D.E.S.T.: Deutsche Erd und Steinwerke. German mining and stone quarrying company. Created in 1938, this SS company used deportees in the camps. They cut stones and made bricks.

DEATH MARCH: the deportees’ name for the Nazis’ evacuation of the camps. As Allied troops pressed ahead from east and west in summer 1944, the SS decided to evacuate the camps located near the fronts. All the deportees walked or rode for weeks on end without food or proper clothing and shelter from the cold and snow. Those who could not keep up were usually shot to death along the way.

DEMARCATION LINE: the Nazis imposed this line, which separated France into two zones, when the armistice was signed on 22 June 1940. German troops occupied the northern zone, the Vichy government administered the southern, unoccupied, so-called “free” zone. It was cut off from the Atlantic coast, the forbidden zone.

DIKTAT: peace treaty dictated under duress. Name the Nazis gave the Versailles Treaty.

DUCE: Guide. The title Benito Mussolini gave himself in 1922 when Italy’s Chamber of Deputies gave him full powers. In 1925 Mussolini started setting up a Fascist dictatorship that did not end until the total liberation of Italy by the Allies on 2 May 1945. Italian Resistance members executed Mussolini on 27 April 1945: bold;">ERZATZ: industrially manufactured substitute product, often of mediocre quality (examples: synthetic textiles, artificial rubber, margarine, etc.).

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