Glossar

‘

‘Kapo’
A concentration camp prisoner tasked with supervising other prisoners while they travelled to or were at their worksite. These ‘functionary prisoners’ were appointed by the camp administration. They enjoyed certain privileges, such as slightly better clothing or food. The SS often selected convicted criminals to serve as Kapos because it was assumed they would enforce their orders with brutality.

“

“pulsen”
In the Netherlands, the term ‘Pulsen’ is colloquially used to describe the act of clearing out homes of deported people and stealing their property on behalf of the German occupying forces. The term is named after Abraham Puls (1902–1975), a Dutch removal contractor. Contractors such as Puls also benefitted personally from the seizure of victims’ property.

A

A.E.F. (Allied Expeditionary Force)
The A.E.F. was a part of the Allied forces that landed in western France in 1944 to fight the German army. The American General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the A.E.F’S Supreme Commander.
Aliyah
Aliyah is the term for Jewish (re)immigration to Palestine and later to the State of Israel. Originally, the term referred to a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. In the 19th century, Zionism adapted the term to describe modern immigration to Palestine.
Amersfoort
Amersfoort is a town in the Netherlands. The German Security Police ran a ‘police transit camp’ there from August 1941 to March 1943 to hold people temporarily before deporting them to extermination camps or to Germany. Nearly 600 people were killed in the camp.
annexation (of Austria)
Austria was ‘annexed’ by the German Reich in 1938. Military threats from the German government led the Austrian president to install a National Socialist Austrian government. Shortly later, it oversaw the country’s unification with the German Reich.
Antisemitism
Antisemitism is hostility towards Jewish people. It is directed, in word or deed, at Jewish individuals and their property, as well as Jewish community and religious institutions.
Aryanisation
The term ‘Aryan’ originally referred to a prehistoric family of languages. The Nazis gave it a new racist meaning. They defined certain groups of people as ‘non-Aryan’, and then proceeded to confiscate their property and exclude them from professional life. The German state and so-called ‘Aryan’ individuals benefited strongly from ‘Aryanisation’.
Asscher, Louis
Louis Asscher was deported as a Jewish hostage from Amsterdam to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early 1944. There, he secretly sketched his fellow prisoners and scenes of daily life in the camp. Louis Asscher died on the evacuation transport known as the ‘Lost Train’. His drawings are among the few surviving documents depicting the camp before its liberation.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Auschwitz for short
Auschwitz-Birkenau was a German extermination camp established in Poland in 1941. It formed part of a large complex of concentration camps. Between one and 1.5 million people from across Europe were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 90% of them were Jews. The camp was liberated by the Red Army in January 1945.

B

Bar/Bat Mitzvah
"A solemn ceremony marking religious maturity in Judaism. For girls, this occurs at age 12 (Bat Mitzvah)
barrack elder
Concentration camp prisoner in charge of maintaining order in the housing barracks. These ‘functionary prisoners’ were appointed by the camp administration. They enjoyed certain privileges, such as slightly better clothing or food.
Breslauer, Rudolf
Breslauer, a professional photographer and cameraman, fled Germany in the autumn of 1938. In February 1942, he was interned in Westerbork, where he took photographs and made film recordings for the German camp administration. He was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in the autumn of 1944 and later sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, where he was murdered.
Buchenwald
Concentration camp near Weimar. Many Jewish men and some Jewish women were deported here along with political opponents, Sinti, Roma and others. Nearly 280,000 people were imprisoned in Buchenwald and its more than 140 subcamps. It is estimated that roughly 56,000 people died in these camps.

