tommy gun slang name for the Thompson machine gun, a .45-caliber submachine gun invented by John Taliaferro Thompson in the 1920s and issued by the FBI as a standard weapon.
Kaddish a 2,000-year-old Aramaic prayer, or doxology, recited at funerals, memorial services, and anniversaries of deaths. The prayer, which requires at least ten participants for its recital, says nothing of grief, but looks ahead to a time when God will redeem humankind. It reads:
Let the glory of God be extolled, let his great name be hallowed, in the world whose creation he willed. May his kingdom soon prevail, in our own day, our own lives, and the life of all Israel, and let us say: Amen.
Let his great name be blessed for ever and ever. Let the name of the Holy One, blessed is he, be glorified, exalted and honored, though he is beyond all praises, songs and adorations we can utter, and let us say: Amen.
For us and for all Israel, may the blessing of peace and the promise of life come true. And let us say: Amen.
May he who causes peace reign in the high heavens. Let peace descend on us, on all Israel, and all the world, and let us say: Amen.
—Stern, Chaim, ed. Gates of Prayer. New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1989.
Yitgadal veyitkadach shmé raba Hebrew for "May His Name be blessed and magnified."
Los! German for "Hurry up!" or "Do it now!"
Sonder-Kommando German for "special command," Jews assigned to remove gassed corpses. They had to remove gold teeth and drag the bodies to carts which transported the dead to the crematorium to be burned. The Nazis promised the Sonder-Kommando their lives but this was a deception. Eventually, the Sonder-Kommando were themselves gassed.
Kapo (kah poh) German term for trustees or guards chosen from the prisoners themselves. The kapos often preserved their special status by being more cruel than the SS officers.
lavatory a toilet.
