If This Is a Man

The Holocaust is the genocide of European Jews during WWII, from 1941-1945. During this time Nazi Germany, along with its collaborators, systematically murdered six million Jews, two thirds of the European Jewish population. The word Holocaust derives from the Greek word meaning “burnt offering.”

The Holocaust is sometimes used to refer to the killing of not only Jews but also other groups targeted by the Nazis, including Polish and Soviet citizens, prisoners of war, and Roma. The Hebrew term Shoah, which means “catastrophic destruction,” refers exclusively to the genocide of the Jews. The Nazis used the term “Final Solution” to describe their plan to achieve genocide.

As part of their Final Solution, the Nazis operated over 1,000 concentration camps in Germany and occupied territory. Auschwitz refers not to just one camp but a complex of over 40 camps, including Auschwitz I, where people were initially taken. Over 80% of those transported to Auschwitz were “selected” to be killed upon arrival, usually by gassing. The minority who were not killed were sent to work camps.

The Auschwitz complex also included Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration camp and extermination camp with gas chambers, and Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a slave labor camp for the chemical company IG Farben.