The Holocaust

Holocaust, name given to the period (1933–1945) of persecution and extermination of European Jews by Nazi GERMANY. After Adolf HITLER's rise to power in 1933, most Jews who did not flee Germany were sent to CONCENTRATION CAMPS. With the outbreak of WORLD WAR II, Hitler began to implement his “final solution of the Jewish question”: the extermination of Jews in all countries conquered by his armies. By the end of the war, 6 million Jews had been systematically murdered and a creative religious and secular community destroyed. A U.S. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM was dedicated and opened in 1993 in Washington, D.C. See also ANTI-SEMITISM; NATIONAL SOCIALISM; WAR CRIMES.

The Holocaust (1933-1945) "Holocaust" is the term describing the Nazi annihilation of about 6 million Jews (two thirds of the pre-World War II European Jewish population), including 4,500,000 from Russia, Poland, and the Baltic; 750,000 from Hungary and Romania; 290,000 from Germany and Austria; 105,000 from The Netherlands; 90,000 from France; 54,000 from Greece, etc.

The Holocaust was unique in its being genocide-the systematic destruction of a people solely because of religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, or homosexuality-on an unmatched scale. Along with the Jews, another 9 to 10 million people—Gypsies, Slavs (Poles, Ukrainians, and Belorussians)—were exterminated.

The only comparable act of genocide in modern times was launched in April 1915, when an estimated 600,000 Armenians were massacred by the Turks.

1933 Hitler named German Chancellor (Jan.). Dachau, first concentration camp, established (March). Boycotts against Jews begin (April).

1935 Anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws passed by Reichstag (Sept.).

1937 Buchenwald concentration camp opens (July).

1938 Extension of anti-Semitic laws to Austria after annexation (March). Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)-anti-Semitic riots in Germany and Austria (Nov. 9). 26,000 Jews sent to concentration camps; Jewish children expelled from schools (Nov.). Expropriation of Jewish property and businesses (Dec.).

1940 As war continues, Nazi acts against Jews extended to German-conquered areas.

1941 Deportation of German Jews begins; massacres of Jews in Odessa and Kiev-68,000 killed (Nov.); in Riga and Vilna-almost 60,000 killed (Dec.).

1942 Unified Jewish resistance in ghettos begins (Jan.). 300,000 Jews from Warsaw Ghetto deported to Treblinka death camp (July).

1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprisings (Jan. and April); Ghetto exterminated (May).

1944 476,000 Hungarian Jews sent to Auschwitz (May-June). D-day (June 6). Soviet Army liberates Maidanek death camp (July). Nazis try to hide evidence of death camps (Nov.).

1945 Americans liberate Buchenwald and British liberate Bergen-Belsen camps (April). Nuremberg War Crimes Trial (Nov. 1945 to Oct. 1946).

see JEWS

See U.S. response to the Holocaust

See Anti-Semitism

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