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Holocaust
The
Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic annihilation of six million
Jews by the Nazi regime and their collaborators as a central act of state
during World War II. In 1933 approximately nine million Jews lived in
the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Germany during the
war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed. Although
Jews were the primary victims, hundreds of thousands of Roma (Gypsies)
and at least 250,000 mentally or physically disabled persons were also
victims of Nazi genocide. As Nazi tyranny spread across Europe from 1933
to 1945, millions of other innocent people were persecuted and murdered.
More
than three million Soviet prisoners of war were killed because of their
nationality. Poles, as well as other Slavs, were targeted for slave labor,
and as a result, almost two million perished.
"All the people like us are we, and everyone
else is they"
(Rudyard Kipling).
Homosexuals and others deemed "anti-social" were also persecuted and often murdered. In addition, thousands of political and religious dissidents such as communists, socialists, trade unionists, and Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted for their beliefs and behavior and many of these individuals died as a result of
Unites States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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©
Linda Marfoglio, 2000