The Experience

A Holocaust Dictionary

By: K.Lomax

Blitzkrieg (Lightning War) Blitzkrieg, also known as “lightning war” was Hitler's idea to quickly destroy his enemies before they could prepare their defenses. In the action of Blitzkrieg, the most important factor is to keep moving. During Blitzkrieg, Germans built thousands of panzers (heavy armored tanks) which were capable of rolling through muddy terrains. They also built new types of planes called Stukas to bomb roads and railroad lines. Stukas were a weird type of plane because they were built with screaming devices that would terrify the human ears. To sum it up, Blitzkrieg was basically a quick wipeout.

Stewart, Gail. Hitler’s Reich. San Diego: Lucent Books Incorporated. 1994. Print

The Sigismund Monument stands amid rubble in the Polish capital after Germany's Blitzkrieg assault. Warsaw, Poland, 1939.

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Book Burning Book Burning is basically, a huge bonfire fueled by

books. How it works is, German kids in schools would make list of books that they did not like. The books would then be yanked from libraries thoughout Berlin by the Nazis and used as fuel for the fire. The Nazis would target books that promoted democracy, freedom, peace, or religion. Also, all books by Jewish authors were buned. Reasoning that they were considered unfit for German people.

Stewart, Gail. Hitler’s Reich. San Diego: Lucent Books Incorporated. 1994. Print

The book burning in Berlin, May 10, 1933.A member of the SA throws confiscated books into the bonfire during the public burning of “un-German” books on the Opernplatz in Berlin on May 10, 1933.

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GypsiesAnother one of the races that Hitler targeted/saw a minority, were the gypsies. Gypsies had the lowest status and the Nazis treated them like trash. The term Gypsy was used by the Europeans meaning, the Romani people who were considered outsiders. Gypsies were often looked at as people who have experienced widespread discrimination in Europe. Hitler’s plan was to completely wipe out their race. They were labeled socially inferior and racially impure. They were also referred to as parasites, or people unworthy of life. About twenty thousand Gypsies were imprisoned at Auschwitz and many were subjected to brutal and inhumane medical experiments. The Nazis killed about twenty to fifty percent of the entire European Gypsy population.Saldinger, Anne Grenn. Life in a Nazi Concentration Camp. San Diego: Lucent

Books Incorporated. 2011. Print

Gypsy prisoners at Belzec.A group of Gypsy prisoners, awaiting instructions from their German captors, sit in an open area near the fence in the Belzec concentration camp (Nov 1941-Dec 1942).

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Kristallnacht (The Night of the Broken Glass)

Kristallnacht began as what seemed to be a mirror incident. It all started with a seventeen year old Jew. He was a student from paris and felt that what the Nazis were doing was completely wrong. He then went to Berlin and shot a minor Nazi official. That started an outrage in Berlin. Hitler wanted to teach Germany a lesson as to what would happen if a Jew ever tried to harm a Nazi again. Therefore, Nazi government officials we sent to destroy all Jewish stores, businesses, homes, and synagouges. The Nazis unleashed terrible violence on the Jewish community. This terrifying even happened on November ninth through tenth of nineteen thirty nine. Jews were murdered, Jewish stores were looted and burned, and Jews were arrested. Even firefighters were there, but only to keep the fire from burning Jewish buildings from spreading to German buildings. So much glass from buildings littered the streets that the event came to be known as Kristallnacht.

Stewart, Gail. Hitler’s Reich. San Diego: Lucent Books Incorporated. 1994. Print&

Mara, Will. Perspectives on Kristallnacht. Tarrytown: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. 2010. Print

Germans pass by the broken shop window of a Jewish-owned business that was destroyed during Kristallnacht.

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SwastikaDuring the holocaust, Hitler outlawed all political parties except for the Nazi party. The Nazis took over all media including newspaper, magazine, radio, and film companies. The Nazi party is how Hitler utilized propoganda which is, information, ideas, or rumors used to spread a cause. Hitler used propoganda to influence peoples opinions about the Nazi party. Hitler was already an expert at using false information to manipulate the Germans from experience. Long story short, he realized the need for a vivid symbol to distinguish the Nazis from the minority and he came up with the Swatika.

Beyer, Mark. Heinrich Müller Gestapo Chief. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group Incorporated. 2001, Print

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Zyklon BIn the terrifying period of the holocaust, one of the killing methods that the Nazis used were gas chambers. A good question would be, what type of gas was used. The answer would be Zyklon B. Zyklon B was a gas that was originally created to kill insects and rodents in enclosed areas. Unfortunately, someone found out that the gas was capable of killing humans. This resulted in the use of it by Nazis in the gas chambers. Altogether, what was meant to kill bugs and small unwanted animals, ended up killing thousands of people.

Stewart, Gail. Hitler’s Reich. San Diego: Lucent Books Incorporated. 1994. Print

Zyklon B pellets found at the liberation of the Majdanek camp. Poland, after July 1944.http://tinyurl.com/

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