Holocaust

The Holocaust was the systematic killing of approximately six million Jews by the Nazis. Holocaust is a Greek word that means “killing by fire.” The Nazis came to power in 1933 and believed that they were racially superior to Jews. The Nazis also targeted other people such as gypsies, handicaps, Poles, Russians, and other people.

Before the war, there were about 9 million Jews living in Europe. By the end of the war, about two out three Jews had died because of Hitler’s Final Solution.

In 1939, the Nazis established concentration camps to imprison Jews and other people they considered inferior. During the war, they created ghettos, transit camps, and forced-labor camps. Between 1942 and 1944, the Nazis deported millions of Jews to extermination camps where they murdered them in specially developed killing facilities.