The Holocaust

The word Holocaust (Greek for "a completely (holos) burnt (kaustos) sacrificial offering") was introduced in the late 20th century to refer to the attempt of Nazi-ruled Germany to exterminate those groups of people it found "undesirable".

Shoa (השואה), also spelled Shoah and Sho'ah, Hebrew for "Calamity", is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust. It is used by many Jews and a growing number of Christians due to theological discomfort with the literal meaning of the word Holocaust; these groups believe it is theologically offensive to imply that the Jews of Europe were a sacrifice to God. It is nonetheless recognized that most people who use the term Holocaust do not intend such a meaning. Similarly, many Roma (Gypsy) people use the word Porajmos, meaning "Devouring", to describe the Nazi attempt to exterminate that group.

Today, the term "holocaust" is also used to describe other attempts at genocide, both before and after World War II and, more generally, for any overwhelmingly massive and deliberate loss of life, such as that which would result from a nuclear war (sometimes called a "nuclear holocaust").

Overview

Holocaust refers to the Nazis' systematic extermination of various groups they deemed undesirable during World War II: primarily Jews, but also Communists, homosexuals, Roma and Sinti (also known as gypsies), the physically handicapped, the mentally retarded, Soviet prisoners of war, Polish, Russian, and other Slavic intelligentsia, political activists, Jehovah's Witnesses, some Catholic and Protestant clergy, trade unionists, psychiatric patients, and common criminals all perished alongside one another in the camps, according to the extensive documentation left behind by the Nazis themselves (written and photographed), eye-witness testimony (by survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders), and the statistical records of the various countries under occupation. The exact number of deaths during the Holocaust is unknown (see Extent of the Holocaust below).

One feature of the Nazi Holocaust that distinguishes it from other mass murders was the efficient and systematic method with which the mass killings were conducted. Detailed lists of present and future potential victims were made, and meticulous records of the killings have been found. As prisoners entered the death camps, they had to surrender all personal property to the Nazis - which was precisely catalogued and tagged, and for which receipts were issued. In addition, considerable effort was expended over the course of the Holocaust to find increasingly efficient means of killing more people, for example, by switching from carbon monoxide poisoning in the Aktion Reinhard death camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka to the use of Zyklon-B at Majdanek and Auschwitz.

Unlike other mass killings, which were usually carried out in a specific area or country, the Holocaust was methodically carried out in virtually every inch of Nazi-occupied territory, with Jews and other victims being persecuted and killed in what are now 35 present-day nations of Europe, being sent to concentration camps in some nations, and death camps in other nations.

In addition to mass killings, Nazis carried out sadistic medical experiments on prisoners, including children. Dr. Josef Mengele, one of the most widely known Nazis, was known as the "Angel of Death" by the inmates of Auschwitz for his cruel and bizarre experiments.

The full extent of what was happening in German-controlled areas was not known until after the war. However, numerous rumors and eye-witness accounts from escapees and others did give some indication that Jews were being killed in large numbers. Some protests were held. For example, on October 29, 1942, in the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures held a public meeting to register outrage over Germany's persecution of Jews.

Concentration and extermination camps

Concentration camps for "undesirables" were spread throughout Europe, with new camps being created near centers of dense "undesirable" populations, often focusing on heavily Jewish, Polish intelligentsia, communists, or Roma groups. Most of the camps were located on the area of General Government.

Concentration camps for Jews and other, "undesirables," also existed in Germany itself, and while not specifically designed for systematic extermination, many concentration camp prisoners died because of harsh conditions or were executed.

Some camps, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, combined slave labor with systematic extermination. Upon arrival in these camps, prisoners were divided into two groups: those too weak for work were immediately murdered in gas chambers (which were sometimes disguised as showers) and their bodies burned, while others were first used for slave labor in factories or industrial enterprises located in the camp or nearby. The Nazis also forced some prisoners to work in the removal of the corpses and to harvest elements of the bodies. Gold teeth were extracted from the corpses and women's hair (shaved from the heads of victims before they entered the gas chambers) was recycled for use in products such as rugs and socks.

Five camps — Belzec, Chelmno, Maly Trostenets, Sobibor, and Treblinka II — were used exclusively for extermination. Only a small number of prisoners were kept alive to work at the task of disposing of the bodies of people murdered in the gas chambers.

The transport was often carried out under horrifying conditions using rail freight cars.

Jews

Anti-Semitism was common in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s (though its history extends far back throughout many centuries during the course of Judaism). Adolf Hitler's fanatical anti-Semitism was laid out in his 1925 book Mein Kampf, largely ignored when it was first printed, but which later became popular in Germany once Hitler acquired political power.

On April 1, 1933 the recently elected Nazis, under Julius Streicher, organized a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany. This policy helped to usher-in a series of anti-Semitic acts that would eventually culminate in the Holocaust. The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany were closed on July 6, 1939.

