War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

Hitler borrowed this term from 18th- and 19th-century racial theorists who initially used it to describe an Indian people group. As used by the Nazis in the early 20th century, “Aryan” refers to a nebulously defined subsection of white gentiles. Bergen writes, “The only reliable constant was that ‘Aryan’ was the opposite of ‘Jew’” (37), which encouraged ethnic Germans to build a negative self-definition around the concept of Jewish people.

“Asocial” was a label broadly applied to anyone unable or unwilling to conform to Nazi standards of behavior. This group included queer people, communists, disabled people (especially the mentally ill and intellectually handicapped), criminals, paupers, alcoholics, pacifists, and Roma people. Asocials were regularly imprisoned in concentration camps.

An authoritarian government is one in which political authority is highly centralized. Strict obedience of this authority is emphasized in authoritarian governments; democracy is minimized, political pluralism is restricted, and civil liberties are withheld.

The Axis Powers—also called the Axis Alliance, the Three-Power Pact, and the Rome-Berlin Axis—refers to the international military coalition between Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II. They were united by a mutual opposition to the Allies.

This phrase—originally coined by Hannah Arendt in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem—describes a philosophical stance on the nature of manmade atrocities, specifically in relation to the Holocaust. This concept posits that extremely inhumane acts are often carried out and perpetuated not by unimaginable monsters but by more or less average people. According to Bergen, “Most of the people involved in mass killing—as perpetrators, onlookers, beneficiaries—were not crazed maniacs but ordinary people with familiar motivations” (123).

In German, literally: “lightning war.” Blitzkriegs are swift military assaults that result in crushing victories. In the early 1940s, Germany’s sweeping conquest of Eastern Europe was enabled by a series of successful blitzkriegs. This campaign came to a halt, however, when a would-be blitzkrieg launched on the USSR stalled and failed.

Degeneracy refers to what Nazis identified as the breakdown of society, an inversion of the natural order and a display of immoral decadence. Similar to an asocial, a “degenerate” could be virtually anyone the Nazis considered socially subversive. Acts of degeneracy included promiscuity, defiance of gender roles, criminality, and the creation of avant-garde art.

Divide and conquer refers to the calculated social stratification imposed by Nazi racial policies. Through hierarchical social rankings—with Aryans at the top and Jews at the bottom—passive beneficiaries of this system were incentivized to support the Nazis’ activities. Likewise, groups on the lower end of this imposed hierarchy were incentivized to turn against each other out of desperation.

From Greek, literally: “good genes.” Eugenics applies the principles of selective breeding to the human population with the aim of improving humanity. Although some eugenic practices are applied in modern medicine, the subject is one of fraught ethical debate, as eugenics’ legacy is that of scientific racism, ablism, and human rights violations.

Fascism is a far-right, ultranationalist form of authoritarianism that first emerged in the early 20th century. Fascism rejects liberal democracy and prioritizes strength as a core value, especially in regard to military might and leadership. Hitler is the most famous fascist dictator in modern history.

“Feebleminded” is Western medical term that was popular in the 19th and 20th centuries. Feeblemindedness referred broadly to “mental deficiencies” that encompassed the modern-day designations of intellectual disability, learning disorders, and neurodivergence. Early 20th-century eugenicists frequently called for measures intended to curb feeblemindedness in the general population, sometimes going to such extremes as proposing mass euthanasia of afflicted persons.

The Führer Principle—in German, “Führerprinzip,” meaning “the leader principle”—was a belief that proliferated Nazi ideology and paved the way for extreme totalitarianism. According to the Führer Principle, the führer is essentially destined to rule, and his decrees must be followed without question. This philosophy allowed Hitler to assume unrivaled dictatorship when he pronounced himself führer.

The Gestapo, or Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police), were the official secret police of Nazi Germany created by Hermann Göring. As a subdivision of the SS, the Gestapo were overseen by Himmler. The Gestapo operated across Nazi-occupied Europe and played an instrumental role in the torture and killing of civilians, especially Jews.

Meaning “coordination.” In German, literally: “shifting into the same gear” (65). Gleichschaltung refers to both the national unity Nazis courted in Germany and the social policies they enacted to encourage it. This coordination was pursued by offering ethnic Germans special privileges and amenities, and it was exemplified in propagandistic displays of mass conformity to Nazi ideals.

Hitler’s inner circle was a small group of his most trusted and powerful associates. This group included Heinrich Himmler, Josef Goebbels, and Hermann Göring, among others.

Bergen introduces intentionalism and functionalism as two different approaches to studying Hitler in the context of his role in World War II. Intentionalists “emphasize Hitler’s intentions and consider the Holocaust the result of long-term planning, [describing] Hitler as the mastermind of mass-murder” (30). In contrast, functionalists “describe the Holocaust as a function of other developments [… and] downplay the role of Hitler” (30). Bergen explicitly takes a “modified intentionalist position” (30), noting that Hitler’s role in the Holocaust was essential.

In German, literally: “living space.” The phrase “race and space” refers to the Nazis’ core goals: territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing. The quest for lebensraum for the so-called master race of Aryans was the backbone of every Nazi effort.

In German, literally: “mixed blood.” Mischlinge was a legal term for individuals with partial Jewish ancestry.

From Russian, literally: “to wreak havoc or to demolish violently.” A pogrom is the slaughter or expulsion of Jews en masse. Kristallnacht is widely considered to be the most famous pogrom that took place in Nazi Germany.

In German, literally: “race defilement.” Rassenschande, or “crimes against blood,” disparagingly referred to miscegenation. Intermarriage and sex between Aryans and non-Aryans was forbidden under Nazi leadership.

This term, originally coined by historian Saul Friedländer, describes the nature of Hitler’s antisemitic beliefs: “Hitler combined a murderous rage with an idealistic goal” (38), drew from the popular antisemitic perspectives of previous centuries, and expanded his hatred of Jews to encompass as many dimensions as possible, including everything from economics and culture to metaphysics.

This is a derogatory term for the small population of mixed-race children residing in the Rhineland in the aftermath of World War I. Typically, these children were the offspring of German women and Black soldiers deployed to Germany by the French. They were among the groups targeted by the Nazis.

In German, literally: “protection squad.” The Schutzstaffel (SS) was an elite paramilitary guard unit founded by Adolf Hitler in 1925. Himmler was the longest running Reichsführer-SS (commander of the SS) and held the position from 1929 to 1945.

Social Darwinism is a defunct sociological theory in which Darwinian biological principles are grafted onto human society. It presupposes a natural hierarchy of superiority and inferiority among racial groups and emphasizes the significance of struggle for dominance and “survival of the fittest” between them. Social Darwinist thought is often used to argue for eugenics and imperialism.

In German, literally: “special command unit.” The sonderkommandos—also euphemistically called Arbeitsjuden (“Jews for work”)—were forced laborers in Nazi death camps. These units were typically composed of Jewish men who were tasked with disposing of fellow prisoners’ corpses via cremation.

The “stab-in-the-back” myth (in German, “Dolchstoßlegende,” literally: “dagger stab legend”) is a conspiracy theory that posited that Jews, Marxists, and “cultural Bolsheviks” were responsible for the Central Powers’ capitulation in World War I. This antisemitic belief was promoted heavily by the Nazi Party as a way of sowing distrust of Jews among the German people.