$Unique_ID{bob01153} $Pretitle{} $Title{Liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps 1945, The Glossary Of Terms, Names, And Camps - By Alan E. Steinweiss} $Subtitle{} $Author{Various} $Affiliation{} $Subject{nazi camp german germany jews concentration troops liberated war prisoners} $Date{1987} $Log{} Title: Liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps 1945, The Author: Various Date: 1987 Glossary Of Terms, Names, And Camps - By Alan E. Steinweiss Anschluss: Literally "connection" or "union" in German, used to describe the annexation of Austria to Germany on March 13, 1938. Aryan: In Nazi racial theory, a person of pure German "blood." The term "non- Aryan" was used to designate Jews, part-Jews, and others of supposedly inferior racial stock. Auschwitz-Birkenau: Polish name: Oswiecim. Nazi extermination camp in southwestern Poland. Originally erected in 1940 as a camp for Polish prisoners. Converted in 1942 into a modern facility for the mass annihilation of human beings with poison gas. Approximately one million Jews from all over Nazi-occupied Europe, as well as large numbers of non-Jews, including thousands of Gypsies, were murdered there between 1942 and late 1944. Liberated by Soviet troops in January 1945, although by this time the Nazis had largely dismantled the killing facilities and forced most of the remaining inmates on a "death march" towards the West. Belzec: Nazi extermination camp in eastern Poland. Erected 1942. Approximately 550,000 Jews were murdered there in 1942 and 1943. The Nazis dismantled the camp in the fall of 1943. Bergen-Belsen: Nazi concentration camp in northwestern Germany. Erected 1943. Thousands of Jews, political prisoners, and POWs were killed there. Liberated by British troops in April 1945, although many of the remaining prisoners died of typhus after liberation. Bradley, Omar: Commander of U.S. First Army at time of Normandy invasion. Later commander of U.S. 12th Army Group, the largest battlefield force ever commanded by a U.S. general. It included the 9th Army under William H. Simpson, 1st Army under Courtney H. Hodges, 3rd Army under George S. Patton, and 15th Army under Leonard T. Gerow. Brecht, Bertholt: Anti-fascist German poet and playwright, author of among other works, The Three Penny Opera, The Rise and Fall of the Town Mahagonny, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan, Terror and Misery of the Third Reich, and The Life of Galileo. Brecht spent the Nazi years in exile (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and the USA). Buchenwald: Nazi concentration camp in central Germany. Erected 1937 for internment of German political prisoners. During the war thousand of Jews, POWs, and political prisoners were killed there. Liberated in April 1945 by its own inmates a few hours prior to the arrival of American troops. Chelmno: Known also as Kulmhof. Nazi extermination camp in western Poland. Established 1941. The first of the Nazi extermination camps. Approximately 150,000 Jews were murdered there between late 1941 and 1944, although not continuously. In comparison to the other extermination camps, especially Auschwitz, Chelmno was technologically primitive, employing carbon monoxide gas vans as the main method of killing. The Nazis dismantled the camp in late 1944 and early 1945. Dachau: Nazi concentration camp in southern Germany. Erected in 1933, this was the first Nazi concentration camp. Used mainly to incarcerate German political prisoners until late 1938, whereupon large numbers of Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and other supposed enemies of the state and anti-social elements were sent as well. Nazi doctors and scientists used many prisoners at Dachau as guinea pigs for experiments. During the war construction began on a gas chamber, but it never became operational. Dachau was liberated by American troops in April 1945. DP: Displaced Person. The upheavals of war left millions of soldiers and civilians far from home. Millions of these DPs had been eastern European slave laborers for the Nazis. The tens of thousands of Jewish survivors of Nazi camps either could not or did not want to return to their former homes in Germany or eastern Europe, and many lived in special DP camps while awaiting migration to America or Palestine. Eichmann, Adolf: Gestapo official who coordinated the deportation of Jews from their homes in Nazi-occupied Europe to ghettos and extermination camps in eastern Europe. After the war he escaped to South America, where he lived incognito until 1960, when Israeli agents captured him in Argentina. Eichmann was tried in Jerusalem in 1961, condemned to death, and hanged in 1962. Einsatzgruppen: Literally, Special Task Groups. Units composed of SD and Gestapo personnel, organized in May 1941 prior to the German attack on the Soviet Union. Their mission was to follow German troops into Russia and liquidate Jews, Gypsies, and Communist Party officials. There were four Einsatzgruppen, designated A, B, C, and