C

camp elder
In the concentration camp system, a camp elder was the highest-ranking prisoner official. He was appointed by the SS and had influence over the allocation of work, food and housing. This position of power came with privileges. Very few camp elders tried to use their influence to help prisoners. See Josef Weiss
Central Office for Jewish Emigration
In 1941, the Central Office for Jewish Emigration briefly organised the forced emigration of Jews from the Netherlands and the plundering of their property. From November 1941, the office was involved in organising the Shoah. Deliberately disguising the operation as ‘emigration’, the office deported approximately 140,000 Jews to their death.
concentration camp (KZ)
During the Nazi era, concentration camps were used to intern Jews, political opponents and other persecuted groups. Unlike extermination camps, where the sole purpose was mass murder, prisoners in concentration camps were exploited through forced labour. Hundreds of thousands of people were murdered in these camps. Others died of starvation and disease, or were deported to extermination camps.
Convict Jews
In the Westerbork transit camp, prisoners were classified as Convict Jews if they had been discovered in hiding or violated the anti-Jewish regulations or camp rules. They were segregated and deported on the next transport to the Auschwitz or Sobibor extermination camps.

D

DDT
(Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) DDT is an insecticide whose effects were discovered in 1939. It was used in agriculture and in pest control to kill lice and fleas on humans. In the 1970s, it was banned due to environmental damage and its long-term harm to humans.
deportation
Deportation refers to the state-organised forced removal or expulsion of political opponents or entire population groups. Under National Socialism, deportation to ghettos, concentration camps and extermination camps in Eastern Europe was one phase of the extermination process.
Diaspora
From the Ancient Greek word for ‘dispersion’. Diaspora refers to a religious or ethnic community that is forced to live in a foreign land, but is able to maintain its cultural unity there. The Jewish diaspora began with the expulsion of Jews from what is now Israel by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 135 AD.
Displaced Person (D.P.)
A term used to describe displaced persons, i.e. former concentration camp prisoners and forced labourers, as well as Jewish Holocaust survivors who had become stateless after the Second World War, or found themselves outside the country of their nationality. In 1945, the Allies estimated that there were approximately 11 million DPs in Central Europe.

E

Eichmann, Adolf (1906-1962)
SS officer in the Reich Security Main Office. He oversaw the organisation of the deportation of Jews from across Europe to concentration and extermination camps. In 1945, he went into hiding and fled to Argentina. He was abducted to Israel by the Israeli secret service in 1960. Following a trial in Jerusalem, he was executed in 1962.
Eretz Israel
(Hebrew: ‘Land of Israel’.) Zionist term referring to Israel as an aspired homeland for Jews. Before the state was founded in 1948, the term referred to the British Mandate of Palestine.
evacuation (of concentration camps)
As the Allies advanced further, the SS began evacuating nearby concentration camps to prevent the prisoners from being liberated. The prisoners were transported by freight trains or forced to march to camps located further inland. Thousands of prisoners died or were murdered during these transports and ‘death marches’.
exchange camp
The Bergen-Belsen exchange camp, part of the concentration camp system, was established in the spring of 1943 on the initiative of the SS and the Foreign Office. The Nazis detained Jews in this camp who were initially not targeted for murder. Instead, the plan was to exchange them for foreign currency or Germans living abroad. Citizens of neutral or friendly states were also imprisoned in this camp.
Exemption
An exemption meant that a person was not deported immediately. Exemptions were granted to individuals who had an entry permit from an enemy country because the SS were interested in exchanging them for Germans interned abroad. People who worked for the Jewish Council were deemed ‘indispensable’ and therefore also exempted.

F

February strike (Netherlands 1941)
Following a call for a strike by the illegal Communist Party of the Netherlands, on 25 and 26 February 1941, several thousand people in Amsterdam and elsewhere protested against the persecution of Jews and the German occupation. The protests were violently suppressed.
Foreign Office
Official name of the Foreign Ministry of the German Reich. The name continued to be used in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Foreign Office was involved in establishing the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as an ‘exchange camp’ in 1943.
Fünten, aus der, Ferdinand (1909-1989)
An SS officer who headed the ‘Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam’ after Germany occupied the Netherlands. He organised the registration and arrest of Jews in the Netherlands, who were subsequently deported via the Westerbork camp.

G

Gemmeker, Albert Konrad (1907-1982)
SS officer. Gemmeker was commander of the Westerbork transit camp from October 1942 to April 1945. Beginning in July 1942, approximately 100,000 people in this camp were deported to concentration and extermination camps. In 1949, Gemmeker was sentenced in the Netherlands to ten years’ imprisonment, of which he served two.

