What was the Holocaust? When did Hitler begin carrying it out? How many victims did it claim?

1 Answer
May 9, 2016

The physical liquidation of the Jews.

Explanation:

The term Holocaust is usually defined as the Nazi policy of physically liquidating European Jewry during World War 2. It can also be defined as the Nazi policy of genocide not only against Jews but also any group which did not fit the Nazi racial ideal. This included gypsies Soviet prisoners of war, Soviet citizens and Germans with learning difficulties.

Hitler's anti-semitism is well documented in Mein Kampf and as soon as he gained power in 1933 the persecution of the Jews began. Measures such as the Nuremberg Laws increasingly excluded Jews from every aspect of German society. However their physical liquidation en masse did not begin until the outbreak of World War 2.

As the Germans advanced east, killing squads known as Einsatzgruppen accompanied the Wehrmacht. They rounded up and shot thousands of Jews. They were often willingly assisted by local police and militia as anti-semitism was not confined to Germany. SS units and the regular Wehrmacht also took part in massacres.

As well as the massacres large numbers of Jews were crowded into ghettoes in cities such as Warsaw and Lodz, in a sick version of the medieval ghettoes. However this was merely a temporary measure. In 1942 at Wannsse a suburb of Berlin a meeting was held. It was chaired by Heydrich and the decision was taken to transport the Jews en masse to extermination camps such as Auschwitz, Sobibor and Treblinka where they would be gassed.

The Germans had already experimented with pipes running from lorry exhausts but had refined it to the use of Zyklon B dropped through vents into rooms disguised as showers. The bodies were then burned after anything of value for the German war effort had been extracted.

By the end of World War 2 approximately 6 million Jews had been killed.If we broaden the definition of the Holocaust to include the other groups mentioned earlier then the total would be double if not treble. We cannot be more exact because the numbers were so great. In fact the actual figure could be even higher.