D, which were further subdivided into units called Einsatzkommandos. It has been estimated that in 1941 and 1942 the Einsatzgruppen murdered about one million Jews. The Nazis phased out use of the Einsatzgruppen when the extermination camps went into operation. Eisenhower, Dwight D.: As Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, General Eisenhower commanded all Allied forces in Europe beginning in 1942. "Final Solution" of the Jewish Question: A Nazi euphemism for the plan to exterminate the Jews of Europe. Flossenburg: Nazi concentration camp in central Germany. Erected 1938. Prior to liberation by American troops in April 1945, the Nazis had forced the vast majority of the 15,000-20,000 remaining prisoners on a "death march" away from the camp. The liberating troops found only 2,000 inmates when they entered the camp. Gestapo: Acronym for Geheime Staatspolizei, meaning Secret State Police. Prior to the outbreak of war, the Gestapo used brutal methods to investigate and suppress resistance to Nazi rule within Germany. After 1939 the Gestapo expanded its operations into Nazi-occupied Europe. Great Patriotic War: The official designation by the Soviet Union of its war against Nazi Germany. Heydrich, Reinhard: As Chief of the RSHA, Heydrich was entrusted in 1941 with implementing the "Final Solution" of the Jewish Question. He presided over the conference at Wannsee in Berlin on January 20, 1942, at which representatives of numerous German agencies discussed plans for the liquidation of Europe's Jews. Czech partisans assassinated Heydrich in Prague in 1942. Himmler, Heinrich: As head of the SS and the secret police apparatus, Himmler had control over the vast network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps, the Einsatzgruppen, and the Gestapo. Reinhard Heydrich, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and many other key officials in the implementation of Nazi anti-Jewish measures were subordinate to Himmler. Himmler committed suicide in 1945 after his arrest. Hoess, Rudolf: Commandant of Auschwitz. After the war he was tried and executed in Poland. Hoess memoir, Commandant of Auschwitz (London, 1959) provides a chilling account of the killing operations at the most notorious of the Nazi camps. Hull, Cordell: American Secretary of State during most of World War II. Resigned in November 1944. International Military Tribunal (IMT): Popularly known as the Nuremberg Trial. Twenty-four so-called "major war criminals" were tried before a joint American, British, French, and Soviet tribunal in Nuremberg in 1945-6. The IMT should not be confused with a series of trials conducted by an American tribunal in Nuremberg in subsequent years, or with the host of other trials of Nazi war criminals conducted by numerous countries since 1945. Kaltenbrunner, Ernst: Succeeded Reinhard Heydrich as Chief of RSHA. Played major role in implementation of the "Final Solution." Tried at Nuremberg and executed in 1946. Kommando: German term for a satellite camp. Most of the major concentration camps were ringed with numerous smaller prison and labor camps, or Kommandos. Kristallnacht: Literally, "crystal night" in German, also described as the "night of broken glass," refers to the state-inspired pogrom of November 9, 1938, against the Jews in Germany during which Nazi hooligans attacked synagogues and Jewish businesses and beat up Jewish citizens. Luftwaffe: The German air force. Majdanek: Also known as Lublin. Nazi extermination camp in eastern Poland. Established 1941 Approximately 50,000 Jews were murdered by gassing there in 1942 and 1943. Soviet troops occupied the camp after a hasty evacuation by the Nazis in 1944. Marshall, George C.: Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. President Roosevelt's chief military adviser. Widely regarded by American historians as the "Architect of Victory." Mauthausen: Nazi concentration camp in northern Austria. Erected August 1938. Several thousand inmates were killed by gassing and other methods between 1942 and 1945. Liberated by American troops in May 1945. Mengele, Josef: SS physician at Auschwitz. Notorious for cruelty to prisoners, the cold-blooded Mengele often made the "selection" of which Jews would die in the gas chambers and which would be used for slave labor. Conducted numerous perverse medical experiments on inmates. Escaped to South America after the war. Now widely presumed dead on the basis of medical analysis of the skeleton found in Brazil in 1985. Mischling: "Mixed breed" or "mongrel." The Nazi racial classification for people of mixed Jewish and Aryan "blood." National Socialism: Nazism (Nationalsozialismus.) A diverse mixture of political philosophies, National Socialism had anti-Semitism, racism, and German expansionism at its core. The official name of the Nazi party was the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei). Neuengamme: Nazi concentration camp in northern Germany. Erected June 1940. Neuengamme and its satellites were important centers of