H

Haas, Adolf
SS officer and commander of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from its establishment in spring 1943 until December 1944. He was subsequently transferred to an SS tank battalion. He has been reported missing since spring 1945.
Habonim
(Hebrew: ‘the builders’.) Habonim was a left-wing Zionist youth movement whose activities and rules were strongly modelled after those of the Boy Scouts. The organisation was founded in London in 1928 and soon expanded to other countries.
Hanukkah
Festival of Lights. A Jewish celebration commemorating the dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 3597 (164 BC). It is celebrated between late November and early January and lasts for eight days.
Hebrew
The official language of Israel. Ancient Hebrew is the language of the Old Testament. It can be traced back to c. 1000 BC. After antiquity, Hebrew was mostly used for ceremonial purposes rather than in everyday speech. In the late 19th century, a concerted effort was made to revive Hebrew as an everyday language with strong European influences (Modern Hebrew).
Hiding
To go underground or hide from the authorities. During the German occupation, over 300,000 people went into hiding in the Netherlands, including 28,000 Jews. Approximately 16,000 of them were discovered, arrested and deported.
Himmler, Heinrich (1900-1945)
‘Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police’. In 1943, Himmler also became Minister of the Interior. He played a leading role in establishing the concentration camp system. He was also critically involved in creating and organising the regime of terror in the occupied territories and the plan to systematically murder the Jews in Europe. Himmler committed suicide in 1945.
Hollandsche Schouwburg
Former theatre in Amsterdam. In 1942, the German authorities turned the building into a ‘transit point’ for Jews living in Amsterdam. Jews were required to report there or were brought there by the police and later deported to Westerbork. The assembly point was closed in late 1943 as deportations had mostly ended.
Holocaust
(From the Greek ‘burnt sacrifice’.) The term ‘Holocaust’ is now generally used to refer to the murder of all victims of National Socialism. Jews, Sinti and Roma, prisoners of war, people with disabilities, so-called ‘asocials’, homosexuals, political opponents, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others were murdered as part of a campaign planned and organised by the Nazi state. In addition to the approximately 6 million Jewish victims, research suggests that several million others were also murdered. See Shoah
Hoogeveen / Hollandscheveld
A town in the south of the Dutch province of Drenthe. Several people were able to hide here with the help of the Dutch Resistance. The Westerbork transit camp was located in the same province.

I

IDF Israeli Defence Forces
Armed forces of the State of Israel. The IDF was formed in 1948 from underground militias that fought in the War of Independence, such as the Haganah. Today, it is one of the most modern armies in the world.
internment camp
In addition to the system of concentration camps, other camps were also established in the German-occupied territories. These internment camps were used to detain people temporarily. In Schoorl, in North Holland, for example, former pilots of the Dutch army were temporarily interned alongside Jewish men and women.
Israel
A state in the Middle East. Israel sees itself as the ‘nation-state of the Jewish people’, although nearly 20% of its approximately 10 million inhabitants are non-Jewish. The name comes from a people and kingdom mentioned in the Old Testament. The state was declared independent in 1948.

J

Jew / Jewess
Members of the Jewish faith. Some Jews see themselves as a people unified by a shared culture. In contrast, the Nazis constructed a ‘Jewish race’ without any scientific basis. According to this principle, they also persecuted people who had been labelled ‘Jews’ although they had converted to Christianity or were non-religious.
Jewish council
The Germans ordered Jewish Councils to be established in the Jewish communities of occupied Europe and in the newly created ghettos. These councils were responsible for regulating the daily life of the persecuted Jewish population. Their role was ambivalent: although they could conduct charitable work, they also had to cooperate with the German authorities.
Jewish quarter / ghetto
The German occupying forces excluded the Jewish population in occupied Eastern Europe from society by forcing them into designated ‘Jewish quarters’. Their confinement in these areas made it easier to deport them later. Access was strictly controlled, and the quarters were soon overcrowded. Many people died there of starvation and from conditions caused by poor sanitary conditions.

