Holocaust

Persecution began when Hitler came to power in 1933: boycotts, the Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht. After the invasion of Poland Jews were confined in ghettos; from 1941 they were shot en masse in the occupied Soviet territories, and from 1942, under the 'Final Solution', deported from all over Europe to extermination camps. The largest group of victims, about three million, were Jews from Poland, and most of the killing took place in occupied Poland.

The word holocaust comes from the Greek holokaustos, 'burnt whole', a term for a burnt offering, which is why some prefer the Hebrew Shoah, 'catastrophe'. The term refers to the murder of the Jews; alongside it the Germans committed genocide against the Roma, and millions of Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and others also fell victim to Nazi policy.