Holocaust

The word holocaust comes initially from Greek.

The first part comes from holos - meaning 'whole', and the second comes from kaustos - meaning 'burned'.

The word comes to us from Jewish religious practise, when a sacrificial offering would be completely burnt on an altar.

1. They were the same thing. The word the Holocaust only came into general use around 1980. The Final Solution was the Nazis' own term and was short for Final Solution of the Jewish Question (Endloesung der Judenfrage).

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2. The Holocaust also refers to the other programs run to incriminate minorities. Action T4, for example, was an order to exterminate those with disabilities. The Marxists and homosexuals were similarly killed, just not under the title of Final Solution.

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Definition 2 is at odds with that used by most professional historians of the Holocaust. See, for example, the definition of the Holocaust provided by Rciahrd J. Evans, Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge:

'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

In the US the term the Holocaust is used loosely, possibly in an attempt to justify Federal funds for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
What Hitler called the 'Final Solution' was (later called) the Holocaust. It involved imprisoning millions of Jewish people, separating the families, experimenting on them surgically with no anaesthetic, and so on. Certain groups of German soldiers were allowed to kill Jews anytime that they saw them, (and they killed a huge number, as well).

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In Germany, everyone had to prove that they weren't Jewish. So Jews who didn't take their faith seriously couldn't simply lie. For most purposes one had to produce certificates of baptism showing that both parents had been baptized as infants. In effect, the task fell to the churches in Germany, and they did the Nazi regime's bidding. It's something that the churches in Germany still find extremely embarrassing and would prefer not to talk about.

The Nazis regarded the Jews as a race. They were particularly bothered by the fact that in Germany and some other countries there were people of Jewish origin who had no religion or whose families had converted to Christianity. Hence the call for certificates of baptism. They also found things like skull measurements and the like were unrevealing. In countries occupied by Germany there were collaborators who were only too delighted to denounce people as Jews (or of Jewish origin). For example, the city council of Antwerp in Belgium voluntarily drew up a list of Jews in the city and handed it to the Nazis. In many parts of Eastern Europe, most Jews formed identifiable communities, and the Nazis' 'task' was easier.
One God

The motivation was entirely racist, political and ideological, not religious. (Obviously, there was a religious background to antisemitism, but religion was not a motive for the Holocaust). Michael is arguing with me about this, and i am showing him that I am right.

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The Holocaust wasn't all about religion. Sure, the Jews were the main targets, but 6 million other people were also killed. Poles, Russians, homosexuals, gypsies, communists, socialists, intellectuals, and anyone who disagreed with Hitler. The Jews were the main target yes, but not the only target and people seem to forget that.

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The Nazis did not persecute the Jews for their religion but because of their ethnicity ('race'). The Holocaust had almost nothing to do with religion.

In world war 2 the only people who really cared about helping the Jews was the Americans.

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The above is a very ignorant and arrogant insult to all those people in Europe, like Miep Gies, who did help Jews in the Holocaust.

In Word War 2 none of the Allies did anything specifically aimed at helping the Jews.

Important events in World War 2 were:

• 1939 - Invasions of Poland by USSR and Germany, beginning World War II. Most of Poland is taken in days.
• 1940 - British armored forces attack Italian forces in North Africa. This campaign escalates and continues for nearly three years.
• 1940 - Germany invades Denmark, Norway, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg. All fall within weeks.
• 1940 - Battle of Britain. Germany suffers its first defeat in the skies over England, and abandons invasion plans.
• 1941 - June, Germany invades the USSR, opening what becomes known as the Eastern Front.
• 1941 - December 7, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the US Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. US enters the war, opening the Pacific Theatre.
• 1942 - June 4-7, Battle of Midway. The US Navy sinks four Japanese aircraft carriers in the fight that proves to be the turning point in the Pacific war.
• 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad. Germany's entire Sixth Army is lost, and the war begins turning in favor of the Allies.
• 1943 to 1945 - Several failed assassination attempts on Hitler's life. Hitler has become too unstable to think rationally. Succession of major military losses follows.
• 1944 - June 6, the Allied Expeditionary Force under Dwight Eisenhower lands on the coast of northern France on what will later be called "D-Day". The "Second Front" that Stalin has been demanding for three years is now open.
• 1945 - April 30, Hitler commits suicide, shortly before the fall of Berlin and surrender of German forces in Europe.
• 1945 - USA develops the atomic bomb, and successfully uses it in August to force the surrender of Japan.

Events leading up to the Kindertransport:

• After Hitler mastered power in Germany in 1933, his Nazi party started the destruction of Jews. Because of this action, thousands of Jews fled the country but the emigration slowed for getting Visas were almost impossible to get.
• Because of the matter that Jews were being held captive in Hitler's Reich, President Franklin Roosevelt of the United States suggested a conference on July 6, 1938 with thirty one other counties to deal with the "refugee problem".
• Most countries refused to let in the new immigrants and the members could only agree to meet later.
• However, after November 9, 1938, more commonly known as the Night of The Broken Glass almost all thirty one counties refused to let in Jewish immigrants. Terrified that Hitler and his Nazi army would strike there next. After that, most Jewish families struggled to find a country that would let them in.