Who was Eliezer Gruenbaum?

Introduction Eliezer Grynbaum or Eliezer Gruenbaum (27 November 1908 to 22 May 1948) was a Polish Jewish communist activist. During World War II, he was a kapo in the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the war, he wrote memoirs about his experiences. Refer to Belsen Trials. Biography Eliezer Gruenbaum was born in Warsaw in 1908, the… Read More

An Overview of the Belsen Trials

Introduction The Belsen trials were a series of several trials that the Allied occupation forces conducted against former officials and functionaries of Nazi Germany after the end of World War II. British Army and civilian personnel ran the trials and staffed the prosecution and judges. The Belsen trials took place in Lüneburg, Lower Saxony, Germany,… Read More

What is a Fifth Column?

Introduction A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favour of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz, “fifth columns” are “domestic actors who work to undermine the national interest, in cooperation with external rivals of the state.”… Read More

What was a Kapo?

Introduction A kapo or prisoner functionary (German: Funktionshäftling) was a prisoner in a Nazi camp who was assigned by the Schutzstaffel (SS) guards to supervise forced labour or carry out administrative tasks (refer to World War II). Also called “prisoner self-administration”, the prisoner functionary system minimised costs by allowing camps to function with fewer SS… Read More

What Does the Term Quisling Mean?

Introduction Quisling (/ˈkwɪzlɪŋ/, Norwegian: [ˈkvɪ̂slɪŋ]) is a term used in Scandinavian languages and in English meaning a citizen or politician of an occupied country who collaborates with an enemy occupying force – or more generally as a synonym for traitor. The word originates from the surname of the Norwegian war-time leader Vidkun Quisling, who headed… Read More

What does the Term Jash Mean?

Introduction Jash (Kurdish: جاش, romanised: Caş, lit. ’donkey’s foal’) is a Kurdish term for a traitor, or a type of collaborator, either a military unit composed of Kurds or an individual which cooperates with enemy combatants against the Kurdish people, Kurdish political interests, or the Kurdish Army. The term is considered derogatory in a cultural sense,… Read More

An Overview of the Budapest Memorandum

Introduction The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances comprises three substantially identical political agreements signed at the OSCE conference in Budapest, Hungary, on 05 December 1994, to provide security assurances by its signatories relating to the accession of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The three memoranda were… Read More