War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

The Allies were an international military coalition active during World War II. At different times during the war, the Allies included the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, among many others. Upon winning the war, the Allies formalized as the United Nations.

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.