K

Kindertransport (children’s transport)
Following the November pogroms of 1938, many Jewish parents wanted their children to reach safety outside of Germany. Countries such as Great Britain and the Netherlands agreed to take in thousands of Jewish children. Many were placed with foster families or in children’s homes. The official Kindertransport programme ended when the war began in 1939, but private initiatives continued to bring children to safety in Britain via the Netherlands until May 1940.
Kingdom of the Netherlands
A state in Western Europe comprising the Netherlands proper and several overseas territories. The Kingdom is governed by a parliamentary democracy. In May 1940, the country was invaded by Germany without a declaration of war and later occupied.
Kosher
(From the Hebrew ‘pure’, ‘suitable’.) The term refers to foods permitted under Jewish dietary laws. Thes rules address issues concerning individual foods, methods of slaughter, food preparation and accepted food combinations.
Krakow
"A major city in southern Poland. Krakow was the capital of Poland in the late Middle Ages
Kramer, Joseph (1906-1945)
SS officer and commander of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from December 1944 until its liberation on 15 April. He previously served as commander of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. He was sentenced to death at the British Bergen-Belsen trial and executed in 1945.

L

labour detachment
Labour detachments were groups of concentration camp inmates or prisoners of war assigned to specific worksites where they were forced to perform hard labour. The prisoners in these units were usually housed in subcamps in towns and villages.
Lost Train
In early April 1945, the SS cleared the transit camp at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The three trains, carrying around 6,700 prisoners, were probably headed for the Theresienstadt ghetto. One of the trains was liberated on 23 April 1945 near Tröbitz, east of Torgau. This train later became known as the ‘Lost Train’.

M

Main Economic and Administrative Office
The Main Economic and Administrative Office (WVHA), founded in 1942, was one of the most powerful institutions of the SS. All concentration camps in the German Reich and the occupied territories were subordinate to this office. It coordinated the exploitation of the imprisoned people and was part of the system of ‘extermination through labour’.
Mauthausen
Municipality in Upper Austria. Mauthausen, with more than 40 subcamps, was the site of the largest concentration camp in German-annexed Austria. Around 190,000 people were imprisoned in the Mauthausen/Gusen concentration camp and its subcamps between 1938 and 1945. At least 90,000 people died in these camps.
Misrachi
Misrachi is a Zionist organisation founded in Vilnius in 1902. Its motto was ‘the Land of Israel for the People of Israel according to the Torah of Israel.’ Although Zionism is fundamentally secular in nature, Misrachi advocated for the integration of Orthodox Jews into the Zionist movement.
Muiderberg
A district of the Gooise Meren municipality in the Dutch province of North Holland, approximately 20 kilometres east of Amsterdam. A large Jewish cemetery was established here by the Jewish communities in Amsterdam in 1642 and is still in use today.
Mussert, Anton Adriaan (1894-1946)
Dutch politician. Mussert was chairman of the Dutch Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (NSB). He welcomed the German invasion in 1940 and subsequently acted in an advisory capacity to the German occupiers. Contrary to expectations, he was not granted any real power and served only in ceremonial positions. In 1946, Mussert was executed for collaborating with the Germans.

N

National Socialism
National Socialism was a political movement in Germany that formed the basis for the German social order from 1933 to 1945. National Socialism was characterised by antisemitism, racism, the cult of the Führer, militarism, anti-communism and the rejection of democracy. It pursued these principles by establishing a dictatorship and engaging in military expansion, and by persecuting and murdering millions of people.
Nederlandse Landwacht
Dutch paramilitary organisation. The Nederlandse Landwacht was established by the German occupying forces in November 1943. It consisted of volunteers, most of whom were members of the NSB, and served as an auxiliary police force. In addition to guarding buildings, its duties included conducting identity checks, making arrests and performing house searches.
NSB (Nationaal Socialistische Beweging)
"Dutch party. The NSB was founded in 1931. It first modelled itself on Italian fascism and later on the NSDAP in Germany. Its membership had grown significantly by 1940, but it did not achieve any major electoral successes. Following the German invasion, the NSB cooperated with the occupying forces and was the only authorised party
NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
The NSDAP was a political party founded in Munich in 1920. Adolf Hitler served as party leader from 1921. It propagated the ideology of National Socialism and employed violence as a political means. As the only legal party in Germany, the NSDAP was partially merged with the state apparatus in July 1933. The party was banned after the war in 1945.

