BAULEITUNG Building department. It had under its authority all the work commandos assigned to constructing and maintaining the buildings and facilities in and around the camp.

BALLILA The Italian Fascist youth group. Young Italians were forced to enroll in the organization, where they were inculcated with the cult of the leader, the power and greatness of the nation, the praise of violence and danger, the exaltation of the group and the negation of the individual.

BAUKOMMANDO Commando that built, laid out and maintained the camp and installed barbed wire, pipes, terraces, etc. It had a disciplinary character in some camps.

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation. During the war the BBC, which was created in 1922, was a major player in the war of the airwaves. Free France started broadcasting its own programmes on the network on 18 July 1940. The journalist Maurice Schumann was a liaison officer and hosted a programme called “Honneur et Patrie”, (honour and country). He became the spokesman of Free France. The programme “Les Français parlent aux Français” (“The French Speak to the French”) was hosted by Frenchmen but subordinated to the head of the French section at the BBC.

BCRA Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action (Central Intelligence and Action Office, military) of Free France. On 1 July 1940 General de Gaulle put Captain Dewavrin, alias “Passy”, in charge of setting up the secret services of Free France. By the end of the month the office was capable of sending missions to France. It organized important networks in occupied France. The best known was the Confrérie-Notre-Dame led by Colonel Rémy. In August 1942 the BCRA set up a section for North Africa. It moved to Algiers in 1943.

BIBELFORSCHER - BIBELFORSCHERIN Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Jehovah’s Witnesses refused military service as conscientious objectors and considered Hitler the embodiment of the Beast of the Apocalypse. They were deported to the camps starting in 1939 and had to wear a purple triangle.

BIFO Bibelforscher. Nazi classification of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the camps.

BLITZ The Luftwaffe’s terror bombings of London and other British cities in summer 1940. This was the second stage of the Battle of Britain, the first being the Luftwaffe’s air raids on RAF bases. On 12 October 1940 Hitler gave up the idea of invading England, but German air raids continued until March 1941. They resumed in June 1944 with the V1 rockets and went on from September 1944 to 27 March 1945 with the V2 rockets.

BLITZKRIEG “Lightning war”, the strategy developed by German general Guderian, a tank specialist. It involved using tanks and planes in a coordinated manner. They acted together in a grouped order to break through the enemy lines at a point of rupture. The tactic aimed at neutralising the enemy without giving them time to form a solid front. The Germans used it to invade Poland in September 1939, Norway in April 1940 and France and Benelux in May 1940.

BLOCK Deportees’ barracks. By extension, the people in a block. In many camps (Dachau, Mauthausen, Buchenwald, etc.), the barracks measured approximately 50 m x 7 m. Each was divided into two wings (Flügel), A and B, located on either side of the entrance and including a dormitory (Schlafsaal), common room (Dienstraum), water post and latrines. Another kind of block was of the Pferdestalle type, a former model of stable for 52 horses, which could house up to 1,200 deportees. They were found in big concentration camps like Buchenwald.

BLOCKALTESTER - BLOCKOWA The senior member of the block, who was responsible for keeping order there. In women’s camps, Blockowa was the Polish word for the same position.

BLOCKFÜHRER S.S. officer in charge of a block. The Blockaltester or Blockowa reported to him.

BUNKER Camp prison with solitary confinement cells and torture chambers.

BV Berufsverbrecher. Nazi classification of common criminals in the camps.

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