La Seconde Guerre Mondiale

Front 1

• Anti-Semites (anti-Sémites)

Back 1

• People whose actions and feelings are characterized by dislike or hatred for Jews. Anti-Semitism during WWII resulted in discrimination, persecution, identifying of Jews to Nazi authorities and the Nazi attempt to exterminate all Jews living in Europe.

Front 2

• “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Makes Free)•

Back 2

Located at the entrance of several concentration camps including Auschwitz, Dachau, Theresienstadt and Buchenwald.

Front 3

• Aryan

Back 3

• Member of the “master race” (strong, tall, blue-eyed, blond), according to Hitler

Front 4

• Aryanization

Back 4

• Nazis taking over Jewish property and businesses for their own use.

Front 5

• Auschwitz-Birkenau

Back 5

• The largest of the Nazi extermination camps; located in Poland

Front 6

• Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

Back 6

• Small farming village in central France whose largely Protestant population saved thousands of Jews including American filmmaker, Pierre Sauvage.

Front 7

• DeathMarch (La Marche de la Mort)

Back 7

• The Nazis forced prisoners to walk toward the center of Germany when Russian troops approached. They destroyed gas chambers at Auschwitz and tried to evacuate concentration camps to obliterate evidence of their extermination policy. Prisoners on death marches were forced to walk long distances without food, water or satisfactory clothing. Many died or were shot by guards along the way.

Front 8

• Denounce (dénoncer)

Back 8

• To turn in Jews and other groups considered undesirable. People who were denounced were usually taken prisoner by the Nazis and deported to concentration camps

Front 9

• Deportation (la déportation)

Back 9

• The resettlement of Jews and other groups from France to concentration camps and extermination camps in Germany, Poland and Eastern Europe. French officials and police helped Nazis find Jews and other “undesirables”.

Front 10

• Drancy

Back 10

• The internment camp near Paris where Jews stayed before deportation to Auschwitz. Before the war, Drancy served as police barracks.

Front 11

• Dreyfus Affair

Back 11

• Controversial political and judicial scandal that began in 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew from Alsace, was found guilty of treason. Pardoned in 1899, he was eventually restored to his rank, promoted and decorated. Political opponents of Dreyfus were known for their anti-Semitism and the affair aroused a wave of anti-Semitism in France.

Front 12

• Final Solution

Back 12

• The extermination of all Jews

Front 13

• FreeZone (La Zone Libre)

Back 13

• The southern 2/5 of France not completely occupied by the Nazis prior to 1943. Many Jews left Paris for the “free zone” where they sought refuge from the Nazis and French police.

Front 14

• Gas Chamber

Back 14

• Tightly sealed rooms in which Jews were killed when poisonous gas was pumped into the chamber.

Front 15

• Genocide

Back 15

• The systematic killing of an ethnic, religious or national group.

Front 16

• Gestapo

Back 16

• The German secret police force which rounded up Jews living in France for deportation to Auschwitz.

Front 17

• Holocaust

Back 17

• Destruction of European Jews

Front 18

• Internment Camp

Back 18

• A camp in which foreigners, prisoners of war or others considered dangerous to pursuing a war effort are confined during war time.

Front 19

• Jew (Juif)

Back 19

• The term marked on the yellow badge triangle in Occupied France beginning in June, 1942.

Front 20

• Liberation (la libération)

Back 20

• Allied forced liberated Paris in August 1944. General Charles de Gaulle marched victoriously into Paris on August 25, 1944. The liberation was followed by joyous celebration in the streets, and a sense of joy and optimism that lasted many months.

Front 21

• Militia (la milice)

Back 21

• Pro-Nazi Vichy French paramilitary of 30,000 formed in 1943 to support German Occupation and Petain.

Front 22

• Resistance (la Résistance)

Back 22

• Opposition to Nazi occupation

Front 23

• Righteous gentiles (les “Justes”)

Back 23

• Christians who risked their lives to save Jews

Front 24

• Shoah (la Shoah)

Back 24

• The Hebrew word for the Holocaust

Front 25

• Statut des Juifs

Back 25

• Anti-Semitic laws issued by the Vichy government in October 1940 known as statut des Juifs which defined who was Jewish in the eyes of the French State and excluded Jews from top positions in government, the military, and the professions of teaching, radio, the press and theater.

Front 26

• Vélodrome d’Hiver

Back 26

• Indoor bicycle track; Roundup of Jews in Paris on July 16-17, 1942.

Front 27

• Vichy France

Back 27

• After the fall of France and the occupation of 3/5 of the country, the government of France, under the leadership of Maréchal Pétain, moved to the city of Vichy. Although the town of Vichy was in the unoccupied part of France, the French government collaborated with Nazi anti-Semitism and deportations of Jews and other “undesirables”.

Front 28

• Yellow Star (l’étoile jaune)

Back 28

• Jews in France and other European countries were required by law to wear a yellow star embroidered with “Jew” to identify them as Jews.