Was it only Jews killed in the Holocaust?

Answer 1

Simple answer: Yes, since you used the term "Final Solution" in your question.

The full term is: "The Final Solution to the JewishQuestion." It's not clear exactly when this term was coined or by whom (some scholars credit Adolf Eichmann, at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942), but during what is generally termed "The Holocaust," the period from approximately November 9-10, 1938 (Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass) to the end of World War 2 in Europe in May of 1945, approximately 6 million European Jews were deliberately murdered by the Nazi regime in Germany for the sole reason that they were of Jewish extraction.

As the German Army conquered territories after 1939, right behind them would come the Einsatzgruppen, special death squads of the SS whose task it was to find and kill, primarily Jews, and others deemed "undesirables" by the Nazi regime.

The question gets a little stickier when we try to put the terms "Final Solution" and "Holocaust" together. There is no doubt that "Final Solution" referred to the Jews alone, but scholars are mixed on whether "Holocaust" applies only to Jews, or includes the other approximately 5 million non-Jewish people murdered by the Nazis because they were ...

* Slavs (especially Soviet POWS) * Gypsies (Roma and Sinti) * Disabled and/or mentally ill * Homosexuals * Freemasons * Jehovah's Witnesses ... Or anyone else the Nazis thought they could define as Untermenschen (literally "undermen" or subhuman). Some scholars exclude non-Jews from the Holocaust, others include them, but the fact remains that the evidence shows that the Germans and some other Europeans under the Nazis made a concerted attempt to kill everyone they didn't like, starting and ending with, always above all, the Jews.

Answer 2

It wasn't only the Jews, other people were killed because of the war, but the Holocaust is the term used about what happened during World War II when Adolf Hitler tried to kill all the Jews he could get his hands on. In the end he killed MILLIONS of Jews. I am NOT kidding.

Gypsies were also a main target of the Holocaust.

People who disagreed with Hitler were also taken to the camps, to work as slaves, or be killed through gas chambers, firing squads, furnaces, etc.

An estimate of about 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

However, it's estimated that 5 million non-Jews were also killed during the same operations.

No. Jewish people were only the majority. Anyone who hoarded Jewish people, even just one, was usually punished via concentration camps which quite often led to death. Homosexual people, mentally and physically disabled people, and quite a few Christians and Catholics were killed in this historic tragedy.

No. Jewish people were only the majority. Anyone who hoarded Jewish people, even just one, was usually punished via concentration camps which quite often led to death. Homosexual people, mentally and physically disabled people, and quite a few Christians and Catholics were killed in this historic tragedy.

See related Link for list of other minorities other than the Jews that were killed during the Holocaust.

Answer 3

No. Whilst Jews constituted the largest part of the group of people murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, they were by no means the only group, ethnic or otherwise, that was targeted. Nazi 'racial purity' ideology listed a number of 'undesirables' which included gypsies, blacks, people of mixed-race, homosexuals, mentally handicapped people and many more. Members of all of these groups were targeted and transported to concentration camps for liquidation.

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Please see the related question.

Answer 4

Auschwitz-Birkeneau was built to hold only Polish prisoners originally. However, it eventually ignored its purpose and held many of what the Nazis would term "undesirables", such as Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals, Poles, Russians, etc. However, Jews and gypsies were the only ones who faced the cruel annihilation that they did face. The rest were simply prisoners.

Answer 5

No. 5 million non-Jews (Slavs, Romani, Jehovah's Witnesses, Political Opponents, etc.) were also killed during the Holocaust. However, the thrust of the violence was intended for the Jews.

Answer 6

No. Anyone considered inferior by Hitler was deemed to be unfit to live. Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, and especially Jewish people.