In many cities throughout Europe, Jews had been living in concentrated areas. During the first years of World War II, the Nazis formalized the borders of these areas and restricted movement, creating modern ghettos to which Jews were confined. The ghettos were, in effect, prisons in which many Jews died from hunger and disease; others were executed by the Nazis and their collaborators. Concentration camps for Jews existed in Germany itself. During the invasion of the Soviet Union, over 3,000 special killing units (Einsatzgruppen) followed the Wehrmacht and conducted mass killings of Communist officials and of the Jewish population that lived on Soviet territory. Entire communities were wiped out by being rounded up, robbed of their possessions and clothing, and shot at the edges of ditches.

In December of 1941, Hitler had finally decided to exterminate the Jews of Europe. In January of 1942, during the Wannsee conference, several Nazi leaders discussed the details of the "Final Solution of the Jewish question" (Endlösung der Judenfrage).

Dr. Josef Buhler pushed Reinhard Heydrich to take off the Final Solution in the General Government. They began to systematically deport the Jewish populations of the ghettos and from all occupied territories to the seven camps designated as Vernichtungslager, or extermination camps: Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Maly Trostenets, Sobibor and Treblinka II.

Slavs

Poles were one of the first targets of extermination by Hitler, as outlined in the speech he gave the Wehrmacht commanders before the invasion of Poland in 1939. The intelligentsia and socially prominent or powerful people were primarily targeted, although there were some mass murders and instances of genocide (notoriously, the Croatian Ustashe.

During Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Russian Army POWs were arbitrarily executed in the field by the invading German armies (in particular by the notorious Waffen SS), or were shipped to extermination camps for execution simply because they were of Slavic extraction. Thousands of Russian peasant villages were annihilated by German troops for more or less the same reason.

Gypsies

Main article: Porajmos

Hitler's campaign of genocide against the Roma people of Europe was seen by many as a particularly bizarre application of Nazi racial science. German anthropologists were forced to contend with the fact that Gypsies were descendants of the original Aryan invaders of India, who made their way back to Europe. Ironically, this made them no less Aryan than the German people itself, in practice if not in theory. This dilemma was resolved by Professor Hans Gunther, a leading racial scientist, who wrote:

"The Gypsies have indeed retained some elements from their Nordic home, but they are descended from the lowest classes of the population in that region. In the course of their migration, they absorbed the blood of the surrounding peoples, thus becoming an Oriental, West-Asiatic racial mixture with an addition of Indian, mid-Asiatic, and European strains."

As a result, however, and despite discriminatory measures, some groups of Roma, including the Sinti and Lalleri tribes of Germany, were spared deportation and death. Remaining Gypsy groups suffered much like the Jews (and in some instances, were degraded even more than Jews). In Eastern Europe, Gypsies were deported to the Jewish ghettoes, shot by SS Einsatzgruppen in their villages, and deported and gassed in Auschwitz and Treblinka.

Others

Homosexuals were another of the groups targeted during the time of the Holocaust. However, the Nazi party made no systematic attempt to exterminate all homosexuals; according to Nazi law, being homosexual itself was not grounds for arrest. Some prominent members of the Nazi leadership were known to other Nazi leaders to be homosexual, which may account for the fact that the leadership offered mixed signals on how to deal with homosexuals. Some leaders clearly wanted homosexuals exterminated; others wanted them left alone, while others wanted laws against homosexual acts enforced, but otherwise allowed homosexuals to live as other citizens did.

Estimates vary wildly as to the number of homosexuals killed for the specific reason of being homosexual. Most estimates give number around 10,000. The larger numbers include those who were Jewish and homosexual, or even Jewish, homosexual and Communist. In addition, records as to the specific reasons for internment are non-existent in many areas. See Homosexuals in Nazi Germany for more information.

Around 2000 Jehovah's Witnesses perished in concentration camps, where they were held for political and ideological reasons. They refused involvement in politics, would not say "Heil Hitler", and did not serve in the German army. See Jehovah's Witnesses and the Holocaust.

On August 18, 1941, Adolf Hitler ordered a temporary halt to the systematic euthanasia of mentally ill people and those with disabilities. Graduates of the Aktion T4 program were then transferred to the concentration camps, where they continued in their trade.

Euthanasia did not end in 1941, however; it still took place in hospitals around Germany and Austria, and crept East into a few of the occupied territories.

Extent of the Holocaust

The exact number of people killed by the Nazi regime is still subject to further research. Recently declassified British and Soviet documents have indicated the total may be somewhat higher than previously believed [1]. However, the following estimates are considered to be highly reliable.

5.6 – 6.1 million Jews
- 3.0 – 3.5 million Polish Jews
2.5 – 3.5 million non-Jewish Poles
3.5 – 6 million other Slavic civilians
2.5 – 4 million Soviet POWs
1 – 1.5 million political dissidents
200 000 – 800 000 Roma & Sinti
200 000 – 300 000 handicapped
10 000 – 25 000 homosexuals
2 000 Jehovah's Witnesses

The triangles

Main article: Inverted triangle

To identify prisoners in the camps according to their "offense", they were required to wear colored triangles on their clothing. Although the colors used differed from camp to camp, the colors most commonly were:

Yellow: Jews -- two overlaid to form a Star of David, with the word "Jude" (Jew) inscribed; mischlings, i.e., those who were deemed to be only part Jewish, often wore a single yellow triangle
Red: Political dissidents, including Communists
Green: Common criminals. Criminals of Aryan descent were frequently given special privileges at the camps, and power over other prisoners.
Purple: Religious fundamentalists (defined as persons belonging to Christian sects whose teachings forbid fighting in wars), most notably Jehovah's Witnesses
Blue: Immigrants.
Brown: Roma and Sinti (Gypsies)
Black: Lesbians and "anti-socials" (alcoholics and the "work-shy")
Pink: Gay men

Historical interpretations

As with any historical event, scholars continue to argue over what exactly happened, and why. Among the major questions historians have sought to answer are:

how many people were killed in the Holocaust?
who was directly involved in the killing?
who authorized the killing?
who knew about the killing?
why did people directly participate in, authorize, or tacitly accept the killing?

Functionalism versus intentionalism

A major issue in contemporary Holocaust studies is the question of functionalism versus intentionalism. Intentionalists argue that the Holocaust was planned by Hitler from the very beginning. Functionalists hold that the Holocaust was started in 1942 as a result of the failure of the Nazi deportation policy and the impending military losses in Russia. They claim that extermination fantasies outlined in Hitler's Mein Kampf and other Nazi literature were mere propaganda and did not constitute concrete plans.

Another controversy was started by the historian Daniel Goldhagen, who argues that ordinary Germans were knowing and willing participants in the Holocaust, which he claims had its roots in a deep eliminative German anti-Semitism. Others claim that while anti-Semitism undeniably existed in Germany, the extermination was unknown to many and had to be enforced by the dictatorial Nazi apparatus.

Goldhagen hit upon the fact that Millions of Germans participated in war-time atrocities, claiming after the war, if ever prosecuted (which rarely happened) that they had to follow orders to avoid severe punishment. However, there were some cases of Germans refusing to take part in mass-killings and other crimes, none of whose were ever punished in any way by Nazi enforcers. German married to Jews who chose to stick to their partner remained also un-punished, and their Jewish spouses survived.

Revisionists and deniers

Some groups, commonly referred to as Holocaust deniers, deny that the Holocaust happened. Many of the Holocaust deniers are neo-Nazis or anti-Semites.

The cause of the deniers was helped by the fact that many Germans did not talk about their war-time ventures, for fear of persecution.

Holocaust revisionism claims that far fewer than 5-6 million Jews were killed, and that the killing was not a result of deliberate Nazi policy. Although Holocaust revisionists claim to present documentary evidence to support their claims, critics argue that the evidence is flawed, the research is specious, and the conclusions are pre-determined. Many claim that such revisionism is a form of anti-Semitism and tantamount to denial. However, many revisionists claim no anti-Semitism, saying that they merely want to "set the record straight". These people say they are glad that not as many people were killed as previously thought, and that they wish others would take revisionist evidence as good news.

Holocaust theology

In light of the magnitude of what was seen in the Holocaust, many people have re-examined the classical theological views on God's goodness and actions in the world. How can people still have any faith after the Holocaust? For the theological responses to questions raised by the Holocaust, see Holocaust theology.

Origin and use of the term

The word 'Holocaust', from the Greek word holokauston meaning "a burnt sacrifice offered to God", originally referred to a sacrifice Jews were required to make by the Torah, and later to large scale catastrophes or massacres. Due to the theological meaning that this word carries, many Jews find the use of this word problematic, as it could imply that Jews were a sacrifice. Instead of holocaust many Jews prefer the Hebrew word Shoah, which means "desolation".

While nowadays the term 'Holocaust' usually refers to the above-mentioned large-scale killings of Jews, it is also sometimes used to refer to other occurrences of genocide or ethnic cleansing, especially the Armenian and Hellenic Holocausts respectively, the murder of about 2.5 million Christians by the Young Turk government between 1915 and 1923. However, the Turkish government officially denies that there was any genocide, claiming that most of the deaths resulted from armed conflict, disease and famine during the turmoil of World War I, despite the fact that most casualties occurred in villages far from the battlefield and that there is historical proof this was a systematic attempt to wipe out all non-Muslims.

Political ramifications

The Holocaust has had a number of political and social ramifications which reach to the present. The need to find a homeland for many Jewish refugees led to a great many Jews emigrating to Palestine, most of which was soon to become the modern State of Israel. This immigration had a direct effect on the Arabs of the region, which is discussed in the articles on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in many articles linked to these.