were able to survive? The Holocaust QUESTIONNAIRE - Page 5 9. After over fourteen months of imprisonment, you are finally liberated and have returned home. Upon arrival you find out that you are the only one from your family who survived the horrors in captivity. All others perished in the death camps. What actions would you take? THE HOLOCAUST GLOSSARY OF TERMS These are some of the terms used in the audio-visual program. Anti-Semitism Expressed hostility to Jews as individuals, to Judaism as a religion, and to the Jewish people as a group. It manifests itself through social ostracism, economic boycotts, legislative restrictions, physical attacks, exile and murder. Aryan A term used by the Nazis to mean a superior, Nordic type Caucasian Gentile who would bring about Hitler's "master race." It has no validity as a racial term. Crematorium Ovens or furnaces where concentration camp inmates' gassed bodies were disposed of. Concentration A place where those considered fit for heavy physical work were Camp sent. If a person could no longer carry out the heavy physical work required to remain in a concentration camp, he or she was then sent to an extermination camp for certain death. Some camps, like Auschwitz in Poland, were a combination of extermination camp and concentration camp. Displaced Term generally used for people who survived the concentration Persons camps and were left homeless. Extermination Began as an instrument of intimidation for political opponents of Camps Nazism. Later became a standing weapon of terror. Ultimately over 100 camps were set up where people who were driven out of their homes were taken by freight trains for murder. Some were worked to death, others were starved to death, beaten to death, shot, or gassed. The larger camps included: Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Belzec, Chelmo, Dachau, Maidanek, Sobibor, Treblinka. Gas Chamber A unit or room where ventilation was sealed so that death could be induced through the use of gas. Genocide The deliberate and systematic destruction of a social, political, cultural or religious group. Gestapo The secret police organization in Nazi Germany. The Gestapo used terror and torture to subjugate any opposition to the regime and to any of its policies. 8 GLOSSARY OF TERMS - PAGE 2 Ghetto The walled-off section of a city to which Jews were restricted. This enabled governments to maintain strict control over all Jewish activities and effectively prevented any from evading Nazi round- ups. The ghettos became a stopping place before deportation to concentration and extermination camps. The Nazi The term that refers to the systematic, planned extermination of six Holocaust million European Jews by the Nazis during World War I!. Many non-Jews perished in the Holocaust. The word is derived from the Greek, meaning "burnt whole." Nazi Name used to identify members of the German Fascist political movement (the Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party) which ruled Germany from 1933-1945 under Adolf Hitler. Nazism The political system in Germany from 1933-1945. It was a totalitanan dictatorship based on the use of political terror as the means of maintaining control. Nuremberg Legalized persecution. In 1935 Hitler put anti-semitism on Race Laws Germany's legal books. Jews were ostracized from German society. They were not permitted to own property; they could not attend a university; they were required to wear a yellow star identifying them as Jews. This process of dehumanization marked the beginning of the Holocaust. Persecution The practice of oppressing or harming individuals or groups, ^ especially for reasons of religion, politics, or race. Pogrom An attack on Jews by mobs of non-Jews. These attacks involved the destruction of Jewish property, looting, rape, and murder. In some cases pogroms were staged with government approval as a means of diverting the attention of the populace from the real causes of their problems. Processing Persons that were considered fit for heavy physical work, but Camp were not assigned to a particular work camp were sent to a processing camp for screening and for subsequent distribution to a concentration camp. Gross Rosen is a typical example of one of those processing camps. Scapegoat A person, group, or thing that bears the blame for the mistakes or crimes of others. Jews have been scapegoats throughout history. Hitler blamed the Jews for the defeat of World War I and the post-war troubles in Germany. The Holocaust ©1991 Remembrance Educaoonat Meda 9 GLOSSARY OF TERMS - PAGE 3 Swastika An ancient symbol, often used as an ornament or religious sign by Buddhists, Celtics, Greeks, and North and South American Indians. It is in the form of a cross with the ends of the arms bent at the right angles in a given direction, usually clockwise. In 1920 it was adopted as the symbol of the National Socialist Party of Germany and came to stand for all the evils associated with the Nazis. It is now banned in Germany. Synagogue A sanctuary where Jews assemble to worship. The building is also used for educational purposes and social gatherings. 10 THE HOLOCAUST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1. What was The Holocaust? The Holocaust refers to a period of time (1939-1945) and to a series of events involving wholesale persecution, enslavement, and murder of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany. 'The Final Solution"-a genocidal decree against the Jews-gave the Nazis their "legal" basis for everything which occurred. 2. How many people were murdered? The precise number will never be known since most of the records were destroyed by the Nazis. It has been determined, however, from records which fell into Allied hands after World War II, that more than eleven million men, women and children were murdered dunng the Nazi reign of terror. 3. How many Jewish people were murdered? Six million Jewish men, women and children were destroyed and more than 30,000 Jewish communities were totally wiped out. 4. Of the six million Jewish people murdered, how many were children? One and a half million. 5. What was the difference between the persecution and murder of Jews and the persecution and murder of Christians and other groups, classified as enemies of the Third Reich? The Jews were the only people singled out for total and systematic annihilation as a people. According to the Nazi plan (The Rnal Solution), every Jew-man, woman and child- was to be killed. This was not true of any other people victimized by the Nazis. If a non- Jew was found to be an enemy of the Third Reich and sentenced to a concentration camp or to death, his family did not necessarily meet the same fate. Chnstian victims included Austrians, Sudeten Germans, Poles, Yugoslavs, Ukranians, Russians, French, Belgians, and Dutch. Over 3,000 Catholic pnests and a great number of Protestant clergymen perished in the death camps for opposing Nazism. Thousands of Gypsies were killed because they were members of an "inferior" group. And many Christians, suspected of Jewish ancestry, were similarly disposed of. 11 IMPORTANT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS - Page 2 7. When and what were the first measures taken by the Nazis against the Jews? The first German measures against the Jews can be traced back to the 1930's. While anti-semitism had existed in Germany and in other European countries for hundreds of years, it was not until the growth of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party and the rise of Adolf Hitler to power that anti-semitism was adopted as a national policy. 8. What were some of the anti-semitic decrees imposed upon the Jews in Germany? Jewish shops and businesses were boycotted; Jewish property was looted; and Jewish people were deported to labor camps.

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