Glossary beginning with K

Born in 1895 in Vienna, studied political science at the University of Vienna, PhD in Heidelberg 1918. Return to Vienna. Joined the workers' council movement (Rätebewegung) where she met her future husband, Otto Leichter. As a Social Democrat especially active in the areas of women's affairs, family and labour law. After the seizure of power by the National Socialists in Austria persecution as Jew and Socialist. Participation in the training committee of the Revolutionary Socialists, drafting of pamphlets, editor of the information and news service. Her house was a meeting point of representatives of the workers' movement. Käthe Leichter prepared to flee into exile. Arrest of her mother on 30 May 1938, Käthe Leichter accompanies her on her own will. Her sons manage to escape to the United States with the help of friends. In spite of international protest, Käthe Leichter was transferred to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp in January 1940. At Ravensbrück she was imprisoned at the so-called Jewish Block. She organised literary hours with liberation songs and composed poems, e.g. To My Brothers [An meine Brüder]. Käthe Leichter was murdered in connection with the so-called "Aktion 14 f 13" in February 1942.

A complex of eleven subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp, existing from June 1944 to the End of April 1945.

Koscher beschreibt die Spiesen, die nach jüdischem Speisegesetz (Kaschrut) "tauglich" sind. Nach dem jüdischen Relionsgesetz müssen Speisen und Getränke nach bestimmten Vorschriften und Gesetzen zubereitet werden. Wie umfangreich die jüdischen Speisegesetze eingehalten wird unter Juden sehr unterschiedlich gehandhabt.

1905-1945. Chief disinfection officer and head of the Waffen SS Office of Hygiene in Berlin. Gerstein purchased the Zyklon B gas needed in Auschwitz. Officially, the gas was for fumigation purposes but it was actually used for killing Jews and Sinti and Roma. Gerstein wrote a widely-quoted description of the gassing procedures in Belzec and forwarded information about the killings to Swedish and Vatican representatives. He hanged himself in a French jail after the war. Gerstein is the protagonist of Rolf Hochhuth's play, "The Deputy," and the subject of Saul Friedländer's biography, "The Ambiguity of Good."

1895-1952. Social Democrat politician. Schumacher was severely wounded in World War I. He entered the SPD in 1918. He studied political science and economics, and graduated from university in 1926. From 1924-1931, Schumacher was a representative in the state senate of Wuerttemberg, and served in the Reichstag from 1930. Schumacher was already a strong opponent of Nazism before 1933. He was arrested in July 1933 and imprisoned in the concentration camps of Dachau and Flossenbuerg until 1943, when he was released in poor health. Even before the end of World War II, Schumacher prepared the reestablishment of the SPD in Hannover. He had a leading role in reshaping the development of the postwar social democracy.

Konzentrationslager (NS- Abkürzung: KL), nach 1933 eingerichtet zur Ausschaltung politischer Gegner, zur Einschüchterung der Bevölkerung und zur Isolierung und Vernichtung unerwünschter sozialer, ethnischer und religiöser Minderheiten sowie Kriegsgefangener. Der SS unterstellt, waren die Lager der ordentlichen Rechtsprechung entzogen. Der Tod von Millionen Menschen durch unzureichende Ernährung und Unterbringung, durch Zwangsarbeit, Krankheiten und Misshandlungen war beabsichtigt. Bis 1945 gab es im NS-Machtbereich tausende Lager, Nebenlager und Außenkommandos.