When did the murders actually begin in the Holocaust?

Answer 1

it all depends upon when you consider the start of the Holocaust was, and what you consider part of the Holocaust. Whether you consider that every Jew that died as a result of Nazi policy was a victim of the Holocaust, or whether only those who died after the decision from above was made to commit wholesale murder.

You can define the Holocaust as the intention of the Nazis to destroy the Jews of Europe, or you can define it as the result of Nazi policy. There are many definitions, a person worked to death in the summer of 1941 died in the same way due to the same reasons as one worked to death a few months later (after the decision to murder all of the Jews).

Basically you will not find an answer. You can say that the Holocaust started on the 22nd June 1941, but that does a dis-service to those Jews who died due to Nazi treatment before that.