Kraków GhettoThe Kraków Ghetto was one of five major metropolitan Nazi ghettos created by Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was established for the purpose of exploitation, terror, and persecution of local Polish Jews. The ghetto was later used as a staging area for separating the "able workers" from those to be deported to extermination camps in Operation Reinhard.
SchutzmannschaftThe Schutzmannschaft, or Auxiliary Police ( "protective teams, or guard units"; plural: Schutzmannschaften, abbreviated as Schuma) was the collaborationist auxiliary police of native policemen serving in those areas of the Soviet Union and the Baltic states occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, established the Schutzmannschaft on 25 July 1941, and subordinated it to the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei; Orpo). By the end of 1941, some 45,000 men served in Schutzmannschaft units, about half of them in the battalions.
Trawniki menDuring World War II, Trawniki men (travˈniki; Trawnikimänner) were Central and Eastern European Nazi collaborators, consisting of either volunteers or recruits from prisoner-of-war camps set up by Nazi Germany for Soviet Red Army soldiers captured in the border regions during Operation Barbarossa launched in June 1941. Thousands of these volunteers served in the General Government territory of German-occupied Poland until the end of World War II.
Final SolutionThe Final Solution (die Endlösung, diː ˈʔɛntˌløːzʊŋ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (Endlösung der Judenfrage, ˈɛntˌløːzʊŋ deːɐ̯ ˈjuːdn̩ˌfʁaːɡə) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to the Jewish question" was the official code name for the murder of all Jews within reach, which was not restricted to the European continent.
General GovernmentThe General Government (Generalgouvernement; Generalne Gubernatorstwo; Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovakia and the Soviet Union in 1939 at the onset of World War II. The newly occupied Second Polish Republic was split into three zones: the General Government in its centre, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany in the west, and Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union in the east.
VolkssturmThe Volkssturm (ˈfɔlksʃtʊʁm; "people's storm") was a levée en masse national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was set up by the Nazi Party on the orders of Adolf Hitler and established on 25 September 1944. It was staffed by conscripting males between the ages of 16 and 60 years, who were not already serving in some military unit. The Volkssturm comprised one of the final components of the total war promulgated by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, part of a Nazi endeavor to overcome their enemies' military strength through force of will.
Romani HolocaustThe Romani Holocaust or the Romani genocide—also known as the Porajmos (Romani pronunciation: phoɽajˈmos, meaning "the Devouring"), the Pharrajimos (meaning "the Cutting up", "the Fragmentation", "the Destruction"), and the Samudaripen ("Mass killing")—was the planned effort by Nazi Germany and its World War II allies and collaborators to commit ethnic cleansing and eventually genocide against European Roma and Sinti peoples during the Holocaust era.
Blue PoliceThe Blue Police (Granatowa policja, Navy-blue police), was the police during the Second World War in the General Government, semicolonial entity on a territory of German-occupied Poland. Its official German name was Polnische Polizei im Generalgouvernement (Polish Police of the General Government; Policja Polska Generalnego Gubernatorstwa). The Blue Police officially came into being on when Germany drafted Poland's prewar state police officers (Policja Państwowa), organizing local units with German leadership.
Rumbula massacreThe Rumbula massacre is a collective term for incidents on November 30 and December 8, 1941, in which about 25,000 Jews were murdered in or on the way to Rumbula forest near Riga, Latvia, during World War II. Except for the Babi Yar massacre in Ukraine, this was the biggest two-day Holocaust atrocity until the operation of the death camps. About 24,000 of the victims were Latvian Jews from the Riga Ghetto and approximately 1,000 were German Jews transported to the forest by train.