Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0115/01153.txt

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$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.