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teacher's
guide
GLOSSARY
These definitions
are provided to help viewers, students and teachers understand how the
filmmakers use the following terms.
Anti-Semitism
Prejudice or
discrimination against Jews. Auschwitz-Birkenau The largest Nazi death
camp, where 1.4 million people were killed between 1942 and 1945. The
vast majority were Jews; others murdered in large numbers included Catholics,
Gypsies and Soviet prisoners of war. Four hundred thirty thousand Hungarian
Jews were killed there in 1944, the year Shula was imprisoned there.
Curfew
A period of time, usually in the evening, when the inhabitants of a city
or town are required to be in their homes.
Death Camp
One of six camps — Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Chelmno, Sobibor,
Belzec and Treblinka — that served as a center for killing Jewish
and non-Jewish prisoners. Upon arrival there prisoners were chosen either
to live or die in gas chambers. Some were selected for slave labor, although
most of these people also died from lack of adequate food, clothing and
shelter, or a result of mistreatment and disease.
Displaced
Person
A person living in a foreign country who has been driven from his or her
homeland by war.
Ghetto
A section of a city where the Nazis forced all Jews to live. A ghetto
was often sealed off with walls, barbed wire and armed guards, preventing
people from entering or leaving.
Nazi
An abbreviation of the term for the National Socialist political party
, a political party headed by Adolf Hitler from 1921 to 1945. The Nazi
party ideology was strongly anticommunist, anti-Semitic, racist, nationalistic,
imperialistic and militaristic.
Partisan
A member of a resistance group operating within enemy lines using hit-and-run
guerrilla tactics against occupying Germans. Some partisan brigades (like
Faye's) were affiliated with the Soviet Union.
Identity Papers
Documents indicating nationality, address and religion. All people living
in Nazi-controlled countries were required to carry them. Identity papers
carried by Jews usually had a large red "J" on them so that a person could
easily be recognized as Jewish.
Liberation
The moment when advancing Allied armies (from the United States, Britain
and Canada in the West and the Soviet Red Army in the East) conquered
German-occupied territory, ending Nazi control and freeing prisoners from
concentration and death camps.
Palestine
The region of the Middle East administered by Britain from 1918 to 1948,
Many Jews migrated here beginning in the late 1800s to escape persecution
in Europe and hoping to create a Jewish state where ancient Israel once
existed. The modern state of Israel was established in Palestine in 1948
following a period of conflict, crisis and war.
Public Ledger
A public record of where every person lived. In many European countries
a person's religion was indicated in the ledgers.
Transit Camp
A temporary camp where Jews and other prisoners who had been rounded up
by the Nazis were taken. From here they were sent either to a death camp
or to a labor camp where they were forced to work for the Nazi war effort.
Underground
An organized group acting to oppose a government or occupying force. When
Barbara "went underground" she took on the identity of a Christian, with
new identity papers, a new name and a new address.
Zionism
The movement dedicated to establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
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