slave labor for industries in northern Germany. It has been estimated that of the 90,000 prisoners incarcerated in Neuengamme between 1940 and 1945, 40,000 died. Liberated by British troops in May 1945. Nordhausen: Also known as Dora. Nazi concentration camp in central Germany. Established 1943. German industry used its prisoners as slave labor in the production of VI flying bombs and V-2 rockets. Liberated by American troops in April 1945. Ohrdruf: Nazi concentration camp in western Germany. Established in late 1944 as a satellite of Buchenwald. Liberated by American troops in April 1945. The first Nazi concentration camp liberated on the western front. Oranienburg: Nazi concentration camp in northern Germany. Established in 1933 to incarcerate political prisoners. Ceased operation 1935, but was reestablished in 1943 as a satellite of Sachsenhausen. Liberated by Soviet troops and units of the Polish Peoples Army in April 1945. OSS: Office of Strategic Services. American agency created in 1942 to collect intelligence on enemy powers and to conduct espionage operations behind enemy lines. Dissolved in 1945. The Central Intelligence Agency, created in 1947, is considered to be the successor of the OSS. Panzer: German for armor. A Panzerwagen, usually shortened simply to Panzer, was a tank. Patton, George S.: Commander of U.S. 3rd Army. Celebrated for his flamboyant personality and both military tactics. Ravensbruck: Nazi concentration camp in northern Germany. It was established in 1939 as a camp exclusively for female prisoners. Liberated by Soviet troops in April 1945. RSHA: Abbreviation for Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or Reich Security Main Office. This agency was established in the SS in 1939 to coordinate administration of security and police agencies, including the Gestapo and the SD. First chief of RSHA was Reinhard Heydrich, who was succeeded by Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Sachsenhausen: Nazi concentration camp in northern Germany. Established 1936. Liberated by Soviet troops in April 1945. SD: Abbreviation for Sicherheitsdienst, or Security Service. An agency in the SS involved in many anti-Jewish measures in Germany prior to the outbreak of war. Many of the personnel of the Einsatzgruppen were drawn from the SD. SHAEF: Acronym for Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces, the designation for the office of General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander. Sobibor: Nazi extermination camp in eastern Poland. Established 1942. Approximately 200,000 Jews were murdered there in 1942 and 1943. The Nazis dismantled the camp in the Fall of 1943. SS: Abbreviation for Schutzstaffel, or Protection Forces. Originated as bodyguard for Hitler before 1933, the SS grew into a massive organization by 1944 with control over the police and security apparatus, the concentration and death camp system, diverse industrial enterprises, and armed divisions known as Waffen (armed or military) SS. The blackshirted members of the SS often thought of themselves as the elite cadre of Nazi Germany. Reich Leader of the SS was Heinrich Himmler. Stalag: Acronym for Stammlager, or branch camp. Stalag, with an accompanying number (e.g. Stalag 17) was a method of designating prisoner-of-war camps. Stutthof: Nazi concentration camp in northern Poland. Established in 1939 immediately after German invasion of Poland. Liberated by Soviet troops in May 1945. Terezin: Called Theresienstadt in German. Nazi concentration camp in northwestern Czechoslovakia. Established 1941, it served for a while as a Nazi show camp for visiting Red Cross inspectors. Liberated by Soviet troops in May 1945. Treblinka: Nazi extermination camp in central Poland. Established 1942. Approximately 750,000 Jews were murdered there in 1942 and 1943. The Nazis dismantled the camp in the fall of 1943. Warsaw Ghetto: Jewish ghetto created by Nazis in 1940. At the beginning of 1942, almost half-a-million Jews lived in the ghetto under miserable conditions. In July 1942, the Nazis began to deport Jews from the ghetto for extermination mainly at Treblinka. By October, only about 70,000 remained in the ghetto. At this point representatives of a number of Jewish organizations in the ghetto formed the Jewish Fighting Organization to resist further deportations. In April 1943 a force of about 3,000 Waffen SS troops, German and Polish police, and a battalion of Ukrainians collaborating with the Nazis attempted to liquidate what was left of the ghetto. Short of weapons, and outnumbered two-to-one, the Jewish fighters were nonetheless able to hold out for approximately one month. Wehrmacht: The German armed forces, consisting of the army, navy, and air force. The term is often used to refer only to the army. Zhukov, Georgi Konstantinoich: The most important Soviet general of World War II. Armies under his command defended Moscow and Leningrad, pushed the Germans from Soviet territory back into Poland and then Germany, and captured Berlin.