Sobibor extermination campSobibor (ˈsoʊbɪbɔːr, Polish: so'bibur) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As an extermination camp rather than a concentration camp, Sobibor existed for the sole purpose of murdering Jews. The vast majority of prisoners were gassed within hours of arrival. Those not killed immediately were forced to assist in the operation of the camp, and few survived more than a few months.
Majdanek concentration campMajdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, and some 227 structures in all, placing it among the largest of Nazi concentration camps. Although initially intended for forced labor rather than extermination, the camp was used to murder people on an industrial scale during Operation Reinhard, the German plan to murder all Polish Jews within their own occupied homeland.
Warsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising (powstanie warszawskie; Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led by the Polish resistance Home Army (Armia Krajowa). The uprising was timed to coincide with the retreat of the German forces from Poland ahead of the Soviet advance. While approaching the eastern suburbs of the city, the Red Army halted combat operations, enabling the Germans to regroup and defeat the Polish resistance and to destroy the city in retaliation.
Warsaw GhettoThe Warsaw Ghetto (Warschauer Ghetto, officially Jüdischer Wohnbezirk in Warschau, "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the German authorities within the new General Government territory of occupied Poland. At its height, as many as 460,000 Jews were imprisoned there, in an area of , with an average of 9.2 persons per room, barely subsisting on meager food rations.
Treblinka extermination campTreblinka (trɛˈbliŋka) was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp operated between 23 July 1942 and 19 October 1943 as part of Operation Reinhard, the deadliest phase of the Final Solution. During this time, it is estimated that between 700,000 and 900,000 Jews were murdered in its gas chambers, along with 2,000 Romani people.
Polish złotyThe złoty (alternatively zloty; ˈzwɔtɨ; abbreviation: zł; code: PLN) is the official currency and legal tender of Poland. It is subdivided into 100 grosz (gr). It is the most traded currency in Central and Eastern Europe and ranks 21st most-traded in the foreign exchange market. The word złoty is a masculine form of the Polish adjective 'golden', which closely relates with its name to the guilder whereas the grosz subunit was based on the groschen, cognate to the English word groat.
JudenratA Judenrat (ˈjuːdn̩ˌʁaːt, Jewish council) was an administrative body established in German-occupied Europe during World War II which purported to represent a Jewish community in dealings with the Nazi authorities. The Germans required Jews to form Judenräte across the occupied territories at local and sometimes national levels. Judenräte were particularly common in Nazi ghettos in Eastern Europe where in some cases, such as the Łódź Ghetto, and in Theresienstadt, they were known as the "Jewish Council of Elders" (Jüdischer Ältestenrat or Ältestenrat der Juden).
VolksdeutscheIn Nazi German terminology, Volksdeutsche (ˈfɔlksˌdɔʏtʃə) were "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship". The term is the nominalised plural of volksdeutsch, with Volksdeutsche denoting a singular female, and Volksdeutsche(r), a singular male. The words Volk and völkisch conveyed the meanings of "folk". The Volksdeutsche shed their identity as Auslandsdeutsche (Germans abroad), and morphed into the Volksdeutsche in a process of self-radicalisation.
CzęstochowaCzęstochowa (ˌtʃɛnstəˈkoʊvə , t͡ʂɛ̃stɔˈxɔva; Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (administrative division) since 1999, and was previously the capital of the Częstochowa Voivodeship (1975–1998). However, Częstochowa is historically part of the Lesser Poland region, not of Silesia, and before 1795, it belonged to the Kraków Voivodeship.
KielceKielce (ˈkjɛlt͡sɛ; Keltz) is a city in southern Poland, and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnica River, in the northern part of the historical Polish province of Lesser Poland. Kielce has a history back over 900 years, and the exact date that it was founded remains unknown.