O

occupational ban
The Nazis issued occupational bans that deprived Jews in Germany of their livelihoods. It began with the ‘Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service’, enacted in April 1933, but Jews were eventually barred from nearly all professions. In the Netherlands, this process began in November 1940 with the dismissal of all Jews from the civil service.
Order Police (in the German-occupied territories)
The German Order Police was part of the occupying forces in the Netherlands and other occupied territories. It carried out raids, arrests, deportations and other repressive measures against Jews, other persecuted groups and political opponents. It worked closely with the locally stationed SS.

P

Palestine
"A region in Western Asia on the Mediterranean coast. Historically, Palestine comprised the modern-day State of Israel, the Palestinian autonomous territories of the West Bank and Gaza, and parts of Jordan. Today, the term ‘Palestine’ is often used to refer to the territory of an aspirational Palestinian state
Palestine-Certificate
Permission to emigrate to the British Mandate of Palestine. The Foreign Office valued Jews holding entry documents for Palestine because it hoped to exchange them for Germans who were interned there. For Jews, the certificates were a chance to flee persecution.
Passover
An important Jewish holiday celebrated in the spring to commemorate the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and the end of slavery. The celebration begins with the Seder evening and continues for eight days (seven in Israel).
Police (German Police in the Netherlands)
Around 25,000 members of the German police were deployed in the Netherlands during the Second World War. They were responsible for monitoring the local population, persecuting Jews and fighting the resistance. The Dutch police were forced to cooperate with the German police.
Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam
The community was founded in 1602 by Jews who fled religious persecution in Portugal and Spain and came to the Netherlands with their families. It still exists today. The grand 17th-century Portuguese synagogue houses the world’s oldest Jewish library.
prisoner, concentration camp prisoner
"People imprisoned in German concentration camps without due process. These included Jews, Sinti and Roma, political opponents, homosexuals and people stigmatised as ‘anti-social’. They were subjected to forced labour, starvation and violence. Between 1-1.5 million people died in these camps

Q

Quarantine
Measures taken to combat epidemics, such as isolating the sick and cordoning off affected areas. Within the concentration camp system, quarantine often served as a pretext for segregating sick prisoners, which made it easier to deport them or subject them to extreme neglect, leading to their death.

R

Rabbi
The rabbi is the spiritual leader of a Jewish community. He is the teacher and interpreter of the Torah and decides on matters of religious law. His office is called the rabbinate.
Rauter, Hanns Albin (1895-1949)
Police and SS officer. Rauter was the commander-in-chief of all police and SS units in the occupied Netherlands. He played a leading role in deporting more than 100,000 Jews, organising forced labour, and retaliating against the Dutch resistance. Rauter was executed in 1949.
Red Army
The army of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (1917) and the Soviet Union (from 1922), founded after the October Revolution. The Red Army played a significant role in the Allied victory over Germany and its allies in 1945.
Red Cross
Aid organisation for people in crisis and distress. Founded in 1863 as an international umbrella organisation to care primarily for wounded soldiers. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) played a critical role in helping prisoners of war during the Second World War, but did little to assist concentration camp inmates and persecuted Jews.
refugees (Jewish in the Netherlands)
"Sources estimate that between 25,000 and 30,000 German Jews fled to the Netherlands after 1933. Many remained there involuntarily while awaiting entry permits from other countries. Nearly everyone who was still in the Netherlands when the Germans invaded in 1940 fell victim to the deportations that began in 1942
Reich Commissariat for the Occupied Dutch Territories
German civilian occupation administration in the Netherlands, 1940–1945. Reich Commissioner Arthur Seyß Inquart and the General Commissioners under his command were responsible for administrating the territory and implementing repressive policies. The Reich Commissariat worked closely with the Wehrmacht leadership in the occupied Netherlands.
roll-call area
In concentration camps, the roll-call area was a central square where prisoners assembled to be counted in the morning and evening. This counting process could last for several hours, even in extreme heat or freezing cold. Roll calls were used as a form of punishment and harassment.
RSHA (Reich Security Main Office)
The SS headquarters, which converged various police authorities (the Gestapo and the Criminal Police) and the Security Service (SD) of the NSDAP in 1939. The RSHA was one of the most powerful authorities under National Socialism. It played a central role in perpetrating Nazi terror.

