Scheisshaus Luck: Surviving the Unspeakable in Auschwitz and Dora
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Farben company Degesch. After the war, the Allies disbanded the conglomerate, but allowed the original companies to continue doing business.
JUDE (German) Jew, a ‘‘yellow triangle.’’ The only group of human beings the Nazis wanted to annihilate completely. When Hitler took power on January 30, 1933, German Jews were systematically stripped of all political, economic, and social rights. On September 15, 1935, the Nuremberg Racial Laws were decreed, which banned Jews from being German citizens. On February 21, 1939, German Jews were forced to hand over all their gold and silver items. With the invasion of Poland and the start of World War II, the Nazis rounded up the Jews in all the countries they occupied, putting them into ghettos GLOSSARY
301
or concentration camps. As Nazi forces tore into the Soviet Union, the Einsatzgruppen (Special Forces under the control of Heinrich Himmler) began the mass killing of Jews (along with Gypsies and Communist leaders). On January 20, 1942, the Wannsee Conference was held and the ‘‘Final Solution’’(Endlo¨sung der Judenfrage) was set in motion. In the Shoah (Hebrew term for ‘‘calamity’’), over 6 million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by the Nazis.
KANADA KOMMANDO (German) The work detail that gathered and sorted the belongings of the new arrivals to Auschwitz. Anything of value was earmarked for shipment to Germany, but some items found their way to Auschwitz’s black market. The inmates nicknamed the Kommando ‘‘Kanada’’ because Canada was seen as a country of wealth and prosperity.
KIPP LORE (German) A coal car with a container that can be tilted to easily empty the load.
KOMMANDO (German) Work detail.
KAPO (German) Inmate supervisor of a Kommando. Assigned by the SS and usually a German convict.
KRA¨TZEBLOCK (German) Barracks for inmates with scabies, skin mange, or contagious itch.
K.L. Abbreviation of Konzentrationslager, the German word for
‘‘concentration camp.’’
LAGER (German) Camp.
LAGERA¨LTESTER (German) Camp elder, most of the time a German convict in charge of discipline in the camp.
LAGERFU¨RHER (German) A warden, usually an SS officer who oversaw discipline in the camp
LANDSTURM (German) German reserve forces that are called on last, composed of men not in the armed forces (mainly elderly veterans and teenagers).
LEBENSRAUM (German) Literally, ‘‘living space.’’ One of Hitler’s excuses for invading Poland and the Soviet Union was to acquire land to be colonized by Germans.
LEICHENWAGEN (German) Hearse.
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GLOSSARY
MAKHORKA (Russian) A harsh Russian tobacco composed of tobacco leaf stems.
MALHEURE (French) Horrible or bad luck.
MAQUIS (French) Literally ‘‘sage brush,’’ the name for the French Resistance. The resistance was given that name because most of the men and women lived or hid in the French mountainsides.
MAQUISARDS (French) French Resistance fighters.
MAUTHAUSEN A concentration camp 20 kilometers from Linz, Austria, which was opened in August 1938. The total number of Ha¨ftlinge who passed through the camp is estimated at 199,404, and of that number, 119,000 died. The camp was liberated by the U.S. 11th Armored Division on May 5, 1945.
MESSERSCHMITT The Messerschmitt BF-109 was the standard German fighter plane. It had a water-cooled Daimler-Benz 12-cylinder engine with over 1,000 horsepower.
MON AMI (French) My friend/buddy.
MONOWITZ Auschwitz III , operational in May 1942. A slave labor camp built in the town of Monowice, Poland, whose name was Germanized into Monowitz. The camp supplied workers for the I.G.
Farben plant. At the roll call before the death march out of Auschwitz, there were 10,244 inmates.
MUZHIK (Russian) A term for a Russian peasant, especially before the 1917 Revolution.
MUSELMANN/MUSELMA¨NNER (German) Literally, Muslim/s, but camp slang for an inmate near death, who has given up on life.
ORGANIZE Camp slang for stealing anything from the Nazis that could help in one’s survival or for illicit trade in stolen items. If a prisoner was caught with an ‘‘organized’’ item, it could mean a beating, the Stehbunker, or execution.
PAJAMAS Camp slang for the thin gray-and-blue striped uniforms given to Ha¨ftlinge.
PÈRE LACHAISE The oldest and largest cemetery in Paris. Named after Père Franc¸ois de la Chaise, the confessor of Louis XIV, the cemetery was built on an old quarry. Père Lachaise holds the remains of GLOSSARY
303
many famous people, including Molière, Balzac, Sarah Bernhardt, Chopin, Proust, Oscar Wilde, Isadora Duncan, and Jim Morrison.
PIEPEL (German) Errand boy, although in the K.L., it also im-plied a juvenile prostitute.
PITCHI Poi A legendary village in Yiddish song, used by Jews and other inmates of Drancy as the name of the secret destination the Nazis were shipping them to.
PUFF (German/slang) Bordello, whorehouse.
RAVENSBRU¨CK The Nazi’s only major women’s camp, located 56
miles north of Berlin. The camp was built in 1938, and was liberated by the Soviets on April 30, 1945. About 92,000 women died at Ravensbru¨ck.
