were rounded up at random, typically at night, with the assistance of the Jewish Police
and the blue police. The victims were usually those who could not afford a bribe, and
thus the poorest among the ghetto’s inhabitants.
GENERAL GOVERNMENT (German Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen
Gebiete), administrative-territorial entity established on 26 October 1939, covering that
part of the German-occupied Polish territory which had not been annexed directly
to the Reich. The GG was initially divided into four districts: Kraków, Radom, Lublin,
and Warsaw. In August 1941, the fifth district was established, namely Galician.
GĘSIÓWKA—popular name for the central prison for Jews, established in
mid-1941 in the ghetto at Gęsia Street 24. The inmates were primarily people who
had been found outside the ghetto in violation of German decrees. In two cases—on
17 November and 15 December 1941—prisoners sentenced to death for having left the
ghetto were executed in the prison.
GESTAPO (Geheime Staatspolizei), the secret political police of the Third Reich.
THE GOVERNMENT DELEGATION FOR POLAND (Polish: Delegatura Rządu Rzeczypospolitej
Polskiej na Kraj), an agency of the Polish Government in Exile during World
War II and the highest authority and provisional government of the Polish Secret
State in occupied Poland. It was headed by the Government Delegate for Poland. It disbanded on 1 July 1945.
GOY (Hebrew: nation; plural: goyim), a non-Jewish person, gentile.
GROSZ, GROSZES—Polish currency, 1/100 of a zloty.
HACHSHARA (Hebrew: training), agricultural training course for young Jews
aiming to settle in kibbutzim in Palestine.
ḤALUTZ (Hebrew: pioneer; plural—ḥalutzim), member of the Zionist pioneer
socialist youth movement He-ḥalutz, which sought to prepare young people for
aliyah (that is, settlement in the Land of Israel), especially by preparing them to work
in agriculture.
HASHOMER HATZAIR (Hebrew: the young guard)—a Zionist socialist youth
movement, founded in 1913. During the occupation, the members of Hashomer
Hatzair played a significant role in organising civil and armed resistance against
the Germans.
