Holocaust study hub
The Holocaust was the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Around six million Jewish people were killed. This organiser gathers core concepts, key dates, places, and memorials for rapid revision and careful study.
Key terms
Tap a heading to expand
Holocaust
Systematic murder of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis.
Shoah
Hebrew word meaning catastrophe.
Zionist
Jewish movement supporting a national home in Palestine.
Anti-Semitism
Hostility or prejudice against Jewish people.
Mein Kampf
Hitler’s book, published 1925.
Nuremberg Laws
Anti-Jewish, racist laws enforced in Nazi Germany.
Kristallnacht
Night of Broken Glass in 1938. Widespread attacks on Jews and property.
Ghetto
Areas where Jews were forcibly confined with poor conditions.
Final Solution
Attempt to murder every Jewish man, woman and child in Europe.
Concentration Camp
Sites used to imprison millions of Jews and other targeted groups.
Auschwitz
German Nazi camp complex in occupied Poland.
Perpetrator
Someone who inflicts harm or killing.
Bystander
Someone who witnesses harm and does nothing.
Kindertransport
Rescue effort moving Jewish children to Britain starting in 1938.
Refugee
Person forced to flee their country to escape war or persecution.
Resistance
Refusal to accept oppression. Acts of defiance.
Uprising
Armed rebellion or organised resistance.
Deportation
Forcible removal of people from their homes and countries.
Liberation
Freeing people from imprisonment or slavery.
Prosecuted
Legal proceedings brought against suspected criminals.
Memorial
Structure or space that remembers victims and events.
Fast facts
Ancient Greek for completely burnt.
Jews murdered by Nazis and collaborators.
7,500 businesses, 900 synagogues destroyed.
Extreme overcrowding, hunger and disease.
Children rescued to Britain from 1938.
Remember Terms such as perpetrator, bystander, resister and rescuer help analyse human choices.
Selected timeline
Concentration camps referenced
- Auschwitz (I've hyperlinked a map to this one)
- Bergen-Belsen
- Buchenwald
- Dora
- Esterwegen
- Flossenbürg
- Mauthausen
- Majdanek
- Neuengamme
- Ravensbrück
- Riga
- Sachsenhausen
- Stutthof
- Vaivara
Kindertransport snapshot
Led by the British Jewish Refugee Committee. £50 bond per child. First arrival to Harwich on 2 December 1938.
Memorials
- Stolpersteine, Germany
- Sculpture of Love and Anguish, Miami I've hyperlinked
- Holocaust Memorial Garden, Hyde Park, London
- Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin
Study prompts
- How did laws, propaganda and violence escalate?
- What choices faced perpetrators, bystanders and resisters?
- Why do memorials differ in form and purpose?