Refugee

Refugee Glossary

pandemonium

uproar; noisy disorder

nightstick

police officer's club, carried as a weapon and a symbol of authority; a truncheon

pennant

triangular flag

diminutive

unusually small

squalid

extremely dirty

dissident

someone who opposes official state policy

inconceivable

unbelievable

sacrilege

violation of something dedicated to religious purpose

churlish

discourteous in a mean-spirited way

promenade

upper deck on a passenger ship

Syria

Arabic-speaking country in the Middle East that has been undergoing a civil war since 2011

Bashar al-Assad

current president of Syria who succeeded his father Hafiz al-Assad

Cuba

Spanish-speaking country in the Caribbean Sea that has been communist since 1959 and has suffered economically because of US trade embargoes and the collapse of the Soviet Union

Fidel Castro

communist leader of Cuba who overthrew the Batista government in 1959 and ruled the country until he stepped down in 2008

Nazi Party

formed in Munich after WWI, the Hitler-led authoritarian and anti-Semitic National Socialist German Workers' Party, outlawed in Germany at the end of WWII

Adolph Hitler

Austrian-born Nazi Party leader who ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945 and precipitated WWII and the Holocaust

Brownshirts

also known as Hitler's Storm Troopers, members of an early Nazi militia who wore brown uniforms

Arab Spring

pro-democracy and antigovernment political uprisings that began in Tunisia in late 2010 and spread to other countries throughout North Africa and the Middle East

Hitler Youth

Nazi Party organization developed to indoctrinate German children into believing anti-Semitic and racist ideology

Gestapo

name for the secret state police under Nazi rule in Germany