S

Schuller, Susanne (1925- 1990), d.i. Merényi, Zsuzsa
Susanne Schuller was born in Germany to Hungarian Jewish parents. In response to National Socialism, her family returned to Hungary. She was arrested in Budapest in December 1944 and deported to the Bergen-Belsen exchange camp. She recorded her experiences in small drawings. After liberation in Tröbitz, she returned to Hungary.
Security police / security service
The Criminal Investigation Department (Kripo) and the Political Police (Gestapo) merged into the German Security Police (SiPo) in 1936. The Security Service (SD) was an intelligence service of the SS, initially responsible for persecuting political opponents. The two institutions worked together closely and played a decisive role in the Holocaust.
Seder
Ceremonial meal at the start of the Passover celebration. On Seder night, six symbolic dishes are eaten in a fixed order. They symbolise various aspects of the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt, as described in the Torah and the Old Testament.
Senior SS and Police Leader
The office of the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) was created in 1937. As a unified leadership office in each military district and occupied territory, the HSSPFs coordinated the SS and the police. Many SS and police leaders were responsible for issuing orders to commit war crimes.
Seyß-Inquart, Arthur (1892-1946)
Austrian politician. As Austria’s short-lived Chancellor, Seyß-Inquart oversaw Germany’s annexation of Austria. He later served as Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands, where he was responsible for the terror and mass deportations. Seyß-Inquart was executed in 1946.
She'ar Yashuv
(Hebrew: ‘A remnant shall return.) Part of the Dutch Jewish Youth Federation (JJF), founded in 1920. After 1945, both Zionist and Orthodox Jewish youth were active in the organisation.
Shoah
(Hebrew: ‘catastrophe’.) The Shoah refers to the mass murder of millions of Jewish people during the Nazi era. Around six million Jews fell victim to the Shoah, through outdoor shootings, gassing in the extermination camps, disease and ‘extermination through labour’ in concentration camps. See Holocaust
Slottke, Gertrud (1902-1971)
Clerk in the Jewish Affairs Department of the Commander of the Security Police and the SD (BdS) in the Netherlands. She played a key role in deporting Jews from the Netherlands and was responsible, among other things, for deportation ‘deferrals’. She was briefly held as a prisoner of war by the Canadians at the end of the war and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in 1967.
Socialism / socialist
Socialism refers to concepts whose central tenets are solidarity, material equality and collective forms of decision-making and production. Historically, these concepts have been associated with workers’ parties, trade unions and strike movements. In the Marxist tradition, socialism is understood as a precursor to communism.
Soviet Union, Soviet
The Soviet Union (from the Russian word soviet, meaning ‘council’) was founded in 1922. It was a multi-ethnic state inhabited by Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and many other groups. The Soviet Union was ruled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which strove towards the realisation of a socialist social order.
spotted fever
A parasitic disease that is often fatal. Outbreaks of typhus in ghettos and concentration camps served as a pretext for the German authorities to implement ‘epidemic control measures’ aimed at murdering the infected. In their search for a vaccine, Nazi doctors carried out human experiments on concentration camp prisoners.
SS (Schutzstaffel, English: Protection Squadron)
The SS was founded in 1925 as Hitler’s personal guard. After 1933, it encompassed police units, secret services, military formations and the guard units in the concentration camps. By 1945, it had grown to several hundred thousand members. The SS was a central instrument of terror. It was also responsible for the administration of the concentration camp.
Star / yellow Star / Jewish Star
The Nazis forced Jews to wear a six-pointed, usually yellow star, on their clothing. The point was to separate them from the rest of the population. A Jew could be severely punished if the star was not visibly displayed. This regulation was introduced in occupied Poland in 1939, in the German Reich in 1941, and in the occupied Netherlands in May 1942. This identifying symbol marked the prelude to the National Socialists’ policy of extermination.
Statelessness / stateless
As early as 1933, the National Socialists began stripping German Jews and political opponents of their German citizenship. These people, who were rendered ‘stateless’ and deprived of their rights, were left to the mercy of the National Socialists and their policy of extermination.

