Why does the term Holocaust only refer to Jews and not other people in concentration camps?

Answer 1

BackgroundThe Nazis themselves called their attempt to exterminate all the Jews in Europe the Final Solution of the Jewish Question(die Endloesung der Judenfrage). At first, the term Final Solution was widely used, but was felt to be unsatisfactory. In the 1950s the term the Holocaust (as a proper noun, referring to this specific genocide) was introduced. From about 1980, following the showing of the TV miniseries with the same name, it gained widespread acceptance.

More recently, some who feel that other groups of Nazi victims have been overlooked, have extended the term to cover the overall slaughter committed by the Nazis of victims on the basis of group membership. However, among historians the term the Holocaust (as a proper noun) is generally used only of the genocide of the Jews. (See the Wikipedia article on the the Holocaust for more information).

There are, however, competing definitions. Please see the related question.

Historians' Definitions

Most professional historians use the term specifically for the Nazi genocide of the Jews. For example Richard J. Evans, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, writes as follows:

The standard work by the distinguished Canadian historian Michael Marrus, TheHolocaust in History, focused on, to use his own words, 'the Holocaust, the systematic mass murder of European Jewry by the Nazis'. Similarly, Sir Martin Gilbert, in his documentary compilation, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy( London, 1986), concurred in referring to 'the systematic attempt to destroy all European Jewry - an attempt now known as the Holocaust'. Another author, Ronnie S. Landau, put forward a similar definition in his book, The Nazi Holocaust: 'The Holocaust involved the deliberate, systematic murder of approximately 6 million Jews in Nazi-dominated Europe between 1941 and 1945.'

Richard J. Evans, Telling Lies About Hitler: The Holocaust, History and the David Irving Trial, Verso, London and New York, 2002, pp. 113-4.

Hitler began the persecution of Jews in 1933. Also, in 1945 survivors of Death Camps had a nation to go home to, except the Jews. In 1945-46 some Jews returning home in Poland were killed in pogroms, for example at Kielce. Many of those not killed fled to Palestine, helping to create the state of Israel in 1948.

The term holocaust as applied to the extermination of the Jews during WWII is recent in origin, acquiring that meaning after movies like 'Schindler's List' came out. Certainly the number of non-Jewish civilians and POWs exterminated during WWII was probably as great as the number of Jews exterminated. In the U.S., the great injustices and killing has been told by Jewish writers, editors, and moviemakers.

Firstly, the term "holocaust" (or as Jews call it: Shoah) was adopted to replace the term "Final Solution" which was the Nazis' own euphemism for the systematic extermination of the Jews. The term holocaust (usually written with a small h-) is now often used to describe other genocides such as that of 5-7million Ukrainians by Stalin and 1.2-1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks.

Sadly, movie makers in the United States often overlook the fate of non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Although horrific and we should never forget, it seems a week doesn't go by that a Holocaust program isn't shown on TV or in the newspapers. Contemporary Germans feel tremendous guilt due to this barrage of media even though they weren't even born in this era.

Shoa , 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 others 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.

As we all know Jews were going to be killed, none of them were meant to survive, and that may be why people say it is Jews' Holocaust. But, as I think about it, if Hitler would finish with Jews before the end of the war, Poles were next. What is more, there was already great number of Poles who died along with Jews that if not close to the number of Jews killed, probably is the same or even greater. I think that saying it was only the Jew's Holocaust is just a wrong interpretation of the history.

Communists, socialists, liberal intellectuals, a few Church figures, trade unionists, Gypsies, physically and mentally disabled all fell victim to the Nazis also.

The very first target of the Nazis was not so much the Jews, or any single religion or ethnic group for that matter. Once Hitler seized power he gave his brownshirts the go-ahead to attack the Communists and Social Democrats (who were in fact the Nazis' arch enemy). The Reichstag fire was used in order to make the Communist Party illegal in Germany.

What does it MATTER if it was 5.69 Million? It was people killing people, for the simple reason, that they were different in some [minor] way. No point arguing about Numbers. I was born in Germany in 1941, and believed all the stories about how 'the 'Jews lived off the backs of the German public. I believed the films that the Nazis showed of the 'Happy Jewish Families' out in the East, in very nice 'rest camps'.. I did not know, that after the films were made, all those people, died! I, and all the 'grown ups' believed the Films, BECAUSE WE WANTED TO! The rumours we all heard, were too horrible to believe. We were all guilty, even I as a baby, for we believed!! And that, as well as the destroyed families, made us all Victims of a system. Yes, even the Ordinary German , was a Victim, and don't forget, the Camps were at FIRST built to deal with Germans who said the wrong things to the wrong people, even their own children. Millions died in these Camps, some were also German. Just one life lost, is a tragedy. So forget about numbers, and just make sure it cannot happen again....Though I will not hold my breath!

Further points

There is an increasing tendency to acknowledge other victims of the Holocaust. It would be unfortunate if there were an unseemly quarrel about 'ownership' of, for example, Holocaust Memorial Day. However, surely every group is entitled to its own remembrance of what happened.