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Nobody knows for sure, but there are hypotheses (all pretty weird!). One dates back to anti-Jewish demonstrations in Europe at the end of the 19th century. During the protests, the crowd chanted “Hep! hep!” The cry would later be adopted by Hitler’s troops. Some researchers claim that “Hep” derives from the Latin expression Hierosolyma Est Perdita, or “Jerusalem is lost”. According to this version, found in the book The War Against Jews, by historian Dagobert Runes, the interjection “Hep” would have been a war cry of the medieval crusaders. The word “Hurra”, in turn, would be derived from the Slavic “hu-raj”, which meant “to paradise”. Thus, the complete expression would mean “Jerusalem is lost and we are on our way to paradise”. Other authors claim that the three letters HEP were chanted by the Romans followed by the cry “Hurrah!” (this one without apparent meaning) to celebrate the end of an uprising in the same Jerusalem, in the year 70.
But few scholars believe this. “None of these versions has sufficient evidence. ‘Hep’ may have just been a cry from medieval shepherds to drive their flocks,” says historian Robert Michael of the University of Massachusetts in Darthmouth, United States.