REICHSFLUCHTSTEUER
A German ‘‘flight’’ tax that was estab-
lished on December 8, 1931. For anti-Semitic reasons, the Nazis perverted the laws passed before the Seizure of Power, which were originally designed to prevent large amounts of capital from leaving the country during the Great Depression. By 1933, there were a number of laws with the sole purpose of eliminating the Jews from the German economy.
ROMANI An ethnic group, commonly known as Gypsies, whose roots can be traced to India. About 23,000 Romani from eleven countries were shipped to Birkenau, where a special Romani family camp had been built. About 21,000 were either gassed or died from malnutri-tion, disease (especially typhus), or mistreatment. It is estimated that between 20 and 50 percent of European Romani were murdered by the Nazis. Gypsy is a pejorative term.
SCHREIBSTUBE (German) Administration office.
SELECTION Euphemism ( Selektion in German) for being chosen for work or, more commonly, death.
SONDERKOMMANDO (German) Special work team. In Auschwitz, the Sonderkommando was responsible for leading people into the gas chambers, extracting their bodies, and burning them in the crematoriums. Members of the Sonderkommando usually worked in the crematoriums for a few months before being sent to their deaths, as part of the Nazis’ attempts to leave no witnesses to their crimes.
304
GLOSSARY
SPECKJA¨GER (German/slang) Bacon hunter, or someone who chases lard, a scavenger.
SS (SCHUTZSTAFFEL) (German) Security Detail. Originally formed to protect Hitler and other Nazi officials. Under Heinrich Himmler, the SS became military units, the Waffen-SS. By 1944, nearly 40,000 SS were assigned to concentration camps.
STEHBUNKER (German) Standing bunker, or very small cell.
One of the Nazis’ forms of punishment for Ha¨ftlinge who broke their arbitrary rules and regulations. A narrow cell, 90 cm by 90 cm, in which a man couldn’t turn around or move his hands. Ha¨ftlinge were kept in these cells from 10 to over 24 hours at a time.
STUBENDIENST/E (German) Barracks foreman/men.
SUDETENDEUTSCH, SUDETEN GERMAN (German) A German national living in the Sudetenland, which became part of Czechoslovakia after World War I. There were 3,2 million Germans living in this area, which bordered Germany (11,000 square miles). In September 1938, the Munich Agreement, which was signed by Hitler, Britain’s Neville Chamberlin, France’s Edouard Daladier, and Italy’s Mussolini, permitted Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland. Czechoslovakia was given no say in the matter. In March 1939, Germany annexed the rest of the country.
UNTERMENSCH/UNTERMENSCHEN
(German) Subhuman/s,
used generally to refer to prisoners and Jews.
VERBOTEN (German) Forbidden.
VORARBEITER (German) Foreman.
WEHRMACHT German Armed Forces.
ZYKLON-B Crystalline hydrogen cyanide, used in the Nazi gas chambers. Originally developed as a pesticide, and first used in September 1941 on Soviet POWs.
Document Outline
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PART I: DRANCY CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
PART II: AUSCHWITZ CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
PART III: THE DEATH MARCH CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
PART IV: DORA CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
PART V: RAVENSBR�CK CHAPTER 20
PART VI: WUSTROW CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
EPILOGUE
AFTERWORD
GLOSSARY A
B
C
D
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
O
P
R
S
U
V
W
Z
Table of Contents
www.amacombooks.org
FOREWORD, vii
PREFACE, xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, xiii
P A R T
CHAPTER 1, 3
CHAPTER 2, 7
CHAPTER 3, 19
CHAPTER 4, 29
II AUSCHWITZ
CHAPTER 5, 39
CHAPTER 6, 55
CHAPTER 7, 63
CHAPTER 8, 81
CHAPTER 9, 89
CHAPTER 10, 103
CHAPTER 11, 113
CHAPTER 12, 123
CHAPTER 13, 129
CHAPTER 14, 137
CHAPTER 15, 151
III THE DEATH MARCH
CHAPTER 16, 167
CHAPTER 17, 179
IV DORA
CHAPTER 18, 189
CHAPTER 19, 203
V RAVENSBRU¨CK
CHAPTER 20, 211
VI WUSTROW
CHAPTER 21, 223
CHAPTER 22, 233
CHAPTER 23, 243
CHAPTER 24, 255
CHAPTER 25, 267
EPILOGUE, 271
AFTERWORD, 279
GLOSSARY, 297
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Table of Contents
www.amacombooks.org
FOREWORD, vii
PREFACE, xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, xiii
P A R T
CHAPTER 1, 3
CHAPTER 2, 7
CHAPTER 3, 19
CHAPTER 4, 29
II AUSCHWITZ
CHAPTER 5, 39
CHAPTER 6, 55
CHAPTER 7, 63
CHAPTER 8, 81
CHAPTER 9, 89
CHAPTER 10, 103
CHAPTER 11, 113
CHAPTER 12, 123
CHAPTER 13, 129
CHAPTER 14, 137
CHAPTER 15, 151
III THE DEATH MARCH
CHAPTER 16, 167
CHAPTER 17, 179
IV DORA
CHAPTER 18, 189
CHAPTER 19, 203
V RAVENSBRU¨CK
CHAPTER 20, 211
VI WUSTROW
CHAPTER 21, 223
CHAPTER 22, 233
CHAPTER 23, 243
CHAPTER 24, 255
CHAPTER 25, 267
EPILOGUE, 271
AFTERWORD, 279
GLOSSARY, 297
F O R E W O R D
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