T

tallit
A wide, cloak-like shawl worn in Judaism, primarily for morning prayers. The four fringes attached to the tallit serve as a reminder to observe God’s commandments.
Theresienstadt (ghetto)
"Terezín, a town in the Czech Republic. A German camp was established there in 1941. It held a total of 141,000 Jews, many of them elderly. Nearly 90,000 of the ghetto residents were deported to extermination camps
Torah
(Hebrew: ‘lesson, instruction’.) The Torah is the first and central part of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh). It comprises the Five Books of Moses, containing accounts of the Creation and the Exodus, as well as numerous commandments. In Judaism, it is regarded as divine revelation and forms the basis of religious practice.
Tröbitz
A municipality in the Elbe-Elster district in southern Brandenburg. An evacuation transport from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated there by the Red Army in April 1945. This ‘Lost Train’ was probably taking the Jewish prisoners from the transit camp to the Theresienstadt ghetto.
typhus
A bacterial disease transmitted through contaminated food and drinking water. This often-fatal disease began to spread rapidly through many concentration camps in 1941.

U

UNNRA
The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was an international organisation founded in 1943. Its main task was to provide humanitarian aid to people affected by the Second World War. In liberated Germany, it was primarily responsible for caring for the many displaced persons (DPs).

V

Veterans (in Palestine)
Zionist organisations referred to Jews who had immigrated to Palestine before the Second World War as ‘veterans’.
Vught (also: S’Hertogenbosch)
Vught is a district of the Dutch city of S’Hertogenbosch. The German occupiers established a concentration camp here in the summer of 1942, and interned around 31,000 people in it. The camp was evacuated in the autumn of 1944 and the prisoners were transferred to other concentration camps.

W

Weerbaarheidsafdeeling (WA)
The paramilitary wing of the NSB from 1932 to 1935, re-established during the German occupation of the Netherlands in late 1940. The WA clashed with political opponents and, by marching through Amsterdam’s Jewish quarter, provoked violent unrest, which was suppressed, leading to a strike in February 1941. See February strike
Weiss, Josef, Jupp for short (1893-1976)
Josef Weiss fled Germany with his family to the Netherlands in 1933. In January 1944, he was deported from the Westerbork transit camp to the exchange camp in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. There, he first served as deputy to the camp elder, or ‘Jewish elder’. In late 1944, he held the position of ‘Jewish elder’ himself. He experienced liberation in Tröbitz and later emigrated to Israel. See Camp elder
Westerbork
A refugee camp and later a transit camp in the Netherlands. From 1942, it served as an SS transit camp under German administration. Dutch Jews and Jews who had fled to the Netherlands were interned here before being deported to extermination camps. Between 1942 and 1944, over 100,000 people were deported from Westerbork. Only around 5,000 survived.
Western Allies
The Western Allies – France and the United Kingdom (from 1939) and the US (from 1941) were the main Western opponents of Germany and its allies in the Second World War. Together with the Soviet Union, the three Western Allies shaped Germany’s reorganisation after 1945.

Y

Yiddish
A West Germanic language. Yiddish originated in the Rhine region in the Middle Ages. It became the everyday language of many Central and Eastern European Jews. Around 1930, some 11 million people spoke Yiddish. Many of them were murdered in the Shoah. Between one and two million people still speak Yiddish today.

Z

Zichron Ya’akov
(Hebrew: ‘In memory of Jacob’.) A Zionist youth organisation founded in Amsterdam in 1915. It offered cultural events, discussions on religious issues and Hebrew courses, among other things, and strove to prepare its members for life in Palestine.
Zionism, zionist
A political movement that emerged in the late 19th century with the aim of establishing a Jewish state. It was a reaction to centuries of religious and political persecution. The movement was named after the biblical site of Zion (referring to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem).