The+Holocaust-monson

The Holocaust

The Holocaust is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi GermanSome scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including Ethnic Poles, Romani, Soviet civilians, and many others, along with other political and religious opponents. By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims would be between 11 million and 17 million people. The persecution and genocide were carried out in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentratoin camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labor until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. Jews and Romani were confined in overcrowded ghettos before being transported by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were systematically killed in gas chambers.