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The Holocaust refers to the murder of about 6 million Jews by the Nazis in World War 2. Sometimes other victims of Nazi mass killings are also included, in which case the total number of victims is much higher than 6 million.

The term The Holocaust in this specific sense has been in widespread use since the late 1970s. Before that it was referred to as the Final Solution [of the Jewish Question]. This was not a very satisfactory term as it was a translation of the Nazis' own term for the genocide.

The word holocaust (with a small h and without The) means: 1. great destruction, especially by fire; 2. whole burnt offering.Because of the religious connotations of the word, some people prefer to use the word Shoah (Hebrew for great calamity, disaster).

In addition to the Jews, the Nazi killed many other groups. Some people include these other groups, some don't.

The modern, specific sense of Holocaust was popularized by Elie Wiesel from the late 1950s onwards.

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13y ago

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