Khurbn

The Hebrew-derived Yiddish word khurbn () means a "cataclysmic, utter destruction", and is widely used in Yiddish to describe several major catastrophes affecting the Jewish people, including the destruction of the first and the second temples, pogroms in Russia during the First World War, and the Holocaust.

Writer and social activist S. An-sky, who was a relief worker during the First World War, wrote a book titled Khurbn Galitsiye (, "The Destruction of Galicia").

Since World War II, the word khurbn (more fully, khurbn Eyrope () has often been used to denote the Holocaust. It is sometimes used in the titles of memorial books (yizkor books) about the destroyed shtetls, like Khurbn Proskurov, Rakhel Feygenberg's A Pinkes fun a Toyter Shtot (Khurbn Dubove) ("Chronicle of a Dead City: The Destruction of Dubove"), Max Kaufmann's early (1947) history of the genocide in Latvia, Khurbn Letland,Kaufmann, Max, Die Vernichtung des Judens Lettlands (The Destruction of the Jews of Latvia), Munich, 1947, English translation by Laimdota Mazzarins available on-line as Churbn Lettland -- The Destruction of the Jews of Latvia or Yehoshue Perle's Khurbn Varshe. Raul Hilberg's most important work was titled The Destruction of the European Jews.Hilberg, Raul, The Destruction of the European Jews (3rd edition) Yale University Press, New Haven, CT 2003.

Holocaust studies are sometimes called khurbn-forshung (lit. "destruction research").

"Khurbn Yiddish" refers to the sociolect shaped by Yiddish speakers' experiences during the Holocaust, which caused them to develop new words and slang, particularly relating to theft, protest, and sexuality. It is also called khurbn-shprakh. Historian Nachman Blumental described it:

Khurbn

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