Glossary - '45 Aid Society

Aktion A Nazi military or police operation to forcibly assemble Jews prior to shootings or deportation.

Allies A group of 26 nations led by Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union that opposed the Axis powers during World War II.

Appellplatz German for the square where prisoners were forced to assemble for roll calls.

Appel German term for the roll call of prisoners in concentration camps

Aryan Term used in Nazi Germany to refer to non-Jewish and non-Gypsy Caucasians — white Europeans, especially northern Europeans with blonde hair and blue eyes — who were considered by the Nazis to be the most superior of races and members of a “master race.”

Aryanisation The Nazi term for the seizure of Jewish property and its transfer to non-Jews.

Ashkenazi A Jewish diaspora population that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries. Ashkenazim traditionally spoke Yiddish and largely migrated towards northern and eastern Europe during the late Middle Ages to escape persecution.

Asocial The Nazis used the terms ‘asocial’ to categorise together a group of people who did not conform to their social norms. This group included beggars, alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, and pacifists. People who were categorised as ‘asocials’ were persecuted and some were taken to concentration camps where they were forced to wear black triangles. Roma and Sinti were often classed as ‘asocial’.

Axis A political, military and ideological alliance created by Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan in Berlin on 27 September 1940. Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia eventually also joined the Axis.

Blockältester (plural: Blockälteste) Jewish inmates in concentration camps who were chosen to be barrack leaders. Within the camp hierarchy they were just below Kapos.

Central British Fund (CBF) The UK-based charitable organisation that was instrumental in bringing the Boys to the UK. Formerly known as the Central British Fund for German Jewry, it is known today as World Jewish Relief.

Deportation Forced removal of Jews in the Third Reich and German occupied countries from their homes.

Displaced Persons Camp (“DP Camp”) A series of camps established by the Allies after World War II to house survivors of Nazi persecution and refugees from eastern Europe, known as displaced persons, or DPs, while they awaited repatriation to their home countries or resettlement in a new destination.

Einsatzgruppen The German word for an Operational Task Force. Einsatzgruppen were mobile SS and SD killing units that were supported by Order Police, Waffen-SS personnel and auxiliary units of Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian volunteers. The units followed the German army as it invaded the nations of central and eastern Europe. Their duties included the arrest or murder of political opponents and potential resistance.

Extermination Camp A camp set up by the Nazis for the mass murder of Jews, primarily by poison gas.

Final Solution Translation of the German word Endlösung, a Nazi euphemism for the plan to murder all European Jews.

Gas Van Vehicle whose exhaust was redirected to its rear compartment to kill those locked inside.

Gestapo The SS controlled German Secret State Police responsible for investigating political crimes and opposition activities. “Gestapo” is a contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei.

Ghetto Under the Nazis a ghetto was a very clearly defined district, often walled or fenced in and surrounded by armed guards, in which only Jews were forced to live in the worst possible conditions. All, except the Theresienstadt Ghetto, were eventually dissolved and the Jews were murdered. The word ghetto was first used in Venice in 1516 to describe an area of a town or city where Jews were required to live.

Hostel The locations in the UK where the Boys were received and given time, space, health care, and education necessary for rehabilitation, recovery, and learning English.

Judenrat Jewish councils set up to maintain order and carry out the orders of the German army.

Kommando German word for ‘detachment,’ referring to a group of concentration camp prisoners assigned to forced labour.

Kapo A concentration camp prisoner selected to oversee other prisoners.

Kindertransport Literally ‘children’s transport’ in German. A pre-war programme whereby the British government allowed the admission of almost 10,000 mostly Jewish child refugees from central Europe after Kristallnacht until the outbreak of war curtailed the operation.

Labour Camp Camp where Jews and other prisoners were subjected to forced slave labour for either military or government purposes. Inmates were detained for periods of unlimited duration without judicial review.

Lebensraum ‘Living space’ in German, it was a basic principle of Nazi foreign policy. Hitler believed that eastern Europe had to be conquered to create a vast German empire.

Muselmann A term widely used by concentration camp prisoners to refer to inmates who were on the verge of death from starvation, exhaustion, and despair.

Pale of Settlement The western part of the Russian Empire in which Russian Jews were allowed to live from 1835 to 1917.

Pogrom Violent attack on a Jewish community.

Police battalion Armed unit of German regular policemen. Along with the Einsatzgruppen, the police battalions played a leading role in mass executions of Jews in eastern Europe.

Red Army The Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, usually referred to as the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Soviet Union from 1922-1946, when it was renamed the Soviet Army.

SD An acronym for Sicherheitsdienst. The SD was an SS agency which was the political intelligence agency of the SS and played a central role in carrying out the Holocaust.

Selection A term for the process of separating Jews deemed suitable for hard labour from the remainder, who were then sent to their deaths. This usually took place either in a ghetto roundup or on arrival at a concentration camp.

Sephardi Sephardic Jews are a diaspora community, who in 1492 were forced to convert to Catholicism or face expulsion from Spain. Between 100,000-300,000 Spanish Jews left Spain and settled in different parts of Europe and the Middle East. Approximately 100,000 Sephardic Jews from locations including Greece, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Netherlands, Italy, France, Tunisia and Libya, were killed by the Nazis in World War II.

Slave Labour Camp Camp where Jews and other prisoners were subjected to forced slave labour for either military or government purposes. Inmates were detained for periods of unlimited duration without judicial review.

Sonderkommando A term meaning ‘special detachment’ in German that was used to describe an SS or Einsatzgruppe detachment. It also refers to the Jewish slave labour units in extermination camps who were forced to work in and around the gas chambers.

SS An abbreviation of Schutzstaffel, German for ‘protection squad’. The SS was a paramilitary formation of the Nazi party created to serve as bodyguards to Hitler and other Nazi leaders. The SS later took charge of political intelligence gathering, the German police and the central security apparatus, the concentration camps, and the systematic mass murder of Jews and other victims.

Transit camp A camp in which Jews were held before deportation to extermination camps.

Transport Word used to describe the forced movement of prisoners from one place to another. The word was also used to refer to the movement of refugees both before and after the war.

Yiddish A Germanic language with elements of Hebrew and Aramaic historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews.

Zionism Zionism is the name given to the national movement of the Jewish people. Zionists believe that Judaism is not just a religion, but also a nationality and that Jews should have their own state in their ancestral homeland, Israel.

Zyklon B A chemical developed as an insecticide, later used by the Nazis in gas chambers to kill victims.

Photograph of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943.

Photograph of Ivor Perl's identity documents, American occupied sector of Germany 1945.

Photograph of documents in the London Metropolitan Archives.

Photograph of the Liberation of the death train from Buchenwald to Theresienstadt, 8 May 1945.

Photograph of the death march from Remsdorf-Troglitz to Theresienstadt April 1945.

Photograph of the Anhalter Bahnhof - Holocaust Deportation Site - in Berlin, Germany.

Photograph of a memorial at the former extermination camp of Treblinka in modern-day Poland.

Photograph of Jewish boys studying in pre-war Mukachevo.

Photograph of an Einsatzgruppen murder Jews in Ivanhorod, Ukraine, 1942.

Photograph of the German invasion of Poland 1939.

Photograph of the Kaufering Camp Memorial, Landsburg, Germany.

Photograph of the Lwow Ghetto, spring 1942.

Photograph of the former synagogue in Uzhhorod, Ukraine.

Photograph of members of the first group of the Boys arriving at Crosby-on-Eden airport in August 1945.

Photograph of some of the youngest members of the Boys in Windermrere in 1945.