administrative unit until the end of WWII. GG was divided into four districts, with
their authorities in Kraków, Lublin, Radom and Warsaw. The fifth District, Galicia,
i.e. mostly former Polish voivodships of Stanisławów, Tarnopol and Lwów (in USSR
from 17 September 1939), was included in GG from 1 August 1941. The central authority was governor general Hans Frank, residing in Kraków.
GESTAPO (German, acronym for Geheime Staatspolizei) — secret political police of the Third Reich. See also Sicherheitspolizei.
1. gmina (Polish) or Gemeinde (German) — the smallest unit of territorial
self-government.
2. gmina [żydowska] (Polish) or kehillah (Hebrew) or [Jüdische] Gemeinde (German) — lit. community; traditional self-government organisation of Jews of a given town.
GROSZ (Polish, pl. groszes) — Polish currency, 1/100 of a zloty.
HAGANAH (Hebrew, lit. defence) — Jewish paramilitary organisation active in Mandate Palestine in the years 1920–1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defence Forces.
HASHOMER HATZAIR (Hebrew, Young Guard) — left-wing Zionist youth movement, established in Poland in 1922.
HASKALAH (Hebrew, education, enlightenment) — trend in Jewish culture starting
in the 1780s under the influence of European Enlightenment and traditions of Jewish rationalism, in opposition to rabbinical Orthodoxy and Hasidism.
HATIKVAH (Hebrew, lit. the hope) — popular Zionist song, now anthem of the State of Israel.
HAUPTTREUHANDSTELLE OST — German institution established in late 1939; it confiscated the property of Polish citizens expelled from the territories incorporated
into the Third Reich, and administered it until it was given to new owners. See also
Treuhänder, Treuhandstelle.
HERRENVOLK (German, master race) — a term from Nazi racial theory, pertaining to “pure” Germans.
HIAS — acronym for Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a Jewish American charitable
organisation established in New York, operating worldwide; its goal was and remains to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees.
